Yelena Skulskaya’s poetry programme A Lost Streetcar

Yelena Skulskaya (1950) is an Estonian writer, poet and essayist, whose inventive documentary novel Мраморный лебедь (2014) was shortlisted for the Russian Booker Prize and won the Estonian Cultural Endowment’s Russian author literary prize. Skulskaya has also created poetry and theatre programmes for our festival and this year is no exception.

The programme Заблудившийся трамвай (A Lost Streetcar, directed by Maria Shorstova and choreographed by Olga Privis) is compiled from the works of Alexander Blok, Nikolay Gumilyov, Anna Akhmatova, Marina Tsvetaeva, Osip Mandelstam and Boris Pasternak. This way, it is also an homage to these poets, who had to bear truly horrendous social conditions but nevertheless managed to create breathtaking poetry. Their tragic fate pales in comparison to and is amplified by their work. You can enjoy the poetry programme at the Russian Theatre on Friday 26 May at 5 pm and 7 pm. Both performances feature the students of the Russian Theatre Studio.