“Planida” (“Russian Character”/“Nerve”/“Francesca da Rimini”)
MuzArts
Maly Theatre
Moscow, Russia
February 16, 2026
by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2026 by Ilona Landgraf
Due to popular demand, MuzArts’ triple bill Planida returned to the Maly Theatre this Monday. I was previously familiar only with the video production. Seeing it live opened new perspectives.
The cast of Pavel Glukhov’s Russian Character was the same; Alexei Putintsev portrayed the tanker, Yegor Dryomov; Elizaveta Kokoreva danced his bride, Katya; Ekaterina Krysanova and Mikhail Lobukhin played Yegor’s parents; and Georgy Gusev and Ivan Sorokin performed the roles of Yegor’s comrades.
Some differences between the video and the live event were immediately noticeable. Yegor’s burning tank seemed to generate a heat so fierce that it radiated into the auditorium. The huge opening in the black backdrop, behind which incandescent light blazed either depicted the tank’s vision slit or gave insight into Yegor’s memories. Often, the fire’s gleam bathed the stage in red. The birds circling above the sea of flames, which I had wrongly believed to be ravens, were birds of prey.
Also different was the staggering force of the music, which was again played live by Moscow’s Youth Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Andrei Kolyasnikov and by accordionist Aidar Gainullin. Its pulse drove the protagonists’ real and inner battles. Gainullin’s spirited Piazzolla-like interludes eased the fraught atmosphere. The singing of the Ippolitov-Ivanov Chamber Choir of the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute deepened the impression of a sacred service (with the family’s table serving as an altar). At times, their vocals pierced the soul.
Fooling around with Yegor’s scarf (the only keepsake he had from Katya), his comrades poked fun, but as Sorokin repeatedly snatched the scarf, Yegor’s melancholy intensified. Thinking back to Katya, he relived the sensuality of their romance.
Yegor’s mother wavered between sadness and anger in the video, but in this live version, Krysanova portrayed her as worn out by grief. She and her son were very close, and his disfigured, burnt face made her innermost being cramp. As a grown man, he was too big to be cradled, but she found other ways to comfort him, and he, in turn, cradled her.
Russian Character was hard to digest. Its grave energy weighed down on me long into the evening.
The network of black neurons in the first scene of Anna Shchekleina’s Nerve prompted many in the audience to take photos, though the set wasn’t as perfect as on screen. The lighting revealed that the dancers already wore the costumes for the following scene (skintight, full-body leotards printed with skeletons and muscles of a human body) and made the tube-like axons connected to their heads shimmer red instead of black. Once the neurons had degenerated, skinless, robot-like individuals felt their way through a black, fathomless space—at least that’s how it appeared in the camera lens’s wide-angle shot.
Seen up close, the impression of surreal, forlorn beings was gone. A man’s solo, by comparison, benefited from the proximity between the stage and the auditorium. He struggled to heal the mental damage as though the existence of humanity was at stake. (One can extrapolate how much effort and discipline would be necessary to protect our neurons—and ultimately our nature—these days.)
A new era was heralded the moment a wave washed Ildar Gainutdinov on stage. He resembled an unblemished, savior-like newborn who was to inspire a new, complete harmony. The group adopted it in a sacred process, though at times it lost the connection to the music.
Elizaveta Kokoreva also danced the title role of Yuri Possokhov’s Francesca da Rimini (it must be mentioned that she—as well as Alexei Putintsev—performed leading and quite demanding roles in the Bolshoi Ballet’s Marco Spada the previous evening). Denis Rodkin portrayed Francesca’s lover, Paolo; Igor Tsvirko gave his debut as Francesca’s husband, Giovanni.
To be clear, Kokoreva and Rodkin were spectacular. Their figures’ irrepressible attraction swept them across the stage like leaves in a storm. Breathtaking lifts dotted their frantic pas de deux. Scarcely had they rested before passion overcame them again.
Tormented by insatiable lust, they found no peace.
