Mariinsky II (New Theatre)

Aleko lives on the edge – fleeing from others and from himself. We meet him in a courtyard of a run-down communal block where nothing remains private: every step is observed, every word overheard. Here he arrives with Zemfira – young, defiant, almost as if torn from his turbulent past by fate itself.

Their bond is more than sudden passion; it is rooted in a shared past, never spoken of aloud. Something vital and dangerous has happened before. Now everyone knows: Aleko must not be found. From gossiping grandmothers to the teenagers loitering in the yard, all seem complicit in keeping his secret. Yet shadows thicken. Those he escaped have not forgotten, and the echo of approaching footsteps grows louder…

A summer evening. As dusk falls, the Old Man – Zemfira’s father – recounts his youth, when love for a gypsy woman named Mariula ended in abandonment and loss. She left him, a baby in arms, for another. Aleko explodes in outrage. He cannot fathom why the Old Man failed to exact revenge. Were it him, he would strike down the enemy, even if found sleeping at the cliff’s edge. Zemfira hears this, sees Aleko anew and turns away – he is no longer hers.

Her gaze drifts instead to the carefree Young Man who has recently moved into an upstairs flat. He is laughter and light, everything Aleko is not. One evening, while gathering washing in the courtyard, Zemfira sings – her mocking tune cuts at her jealous lover. She lingers outside, weighed down by the cold stare and suffocating talk at home. Later that night she slips away, past the dimly lit stairwell. Aleko is left alone, his thoughts tearing at him. Jealousy consumes him, not as a feeling but as an act waiting to erupt.

In a hidden corner Zemfira and the Young Man confess their love. Their dialogue is filled with freedom, stubborn and fearless. They will not apologise, nor renounce their happiness. But dawn is near. On their return they are met by Aleko. He does not threaten – he pleads. He recalls abandoning his world for her, choosing this suffocating life among strangers. Yet Zemfira is resolute. Her eyes, like the walls around them, are weary and unyielding.

What will unfold in this yard, where everything is visible yet so much remains unspoken? And above all – will Aleko be discovered by those he fears most? The answer lies in the finale.