Wait for Us in the Morning

The blissful, untroubled calm of the five-year plans of “that era” gives way to bustle: grandpa, grandma, and granddaughter on a river tug pull a load, drive the plan, and drive away тоска-печаль beneath the lively thunder of the accordion. Suddenly, a treacherous mistake by the saboteurs of the geologists throws the Party and the people’s plans into jeopardy. Only a handful of tons of explosives and a Komsomol activist of the type of Korchagin—joined to the tug—can close that gaping opening in the calculation. The little vessel must creep toward a shallow-water target in the dead of night and on hands and knees…

An intimate staging reminiscent of the spirit of the bygone era indulges the enchanting poison of the illusion “all people are one family,” and the inspired performance by Boris Chirkov, Nina Sazonova, Sergey Shakurov, and practically Lyubshin (find at least a couple of differences) — Gennady Krynkin — is capable of eliciting truly childlike delight.