“Unhappy Happiness” in STEPS Theatre

Steps Theatre’s Slava Stepnov wrote and directed the original play based on Chekhov’s short story The Lady with the Dog. The plot of the story is really simple: a vacation romance, an adulterous love affair.

Steps Theatre chose the famous story because underneath its melodramatic plot it saw peculiar and paradoxical phenomenon of the unhappy happiness. Each of us often leads a double life, and sometimes this turns us into absurd and tragic characters. As Chekhov himself put it, “Everything is wonderful in this world. Everything except for our thoughts and deeds when we forget about the loftier goals of existence…”.

The production of “Unhappy Happiness” represents a daring shift in style, space and time. What do flying cardboard boxes, southern sea beaches, wintry Moscow of the late 19th century, Soviet lyrical songs of the 1950s and 60s, and New York City’s East Village have in common? See the play and find out.

Adapted and directed by Slava Stepnov.
Cast: Roman Freud, Liza Kaymin, Inna Yesilevskaya, Daria Schabad, Moti Margolin, Masha Pruss, Mikhail Pogulyaevsky.
Set: Viktor Pushkin (Moscow, Russia)
Costumes: Maria Vlasova, Olga Lysenko
Sound Design: Аndrey Kuznetsov.

Second Run - Brooklyn, Manhattan and New Jersey.

Tickets $25

This production is in Russian. Спектакль - на русском языке.