Rimas Tuminas in HD: "War and Peace"

CREW

• Director, Adaptation, and Staging: Rimas Tuminas

• Set Design: Adomas Jacovskis

• Costume Design: Mariya Danilova

• Composer: Giedrius Puskunigis

• Choreographer: Anželika Cholina

• Lighting Design: Alexander Matveev and Damir Ismagilov

• Sound Design: Ruslan Knushevitsky and Matvey Rodionov

PRINCIPAL CAST

• Sergey Makovetsky, Evgeny Knyazev, Kseniya Treyster, Yury Polyak, Denis Samoylov, Irina Kupchenko, and Lyudmila Maksakova.

The monumental final Moscow production by legendary director Rimas Tuminas, War and Peace is an elegant, deeply philosophical theatrical epic that celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Vakhtangov State Academic Theatre. Rejecting grand, literal battle scenes and lavish palace backdrops, this brilliant four and a half-hour dramatization of Leo Tolstoy's masterpiece uncovers the profound core of the human condition through a minimalist yet visually stunning stage design. The narrative treats the family as a microcosm of society, charting the parallel fates, sweeping ambitions, and devastating losses of the open-hearted Rostovs, the uncompromising Bolkonskys, and the arrogant Kuragins against the looming shadow of the Napoleonic Wars. Melding psychological precision with poetic stage movement, Tuminas paints a breathtakingly beautiful and fragile world teetering on the edge of destruction, ultimately offering an unforgettable reflection on love, memory, and the enduring resilience of the human soul.

Presented in Russian with English subtitles

Runtime: 4 hr and 20 min (includes a 10 minute intermission)

"Tuminas is a director who deals in grand gestures, striking stage pictures and a heightened theatricality that manages to be simultaneously epic and intimate, capturing both the sweep of history and the micro-textures of human emotion." - The Financial Times