In London from 3 to 6 May 2017, Brodsky/Baryshnikov is Mikhail Baryshnikov's nostalgic tribute to his once dear friend, Nobel laureate Joseph Brodsky.
A ninety-minute, no-interval one-man show, a play, a poetry recital and a piece of performance art, it is performed in Russian with English surtitles. Baryshnikov's physicality combines with director Alvis Hermanis’s imagining of Brodsky’s interior world.
Baryshnikov first remembers reading Brodksy’s poetry when he was aged 16, having just arrived in Leningrad from Riga to study ballet. Brodsky and Baryshnikov were introduced at a party in New York, soon after Brodsky’s exile from the Soviet Union in 1972. This marked the start of their 22-year friendship which lasted until Brodsky’s death in 1996. The two men spoke nearly every day and even opened a restaurant together.
Conceived and directed by Alvis Hermanis, a co-production between The New Riga Theatre and Baryshnikov Productions, Brodsky/Baryshnikov in London is supported by Norvik Banka and Blavatnik Family Foundation.