Mariya Nikulochkina

Two complete strangers meet each other at the dramatic and sad funeral of a very young man. They are affected by the strong feelings and emotions caused by death and they find themselves in the same bed, experiencing an inexplicably strong attraction to each other. They will spend several passionate days and nights together in one apartment, in a strange erotic adventure, isolated from the world and reality, during which they will have a complete rethink of life, each in their own way. Until, finally, one of them realises that the obsession has led them too far, and the adventure takes a dangerous turn. Perhaps one of them is not who they seem and poses a threat.

Preserving the text of the play, the amazing dialogues, the brilliant characters, we have transposed the action into today’s Russian provinces and changed only one thing: the age of the heroes. In Anton Chekhov’s play the heroines are aged around 25; now they are 55. What does that do? The heroes’ retorts, stylistically inappropriate from today’s twenty-year-olds, are absolutely organic for the older generation, the ‘Soviet’ intelligentsia. The problems of Chekhov’s classical work concerning the search for a meaning in life, the loss of ideals, the fear before death without having achieved anything in the world, the desire to be useful to others – all these things are also a typical attribute of the Soviet intelligentsia.