"Maxim Didenko, one of the most in-demand directors of the new generation who released a whole series of theatrical sensations last year, has taken over the theatre’s Main Stage staging a musical show based on the legendary Soviet comedy film called “The Circus”. The title role is performed by Ingeborga Dapkunaite. According to the plot of the film written by Grigory Alexandrov and released in 1936, the USSR welcomes the American circus star Marion Dickson with her act depicting a flight to the Moon. The act is a great success, but its author, a German named von Kneischitz blackmails Marion threatening to disclose certain details of her private life." - Theatre of Nations

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Dapkunaite plays two women here: Marion Dickson, an unmistakable nod to Marlene Dietrich, and the “Russian Dietrich,” Lyubov Orlova, the Soviet screen star who played the lead in Alexandrov’s film.

Maxim Didenko defined the style of his show as retro futurism: “The plot takes place in a conventional future invented in the distant past”.

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Composer Ivan Kushnir rethinks the soundtrack to the original movie, “Song of the Motherland” by Vasily Lebedev-Kumach and Isaak Dunayevsky: the famous line “Wide is my Motherland” gets a new sound. Maria Tregubova is in charge of the artistic design of the show, she is a winner of the Grand-Prix at the Prague Quadrennial, as well as of the Golden Mask, Crystal Turandot and other theatre awards.

There are clowns, real circus acts, and an orchestra. Circus, the director says, may occasionally take your breath away, but it must always make you laugh.

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“The Circus” premiered as part of the 17th Chereshneviy Les (Cherry-Tree Forest) Open Arts Festival.