INSOMNIA 3 writers in Moscow 1912-1916

November 20, 2019

Ler Devagar, LX Factory, Lisboa

Marina Tsvetaeva Arnolda Noir

Sergey Efron Jefferson Nogueira

Sofia Parnok Agnès Parlange

Directed by Tania Kumeda

Production Assistants Chiara Crisafulli & Damian Murphy

Video & Photo Helena XXXX, João YYYYY

Drama meets poetry. A staged reading of noctural vignettes about 3 Russian writers who lived, met, loved and wrote in pre-revolutionary Russia.

Switching between two apartments, the audience is led into the lives of three writers: Marina Tsvetaeva, Sergey Efron and Sofia Parnok. Feel the events, meetings and reminiscences that gave rise to one of the greatest poets of the Silver Age.

…

Night settles on the city of Moscow. In some apartments the windows are lit up. In others, the darkness is illuminated not by lamps or candles, but by sleepless eyes…

A narrative inspired by:
* Marina Tsvetaeva’s early poems, her collection “Insomnia” and her collection “Girlfriend” addressed to Sofia Parnok
* Sofia Parnok’s poems
* the prose, letters & autobiography of Sergey Efron

Remembered as one of the greatest poets of Russia’s “Silver Age”, Marina Tsvetaeva, born in 1892, was a passionate experimenter in life and language, disciplined but uncontrollable. Her mother, a concert pianist, was a highly demanding parent, while her father – a professor – was one of the founders of the Moscow Museum of Fine Arts…
Sergey Efron was born in 1893 into a revolutionary family buffeted by suicide and political struggle. A writer, soldier and aspiring actor, he met Marina one summer at a resort on the Black Sea…
In 1885, Sofia Parnok was born into a well-to-do Jewish family from the port city of Taganrog. Raised by a German governess, Sofia was always conscious of being different. A lover of opera who wrote librettos, by 1914 she had acquired a reputation more as a critic and translator than a poet. On 16 October 1914 she met Marina Tsvetaeva at a Moscow literary salon for young women poets…