Press-release. On the 5th, 6th of March, 2010 the opening night of the performance for "Three Comrades" written by N. Skorokhod based on novel by Erich Maria Remarque will take place in the Saratov Kiselev Youth Theater. Staged by Georg Genoux (Germany).

production designer – Emil Kapelush (St. Petersburg)
costume designer – Valentina Serebrennikova (St. Petersburg)
lighting designer - Denis Zaviyalov (St. Petersburg)
harmonist - Ivan Subbotin
choirmaster Nadezda  Golubeva
choreographer Ekaterina Ozdzheviz

"A man is great is his peak exertions. In art, love, density, hate, selfishness and even in self-sacrificing. But what our world lacks is certain, so to say, average extent of kindness."

These are the words of the great romantic of 20th century – German writer Erich Maria Remarque, on whose novel “Tree Comrades” play by N. Skorokhod (St. Petersburg) is based.

The play by N. Skorokhod “Three Comrades” is staged in the Kiselev Youth Theatre by the German director Georg Genoux, production designer is Emil Kapelush (St. Petersburg), who is familiar to the Saratov audience for his work in “The Cherry Orchard” in our theatre.  

The action of the performance and the play takes place in the 20s of the 20th century in Germany. Since the last shot of the World War I a century almost has passed, the world saw slaughters and catastrophes much more horrifying than ones that gave birth to “the lost generation” literature, but Remarque’s and Hemingway’s novels are still read in one breath. The 21st century people are living with the same tragedy of the deprecation of human life, of the lost of guiding marks and the disappointment in the public moral and ethics – the tragedy that was a shock for the 20th century people. But the shock couldn’t last for long, it has become a chronic pain of the humankind, we’ve got used to it and do not notice it anymore.

“Three comrades” is a bright example of the contrast coexistence of tragedy and routine life. It is the conclusion that Georg Genoux, a German director of the performance for “Three Comrades” has come to. In his opinion not only the tragedies of the three comrades are important – if there were only dry facts – all the horrors of war, blood and dirt, drinks and indifference, deaths and murders would have made a novel unbelievably terrifying. But there is something more, its characters have a unique gift – they managed to keep their adolescent charm no matter what had happened to them.

Their sincere desire to laugh, love, meet friends and rejoice right here right now can not leave one indifferent, they hold the creative powers – ones that let Otto build “The Carl” and others – to race on him madly and regularly. Risk, speed, laugh and passion are the features of life not death.

Main theme of the performance is the story of love between Patricia and Robert, a man who has returned from the war and can not find his place in life. He meets a girl, so perfect that seems unreal, a dream of any man. Patricia takes him for granted, with all his vices that Lohkamp has lots of. That is what makes him charming. Robert can’t believe in his happiness. Together with the romantic story goes the main political theme of that time – theme of the National Socialism’s awakening in Germany. Robert and Patricia do not notice the horrifying events that are happening near until the fate itself dashing them against the monstrous appearance of the “brown plague”. Memories of the director’s relative, who told about what was happening in Germany, will be included in the performance.

Georg Genoux is a theater director from Germany, Mark Zakharov's student; he played one of the leading parts in Pyotr Todorovsky movie "In constellation of taurus" (2003). Georg is one of the creators of Moscow Teather.DOC, since 2007 - an artistic director in the Joseph Beuys Theater, he has staged more than 20 performances in Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Germany, his performances have taken place in 50 Russian and Foreign Festivals. Since 2007 he is a teacher in the Free International University, since 2009 – the head of the documental theater project in Theatre.DOC
          
Actors participating in the performance: A. Kuzin, A. Chernyshev, Yu. Vasilenko, A. Gudim, RF People’s actor Yu. Osherov and others.