Nizhny Novgorod celebrates Maxim Gorky's cultural legacy

The All-Russian Festival of Theater opened in Russia's Nizhny Novgorod on October 24. The festival is known in Russia as the Gorkovsky Festival of Theater: it is named after Soviet writer Maxim Gorky.

The festival will work in the city till October 31. The festival opened after a break of 18 years. Theaters from many other cities of the country take part in the festival. As many as 200 actors and actresses from Moscow's Maly Theater and Gogol Theater, the Academic Theater of Drama from Mary El, the Drama Theater of Chuvashia, the Drama Theater of Tambov will present their versions of Maxim Gorky's plays.

"The highlight of the festival is the one-act ballet based on Gorky's fairytales. We are used to having drama performances in the festival, but here we have a ballet," Boris Krainov, the director of the festival said.

The participants of the festival will receive two awards. The Levkoev award will be given to the best actor or actress. The Evstegneev award will be given to best actors and directors.

Moscow's Maly Theater opened the festival with "Children of the Sun" play. The performance stars well-known artists of the theater - Vasily Bochkarev, Eugenia Glushenko, Lyudmila Polyakova. Drama critic Vera Maksimova said this was one of the most complicated plays and one of the best performances in Moscow. The production of the Maly Theater received several theatrical awards, including two Stanislavsky awards.

The repertoire of the festival includes productions of the Moscow Gogol Theater "The Last." The Russian Drama Theater named after Konstantinov will offer its production of "The Lower Depths". The "Nuncha" ballet will be performed by the Theater of Opera and Ballet of Chuvashia.

The Gorkovsky Festival was held in Nizhny Novgorod in 1958, 1968, 1984 and 1993.

Beginning with this year, the events of the festival will be held twice a year. The name of Maxim Gorky is strongly connected with Nizhny Novgorod.  This is the city where he was born and where he grew up. There is the Gorky Museum in the city, the museum of his childhood. The Central Children's Library in the city is named after Gorky. The local drama theater, a street and a square also carry Maxim Gorky's name. Nizhny Novgorod was renamed to Gorky from 1932 to 1990.