The opening night for the performance “The Uncle’s Dream” took place on the stage of Saratov Academic Kiselev Youth Theatre in April of 2007.

They assure the uncle-duke, an old man who took leave of senses long ago that being in the arms of Morpheus he proposed to a young woman.  This comic novel was written by Dostoevsky in 1859 and was the first piece of work with which Dostoevsky “appeared before the audience” after ten years break caused by his arrest, imprisonment and hard labor. It was really hard and tense for him to get back to literature. Trying to overcome it Dostoevsky began to write a very funny novel and according to him: “As a joke I started writing a comedy and as a joke I created so many of comic circumstances, and personages and I liked my character so much…”

A strange incident happened in Mordasov: early in the morning the Duke K. entered the town and stayed in the house of Marya Alexandrovna. The consequences of this visit contain one of the pages from Mordasov’s Chronicles.

Mordasy is the name of the village from one of the Russian literature works of the 19th century; the name became denominative and later was used in satiric literature. Dostoevsky, who wrote “The Uncle’s Dream”, tried to find in this dream as well as in other dreams of “funny small men” created by him some way of outlet, some peace. The action takes place in the mid of the 19th century both in the novel and in the performance. Devilry, grotesque, satire, bewilderment - everything is united in this bright and masterpiece variation on Dostoevsky’s themes. The stage version of the novel was written by a famous Russian theatre director – Michael Bychkov. The author of the stage version could see in Dostoevsky’s prose unique women’s images from Mordasov town and took out forefront Marya Alexandrovna Moskaleva – as a “home director in a skirt”. Everybody is under her thumb, the roles are ready for all members of the society, the plots are thoroughly written. This idea caused the most interesting decision for the set by the production designer Yury Galperin – a theatre stage is in the interior of the house, such a home theatre, where Marya Alexandrovna put people (for her they are just characters of her own play). The performance “The Uncle’s Dream” directed Georgy Tskhvirava together with the stage version by Michael Bychkov and the bright music by Johann Strauss is the piece of drama work where the main character is Marya Alexandrovna Moskaleva – “a woman-Hamlet”, she determines people’s destinies, she plays with people, she impresses dreams about their lives in the world of reality. “The Uncle’s Dream” is the performance that suggests you to think over about contemporary life and about our problems. Inimitable comic performance, telling about characters of a provincial town in the mid of the 19th century – is the way to understand yourself.
Actors:

Moskaleva Maria Alexandrovna, First lady of Mordasov town	Vovnenko Elena Vitalievna Chupikova Tatyana Pavlovna
Afanasy Matveevich, her husband	Karabanov Alexey Nikolayevich Rotachkov Alexey Gennadievich
Zina, her daughter	Voloshina Zhanna Vasilievna Nikulina Svetlana Igorevna
Zyablova Nastasya Petrovna, Moskaleva’s distant relative	Polozova Marina Ivanovna
Mozglyakov Pavel Alexandrovich, Zina’s fiancé	Kuzin Artem Evgenievich
Duke, Mozglyakov’s distant relative	Osherov Yury Petrovich
Farpukhina Sofya Petrovna, 50 year old lady, colonel’s wife	Panteleeva Nina Fedorovna Tarter (Tsikhan) Tamara Karlovna
Antipova Anna Nikolaevna, Public prosecutor’s wife	Chernysheva Tatyana Yurievna Samokhina Victoria Anatolievna
Paskudina Natalya Dmitrievna	Lykova Tamara Konstantinovna
Grishka, Moskaleva’s servant	Egorov Vladimir Vladimirovich
The teacher, Zina’s ex-loved one	Divlyatshin Ruslan Sergeevich