Life of an Artist

The play is written based on the unfinished novel by F. M. Dostoevsky “Netočka Nezvanova.” The setting is “here and not here.” Time is “past present.” Soon Netočka in the Semenovsky play will turn forty, and she is noticeably battered by life. From the space the author calls “not here,” her stepfather comes—a violinist Efimov—and the long-dead mother as well. Efimov plays Strauss’s waltz “The Life of an Artist,” and before us flash scenes from his life.

The dramatist takes from the classic only the starting situation: a small girl with her mother and a stepfather-violinist in Petersburg, in poverty. And while Dostoevsky is interested in the child’s fate, Semenovsky focuses on Netočka’s stepfather. The story of the talented violinist Efimov becomes for him a reason to explore the theme in detail: is one talent enough in an Artist’s life? Does character matter for striving toward a high goal? And what is the phenomenon of human giftedness?