Children of the Sun MITEM 16

Performance by Nikolai Roshchin based on the play by Maxim Gorky. Maxim Gorky created the first version of „Children of the Sun” in the winter of 1905 in the casemates of the Peter and Paul Fortress, where he was imprisoned for a sharp protest in connection with the events of January 9, 1905 - Bloody Sunday. But the very idea of the text arose earlier. "Children of the Sun" were part of the general reflections of the new century, reflections of the intelligentsia about the ideal person, but also about the severing of human ties. It is no coincidence that «Children of the Sun» is often called the «most Chekhov’s» of all Gorky's plays. However, in the stage story of „Children of the Sun”, there is a wide range of interpretations, the play was also seen as acutely social.

The plot of the play is preserved in the performance. Events take place during the 1905 revolution. Scientist Pavel Protasov lives in the world of science, in captivity of lofty ideas about the purpose of the intelligentsia and is most of all busy with chemical experiments, something is constantly burning and exploding in the house. The wife, to whom the hero does not pay attention, is carried away by his friend, the artist. Protasov himself is loved by a rich merchant widow, and her brother, a veterinarian, is in love with Pavel's sister. A rude and uneducated servant lives nearby, a locksmith beating his wife. A cholera epidemic begins and a popular revolt is brewing.