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O tempora! O mores!

05 February 2014

The solo performance "Money, love and intrigue..." performed at Erarta, has tried to make us believe that these three things are the motive force of the humankind and history.

The play is based on "Blue Book" by Mikhail Zoshchenko. This book is a mix of satire and historical facts so the author called it "a brief history of human relations". The characters live in Ancient Rome and in the Russian Empire. This is a story about the times and manners, which do not significantly change through the centuries.

"Money, love and intrigue..." is a solo performance by Natalia Kudryavtseva, an Honored Artist of Russia. As for Natalia's biography, she has had a lot of amazing performances. For example, she was a leading actress in the Leningrad Regional Theatre for Young Spectators for more than 20 years. Moreover, the actress worked with the legendary founder of the theatre Alexander Bryantsev. Also Natalia Kudryavtseva collaborated with such well-known directors as Veniamin Filshtinsky and Lev Dodin.

She devoted her life to classical theatre and literature. But the actress is not afraid of new experiences. So she is known to be a constant participant of "The Vagina Monologues" by Giuliano di Capua, the scandalous play which made much noise in the world.

The actress adores the Great Russian literature. So she makes her monologues and dialogues sound like the monologues of Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Gogol. According to Natalia Kudryavtseva, you can find so many vital, peaceful and life-asserting ideas in these dialogues. Moreover, in her opinion, Zoshchenko was a talented and courageous man who suffered from the political system of the Soviet Union, but remained optimistic and kept the faith. The title of his book refers to the blue color: as he said, it was the color of the sky and hope. Natalia Kudryavtseva underlined that Zoshchenko was always well-known among the Saint Petersburg and Leningrad intellectuals. And she is trying to keep this tradition alive.

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text by Olga Safroshina, photo by Vitaly Kolikov