Yevgeny Mironov, Lia Akhedzhakova, Avangard Leontiev and Andrei Fomin in an incredible play staged by Kirill Serebrennikov, Figaro. The Events of One Day

The negotiations as to the troupe's visit were going on for over a year and met with success only this summer. The difficulties were caused by the artists' coming to Moldova not within a tour. It appeared that to have so many talented actors in the same play is not an easy thing at all. Lia Akhedzhakova, Yevgeny Mironov and the father of Moscow glamour Andrei Fomin are constantly engaged in their own projects, and to gather them together is quite a painstaking job. Nevertheless, thanks to the joint efforts of Arutin Art Bureau and MOLDCELL company, the performance of Figaro. The Events of One Day did take place at the National Opera and Ballet Theater on September 15.

It has been rather long since our capital has witnessed such public excitement. Every day subscribers were inquiring from the company where they could purchase tickets; journalists wanted to know how and where they could get exclusive interviews and autographs from the celebrities. On the evening of the 15th, it was impossible to find a single parking place in a two-block radius, and in the hall of the Opera and Ballet Theater there were no empty chairs whatsoever. The organizers dexterously increased the number of places at the expense of the orchestra pit, willing to host the tireless audience who were eager to attend the performance and, at the same time, a prestigious high-life event which attracted many representatives of Moldovan beau monde whose faces are often (or less so) featured in the pages of newspapers and magazines.

The original version of The Marriage of Figaro was not mangled and distorted, but reconsidered and interpreted in the spirit of 2008. The characters live in the world of the ritzy Rublevka Street, communicate in teenager slang and cut Russian salad for two acts on end. It is astonishing indeed how classics are topical at all times. Although the actors have literally rewritten the original text of the play, a lot of Beaumarchais's monologs remained whose message still touches us on the raw. The play depicted the relations between husbands and wives, men and women, masters of life and their servants, politicians and ordinary people, son and mother. The personages were transferred to our time, having preserved the original temperaments, characters, intrigues, wittiness, fireworks and champagne.

Lia Akhedzhakova: "I don't know yet when I will be able to act Marceline in the right way. How is it possible to combine a farce, a situation comedy which goes on and on, and all of a sudden the door shuts, giving start to a very serious and fearful conversation about existence for all times?! A conversation touching upon the modern harrowing problems as well..."

Andrei Fomin: "Here I play the role of a schizophrenic, in a way. Kirill has blended all supporting roles into one – that of Basile, Madame Marguerite... In the fifth act I play the garden: the wind, the rain, the snow."

Yevgeny Mironov: "As Figaro says, we are doomed either to a deafening triumph with champagne and Russian wedding salad, or to a failure where it's not cranberry juice that will be spilled onstage. The play always, that is, prior to Beaumarchais's stagings at the Comedie Francaise, used to be associated with revolution. Afterwards, the performance became a sweet glamorous thing. Interesting is the turn suggested by the director Kirill Serebrennikov. I perceived it as each person's revolution inside himself. At the close of the play, in the course of one single crazy day, all the characters change. Well, it means that this crazy day did have a purpose."

The one day of Figaro has turned into an unforgettable night for our audience, and MOLDCELL company has succeeded in pleasing the amateurs of art with a significant cultural event.