“A story of Sonya Marmeladova’s love” on stage at Dostoevsky Museum in St. Petersburg
Sad Songs from the Heart of Europe, a contemporary play by Kristan Smeds (2006), is a raw and powerful love story based on Dostoevsky‘s classic novel Crime and Punishment.
It is a story of Sonya Marmeladova’s love. The point of view of the poetic play is Raskolnikov’s beloved Sonya who finds herself driven to prostitution. Sad Songs from the Heart of Europe is a touching vision of Europe – a continent where luck and fortune are greatly divided, and where young men undertake extreme and desperate actions.
Sad Songs from the Heart of Europe looks deep into the human soul with a Dostoevskian merciful gaze. It shows us that beauty, light, and miracles flicker even at the darkest of times – that love can still trickle through.
Directed by Jari Juutinen (Finland) “Sad songs from the heart of Europe” based on a play of the same name by the contemporary Finnish playwright and director Kristian Smeds. Actress Victoria Narkhova, who managed to work in Voronezh and Veliky Novgorod, where she was the leading young artist of the Dostoevsky Novgorod Academic Drama Theater, makes her debut on the St. Petersburg stage in the role of Sonya Marmeladova.
Co-production with Theatre Company «SadSongsKomplex:fi» (Finland) and the Dostoevsky Museum of St. Petersburg.
The premiere is going to hit St. Petersburg on May 18, 20 and 31, 2021.
F. M. DOSTOEVSKY LITERARY MEMORIAL MUSEUM
The apartment where Dostoevsky spent the final years of his life sits on a street corner in Saint Petersburg. The Russian author penned “The Double” and “The Brothers Karamazov” in the home before dying at 59 years old in 1881.
The museum is comprised of the writer’s memorial apartment, the literary exhibit, and the White Theater. Its collections have grown exponentially throughout the decades. The library has over 24,000 volumes and manuscripts.
The museum is often included in cultural tours (and Dostoevsky-specific ones) in Saint Petersburg. Every year on the writer’s birthday it hosts the international scholarly conference called “Dostoevsky and World Culture,” and a journal with the same name is published with the proceedings.
