In the performance based on Maxim Gorky’s book “Reminiscences of Leo Tolstoy,” staged in the genre of object theatre, Dmitry Volkostrelov shifts the focus from the figure of the Author to things we usually pass by without noticing. What if Tolstoy were remembered by road dust and leaves, ash and poplar fluff? Things that usually remain outside our field of attention, objects we encounter every day without ever considering that they might possess memory — and the ability to articulate it.

If every one of our actions affects them, then perhaps they also have something to tell us. Perhaps we all need to be a little more attentive to what surrounds us.

“I reached out to 23 people who have been and remain important actors in my professional life; many of them I have recently been separated from, and we can no longer work together. But this merging of the voices of people dear to me, speaking on behalf of things and objects that do not seem important, yet actually constitute the very substance of our lives, became the kind of connection that theatre requires in my understanding,” — Dmitry Volkostrelov

Thus, memoirs about a great writer turn into memories of close ones.