Playwright Durnenkov Mikhail

Cassandra Department: A play based on historical materials about scientists and researchers whose ideas were ahead of their time

Taiteellinen työ / siihen pohjautuva työ | Yksivuotinen

Today, the world's problems are changing our society, forcing us to question our identity and even making us anxiously think about the survival of humanity as a species. If we had been able to see and hear the people who were extremely concerned about these issues before we were confronted with their consequences, we would have coped with the global problems much better. But in the past, at best, these scientists were invisible. At worst, they seemed to be mad prophets, persecuted and even destroyed. I am a Russian playwright who moved from Russia to Finland in February 2022 because of the war in Ukraine, and so I keep asking myself what needs to be done today to hear voices ahead of time. I want to find historical prototypes. These are real researchers and scientists who, back in the last century, were concerned about ecology, asked about gender issues and took the first steps in the study of human psychology. Using their biographies and fates, I will place them in the department I invented at a research institute that dealt with the Problems of the Future. This was only possible in the USSR during a short period in history called the Thaw in 60’s. The story of these people, their resistance to time, to power and to the indifferent majority can give us a clue as to how to improve our society today with the tools of democracy. I want to write a play that combines the sparkle of scientific intelligence with clear, living human characters and destinies, and I hope the actuality of its theme will make it in demand not just in Finnish theatre but all over the world.