Shakespeare's play, staged in Russian with an all-male cast, by Declan Donnellan, Nick Ormerod and Judith Greenwood of Cheek By Jowl theatre company will be touring various venues in Russia in 2003/4. This is a co-production with Valery Shadrin of the Chekhov Festival and Theatre Confederation of Russia and may lead to an all-male production of The Three Sisters in 2005.

Thanks to the great success and critical acclaim of his three previous British Council supported productions, Declan Donnellan is well-known in Russia. In 2002 he won Best Director in Moscow’s prestigious Golden Mask Awards, becoming the first non-Russian to do so.

This show premiered in Moscow in May 2003 at the Chekhov Festival, and will then be touring nationally and internationally from 2004. The design will be very simple as will the set, props and costumes.

Being staged in Russian, with Russian actors, the play is intended to be memorable and accessible to the Russian public. It also functions as an education imperative raising awareness of Shakespeare in Russia.

More about Cheek by Jowl.