Piotr Fomenko - Atelier Piotr Fomenko

For many years, Piotr Fomenko (°1932) was plagued by Soviet censorship. Since the Eighties, he has been teaching at Gitis, Moscow's famous theatre academy. Under his leadership, a permanent company, the Atelier Piotr Formenko, was established in 1993, following their brilliant promotional tour of 1988. Seven years ago, this sorcerer and his apprentices debarked on a collective reading of 'War and Peace', Tolstoy's family chronic, which takes place during Napoleon's war against Russia from 1805 to 1812. Atelier Pjotr Fomenko's performance restricts itself to the beginning of the novel. The main actors reflect upon the tragedy of coming events. The war comes, but Napoleon is still distant. Love and obscure financial matters are all it takes to inflame the relations between two noble families, the Bolkonskys and the Rostovs. Fomenko's brilliant theatrical art, reconciling the novel with the epic and the satire, keeps us in suspense for almost four hours. Under his direction, every meaning of Tolstoy's prose is expressed in an equivalent scene, through bodily expression, intonation and visualisation.