Eugene Onegin is a novel in verse which took more than seven years to be finished. First published in entirety in 1833, it is considered Pushkin’s major work.
Onegin is a bored St. Petersburg aristocrat, lacking not a single thing, but nonetheless bored and world-weary. Sudden circumstances force him to move to the countryside where he meets sisters Olga and Tatyana Larin, as well as a young poet Lensky. Lensky is passionately in love with Olga and intends to marry her. Tatyana desperately falls in love with Onegin who rejects her. At one point he cracks a cruel joke causing hurt and insult to Lensky who challenges him to fight a duel. Onegin kills Lensky and leaves. Olga soon marries another man, while Tatyana is taken to Moscow to be married. Two years later, Onegin, who has returned from his travels, spots her at a ball. Now he confesses his love to her, but Tatyana rejects him, refusing to break her wedding vows.
The novel grew, matured and aged with the author. Pushkin began to write it at the age of twenty-four, living a frenzied and reckless life. Although he was punitively transferred from the capital, he continued to cherish high hopes and finished the novel at the age of thirty-one ̶ married, serene, not too blissful, indebted, de jure free, de facto in house detention.
Nebojša Pop-Tasić is a versatile theatre author, director, composer and an acclaimed screenwriter. The world premiere of Onegin is directed by Yulia Roschina who won the national Borštnik Award for directing Pop-Tasić's adaptation of Madam Bovary in 2015.
Director Yulia Roschina
Dramaturg Alja Predan
Set and Costume Designer Vasilija Fišer
Composer Branko Rožman
Video and Lighting Designer Jaka Varmuž
Stage Movement Consultants Natalia and Ravil Sultanov
Language Consultant Jože Volk
Cast
Onegin Vojko Belšak
Tatyana Tanja Potočnik
Lensky Aljoša Koltak
Olga Minca Lorenci
Opening 11May 2018
Performance duration: 1 hour and 15 minutes. No interval.
Stage manager Zvezdana Kroflič Štrakl • Prompter Breda Dekleva • Lighting master Denis Kresnik • Sound master Mitja Švener • Property master Manja Vadla • Front-of-house manager Sebastjan Landekar • Hair stylists Marjana Sumrak, Andreja Veselak Pavlič • Wardrobe masters Melita Trojar, Mojca Panič • Head of construction Gregor Prah • Technical managers Miran Pilko, Miha Peperko • General manager Tina Kosi, M.A.
