‘Theatre lovers say that they have never seen such unrest within the theatre audience; there has never been such a blend of opinions ranging from applause to booing, and in no other time so much quarrel was heard in the stalls, like it was when my play was being performed’, Chechov wrote to his brother on November 20th 1887.

It was the first theatre play created by Anton Chechov, and it was commissioned by a prominent entrepreneur Fyodor Korsch. World premiere of the play took place on 19 of November 1887 in the same historic theatre building, now occupied by the Theatre of Nations.

2016 production of Ivanov is directed by Timofey Kulyabin, who is considered one of the most insightful and unconventional stage directors of his generation, and among whose earlier works at the Theatre of Nations are such productions as Electra and #shakespeare’ssonnets.

Production of Ivanov is not the first time when Kulyabin reaches out to Chechov – half a year earlier he staged Chechov’s Three Sisters at the Red Torch theatre in Novosibirsk, and the production later received acknowledgement as one of the major revelations of the world’s most prestigious theatre festivals - Wiener Festwochen.

There is not a single spoken word uttered in Kulyabin’s Three Sisters (actors are communicating using sign language), which forced the audience – first time in many years – to actually read deep into the Chechov’s text which appeared on the title screens. It is without any doubt that director Kulyabin will give an entirely new life to Ivanov – one of the most mysterious and tragic of Chechov’s plays. It is all the more likely that the production is bound to become a success with such a star cast, which includes Evgeny Mironov, Chulpan Khamatova, Igor Gordin, Elizaveta Boyarskaya, Victor Verzhbitskiy and others.