“The Dream of a Ridiculous Man” in Contemporary Theatrical Productions

Abstract

The article is dedicated to three solo performances based on Fyodor Dostoevsky’s fantastic story “The Dream of a Ridiculous Man”, currently running on Italian and Russian stages (the first show is produced by OUT-OFF Theatre in Milan, Italy, starring Mario Sala, and premiered in 2019; the second by the Nikitsky Gate Theatre, directed by and starring Nikolay Ringburg, premiered in 2021; the third by Piotr Fomenko Workshop Theatre, directed by and starring Fyodor Malyshev, premiered in 2015). Particular attention is given to the analysis of staging solutions used in the hero’s description of the new land and its subsequent fall, thus identifying the reasons noticed by the creators of the shows for man’s forsaking of paradise. The article also examines how the producers understood and expressed the idea of “ridiculous” as the comprehension and interpretation of this concept turned out to be an important step in the realization of all three shows. The article employs fragments of the interviews taken by members of the Editorial Department of the journal Dostoevsky and World Culture. Philological journal.

Keywords

• f.m. dostoevsky
• “the dream of a ridiculous man”
• theatrical production
• stage interpretation of texts