Popovski has created a production of real significance. There is something in it far greater than simply the story of a woman who was blind from birth, hoped to gain her sight through surgery, yet never truly learned to see.

In some strange way, Popovski’s Molly Sweeney acquires the breadth of a metaphor and becomes a parable that touches all of us intimately. It is a production about how difficult it is to adapt to a world one no longer recognises, a world governed by unfamiliar laws, and about how fragile yet insurmountable the boundaries between light and darkness can be. […] Here, theatre becomes a source of support. Provided it is genuine. Once again, the Pyotr Fomenko Workshop proves that it is.

Marina Tokareva, Novaya Gazeta

Ivan Popovski’s production is the complete opposite of Dodin’s. Paradoxical as it may seem for a story about a blind woman, it is a feast for the eyes, built on exquisite monochrome, subtle interplay of light, delicate video imagery and unexpected theatrical metaphors. […] For several minutes we experience the world as the blind do, hearing only the sounds of ordinary life — unusually distinct and loud, as though amplified by the surrounding darkness. These sensations of sound become so rich, so compelling in themselves, that we begin to understand the heroine, who feels in no way deprived despite having lost her sight in infancy.

Marina Shimadina, Teatral

Brian Friel’s metaphor is embodied with mesmerising beauty by Popovski together with Numen, the European collective long and successfully engaged in conceptual art. At the end of the first act, just before the operation that will determine her fate, Polina Kutepova’s Molly sits comfortably in an armchair in her room. It is a cubic room in which every object is concealed beneath a grey cloth, its purpose discernible only from its outline. Gradually the covering begins to swell and expand, filling the entire room until it finally engulfs Molly herself.

Svetlana Berdichevskaya, Ekran i Stsena

This is already the Fomenko Workshop’s third encounter with the Irish playwright. This time the challenge is taken up by Ivan Popovski, one of the theatre’s leading directors — and he meets it impeccably. An entirely actor-driven production, filled with difficult, philosophical and psychological text, is transformed by Popovski and three outstanding performers from what initially seems a static presentation into gripping theatre. The tension never lets go for a second. For all the modesty of its expressive means — the emphasis is on words and meanings — the production is astonishingly theatrical. Every detail serves to reveal its conception.

Yulia Zu, Musecube

A subtle production, rich in meaning and handled with extraordinary care, about things everyone should consider: selfishness, and the danger of deciding for others and assuming responsibility for their lives. Ivan Popovski, known for visual spectacle and experimentation, places his faith here in superb actors. And that choice pays off completely. Perhaps the walls of the Pyotr Fomenko Workshop have never before experienced a shock quite this powerful.

Yulia Zu, Musecube

You will spend three hours watching Ivan Popovski’s production, including one interval. And then you will spend the rest of your life thinking about what you have seen. The production is a deeply moving meditation on hope, change and despair. It is gripping theatre in which the final applause is merely the beginning of the performance. […] Visually, the director develops the playwright’s fascination with words connected to sight. The word “to see” takes on a myriad of meanings on stage: something that overwhelms you with its visual beauty one moment can leave you fighting back a lump in your throat the next.

Inner Emigrant, Vash Dosug

The result is that rare production in which everything comes together: striking sets by Numen and P.O.P.; stylish costumes by Olesya Skaryna; restrained musical design by composer Andrey Borisov, complemented by subtle lighting; Polina Kutepova in the leading role, extraordinarily magnetic and sensual, as though she had stepped out of a Chanel campaign — one of her finest performances of recent years; a powerful play and direction every bit its equal.

For longtime admirers of the Pyotr Fomenko Workshop, this is a production in the tradition of “that very Workshop”: attuned to its time, made with taste and distinguished by vivid acting. For the attentive spectator, Molly Sweeney is a remarkable work that probes its characters’ inner lives with extraordinary acuity and prompts the audience to turn the same scrutiny upon themselves.

Inner Emigrant, Vash Dosug

Opening night: October 21, 2020

Running time: 2 hours 45 minutes with one intermission

Ticket price range: 1000—30000 rub.