John Bassett Theatre (Toronto 13.11.2025)

FRANK is not just a stage performance. It is a confession. A deeply personal yet universal experience that Danila Kozlovsky lives through right before the audience’s eyes. It is a first – person story, told and sung on stage: memories of childhood and family, first love, encounters with idols, favorite songs, dreams and disappointments, and, of course, a subtle, ironic look at himself. All of this comes together as a musical stand-up – vivid, dynamic, and profoundly sincere.

If the word “monodrama” makes you imagine a dark stage, a single chair, and an actor under a lone spotlight, forget those stereotypes. FRANK breaks conventional formats. It is true theatrical magic, where music, text, voice, light, and the energy of the moment merge into one. On stage, it is not merely an artist. On stage, it is a human being – real, unmasked, and unguarded.

The title itself is rich in meaning. FRANK is the name of the legendary singer whose songs are performed in the show. But in English, frank also means “open” and “honest” – and this is exactly how Kozlovsky appears before the audience. In an age of social media, where emotions are often replaced by filters and clichés, this performance feels like a breath of fresh air – a reminder of authenticity, of live human connection, and of the power of being oneself.

The production is directed by Savva Savelyev, one of the most striking and forward-thinking theater directors of the new generation. Under his guidance, FRANK acquires a distinctive stage language: the visual design amplifies every emotional nuance, while the live music becomes not just accompaniment but a full participant in the action. This is a performance about what resonates with everyone — love, family, the journey toward oneself, the search for meaning, and the desire to remain true.

All pictures: flic.kr/s/aHBqjCE9kr

John Bassett Theatre (Toronto 25.10.2025)
“Notes of Madmen” Dmitry Krimov’s play | Starring Chulpan Khamatova and Maksim Sukhanov.

This is the first production by director and designer Krymov in the Russian language, created in emigration and featuring two popular actors. Chulpan Khamatova and Maksim Sukhanov, who nearly 30 years ago starred together in Valery Todorovsky’s film The Land of the Deaf, appear on the same stage for the first time.

Notes of the Madmen is a phantasmagoric story about people lost in space and time. The characters, finding themselves unwillingly in new life circumstances, intertwine real stories with scenes from literature.

Chulpan Khamatova: “This performance is about mad love, about loneliness and loss, about a sense of duty and personal dignity, about the world around us that went insane long ago—and apparently for a long time to come.”

Scenography – Dmitry Krymov, Pyotr Voznesensky; Video Artist – Pyotr Voznesensky; Costume Designer – Tatyana Dolmatovskaya; Lighting Designer – Oskar Paulinsh; Makeup Artist – Elena Nalichaeva; Director’s Producer: Inna Krymova; Producers, Entracte International: Kirill Zayakin, Daniil Erokhin.

All pictures: flic.kr/s/aHBqjCAjia

John Bassett Theatre (Toronto 05.10.2025)

Starring Ksenia Rappoport & Henry David | North American Premiere
Dramaturgy: Olga Fedyanina; Set and Costume Design: Ksenia Peretrukhina; Movement: Polina Dreyden; Light: Gleb Filshtinsky.

The play “Beyond the Light” is a collaborative work by renowned writer Marina Stepnova and screenwriter and director Avdotya Smirnova. It is a story of an unexpected meeting between two unusual characters, each of whom, until a certain point, is unaware of their own uniqueness.

What will happen when two eccentric personalities collide in a place, where it seems, they don’t belong to? Their coincidental encounter and the connection between them unfold unpredictably. She is a vibrant soul, an earthly woman from an entirely different planet. He is an algorithm which is slowly acquiring a human face. The roles are reversed, and where there once was chaos hope begins to grow. In the new world, pieced together from the shards of the old, everything feels at once familiar and grotesque — funny and sad.

The space, which is imagined by set designer Ksenia Peretrukhina, reinforces this atmosphere: a fantastical world is born from everyday objects — a world made of fragments of ordinary life, forming a new mosaic, paradoxical yet logical at the same time. Here, absurdity and reality walk hand in hand. In the lead role Kseniya Rappoport — flesh and blood, the very heartbeat of the magical act in which the woman triumphs over death. Her partner is Henry David, a second-generation star of the Gesher Theatre and a well-known actor of Israeli cinema, who complements and balances this magnificent duo.

