The Blizzard

The theatre-goers in Croatia were acquainted with the work of Alexander Ogarev a few years ago when Moscow's A. S. Pushkin theatre perfomed Mate Matišić's play The Clergyman's Children at ''Marulić days'' in Split and afterwards in Zagreb Youth Theatre. Ogarev then presented himself as an artist who takes an almost cerebral approach to the dramatic material, enriching it by merging different performative styles, unusual director's interpretations, a symbolic movement that sometimes goes beyond words...

Gavella theatre will present Ogarev's own dramatization of The Blizzard, a play that is rather narrow in scope (a mere ten pages), but rich in meaning.

At the same time a comedy and a philosophical story, The Blizzard uses a simple plot (a girl agrees to marry the young man she is in love with, but due to the blizzard the young man gets lost on his way to the church so the girl marries an officer who was accidentaly passing by on his way to the front by mistake) to talk about destiny, punishment and mercy, taking us into the world of romantic Russia and, at the same time, saying something about ourselves. The lightness coupled with sublimity and the humour blended with tragedy offer here the possibility of creating a remarkable dramatic work where Gavella theatre's actors (mostly the younger generation) will be involved in the creation of an egzotic scenic world where Russian romances and the music of Sviridov and Vivaldi will underline the fairy-tale events from, as Pushkin once wrote, ''a time to remember''.

''Every and I mean every scene is spectacular in its own way. (...) Every sentence of the story turns into a rich scenic image where the main subject matter is, without exception, additionally playful and ennobled. As much as this basic staging principle is conceptually simplistic, it is performatively complex and demanding. It requires a vivid imagination from the director and a high performative discipline, which have luckily managed to stay on the same wave length in this production.'' (Iva Gruić, ''Jutarnji List'')

''Ogarev's poetic images draw the viewer into a world of imaginative theatrical expresion, into a poetics that inspires.'' (Helena Braut, ''Vjesnik'')

''Under its fairy-tale crust The Blizzard hides numerous surprises.'' (Želimir Ciglar, ''Večernji List)

''..the production has some remarkable interpretations, a seductively dreamy and fairy-tale atmosphere, a few really funny scenes and an ensemble that obviously enjoys this sort of performing.'' (Igor Ružić, Radio 101)