WINNERS AT 19TH MOSCOW TIMES THEATER AWARDS

The Moscow Times
08.04.2011
John Freedman

Ah! It happened again! Still another theater season in Moscow ended. You'd think with theater as good as it is here we could find a way to make it last forever. Well, if you do that, fax me. I'm at the beach. In the meantime let's take a look at what gave the 2010-11 season flavor and personality. I must say, I thought this was the best season of at least the last three or four. Here are my 19th annual Moscow Times theater awards to prove it. ...

NEW KID ON THE BLOCK: Yelena Gorina, the actress in Yaroslava Pulinovich's Natasha's Dream at the Meyerhold Center. Sublime as an orphan girl whose life falls apart before her eyes, she was immediately tabbed by Eimuntas Nekrošius for a part in his high-profile production of Caligula. ...

THE HARDER THEY FALL: Eimuntas Nekrošius' production of Albert Camus' Caligula for the Theater of Nations. It's sad to admit, but it's true: The greater they are, the more painfully they flop. Nekrošius is one of the great directors of our time. I have no idea what he was doing with this show. It was long, monotonous, lethargic and utterly out of touch. In an age when evil, corrupt dictators are popping up out of the woodwork everywhere, this production suggested that evil, corrupt dictators are just nice guys caught in a squeeze. Say what? ...