“SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY” AT THE ALEXANDRINSKY THEATRE
A performance based on the works of Viktor Shklovsky will be shown on the stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater. The production, directed by Anna Potebnya, grew out of a sketch presented as part of the site-specific laboratory “Theater outside the Theater”.
The first show took place on September 23, 2025 in the Ballroom of the Hotel Astoria! Based on the results of the laboratory, Nikita Kobelev, artistic director of the Alexandrinsky Theater, suggested that the director continue working on the sketch.
The performance was Anna Potebnya’s first work at the Alexandrinsky Theater, as well as the first attempt to interpret Shklovsky’s autobiographical work, written in exile, in the language of the theater. The book was first published in Berlin in 1923 and tells about the events that happened to the author and his family in 1917–1922. Civil war, hungry Petrograd, Berlin. In the theater, real biography grows to a poetic generalization, and history is permeated with the interconnection of times.
The “Theater Outside the Theater” laboratory is part of the large-scale project of the Alexandrinsky Theater “Year of Young Directors”, which was implemented throughout 2025. As part of the laboratory, young directors were asked to develop an idea for a performance for an unconventional, non-standard space and implement the sketch at venues that became partners of the laboratory.
The first show took place on September 23, 2025 in the Ballroom of the Hotel Astoria! Based on the results of the laboratory, Nikita Kobelev, artistic director of the Alexandrinsky Theater, suggested that the director continue working on the sketch.
The performance was Anna Potebnya’s first work at the Alexandrinsky Theater, as well as the first attempt to interpret Shklovsky’s autobiographical work, written in exile, in the language of the theater. The book was first published in Berlin in 1923 and tells about the events that happened to the author and his family in 1917–1922. Civil war, hungry Petrograd, Berlin. In the theater, real biography grows to a poetic generalization, and history is permeated with the interconnection of times.
The “Theater Outside the Theater” laboratory is part of the large-scale project of the Alexandrinsky Theater “Year of Young Directors”, which was implemented throughout 2025. As part of the laboratory, young directors were asked to develop an idea for a performance for an unconventional, non-standard space and implement the sketch at venues that became partners of the laboratory.
