WE ARE ALL HERE

Dmitry Krymov is a leading theatre director and multiple winner of the Golden Mask Award. The son of no less famous parents, his father being the legendary Soviet theatre director Anatoly Efros and his mother the theatre critic Natalia Krymova. WE ARE ALL HERE is Krymov’s recollections of his parents, his youth and his first intense theatrical experience. The starting point of his journey into the past is the American production of Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” which Krymov saw as a young man during the Moscow tour of the Arena Stage Theatre in 1973. He was so impressed that the next day he brought both his parents to see the performance. When his father died, his friend Georgian director Mikhail Tumanishvili, brought to Moscow his version of “Our Town”, and Krymov watched it with his mother. In WE ARE ALL HERE Krymov tries to reconstruct (not literally and even in the style of a parody) these memorable performances and reconnect with people that were important for him. On the stage we see his parents and grandparents, as well as Efros’ legendary dramaturge performed by Krymov's favorite actress Maria Smolnikova. One of the scenes is a fragment from Krymov's unstaged production of Chekhov's “The Sakhalin Island”. On Sakhalin Chekhov met with the famous exiled con artist Sonka the Golden Hand (also performed by the brilliant clowness Maria Smolnikova). In tune with the key theme of the production the scenography by Maria Tregubova, Krymov's permanent collaborator, resembles the ashes of a fire. As with all Krymov’s productions, WE ARE ALL HERE does not have a clear storyline. It is a set of memories, intricate associations and unexpected twists.  Despite the clowning and grotesque, it is a very personal, confessional "Amarcord" of Dmitry Krymov.