The premiere of a production directed by Andrey Konchalovsky, Married Life. Perestroika, unfolded on the stage of the Moscow City Council Theater on a winter evening in February. A theater press service familiar with the project noted that a staging drawn from Ingmar Bergman’s work had already graced the Moscow Art Theatre, where a version titled Scenes from Marital Life appeared in earlier seasons. The premiere assembled a notable ensemble and drew attention for how contemporary life can mirror the tensions Bergman explored decades ago.
In the company’s latest cast, the prominent Russian artist honored with the title of Honored Artist of the Russian Federation, Yulia Vysotskaya, shared the stage with Alexei Rozin. Rozin is widely recognized for leading roles in the film Dislike by director Andrey Zvyagintsev and for his performances in stage productions such as Konchalovsky’s The Taming of the Shrew. Their collaboration brought a fresh energy to the adaptation, grounding Bergman’s themes in a modern sensibility and local theatrical idiom.
The director’s approach to Bergman’s play situates the drama within a distinctly Russian context while preserving the universal core: the evolving dynamics of a married partnership. The narrative follows a couple as their relationship deepens, strains under pressure, and navigates moments of closeness and distance alike. It charts how love and understanding intersect with mistrust, how familiar routines can fray, and how new encounters can both complicate and illuminate past years. The visual design and the multimedia inserts between scenes emphasize the era of significant social change, using the period of perestroika as a backdrop that intensifies the emotional terrain.
Observers noted that Konchalovsky’s production carries a thread of renewal, inviting audiences to reflect on how public upheavals shape private lives. The staging invites viewers to consider how individuals negotiate intimacy when larger forces—political, economic, and cultural—are in flux. The conversation between era-long memories and present-day sensibilities becomes a central hinge of the performance, inviting a blend of nostalgic sentiment and contemporary receptivity to change.
Earlier reports indicated that Konchalovsky elected to replace Alexander Domogarov in the cast, signaling a strategic shift in the ensemble. The casting choice underscored the director’s intent to reinterpret Bergman’s material through a distinctly current lens, while preserving the emotional truth that makes the play resonate across generations. The resulting performance sits at a crossroads of classic influence and new interpretation, appealing to both longtime theatergoers and a younger audience curious about how timeless themes translate to today’s stagecraft.