Dark Avenues

They were wealthy, healthy, young, and so strikingly beautiful that heads turned wherever they appeared – in restaurants, at concerts. Yet even they could not escape the ruin of love…

Ivan Bunin considered Dark Avenues his finest work. As he wrote, all the stories in this collection are about love – about its “dark avenues,” most often cruel and tragic. Each story at the heart of the production centers on a meeting between a man and a woman. Within this theme, Bunin reflects on life and death. With almost scientific precision, both author and director explore existence, retribution, faith, the female body, and the nature of desire.

In the story Clean Monday, Bunin describes Stanislavsky wildly dancing the cancan at a Moscow Art Theatre. In SamArt’s production, Stanislavsky watches rehearsals of études based on Bunin’s stories. A story within a story. Theatre within theatre.

Winner of the VI All-Russian Festival Volga Theatre Seasons.