The house, built like an ancient ship, and full, as one of its residents says, of “all kinds of surprises,” is sailing in solitude through the hills of Upper Sussex. In less than half-an-hour, it is filled with guests (invited or not), and we are taken on a trip through the sea of relationships, full of underwater reefs and currents, surprising discoveries and pirate attacks.

The “Heartbreak House” production turned out to be beautiful, smart, well-played, and even fun. The latter quality, by the way, is quite difficult to achieve in staging Bernard Show’s plays.

Oleg Zintsov, Vedomosti

Opening night: June 13, 2005

Running time: 3 hours 20 minutes with one intermission