The first night of an Valery Fokin's performance “Ksenia. The history of love” by Vadim Levanov will take place tomorrow, February 27, 2009 on the Main Stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater.
Valery Fokin's performance "Ksenia. The History of Love" continues the "St. Petersburg cycle" of theAlexandrinsky Theater's performances based on the literary images, true stories and legends of "the most sophisticated" city in the world.

Valery Fokin comes up with scenic rethinking of St. Petersburg topics in the context of quest for spiritual transformation of a person struggling against the unhappiness of life, fears and sufferings destined to people, and chased by the victorious and aggressive earthliness. According to the author of the performance, one can only build a "city of spirit" through the heroic exploit of the person's inner transformation, through gaining liberty from all the earthly temptations with the help of love and inextirpable desire to pray for the soles of sinful but dear people.

The play of a contemporary dramatist Vadim Levanov looks at the history of a real woman who had lived in St. Petersburg in the middle of the 18th century, at the fate of Ksenia Grigorievna Petrova. This woman, whose husband had unexpectedly died without penance, decided to continue his life journey in the guise of the deceased in order to save his eternal soul. The force of her love and faith which inspired the Holy Ksenia for the exploit of being fool for God's sake, helped her to overcome of the hardships to which this saint woman had voluntarily
condemned herself; she turned into a protectress and austere infirmarian of human souls. A long line of people who had met Ksenia in the course of their life journeys will pass before the spectators. There will be acknowledged and unknown, long ago passed away and living now, striving for enlightenment and ossified in their sins characters. It was the earthly story of the Saint Ksenia that had inspired the theater to create this action in which various historical times of the life of our society get entwined with each other confronted with the necessity to gain spiritual truth and spiritual atonement.

The tough, earthly, deprived of any balm sainthood director’s view on this story, which had already become a part of the St. Petersburg myth, brings the heroine as closely as possible to us and our lives full of contradictions tearing people apart.