The Irkutsk City Folk Drama Theater is celebrating its 25th anniversary and, as part of the Shine of Russia festival, presented three premieres. The plays Izba, Our Regiment, and Yakov Pokhabov. Pioneers reveal important pages of history and spiritual themes, and draw full houses, confirming Irkutsk residents love for the theater. A special event was the benefit performance of Honored Artist of Russia Vadim Deyneko, dedicated to his 50th birthday.

On October 26, the Irkutsk City Theater of Folk Drama will celebrate its 25th anniversary. And from September 30 to October 6, the festival - the Days of Russian Spirituality and Culture “Radiance of Russia” - was held in Irkutsk, as well as throughout the region, for the 19th time. Together with the ensembles that stood at the origins of this festival, the Irkutsk City Theater of Folk Drama presented a rich cultural program.
This year, the Theater gave the Irkutsk audience a truly rare gift - as many as three premieres of new stage productions. The opening of the festival began on October 1 with the performance “The Izba” based on the prose of our famous fellow countryman Valentin Rasputin. On October 3, the audience was presented with the performance “Our Regiment” based on the play by Mikhail Kornev. The square version of the production was shown on Russia’s Day of Military Glory on the Lower Embankment near the “Moscow Gates” monument. And on October 5, the audience came to see the performance “Yakov Pokhabov. Pioneers” also based on the play by Mikhail Kornev. After the performance, a benefit evening was held for Honored Artist of Russia, the performer of the title role - Vadim Deineko, dedicated to his 50th anniversary.
The Irkutsk City Theater of Folk Drama is greatly loved by the city’s residents. People ordered tickets in advance. The Theater’s small hall could not accommodate everyone who wanted to attend. This once again reminded everyone of the urgent need for a new venue for the Theater.
From the very first minutes, the performance “The Izba” captivated the audience with a serious conversation about the human soul, spirituality, the fate of the Russian people and Russia, about the need to preserve such moral qualities in the people as compassion, purity and chastity, mutual assistance, and the ability to show courage in defending one’s national interests. High school students, more than half the hall, watched with bated breath the characters of the story “A Woman’s Conversation”: the dialogue between an old woman who had been through the war and her granddaughter Victoria, who had fallen in with bad company. The young audience was deeply impressed by how, under the influence of a living example from the life of her grandmother, a front-line veteran, Victoria, instead of a cynical consumerist attitude toward life, began to develop thoughts about purity and the moral essence of our existence.
The performance “Our Regiment,” dedicated to the feat of the Irkutsk Dragoon Regiment in the Patriotic War of 1812, opened up unknown pages of the history of the native city to Irkutsk residents. The bravery and courage of the regiment’s commander, General A.A. Skalon, his officers and soldiers were shown in the performance vividly and convincingly. The Irkutsk Dragoon Regiment fought heroically at Smolensk and Borodino. Most of its personnel perished in the battles for the Motherland. The Theater succeeded in truthfully portraying, above all, the living characters of the Irkutsk dragoons, their unparalleled courage and valor, which astonished the French and Napoleon himself during the war near Smolensk.
The performance “Yakov Pokhabov. Pioneers” became a true celebration of Cossack daring, the breadth and beauty of folk life. The performer of the role of ataman Yakov Pokhabov, Vadim Deineko, endowed his hero with epic strength, Cossack bearing, and state wisdom. The performance tells of the times when the Cossacks built the Irkutsk fort, made peace with the Buryat population led by Prince Yandash, and how, in friendship and good-neighborliness with the Buryats, Russian people began life in the Baikal region on new Russian lands.
Vadim Deineko’s benefit evening, which took place in the second part of the evening, was no less interesting and creatively rich. Representatives of the Department of Culture of the Irkutsk city administration, the Irkutsk Cossacks, the armed forces, the Union of Pensioners, and creative unions came to congratulate the honoree. The Irkutsk City Theater of Folk Drama confirmed that it still sets the highest creative standard in the city. This is a Theater of Russian enlightenment that reveals to our people its glorious past and present and is aimed at the creative future of our Russia.
Based on materials from the press service of the Duma of the city of Irkutsk