Theater in NYC: Pushkin “Eugene Onegin” In Our Own Words by Krymov Lab
Limited encore engagement on January 10 – 28, 2024 at BRIC House in Brooklyn, NY
Krymov Lab NYC is pleased to announce a limited encore presentation of the celebrated interpretation of Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin, from Russian director Dmitry Krymov, “one of the world’s finest theater-makers” (The New York Times), currently residing and creating in exile in New York. Since founding his NYC-based studio in 2022, Krymov’s company has already won significant acclaim from The New York Times, The New Yorker and New York Magazine, selling out a much in-demand 2023 run of his adaptation of Eugene Onegin at La MaMa Theater. Now, Pushkin ‘EUGENE ONEGIN’ In Our Own Words returns from Wednesday, January 10 and continuing through Sunday, January 28 for a limited encore engagement presented in partnership with Under the Radar; Mark Russell, Festival Director & ArKtype, Festival Producer at BRIC (57 Rockwell Pl, Brooklyn, NY 11217). Tickets start at $52 and are available at https://www.universe.com/
Pushkin ‘EUGENE ONEGIN’ In Our Own Words is a simultaneously raucous and sobering journey through the past and future of a major cultural touchstone. In Krymov Lab NYC’s production, four immigrant Russians desperately try to communicate the value of an untranslatable classic to a New York audience. Why should we be made to care about the trials of a shallow Byronic hero, a too-deep teenage girl, and a less-than-successful birthday party? In the face of wartime atrocity, is there still a place in today’s world for Dostoevsky, for Tchaikovsky, for Pushkin? Can beauty and intellect survive such horrors? And should it?
Reimagined in 2024 as a new, citywide annual festival of theater and performance emerging from New York and around the world, this iteration of Under the Radaris curated in collaboration with an array of New York arts organizations and curators, rather than being tied to a single host institution. Each harnesses the community-building, connective, celebratory nature of the festival format to introduce some of today’s most innovative voices to wider audiences. The festival sets an example of how collaboration can get the American theater through this moment of existential crisis: reinvigorated and ready to create a theater that can embrace diversity, risk, and reinvention.
The production stars Natalie Battistone (ART’s world premiere of O.P.C. by V (formerly Eve Ensler)), Kwesiu Jones (MTA Radio Plays (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater)), Jeremy Radin (TV: It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, CSI, Criminal Minds), Jackson Scott (Spanish punk band Mano de Dios), Elizabeth Stahlmann (Tectonic Theater Project’s world premiere of Here There Are Blueberries at La Jolla Playhouse, directed by Moisés Kaufman), and Anya Zicer(Bad Roads by Natalka Vorozhbyt at LaMaMa Experimental Theatre).
Pushkin ‘EUGENE ONEGIN’ In Our Own Words plays on the follow days from January 10 through Sunday, January 28:
Tuesdays @ 7:30 pm
Wednesdays @ 7:30 pm
Thursdays @ 7:30 pm
Fridays @ 7:30 pm
Saturdays @ 2 pm and 7:30 pm
Sundays @ 3 pm and an additional performance on 1/21 at 7:30 pm
Running Time: 90 minutes
Dates: January 10 – 28, 2024
Venue: BRIC, 57 Rockwell Pl, Brooklyn, NY 11217
DMITRY KRYMOV (Playwright/Director), known for his innovative, design-centric style, sometimes called “theatre of the artist,” theatre director, scenographer, and visual artist Dmitry Krymov is one of the most original directorial voices of his generation. He is internationally beloved for his visually stunning, richly layered reinventions of classics, where he and his company combine fine art, prose, poetry, music, and popular culture in a mercurial tapestry of original, inventive, and surprising moments. In his productions, the design goes on a journey alongside the characters; often, the actors transform their environment, using props and scenery to construct new worlds right before the audience’s eyes. He has been hailed as “one of the world’s finest theatermakers” (New York Times), and has won many awards for his work including five Golden Mask awards (Russian National Theater Award), four Crystal Turandot awards (first post-Soviet Theater Award) and a Herald Angel Award (Edinburgh International Festival).
