©  Sergey Petrov

This is a story of people who forgot how to listen to and understand others, who no longer know how to love each other. They are only capable of love in their fantasies, and so they dream of love, avoiding each other’s eyes. But real life, which these people had so tried to ignore behind their dark glasses, mercilessly pops the bubbles of fantasies whenever it they meet.

Alla Sokolova’s play, on which the 1979 film by Ilya Averbach was based, tells of the starry-eyed and soft-hearted dentist Faryatyev who believes in aliens. He falls in love with Sasha, who is both not of this world and arrogant, both exuberant and rational, and contradictory all around. Such archetypes are a regular occurence in the stage plays of this theater, and the company has a number of contenders for any of the roles. The play is full of fine and delicate, tender and witty language, the fast moving pace of feelings, and the abiding faith in miracles. This is Fomenko Theater at its best.

Nikolai Berman, gazeta.ru

Opening night: February 1, 2014

Running time: 2 hours without intermission