EINSTEIN AND MARGARITA
For the first time, Alena Khmelnitskaya and Aleksei Serebryakov share the same stage. The theatrical agency ENTRACTE presents a production about great love and the atomic bomb, staged by director Alexander Marin.
In «Einstein and Margarita», a true story of two lives is revealed in a new light. A well-known fact: in 1935, the Princeton Institute commissioned the Russian émigré sculptor Sergey Konenkov to create a sculptural portrait of Albert Einstein. The sculptor’s wife, Margarita, met the famous physicist in the studio and became his only love for many years. Two extraordinary people found themselves together in a difficult situation - in a truly historic era.
In his new play, playwright Alexander Gelman imagines what the final meeting between the great scientist and the Soviet citizen he loved for a decade might have been like.
The action unfolds in Einstein’s home, on the night Konenkova arrives there. Outside the window is August 1945: the United States has just dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Einstein, who fled to America from the Nazis and the looming war, is deeply shaken by what is happening and blames himself for being complicit in the creation of American nuclear weapons. Margarita tells him that in a week - after many years in America - she and her husband are returning to the Soviet Union. Forever. Einstein will try to persuade her to stay, but in vain: separation is inevitable. Margarita will leave for the Soviet Union, and Einstein will write her piercing letters to Moscow.
On a quiet night, in the modest Princeton home of the scientist, terrible words will be spoken - and a dreadful secret will be revealed…
A production by the theatrical agency ENTRACTE
The premiere took place on June 12, 2022.
