History of the Myth in three chapters

Chapter I, “Myth”
Director Maxim Didenko
Chapter II, “Document”
Director Dmitry Egorov
Chapter III “Life”

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This is not a stage version of the famous Soviet novel. This is a reflection on the creation of a myth. A myth of history and a myth in culture. A myth that uses human lives. This is an attempt to recreate and interpret the history of the birth of the heroic story that inspired millions of people, as well as the actual history as a chain of events. What do we know about young underground fighters in the small town of Krasnodon, what do we want to know about them, what has actually happened with  young partisans, who, why and for what killed them so brutally. And how hard is it for those who remained – to live on. To live within the framework of life and within the framework of the myth.

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The first part of the play is Maxim Didenko’s plastic solution of the myth itself, with pathos, lumbering music, exaggerated characters. It has almost no text, it is almost a ballet performed by animated sculptural groups. As is usual in tragedy, the audience will experience the horror and compassion, for the sake of purification of their souls.

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The second part of the play is based on real documents, the papers from the archives and museum storage facilities, old photos, memories of young relatives of the Young Guard fighters. Dmitry Egorov explores the history of the Underground Krasnodon and the way the myth was created. “To scrape away the textbook gloss”, to release it from bronze, to take human beings out of the monument. Them – living, loving, fearing, hoping, hating – young people, rather than heroic images. The people, whose tragic fate became a background for an inspiring legend. The people that we actually do not know at all, except what we know from this legend. This is an attempt to look into the history of the Young Guard through the means of theatrical journalism.

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The play uses documentary materials from the archives of Young Guard Museum (Krasnodon), “To the Memory of the Dead” (Rovenki), Russian State Archive of Social and Political History, Russian State Archive of Literature and Art

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The play features the songs by J. Lennon, P. Ortega, O. Feltsman with lyrics by Robert Rozhdestvensky, V. Basner with lyrics by M. Matusovsky, V. Soloviev-Sedoy with lyrics by S. Ostrovoy, choruses and arias from the opera by Yu. Meitus “Young Guard” (libretto by A. Malyshko, translated by M. Isakovsky).