Ivanov

Everything is empty here: the stage, people’s hearts and their heads. A bare stage is filled only with fog, out of which characters dare to emerge into the audience’s sights before they retreat back into the mist. The production presents Chekhov’s “Ivanov” as a grotesque comedy of a stagnating society. This much is not new. However, the way in which Dimitier Gotscheff transforms a series of explosive, resigned, cynical or melancholy solos into a soul-searching piece which mercilessly exposes the alienated psychology of the modern individual is quite remarkable. The actors, led by Samuel Finzi as a repressed and doubt-ridden Ivanov trying unsuccessfully to come to terms with his existential distress, make their characters’ impotent ponderings painfully powerful.
Hartmut Krug, jury member Theaterteffen 2006