SYNOPSES

Three short one-act comedies, connected together by a theme which is subtle and at the same time plausible, otherwise known as life.

In the first of these (“Before the start of the show”) we encounter the characters' youth. In the second one (“Occurrence in a swimming pool”), we encounter their mature selves. One might assume that the third concluding part of this love story shows us their old age, but this isn't the case: in the comedy “When I was grown up” we see the carefree days of childhood. The comedies can be performed together or separately.

1 male role

2 female roles

One of the female roles is for a starring actress

This comedy resembles a detective story: there's always someone breaking down the door of the flat where two old friends, Vera and Nadezhda, live, and the telephone keeps on ringing. The cast even includes 'fighters' with shaved heads, obligatory characters these days, and a policeman. And yet this is a story about the return of hope and... love.

Even if a woman is frivolous, and feelings unrequited.

2 female roles

5 male roles

“Your attention please! All inhabitants of large cities! Citizens, you are under the terrible threat of invasion by people from the provinces! Enlist in groups set up to bar their way! Be vigilant! The invaders may be anywhwere: amongst your distant relatives, former fellow-students, chance acquaintances!...” This is what the main action of the comedy “The one he failed to recognize” is tied up with.

So who is it that he failed to recognize? This secret is revealed in the final scene by a certain Lady. That's because she is the one he, the main character of the play, “citizen” Bukhol'tsev, didn't recognize, although he had made a date with her the previous day. He didn't recognize her because he was distracted by his struggle against the madman Gushchin, who was trying to “disarm” him, his former fellow-student, when he arrived as a tourist from the provinces and “compromised” the security of the capital city.

The collisions of this tragicomedy take place at the pedestrian crossing of a big avenue. After a long-time exile a poet Izvekov comes back here. He comes back to fulfill his ambitious plans of the past. Some time ago he had to escape poor and winded. But now he has the strength and has money enough to implement his noble charitable plans. All though during the time of his forced absence a lot has changed in his Motherland. Finding no place for himself in New Russia the Poet perishes.

The director may decide to include more

or fewer characters in the play than

the number indicated by the author.

A house set apart, on the very edge of the city, or on the very edge of the forest. The wind whistles, the blizzard howls, dogs bark — it's scary... mysterious...

Larisa, who appears to be an ordinary woman, lets a room to perfectly ordinary lodgers — Evgenii, a student, and a man called Neukov. She appears to be hoping to sort herself out an ordinary life. But what follows is such a jumble of events — real, mystical, phantasmagorical — that it's difficult to tell where normal life ends and myth begins.

4 female roles

8 male roles

minor roles

The play “A plank over a puddle” is a magical comedy for children aged 7-15 and for families.

In an abandoned pioneer camp three fairy-tale sisters, no longer needed by anyone else, live out the rest of their lives. The eldest, Petrovna, has seen and experienced a good deal over her lifetime. The middle sister, Aglaya, is tormented by the fact that no-one needs her. And the youngest — Lizka — can't even make magic properly. All in all, they are fading away through idleness and longing. But the eldest sister, Petrovna, doesn't want to give in, and so she begins a new fairy-tale about the old legendary arrow.

This comedy is intended for a family audience, and offers something for everyone: adults will enjoy amusing and touching episodes from their own ‘pioneer’ childhood, and children will be entertained by the adventures of three magicians who are simultaneously both characters from folklore and contemporary Russian figures, who live in an endless Thursday.

Female roles — 3

The scene: a former pioneer camp

a policeman's fairy-tale

It's a fairy-tale. But this time a fairy-tale about the police. Everyone in the world can dream, can't they? Even policemen probably have their own dreams.

Before us is a tale of extraordinary treachery - a paper avalanche of documentation, which almost wipes out the fate of an ordinary person: ordinary betrayal and similarly ordinary disenchantment. But it all gets blown up to extraordinary proportions!

Of course, if all the business done by our glorious policemen was just like this, it would make a real fairy-tale. But this is something we can only dream about.

A small fairy-tale about the police, about treachery and love.

2 female roles

1 male role

seven tall tales

Nothing affects one's fate more than one's own character and inclinations.

Seven modern, very short fables about the metamorphoses of a person who is able to still remain himself in any circumstances.

Translations into English by
Dr Katharine Hodgson
Russian Department
School of Modern Languages
University of Exeter
England