Vladikavkaz townspeople note relevance of love play during war in Chechnya

The performance "Two in the Dark", staged by the young director, Alexandra Teinina, in Vladikavkaz, is quite unique, original and unexpected, and correlates with the events now underway in Ukraine, spectators have pointed out.

On March 15, Vladikavkaz welcomed the premiere of the play "Two in the Dark", the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has reported.

The staged version is based on the play of the same name, written in 2000 by Mikhail Bartenev and Alexei Slapovsky. The action takes place in Chechnya during the hostilities. Two young persons – a Chechen guy and a Russian girl – get blocked in the basement. The main heroine had lost her last beloved relative – her grandfather; and the Chechen guy had lost his brother and many more relatives; he is obsessed with the idea of revenge. The heroes don't understand each other's language, and they are poorly explaining by gestures.

But after some time, attraction and compassion appear between the heroes; they understand each other more and more and suddenly they literally start speaking the same language. They talk about religion, each other's differences and chances of living without stereotypes. The performance ends with the song by the "Okean Elzy" Ukrainian rock band entitled "It's not your war", recorded in 2015.

The audience appreciated the performance. "Emotions are overwhelming. The performance is very original, unexpected, unique and to the topic of the day. War and love, all together – this topic is always relevant in peacetime too," an English teacher named Amina told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Atsamaz Kachmazov, a director of the Ossetian theatre, has noted that the "Two in the Dark" is "a good performance in a chamber setting." "The acting is good, as well as the director's work – everything has worked out. At the end, a song in Ukrainian sounds, apparently, this is such a parallel with Ukraine, such a director's finding," he told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on March 16, 2022 at 02:45 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.