«My Children»

«Oh, I’m so tired of all this vanity!» - J. W. von Goethe

How small and powerless people seem in the face of great historical upheavals!

Gnadental - «The Blessed Valley» - is the name of a quiet German settlement along the Volga, home to schoolteacher Jakob Bach. His love for Clara, the daughter of a farmer from across the river, promises endless happiness. Yet fate decides otherwise. Their tender feelings cannot withstand the tragic events that befall the Volga Germans. The once flourishing and peaceful haven turns, under the iron weight of collectivisation, into a bleak and starving wasteland.

Hidden behind the steep banks of the Volga, Jakob Bach remains a hermit on his lonely farmstead. There, he raises his daughter Anche and writes wondrous fairy tales - the only place where he can share his hopes, dreams, pain, fears, and love. His memories live within those stories.

This play speaks of desperate longing and profound solitude - yet also of love, of the fragile hope that continues to shimmer even in darkness.