The opening night for the performance of “The Belated love” by Great Russian dramatist A. N. Ostrovsky took place on the stage of Saratov Academic Kiselev Youth Theatre on 2nd March 2008.

Kiselev Youth Theatre again and again returns to the Ostrovsky’s writings. The Famous Russian dramatist for some mystical reason stays a key figure in understanding and measuring contemporaneity for more than century. It seems that his plays were fated to be a part of classic Russian literature since the very moment they were written: so bright and at the same time generalized personalities of their characters are.

“The Belated Love” (scenes from the solitude life in two acts) along with some other plays by Ostrovsky like “The Storm”, “the Girl Without Dowry”, “The Last Sacrifice” can be united under one subtitle “The Woman Question in Russia”. In these plays not only the Russian life’s atmosphere is depicted in the variety of stories, and psychological and social patterns but there is a whole gallery of different women’s personalities. Some of them are obsessed with a passion of “making money”, some are despotic, some are cruel, restless, and the others are gentle and sensitive, and among them there are lots of maids, toadeaters and pilgrims. The plot in the play is as twisted as in a good detective story.

Daily routine activities are often said to be the main part of Ostrovsky’s plays, but it’s not the daily routine which is important but poetry and passion. The way in which “The Belated love” combines quietness and passion makes it one of the most touching and intimate works of A. N. Ostrovsky. And the theatre version tries to find this subtle margin combining routine and poetry, sentimentality and acuteness. Ostrovsky is an actual and topical playwright who is needed by the modern theatre. His own special point of view on human personality could be in use for both actors and audience. Actors:

Feliciata Antonovna Shablova - an owner of a small wooden house	Stroganova Valentina Alexandrovna
Gerasim Porfiryich Margaritov – a retired solicitor	Emelyanov Valery Nikolayevich
Ludmila – his daugther	Beskrovnaya Anastasiya Sergeevna Klimova Marina Gennadievna
Dormedont – Shablova’s younger son, a clerk in Margaritov’s office	Ridel Yuly Petrovich
Nikolay Andreevich Shablov - Shablova’s elder son	Egorov Vladimir Vladimirovich
Barbara Charitonovna Lebedkina – a widow	Voloshina Zhanna Vasilievna Zhukova (Shindina) Maria Alexandrovna
Onufry Potapyich Dorodnov – a merchant	Varenov Alexey Nikolayevich Konev Vladimir Ivanovich
The Maid	Guseva Lidiya Fedorovna