Together, they bring unique theatrical alchemy to the stage. Their interaction is not only the plotline but a profound metaphysical journey, in which they discover their path to the truth through passion, pain, and redemption.

All pictures: flic.kr/s/aHBqjCxetk

John Bassett Theatre (Toronto 12.03.2025)

Gesher Theater – Don’t Look Back. Based on the play “Eurydice” by Jean Anouilh. North American premiere.
In loving memory of Rimas Tuminas and Faustas Latenas.

Created by Rimas Tuminas, Roy Chen, Gleb Filshtinsky, Yudith Aharon, Katya Sassonsky, Maxim Rosenberg, Michael Vaisburd, Evgenia Natanova, Dasha Shamina.
Music by Faustas Latenas. Executive Producer: Roman Kvetner.
Actors: Anatoly Beliy, Lena Freifeld, Nikita Naidenov, Israel (Sasha) Demidov, Lilian Shely Ruth, Nikita Goldman, Henry David, Polina Pakhomova, Itay Tarkhanov.
Assistant director: Maria Kluchnikova; Costumes: Anna Cherepnina; Sound: Leon Seiger; Lights: Alexander Sikirin, Sergey Novitsky, Irina Factor.

All pictures: flic.kr/s/aHBqjC7T7b

October 16, 2024 (Richmond Hill Theater, Toronto)

Movie and theater stars Dmitry Nazarov and Olga Vasilyeva invite you to the premiere of their new play, the tragicomedy “Who The Heck Knows!”
What if, in a whimsical twist, God decided to playfully challenge humanity after the apocalypse, leaving behind Adam and Eve, both now in their ripe age of 90, on the ruins of Babylon? Their mission: to prove that humanity deserves a second chance. And now the snake will have to come up with something more elegant than an apple, since chewing it with dentures is not so easy. How can these two aged people, who hate each other, find the way to save the world? Only by falling in love.

A performance based on Alexey Arbuzov’s play “Old-Fashioned Comedy”, which was in the plans of the Moscow Art Theatre for the 2022-23 season. “In April 2023, we were supposed to start rehearsals, and in June, release the performance on the Small Stage. In early January, our defamation and exile happened. We found ourselves overboard from the Art Theatre and Russia in an unexpected exile in France. But there is no force that can change our life and creative plans. We decided to create a performance in France.” (from an interview to Sergey Elkin in Chicago)

All pictures: flic.kr/s/aHBqjBNFhH

April 28-29, 2024 (John Basset Theatre, Toronto)
A play about great love and the atomic bomb

Starring Ksenia Rappoport and Alexei Serebryakov.
Written by Alexander Gelman; Directed by Alexander Marin; Set design: Alexey Serebryakov; Costumes: Svetlana Tegin; Choreography: Maria Serebryakova.

In 1935, Princeton University commissioned a sculpture of Albert Einstein. The sculptor, Russian emigré Sergey Konenkov, arrived to Princeton with his wife Margarita, who began a wild affair with the world-famous physicist, lasting until August 1945. After the U.S. has just dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Einstein blames himself for his part in the creation of nuclear weapons, when Margarita informs him that in a week, after many years in America, she and her husband are returning to the Soviet Union for good.
Based on the recently discovered letters written by Albert Einstein to Margarita Konenkova, this play details the last days of the secret lovers’ time together. The audience is invited into Einstein’s Princeton’s residence, an intimate setting where terrible words will be spoken and a terrible secret will be revealed.

All pictures: flic.kr/s/aHBqjBrEsZ

William Shakespeare – The Tragedy of Hamlet: Prince of Denmark.
(Toronto’s Elgin Theatre April 3-7, 2024. World Premiere)

Designed and directed by Robert Lepage.
Co-designed and choreographed by Guillaume Côté.
Composer: John Gzowski.

Dancers
Hamlet: Guillaume Côté; Gertrude: Greta Hodgkinson; Claudius: Robert Glumbek; Ophelia: Carleen Zouboules; Laertes: Lukas Malkowski; Polonius: Bernard Meney; Horario: Natasha Poon Woo; Rosencrantz: Connor Mitton; Guildenstern: Willem Sadler.

All pictures: flic.kr/s/aHBqjBo9p5