The Overcoat M | A dance drama - Yury Smekalove

The dance drama "The Overcoat M" connects two times and two love stories. In the 1820s, Gogol was told a "joke" that became the basis for the plot of the future story "The Overcoat": an official encounters his first great feeling, but loses the object of his passion and with it all hope for happiness. According to the plot of the play, a hundred years later, director Vsevolod M decides to stage a play about this.

In the imagination of director Yury Smekalov, the story of Akaki Bashmachkin resonates with the passions of Vsevolod: unexpected late love and obsession with a new method of working with actors – "biomechanics". The combination of live music, dance and words helps to reach Akaki's true feelings, free him from the stigma of a "little man" and offer an ending filled with hope that everyone has a second chance.

The performance is a laureate of the XXX Highest Theatre Award of St. Petersburg "Golden Sofit": Prize of the Nomination Council for a successful experiment in combining all theatrical genres – dance drama "Overcoat M".

Duration: 2 hours 30 minutes with one intermission

Co-author of the idea and co-producer of the project – Alexander Zlotnikov

Co-author of the idea, general producer, director and choreographer-producer – Yury Smekalov

Director of dramatic scenes – Ilya Del

Composer – Vartan Gnoro

Production designer – Elisey Shepelev

Costume designer – Sergey Illarionov

Lighting designers – Konstantin Binkin, Ksenia Koteneva

Make-up designer – Olga Kostenetskaya

Assistant choreographer – Elena Churilova

Assistant director – Irina Esterlis

Assistant costume designer – Anastasia Odinokova

Photographer – Yulia Mikheeva

Akaky B

Vitaly Kulikov/ Vitaly Gudkov

Vsevolod M

Ilya Del/ Ivan Batarev

Tailor

Yury Smekalov/ Oleg Gabyshev

Overcoat Cat

Daria Ionova/ Maria Shirinkina

Zinaida R

Laura Pitskhelauri/ Elena Kalinina

Old Hood

Alexander Chelidze/ Roman Andreikin

Russian Frost

Grigory Popov/ Pavel Gasimov

Overcoat Beaver

Irina Poskorkova

Overcoat Squirrel

Yulia Kobzar/ Tatyana Tkachenko

Overcoat Fox

Alexandra Sergeeva

Overcoat Rabbit

Anna Kuznetsova

Overcoat Marten

Zlata Yalinich/ Daria Plastun

Overcoat Dog

Darya Naritsyna

Significant Person

Alexander Novikov/ Viktor Minkov

Head of Department

Anton Leonov

Official 1

Evgeny Sholkov/ Pavel Filippov

Official 2

Artem Kisakov/ Bogdan Gudymenko

Official 3

Lenya Nechaev/ Sergey Azeev

In his new work, Smekalov not only combines body and text, dance and dramatic theater, he mixes them in one crazy cauldron, so that you can feel with your skin what is happening in the theater and in the soul of director Vsevolod M."

Olga Ugarova, "Ballet" magazine

A very Petersburg performance. Petersburg is echoed in the fences of the canals and the lanterns; in the shaky bureaucratic phantasmagoria, which seems to have grown out of the gloomy paintings of Pavel Fedotov; in the images of the famous Petersburg old women from Harms, which the fidgety, laughing Zinochka R., a brunette antipode of Marilyn M, turns into. Here, some fermented substance quietly gurgles from the climbing and crumbling bureaucratic vertical, headed by an Important Person. The hope promised by Yury Smekalov certainly exists."

Olga Fedorchenko, "Ballet Petersburg"

"You can think for a long time about this "atmospheric", full of energy, performance, discuss to what extent it reflected Gogol in the depiction of the monstrous reality and the cruel truth of life. Something else is important - the inner feeling that arose. Thanks to the selfless acting, watching Smekalov's "The Overcoat" does not relieve mental or moral anxiety. And you agree that the declaration of the mastery of the creators and participants of the performance is not just words, but a real movement towards a new experience and new horizons of theatrical art."

Alexander Maksov, "Musical Seasons"