DER SCHNEESTURM

A Play by Kirill Serebrennikov after Vladimir Sorokin

Kirill Serebrennikov’s production, like Sorokin’s text, places the blizzard at its center. The blizzard is the main character. It has many voices, most of them female. It leads the way, sometimes into temptation. It scolds, dances and sings; it withdraws into silence; and it raises momentous questions. It casts coldness over everything, along with a pall of sleep that must not be surrendered to. It takes us to the epicenter of a blinding brightness.

Whiteout conditions. The horizon disappears and earth and sky merge as one. The world as we know it vanishes: its colors and shapes, landmarks, contrasts, and contours all dissolve. We find ourselves in the middle of an infinitely expansive, completely empty white space and lose our balance.

This dizzying state of absolute disorientation defines the atmosphere of Kirill Serebrennikov’s production — an existential cabaret that plunges the audience into a world spinning out of control.

Where is down? Where is up?
Where should I go?
Why go on at all?
How will it end?
With death or salvation?
What remains when everything else disappears?