Program 'Gorky with Chekhov: Scenes from Life'

About exhibition

The exhibition introduces two great writers, M. Gorky and A. Chekhov, whose lives were closely connected with the theatre. It is a unique opportunity to learn about the history of their acquaintance and friendship through preserved photographs, letters, and the memories of many of their contemporaries. Gorky's life in the house on Martynovskaya Street in Nizhny Novgorod marks the period of his fame as a dramatist and his continual correspondence with Chekhov, who was a mentor and interlocutor to Gorky. Dissimilar in creative style and completely different in character, the playwrights nevertheless shared traits such as sociability and theatricality. You can watch a play based on the dialogue of the main characters, presented through six years of correspondence and texts where the characters of their plays converse, raising the eternal questions of human life and artistic creation. However, for a play to be seen by an audience, more than descriptions of characters and their conversations are needed: actors, costumes, sets, and many other theatrical components. When a writer creates a play, he envisions the scene in his mind, and costume designers and set designers bring that idea to life. The exhibition features models of two plays by the writers: 'The Lower Depths' and 'Three Sisters'. At the end of the tour, in the workshop 'Behind the Theatrical Screen' you can try yourself as a set decorator and create a fragment of one of the models. Advance booking is required by phone 8 831 436 16 51.