Mikhail Chekhov Riga Russian Theatre

Vyacheslav Kondratyev

Sashka

A Tale of a soldier

Opening - 14.03.2015. (Big Auditorium)

Duration - 2 h 5 min

12+
A family performance

Creative team:

Set Designer
Nikolai Slobodyanik

Costumes Designer
Nikolai Slobodyanik

Light Designer
Denis Solntsev

Staging
Igor Konyayev

This short novel by Vyacheslav Kondratyev was published in February 1979. But today, it still makes a strong impression. These are some reviews of today's readers’ of this story:

"... This book is about a person. About a most simple and inconspicuous, kid who, without knowing it, conducted a great deed. No, he did not command the armies, he did not conquer Berlin, but he was able to do more - to remain human."

"Sashka is so true! I believe in it him, such as he is written, such a positive and endearing one... "

"The characters of the story by Kondratyev are not just people, they are Human, with a capital letter, for whom the word "humanity "is not an empty one..."

Today, in our "good times", the word "humanity" ceases to have the meaning, which it had in the difficult years of the war, when a human life was at stake. Vyacheslav Kondratyev, a writer-soldier, a participant of the terrible fighting near Rzhev in 1942, knew the value of "humanity". He fought in the Rifle Brigade, was wounded and awarded the medal "For Courage". He was 22 years old at that time, and he wrote his first novel "Sashka", when he was 59. They did not want to publish it: there was too much truth in the writer’s text on the fate of a simple boy-soldier, who had been deprived of a normal life, but had not been turned into a beast and had not lost his purity and honesty and, most importantly, his ability to love. And today, when we sometimes lose the human ways in our financially prosperous life, complain about the service in the restaurant and the lack of money for a trip to the sea, it is very useful to remember or find out what the lack of bread, warmth and clean clothes is like. Sometimes it is useful to think about what a human being is and what humanity is - and, most importantly, why it is needed. And it would be even better to watch this performance and to discuss it with the children and loved ones - and, perhaps, to find answers to the questions that seem to be very difficult and sometimes even impossible to resolve.

NB! Smoking on-stage.