The Russian Hamlet

St Petersburg Boris Eifman State Ballet Theatre

Festival Ljubljana 2010

Choreography: Boris Eifman
Set and Costume Designer: Vyacheslav Okunev

Lead Roles:
The Empress: Nina Zmivec / Elena Kuzmina
Son of Empress, the Heir: Dmitrij Fišer / Ilija Osipov
Favorite of the Empress: Aleksej Turko / Sergej Volobnjev
Wife of the Heir: Natalija Povoroznjuk / Anastasia Sitnikova
The Ghost of the Heir's Father: Oleg Markov / Aleksander Ivanov / Sergej Volobnjev

Duration of the performance is approx. 1hr 40 min, with one interval.

The fate of Tsarevich Paul, so reminiscent of Hamlet’s fate (Paul in his lifetime was known as “The Russian Hamlet”), is shrouded in mystery and mystical omens. Born with a naturally radiant outlook and having received a brilliant education, Paul was grooming himself to serve his country but, as a result of his father’s murder, his mother’s inability to love him – she was afraid of her son and heir – and of the atmosphere of constant surveillance, intrigue, fear and humiliation, the young prince began to suffer from hallucinations, a persecution complex and spiritual loneliness. Paul, who had been inclined to mysticism ever since childhood (the incident of his meeting with Peter’s ghost is well known), had a foreboding of his own tragic death and therefore was in a hurry to ascend to power in order to bring about progressive reform in Russia. Misunderstood, he was cruelly murdered and cursed.

The hero of “The Russian Hamlet” is the young Tsarevich Paul. The ballet deals with the period of his early, ambitious hopes and of the first tragic catastrophes. This was the time of his search for the answer to Hamlet’s eternal question: “To be or not to be”.

Boris Eifman

Boris Eifman is one of the few, if not the only Russian choreographer, who continued his active creative work for decades. Perhaps none of his contemporaries can take pride in such achievements. There are more than forty performances on the director’s account. He was the Laureate of the theatrical award of Saint-Petersburg “Golden Soffitto” five times, received the independent prize “Triumph”, the State Prize of Russia “For contribution in the development of modern arts”, the higher spiritual award of Russian children – the Order “Peace and Harmony”, the Order “Arts Cavalier of France”, the People’s Artist of Russia title and many other prizes and titles.

The 61-year old choreographer was born in Siberia, finished a ballet college and the department of choreography of Leningrad (St. Petersburg) Conservatoire. In 1977 he organized Leningrad New Ballet (today called “Saint-Petersburg State Academic Ballet House”), the only individually managed theatre in Russia, developing the art of modern choreography. He did not only create an original style, which absorbed the achievements of new time art and which is based on the classical school, but also brought up a team of kindred spirit, for whom no unsolvable tasks exist.

The diversity of genres in his repertoire is truly impressive: chamber ballets (Autographs, Metamorphoses), ballets bouffe (The Mad March Day or the Marriage of Figaro, The Twelfth Night, Love Plots), ballets-parables (Legend), fairytale ballets (Firebird, Pinocchio). His theatre also focuses on productions based on the classical works of the world literature. Eifman was the first who used Dostoevsky’s novels in ballet. His Idiot has become one of the highlights of the cultural life. It was followed by the Duel (adaptation of Kuprin’s novel), Master and Margarita (based on Bulgakov) and Teresa Raquin (based on Zola). Among his most recent works that have been already recognized worldwide are Requiem, Tchaikovsky, Don Quixote or Fantasies of a Madman, The Karamazovs, Red Giselle, My Jerusalem, The Russian Hamlet, Don Juan or Passions for Molière, WHO is WHO, Musagetè, Anna Karenina and The Seagull.

Boris Eifman is a choreographer-philosopher and thinker. He is concerned by the problems of the modern world. He is thrilled by the secrets of creativity and the magic of geniuses, which uncover themselves in his interpretation of the fates of Tchaikovsky, Spesivtseva and Moliere. He makes experiments with such dark and fearful sphere as human psyche (“Idiot”, “Murderers”, “Don Quixote or Fantasies of a Madman”, “Russian Hamlet” and “Anna Karenina”), creating the images of stage psychoanalysis. He strives for showing extreme states of human mind, regarding his heroes` madness not as an illness but as their ability to penetrate into another worlds. The choreographer pulls apart the limits of his imagination with the help of his heroes` fantasies, deepening in the questions of spiritual and philosophic life of humankind, which interest him most. The ballets “Russian Hamlet”, “Don Juan and Moliere” and “Anna Karenina” are the examples of it.

Creating his own style Eifman worked at various dancing systems. The theatre became a kind of laboratory for him. The choreographer did not limit himself with the frames of a purely ballet performance, since the most important thing for him is theatricality. His plays are synthetic shows, revealing new forms and new principles of dancing action. Boris Eifman has created his theatre – a theatre of unconcealed emotional feelings.