8/4/2019 Programme Outer

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GOGOL’S WORLD

MARRIAGEwas rst performed in St.Petersburg in 1842. The city was founded in 1703

by Peter the Great as an outpost of the Russian empire on the Baltic Sea, and was seen

as a symbol of Russia’s majesty and modernity. But by 1829, when Ukrainian-born Gogol

came to live there, it was a place of foreignness, articiality and impersonality.

“In general”, he wrote to his mother “every city is characterised by its people... but 

Petersburg has no character: the foreigners who have settled here... are not like foreigners at 

all, and the Russians for their part have turned foreign and have become neither one thing

nor the other. The silence of the city is extraordinary, there is no ash of spirit in the people,

they’re all oce workers or ocials... everything is crushed, everything is mired in idle, trivial 

 pursuits.” 

St.Petersburg, this “new town”, is the setting for Marriage as well the stories Diary of a

Madman, The Overcoat, Nevsky Prospekt  and The Nose. The characters in Marriage are

“little men”: lower-grade civil servants, obscure military ocers, fearful of society,

isolated, devoid of spiritual life, obsessed with the pursuit of sex and rank. The civil

service – with its 14 grades prescribed by the government – dominated the world of 

work. People were obsessed with the quest for promotion, or for marrying up.

Our production is in a version by Mike Alfreds from a literal translation by Boris Isarov

produced by Shared Experience in 1984. We are grateful for permission to use this text.

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank everyone involved for their dedication, generosity and commitment to

enable this project to happen. Special thanks go to The Actors Centre, Living PicturesProductions, Mike Alfreds and the front of house volunteers.

Our Company

 This production of MARRIAGE is the first of our new ensemble – we will be naming and

launching the company properly this autumn. It will be a strong ensemble of actors and

theatre artists producing classic, new plays and devised work. 

We are taking a risk in these troubled times because we love theatre and refuse to

accept theatre’s devaluation in an era of cynicism, domination of market values, despairand anxiety. London is full of talented artists with a lot to say. We want to be heard and

seen, to provoke and entertain.

 So help us! If you enjoyed the show, stay in touch. Please email any comments about the

show to <gogolproject@gmail.com>. We will forward you details of the new company assoon as it is up and running and will invite you to our future productions!

Penny Cliff and Sejul Malde

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ProgrammeOuter.pdf 1 02/09/2011 11:37