Гроза

The play «The Thunderstorm», staged by the young director Rachi Makhataev (St Petersburg) and stage designer Ilshat Vildanov (St Petersburg), is a black-and-white world of a certain town N, where cruel morals and sanctimony are hidden behind a high fence under the guise of piety.

The plot of the play is an episode in the life of the Kabanov family, namely the meeting and subsequent betrayal of his wife with Boris, who has come to town for a short time. This event becomes fatal not only for Katerina herself, but also for the whole family.

Katerina, who grew up in a family where she was loved from childhood, suffers in the home of her willless husband and becomes a victim of her mother-in-law's cruelty and autocratic behaviour. Katerina is married off early and complains of her desperate situation in the house. Out of hopelessness, Katerina is unable to resist her awakened love for Boris and secretly meets him. In a frenzy, Katerina confesses her sin to both her husband and her mother-in-law. Boris has come to Wild's house to receive part of the inheritance and does not want to ruin his youth in this backwater. She asks Boris to take her with him, but realises that Boris's refusal is really due to the sheer impossibility of leaving with her. She blesses him on his journey, but unable to bear her oppression and terrible longing, Katerina throws herself from the shore into the river.

Katerina's suicide is a protest, a cry, a plea for Mercy, Love for her neighbour and Forgiveness.

It is up to the audience to judge the relevance of Ostrovsky's classic drama for our era.