The Maids of Sunset Boulevard

An aging film star rehearses the monologue of Salome and tells a young playwright the plot of a film she wants to perform in. The narcissism in the performance of the great actress is funny, theatrical and tragic. Her memories of a long-gone film world, one that was mute and black and white, are full of nostalgia. Her experiences are bound up in the sensations of losing touch with reality. The relatives around her envy her glory, but admire her, too, as a person who rose to the summit of glory overnight, and now is experiencing a sunset.

Vladimir Korenev, a Soviet film star, theatre actor and teacher, makes his directing debut on the Electrotheatre's Small stage, composing a story about theatre as a constant element of human life, about love transforming into envy and hatred, about the attempts of an ex-celebrity to stay afloat. The set was designed by Anastasia Nefyodova, the chief designer of the Stanislavsky Electrotheatre, who created a spectacular visual image of recycling materials. Composer Alexander Belousov and choreographer Andrei Kuznetsov-Vecheslov, with performers Lyudmila Lushina, Irina Koreneva, Darya Kolpikova, Mikhail Sokolov and Vladimir Dolmatovsky, bring to life a tale that one would expect to fit the cinema or literature best.