The Double is a synthetic performance, in which drama, music, vocal, and plastic art are in active interaction. There are radio and TV versions of the novel, as well as a film by B. Bertolucci based on the narrative model of The Double in the contemporary environment. The Double novel by Dostoyevsky cannot be separated from the atmosphere of Saint-Petersburg, the city’s topography, and its typical characters facing their inner tragedies in the metaphorical space of the world’s most malicious city.
The events of The Double take part at the Fontanka quays, by Izmailovsky, Semenovsky and Anichkov bridges, at the Internal Affairs Department located near the place we currently know as Lomonosova square (by the former Chernyshev bridge), in a tavern at Apraksin Lane, in the gallery of Gostiny Dvor, at Nevsky Prospect, and at Shestilavochnaya Street (currently, Mayakovskogo Street). The everyday route of Mr. Golyadkin can coincide with our typical routine routes. There can be a Golyadkin inside of any of us suffering from many reflective complexes, unjustified ambitions, and insults.
Dostoyevsky had his usual seats at Alexandrinsky Theatre where he got inspired by the giants of the famous stage. He visited the Theatre both in young and mature periods of his life. Alexandrinsky Theatre successfully staged Dostoyevsky’s works such as The Gambler, The Idiot, Uncle’s Dream, etc.
For Valery Fokin, The Double is the second episode of the Saint-Petersburg dilogy beginning with The Overcoat by Gogol staged in late 2004 at Sovremennik Theatre in Moscow (Marina Neyolova in the lead role).
The first night took place on the 25th February 2005
Media about the
“The Double marks the end of the trilogy. Fokin dedicated two performances based on Gogol’s (The Inspector General and The Overcoat) and Dostoyevsky’s works to Saint-Petersburg as an irrational space recreating people and testing their humanity as it is”.
Marina Tokareva. The likeness of the other
Moskovskie Novosti, March 2005
“Each actor – be it a young artist or a company’s veteran – plays his or her role with such skill that the old name of Alexandinsky Theatre – The Theatre of Famed Maestros – turns out to be the most exact definition, rather than a cliché”.
Dmitry Tsilikin. A review of The Double performance
Delovoi Peterburg, February 2015