The Omsk State Drama Theater (main stage)

The Omsk State Drama Theater

"The Summer Folk" Alexey Peshkov

Directed by Evgeny Marchelli

E. Marchelli, a graduate of the Shukin Theater School in Moscow, an honored arts worker of Russia, has been a director of The Omsk State Drama Theater since 2003. He is famous as a troublemaker. His work is always surprising, brave and provocative. It is his own view of a theater. His productions are shown at famous Russian and International Theater Festivals, such as "Real Theater", "Siberian Transit" (Russia), "Contact" (Poland), "Divadlo" (Czech Republic), Slavia (Serbia), International Theater Festival in Dublin (Ireland). He successfully participated in the project "Golden Mask - the best Russian performances" in Tallinn, Tartu, Riga, Chelyabinsk, Magnitogorsk, Tyumen.  The "Cherry Orchard" and "Miss Julia" were awarded a "Golden Mask" - a special nomination "For a diverse creative research. Season 2004-2005"

The paradoxes of this director cannot be defined as his inclinations or ingenuity of his personality. They are an essence of his nature and his life. A man with an Italian last name, a true lover of Russian psychologic theater, all out "formalist", fighting for the director's right to write his own script over the original text, a psychoanalyst and a professional... Marchelli's theater is inhabited by men and women, their little games are hidden behind costumes and decorations. He doesn't offer any melodramatic solutions - his point of view is clear and tough - and, despite of the abundance of the exotics - always revealing. His theater is full of esthetical paradoxes. He feels the turning point of our time not as a social thinker, but as an artist. In his performances a slice-of-life scene can have an expressionistic detail, an outrageous madness end in a revelation. Everything is ready to collapse in any second, fall into pieces and come together again as a completely different kind of  theater.

Alena Karas, theater columnist for the "Rossiyskaya Gazeta" (Russian Newspaper), 2007

Review

"Summer Folk" is full of theater magic, it is tempting and shocking, but at the same time the Marchelli's  production gives a fresh new look to a good old classics

Yekaterina Dmitrievskaya "Ekran I Stsena" ("The Screen and the Stage) #33, 2003

Marchelli has always had a precise, eccentric view, always transformed a real world into exotic scenes on stage. This performance is not an exception.

It is an amazing combination of brilliant actors and conceptual directing. Marchelli creates a special world for his characters, where they can do everything they want. But there is nothing vulgar or inappropriate in their actions, they are full of drama and irony. The performance does have some risky scenes, though, that provoke and shock the audience, "small, miserable people". But there is no sexual underlying - it is a pure theater art. It is adult and ironic, because those people are just like us. They listen to the same rock'n'roll, party all night long and pretend to be happy even though it is only an imitation of real feelings. 

Marina Dmitrevskaya "St. Petersburg Theater Magazine", 2003