Tsvirko’s Giovanni was fine, except that his rage about the adultery didn’t seem berserk enough for murder. The final winner was hell. Its three guardians (Alexei Gainutdinov, Anton Gainutdinov, and Karim Abdullin) oversaw the sinners who, by that time were all flattened by fate.
| Links: | Website of the Maly Theatre | |
| Trailer Planida | ||
| Photos: | 1. | Pavel Sorokin (Yegor’s comrade), Alexei Putintsev (Yegor Dryomov), and Georgy Gusev (Yegor`s comrade); “Russian Character” by Pavel Glukhov, MuzArts 2026 |
| 2. | Alexei Putintsev (Yegor Dryomov), “Russian Character” by Pavel Glukhov, MuzArts 2026 |
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| 3. | Pavel Sorokin (Yegor’s comrade) and Alexei Putintsev (Yegor Dryomov), “Russian Character” by Pavel Glukhov, MuzArts 2026 |
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| 4. | Pavel Sorokin and Georgy Gusev (Yegor`s comrades); “Russian Character” by Pavel Glukhov, MuzArts 2026 |
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| 5. | Alexei Putintsev (Yegor Dryomov) and Ekaterina Krysanova (Maria Polikarpovna), “Russian Character” by Pavel Glukhov, MuzArts 2026 | |
| 6. | Ekaterina Krysanova (Maria Polikarpovna) and Alexei Putintsev (Yegor Dryomov), “Russian Character” by Pavel Glukhov, MuzArts 2026 | |
| 7. | Alexei Putintsev (Yegor Dryomov) and Ekaterina Krysanova (Maria Polikarpovna), “Russian Character” by Pavel Glukhov, MuzArts 2026 | |
| 8. | Alexei Putintsev (Yegor Dryomov) and ensemble, “Russian Character” by Pavel Glukhov, MuzArts 2026 | |
| 9. | Alexei Putintsev (Yegor Dryomov) and ensemble, “Russian Character” by Pavel Glukhov, MuzArts 2026 | |
| 10. | Ensemble, “Nerve” by Anna Shchekleina, MuzArts 2026 |
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| 11. | “Nerve” by Anna Shchekleina, MuzArts 2026 | |
| 12. | “Nerve” by Anna Shchekleina, MuzArts 2026 | |
| 13. | “Nerve” by Anna Shchekleina, MuzArts 2026 | |
| 14. | Ildar Gainutdinov, “Nerve” by Anna Shchekleina, MuzArts 2026 |
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| 15. | Ensemble, “Nerve” by Anna Shchekleina, MuzArts 2026 |
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| 16. | Ildar Gainutdinov and ensemble, “Nerve” by Anna Shchekleina, MuzArts 2026 | |
| 17. | Elizaveta Kokoreva (Francesca), “Francesca da Rimini” by Yuri Possokhov, MuzArts 2026 | |
| 18. | Elizaveta Kokoreva (Francesca) and Denis Rodkin (Paolo), “Francesca da Rimini” by Yuri Possokhov, MuzArts 2026 | |
| 19. | Elizaveta Kokoreva (Francesca) and Denis Rodkin (Paolo), “Francesca da Rimini” by Yuri Possokhov, MuzArts 2026 | |
| 20. | Denis Rodkin (Paolo), “Francesca da Rimini” by Yuri Possokhov, MuzArts 2026 | |
| 21. | Denis Rodkin (Paolo) and Elizaveta Kokoreva (Francesca), “Francesca da Rimini” by Yuri Possokhov, MuzArts 2026 | |
| 22. | Igor Tsvirko (Giovanni), “Francesca da Rimini” by Yuri Possokhov, MuzArts 2026 | |
| 23. | Igor Tsvirko (Giovanni), “Francesca da Rimini” by Yuri Possokhov, MuzArts 2026 | |
| 24. | Igor Tsvirko (Giovanni) and Elizaveta Kokoreva (Francesca), “Francesca da Rimini” by Yuri Possokhov, MuzArts 2026 | |
| 25. | Igor Tsvirko (Giovanni), Denis Rodkin (Paolo), and Elizaveta Kokoreva (Francesca); “Francesca da Rimini” by Yuri Possokhov, MuzArts 2026 | |
| 26. | Alexei Gainutdinov, Anton Gainutdinov, and Karim Abdullin (Guardians of Hell), Igor Tsvirko (Giovanni), Denis Rodkin (Paolo), and Elizaveta Kokoreva (Francesca); “Francesca da Rimini” by Yuri Possokhov, MuzArts 2026 | |
| 27. | Alexei Gainutdinov, Anton Gainutdinov, and Karim Abdullin (Guardians of Hell), Denis Rodkin (Paolo), and Elizaveta Kokoreva (Francesca); “Francesca da Rimini” by Yuri Possokhov, MuzArts 2026 | |
| photos Russian Character and Nerve © MuzArts/Batyr Annadurdiev photos Francesca da Rimini © MuzArts/Irina Abdullaeva |
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| Editing: | Kayla Kauffman |
I.Abdullaeva
