5 facts about the legendary ‘Sovremennik’ theater 

1. Founded by a group of young Soviet actors

In the USSR, ‘Sovremennik’ (which literally means ‘contemporary’) was a unique phenomenon – it was not created by the order of the Party of authorities, like most other theaters. It was born in 1956 out of the enthusiasm of a group of young actors from the Moscow Art Academic Theater (MKhAT), led by a man named Oleg Yefremov. They decided to unite and experiment.

The new theater had a code: All actors were equal, all decisions were made collectively by vote (including the choice of a new artistic director).

“For me, theater is a community of people who live, as it were, in one breath, who profess the same ideas. <…> It’s a collective that is, as a whole, an artist,” said Yefremov.

2. It was a child of the ‘Thaw’

The emergence of such a theater could only have been possible during the ‘Khrushchev Thaw’, when censorship was being relaxed and quasi “freedom” appeared – albeit limited – giving impetus to a new creative generation.

‘Sovremennik’ became a psychological theater, focusing on the individual, the personality, the romantic hero dreaming of a bright future, but possessing all earthly qualities and flaws.

Its first production was ‘Ever Alive’ (also known as ‘The Living One’), based on a play by Viktor Rozov about World War II, which focused on the personal dramas of ordinary people.

3. It was the first to talk about the Gulag from the stage

“We were alarmed that the fresh wind of modernity rarely burst onto that very stage, which Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko always sought to make a vessel for contemporary ideas and the contemporary man,” Yefremov said of the Moscow Art Theater. So, this idea was also tied to the name chosen for the new theater, because, as mentioned earlier, ‘Sovremennik’ literally means ‘Contemporary’.

Alongside contemporary interpretations of classic plays by Anton Chekhov, Nikolai Gogol, William Shakespeare and Bernard Shaw, actress and director Galina Volchek also took on contemporary authors, from Mikhail Roshchin and Alexander Vampilov to Vasily Shukshin.

The theater was not afraid to tackle material that was difficult for that time, such as Yevgenia Ginzburg's ‘Journey into the Whirlwind’. And, in 1989, it became the first to address the topic of the Gulag and Stalin's repressions on stage.

4. Top-tier stars perform on its stage

Thanks to their masterful acting, the names of actors Oleg Yefremov, Galina Volchek, Evgeny Evstigneev, Oleg Tabakov and Igor Kvasha became widely known throughout the USSR. Later, all became movie stars, as well.

In 1972, the theater chose a new chief director, Galina Volchek, who had been there since the studio's founding and, after that promotion, went on to lead the theater for more than 40 years. She nurtured a whole generation of actors, such as Marina Neyolova, Yuri Bogatyryov, Valentin Gaft, Konstantin Raikin, Avangard Leontyev and many others.

5. Still one of the leading theaters in Russia

Today, the theater's artistic director is actor Vladimir Mashkov. He insists on continuing the glorious traditions. Some iconic historical productions are still performed on stage, such as ‘Three Comrades’, based on Erich Maria Remarque’s novel, which was incredibly beloved in the USSR. A number of old performances have been revived, for example, ‘Two on a Seesaw’ by William Gibson, which was Volchek's directorial debut.

The repertoire is also being renewed with contemporary material: plays based on books and works by Alexandra Nikolaenko, Evgeny Vodolazkin, Yasmina Reza, Alexander Tsypkin and many others.