January 18, 2025
Almost Funny New Year Story
based on Nadezhda Ptushkina’s play “While She Was Dying”.
In an old Moscow apartment, a mother and daughter live together. Sofia Ivanovna is convinced that her earthly journey is coming to an end, and she worries most not about herself, but about the fate of Tanya — a kind, intelligent, caring woman who has grown used to living for her mother and has almost forgotten how to think about her own happiness.
But one day a stranger with flowers and champagne knocks on the wrong door. Igor ends up somewhere completely different from where he intended to go, yet his accidental appearance becomes the beginning of an extraordinary story in which a lie is born out of love, misunderstandings turn into hope, and loneliness suddenly gets a chance to retreat.
It is an almost funny and very New Year story about a family that seems not to exist, but is so desperately worth inventing; about love that comes at the wrong time, yet still comes; about a mother’s anxiety, a woman’s tenderness, late hope, and the simple human desire for light, a Christmas tree, laughter, loved ones, and the expectation of a miracle to be present in the home.
In this performance, the comic stands side by side with the sad, farce with confession, and New Year bustle gradually turns into a conversation about what matters most: no one should have to face life — or the New Year — alone.
Performance Photos
