©  Anna Belyakova

…Souls is a true theatrical carnival, a parade of masks and types boldly transformed, following Gogol himself, into archetypes.

[…] Two opposing colors — “funny and bitter, sweet and salty, joyous and terrifying” — are mixed by the director in perfect proportions. The production is genuinely funny, without strain or pretension; at times subtle, at others deliberately rough-edged, lightly dusted with mysticism and carrying the delicate aftertaste of Gogol’s ideas, temptations and delusions. It grips you and it flies. Young directors can sometimes be terribly dull simply through helplessness, but Yegor Peregudov’s recent One Hundred Years of Solitude and now …Souls are examples of youthful directorial drive — which is always, at the same time, an act of courage.

Marina Tokareva, Novaya Gazeta

The sophisticated actors of the Fomenko Workshop plunge into this world of carnivalesque freedom and vivid theatricality with joyful abandon and acrobatic daring.

In …Souls, the Workshop actors perform with genuine exhilaration.

It has been a long time since our stage has seen a production at once so funny and frightening, so desperate and festive. The firm directorial structure is illuminated by a whole firework display of acting triumphs.

Olga Yegoshina, Teatral Online

And yet you shake off your sadness and continue this extraordinary journey into Gogol’s world, where the text of the poem is supplemented by lines from The Government Inspector and Hamlet and generously “seasoned” with the words of Pushkin, Lermontov and Chekhov… And you revel in wonderfully playful, witty theatre, in a marvelous, touching and intelligent clowning that awakens nostalgia for those glorious days when the first generation of Fomenko’s students — not yet a theatre in the full sense of the word — joyfully played the fool in their early student productions. […] You could feel that the Fomenko actors, young and experienced alike, luxuriating in their roles, had not experienced such creative delight for a very long time.

Pavel Podkladov, Podmoskovye bez politiki

The young director ruthlessly stripped away, if not the clichés accumulated over years of work, then certainly the actors’ habitual notions of their types and stage personas, drawing them into the whirlpool of an extraordinary theatrical experience in which eccentricity blends organically with serious psychological development of every role. As a result, however grotesque or outrageous the characters of this menippea may be, each proves complex and profound.

Pavel Podkladov, Podmoskovye bez politiki

In this menippea, the concept, its witty theatrical realization, the visual design […] and the wonderful music performed by the remarkable “Orchestra of Five” come together organically. But my main conclusion is that the beloved Pyotr Fomenko Workshop has discovered an intelligent and talented director, determined to “make his own path,” who is capable of giving the audience a true theatrical celebration.

Pavel Podkladov, Podmoskovye bez politiki

For me, the production became an immersion in the carnival of an otherworldly realm. And this theatrical experience was staged and performed with consummate skill. The heroes and characters of Gogol’s works whirl, twist, dance and stagger before us. The entire procession of masks spins through a carnival parade — but a very particular kind of parade: otherworldly, emerging from a realm of frightening dreams, nightmares, dark and mysterious doors, folk tales and legends.

Marina Abramova, Revizor.ru

Polina Agureeva is brilliant as Korobochka — wildly hospitable, greedily acquisitive, with hints of elemental nymphomania — and equally virtuosic in her entrance as Society, the greedy gossip forever ready for malicious rumor. […] Agureeva, a powerful tragic actress, joyfully splashes about here in an ocean of comic possibilities, revealing that the sharp instruments of grotesque comedy fit both her hand and her talent perfectly.

Marina Tokareva, Novaya Gazeta

The point is not simply that Polina Agureeva is a superb actress and that in this scene she possesses, strictly in Gogol’s own words, “what astonishing agility of the female character!” The point is that this scene is the culmination of …Souls. Or rather, a play within the play.

Igor Virabov, Rossiyskaya Gazeta

Opening night: June 5, 2017

Running time: 2 hours with one intermission

Upcoming Performances:

Ticket price range: 2000—20000 rub.