February 12, 2022

All the Village Is a Stage


All the Village Is a Stage
A snapshot during the performance "Pick Mushrooms"  Myra.ru.

Performance art isn't just something for an urban environment; in the small village of Fomikha, it has found a place to flourish. 

"Out of the way" is the best way to describe Fomikha: you either have to use the ferry or you'll have to come fully equipped with an off-road vehicle to get to this settlement four hours east of Moscow. However, rough terrain won't be the only wild ride you'll go on when you arrive here. There’s a new theater in town, and it's ready to show the local village in a new light.

It started in the summer of 2020, when a group of actors, directors, and artists from Moscow arrived and bought a cattle barn, turning it into a small theater hall. Originally, it was only going to be a place for artist residencies, but after they performed Natalia Zaitseva's walking play "Pick Mushrooms," which features a psychedelic adventure into the forest and discusses the relationship between people and the outside world, all of Fomikha became a stage: all of its forests, fields, and rivers.

The company went on to create more plays that incorporate the landscape. On the one hand, it creates a more magical experience and on the other, it means that there is no need to build elaborate indoor sets. “In the play ['Pick Mushrooms'], an ecologist invents mushrooms that eat plastic. If we performed it inside, we would have needed elaborate sets, but when we came out into the forest, we saw a garbage dump covered [with] real mushrooms. It was amazing,” Dmitry Maksimenkov, a member of the company, remarked.

In January 2021, tragedy struck and the original theater was burnt down. Many locals believed that the company would leave town, but instead the company built a yurt, and the performances haven't stopped. 

You Might Also Like

How Leo Tolstoy Shaped the Modern Melodrama
  • November 06, 2020

How Leo Tolstoy Shaped the Modern Melodrama

On the 110th anniversary of Lev Tolstoy's death, we look back at his link to cinema: Tolstoy is more closely linked to the history of the cinema than any other writer of his time.
The Soviet Creative
  • April 05, 2021

The Soviet Creative

In the Soviet period, artists were treated with esteem and lived comfortably, but their privileged position also required sacrifice.
Lessons From the Russian Village
  • October 03, 2021

Lessons From the Russian Village

Life in a remote Siberian village can teach you a lot about adaptability, nature, food, and, most importantly, folklore. 
TikTok Gets Cultured
  • January 01, 2022

TikTok Gets Cultured

TikTok isn’t just for kiddies these days. The video streaming platform offers a range of people, such as those of Russia’s many ethnic groups, the opportunity to educate others about their cultures.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.
Murder and the Muse

Murder and the Muse

KGB Chief Andropov has tapped Matyushkin to solve a brazen jewel heist from Picasso’s wife at the posh Metropole Hotel. But when the case bleeds over into murder, machinations, and international intrigue, not everyone is eager to see where the clues might lead.
Murder at the Dacha

Murder at the Dacha

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin has a problem. Several, actually. Not the least of them is the fact that a powerful Soviet boss has been murdered, and Matyushkin's surly commander has given him an unreasonably short time frame to close the case.
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
The Latchkey Murders

The Latchkey Murders

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...
Moscow and Muscovites

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 
Russian Rules

Russian Rules

From the shores of the White Sea to Moscow and the Northern Caucasus, Russian Rules is a high-speed thriller based on actual events, terrifying possibilities, and some really stupid decisions.
Driving Down Russia's Spine

Driving Down Russia's Spine

The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. 
The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The fables of Ivan Krylov are rich fonts of Russian cultural wisdom and experience – reading and understanding them is vital to grasping the Russian worldview. This new edition of 62 of Krylov’s tales presents them side-by-side in English and Russian. The wonderfully lyrical translations by Lydia Razran Stone are accompanied by original, whimsical color illustrations by Katya Korobkina.
The Little Golden Calf

The Little Golden Calf

Our edition of The Little Golden Calf, one of the greatest Russian satires ever, is the first new translation of this classic novel in nearly fifty years. It is also the first unabridged, uncensored English translation ever, and is 100% true to the original 1931 serial publication in the Russian journal 30 Dnei. Anne O. Fisher’s translation is copiously annotated, and includes an introduction by Alexandra Ilf, the daughter of one of the book’s two co-authors.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955