Südalinna Theatre opens season with Ostrovsky’s Without a Dowry

Südalinna Theatre will open its new season on September 18 with the premiere of Aleksandr Ostrovsky’s Without a Dowry, directed by Dan Yershov, ERR reported.

The production will be staged in the theatre’s main hall. Written in 1878, the play centres on Larissa Ogudalova, a young woman without a dowry who longs to decide for herself about her life and love.

In the world around Larissa, almost everything has a price. Money gives some people freedom while taking it from others, love becomes entangled with vanity and self-interest, and a person can gradually become an object of other people’s choices and transactions.

For Yershov, the production marks his debut on Südalinna Theatre’s main stage and his first time directing a work from the Russian classical repertoire. He said that although Ostrovsky’s world was largely concerned with money, the story was ultimately about human dignity.

“The people around Larissa all decide in some way what would be best for her, but very few ask what she wants herself. That is what makes this story deeply personal and contemporary for me, even timeless,” Yershov said.

The production’s set designer is Johannes Valdma, with costumes by Kätlin Haak, choreography by Dongbin Lee and lighting by Anton Andrejuk.

The cast includes Tatjana Jegorushkina, Karin Lamson, Daniil Zandberg, Dmitri Kosjakov, Mikhail Manevich, Ilja Bolotov, Artjom Vesselovski, Igor Rogatshov, Erika Babjak, Tatjana Manevskaja, Marika Otsa and Anastassia Tsubina.

The play will be performed in Russian with simultaneous interpretation into Estonian.