A fragment of Boris Pasternak’s poem ‘Hamlet’ is used in the performance.
Fragments of the following music are used in the performance:
J. Haydn (An Anthem of Austria-Hungary), R. Wagner (Introduction to an opera ‘Lohengrin’), Dmitri Shostakovich (Allegrettofrom Symphony #8), S. Chernetsky (Kadets’ welcome march)
Fragments of the following songs are used in the performance:
‘You nightingales let the soldiers rest in peace’ (V. Solovyov-Sedoi, A. Fatjanov), ‘So went the squad along the shore’ (M. Blanter, M. Golodny), ‘Katyusha’ (M. Blanter, M. Isakovsky), Ukrainian folk song ‘Unharness your horses, comrades’, ‘Tanti Auguri’ (Raffaella Carra).

Videos of cruelty and violence are shown in the performance

‘Schweik. The Comeback’is a new production by Alexandrinsky Theatre's Artistic Director Valery Fokin, based on a play by Tatiana Rakhmanova. The play, in turn, is inspired by Jaroslav Hasek’s world-popular satirical novel ‘The fateful adventures of the good soldier Schweik during the World War’.

Written in early twenties, the novel introduced Schweik– a little man trying to outlast the turbulence of global war – to the world, a character who has eventually become one of the most popular ‘commonman heroes’. Valery Fokin’s performance attempts to reconsider a story from bygone age trough a prism of a question ‘Who is Schweik of the twenty-first century?’. An answer is: an unwilling warfare contemporary, fighting in a war of everybody with everyone, still trying to survive and stay sane among surrounding absurd. Nowadays this grotesque and naive simpleton becomes a true hero of our time.

Albeit funny, ‘Schweik. The Comeback" is a story that points out basic issues for all of us: war and peace, state andcitizen, personal responsibilityfor what is happening on the globe.

Events programme to the premiere of ‘Schweik. The Comeback’

January 23: A lecture by Dmitry Bykov ‘Schweik and his metamorphosis. The ultimate hero of Austria-Hungary’;

January 24: a Discussion with linguist Maksim Krongauz and dramatist Yuri Klavdiev on the usage of profanity in culture;

January 25: an exhibition ‘Josef Lada’s Schweik’ opens at the New Stage lobby, presenting famous illustrations to Jaroslav Hasek’s novel ‘The fateful adventures of the good soldier Schweik during the World War’;

January 27: a Talk ‘Why is Schweik back?’ with dramatist Tatiana Rakhmanova, the author of ‘Schweik. The Comeback’.

Performance premiered January 26, 2018