Krymov was born in Moscow in 1954 to theatrical luminaries Anatoly Efros and Natalya Krymova. Trained in stage design from a young age, he graduated from the Moscow Art Theatre School’s scenography department in 1976. Over the next two decades, he designed over a hundred productions throughout Russia and abroad. In addition to regularly collaborating with his father, a legendary director, he worked with directors like V. Portnov, A. Tovstonogov, V. Sarkisov, M. Kiselov, Y. Arye, A. Shapiro, M. Rozovsky, and S. Arzibashev, and at institutions including the Malaya Bronnaya Theatre, the Taganka Theatre, the Moscow Art Theatre, the Central Children’s Theatre, the Stanislavsky Theatre, the Gogol Theatre, the Ermolova Theatre, the Mossoviet Theatre, and the Mayakovsky Theatre.
In the 1990s, Krymov left the theatre to focus on his fine arts practice, including painting, drawing, and installation. He took part in many group and solo exhibitions, both in Russia and abroad, and his paintings are included in the collections of The State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow), The State Russian Museum and The State Theatre Museum (Saint-Petersburg), The Victoria and Albert Museum (London), The Vatican Museum; and in many private collections all over the world.
In 2002, Krymov began teaching stage design at the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts (GITIS). His experiments with performance led to a new career as a director, and he launched the Dmitry Krymov Laboratory in 2004. Headquartered in Moscow, the Lab created over 20 productions including Demon. View from Above. (2006); Opus 7 (2008); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (As You Like It) (2012); and O-Y. Late Love (2014). The Lab was commissioned by institutions including the International Chekhov Theatre Festival and the Edinburgh Festival, presented work at prestigious festivals in Austria, Great Britain, Germany, Georgia, and Poland, and toured internationally to countries including Brazil, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Finland, and Estonia. Many of Krymov’s students became highly acclaimed artists in their own right, and continued to work alongside him in the Lab and beyond. In 2016, Krymov was invited to teach a master class at the Yale School of Drama (now the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University), and worked with the graduate students there to create his first English-language production, The Square Root of Three Sisters. As Krymov became one of Russia’s most renowned and award-winning contemporary theatre directors, his work grew in scale; some of his most-loved later Russian works include Mozart. Don Juan. Dress Rehearsal (2021); We Are All Here (2021); and Kostik (2022).
In early 2022, Krymov traveled to Philadelphia to create a new production of The Cherry Orchard with the Wilma Theatre. When the Russian government invaded Ukraine, he publicly stated his opposition to the war, knowing it meant exile, and he and his wife Inna took up residence in New York City. In the fall of 2022, he launched his new company, Krymov Lab NYC, with an Emergency Residency at La MaMa and two sold-out workshop productions: Onegin (In Our Own Words)and The Americans: 2 Hems & 1/8th O’Neill.
Krymov Lab NYC produces design-forward theatrical presentations; develops new work and methods through rigorous improvisatory experimentation; and trains designers, directors, and actors in devised theater-making. The Lab breaks normative theater power structures, emboldening young and seasoned artists alike to create ambitious objects, characters, and moments. We aim to surprise, examine our lives, and respond to the question “What kind of art can exist in this time?”
BRIC Arts Media has shaped Brooklyn’s cultural and media landscape for forty-five years by presenting and incubating artists, creators, students, and media makers. As a creative catalyst for our community, we ignite learning in people of all ages and centralize diverse voices that take risks and drive culture forward. BRIC builds Brooklyn’s creative future. Our main venue, BRIC House, offers a public media center, a major contemporary art exhibition space, two performance spaces, a glass-walled TV studio, and artist work spaces.
Some of BRIC’s most acclaimed programs include the BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival in Prospect Park, a renowned contemporary art exhibition series, and two distinct media initiatives: Brooklyn Free Speech, Brooklyn’s Public Access initiative, and BRIC TV, a nonprofit community TV channel and digital network. BRIC also offers education and other vital programs at BRIC House and throughout Brooklyn. In addition to making cultural programming genuinely accessible, BRIC is dedicated to providing substantial support to artists and media makers in their efforts to develop work and reach new audiences.
UNDER THE RADAR (RADAR) is a festival celebrating new theater and performance works from both around the world and down the street. Taking place in New York City from January 5 – 21, 2024. Produced and programmed by thirteen different venues in collaboration with RADAR. Under the Radar 2024 addresses a city, a country, and the world with the voices of innovative multidisciplinary artists speaking to their time. The festival stands for transparency, equity, and equal collaboration in the development of new live works. It represents global citizenship, innovation, and a platform for those whose voices have yet to be heard.