Einstein and Margarita

CHERRY ORCHARD FESTIVAL presents
KSENIA RAPPOPORT & ALEXEI SEREBRYAKOV
IN EINSTEIN AND MARGARITA
Written by Alexander Gelman  |  Directed by Alexander Marin

A play about a great love and the atomic bomb.

Set design: Alexey Serebryakov
Costumes: Svetlana Tegin
Choreography: Maria Serebryakova

In 1935, Princeton University commissioned a sculpture of Albert Einstein. The sculptor, Russian emigré Sergey Konenkov, arrived to Princeton with his wife Margarita, who began a wild affair with the world-famous physicist, lasting until August 1945. After the U.S. has just dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Einstein blames himself for his part in the creation of nuclear weapons, when Margarita informs him that in a week, after many years in America, she and her husband are returning to the Soviet Union for good.

Based on the recently discovered letters written by Albert Einstein to Margarita Konenkova, this play by playwright Alexander Gelman details the last days of the secret lovers’ time together. The audience is invited into Einstein’s Princeton’s residence, an intimate setting where terrible words will be spoken and terrible secrets will be revealed.

Celebrated actors Ksenia Rappoport and Alexei Serebryakov have previously worked on several films, but this is the first time they share a theater stage together.

The show runs 1 hour 45 minute, without intermission

*This play is performed in Russian