Leo Tolstoy: War and Peace

Tolstoy’s works are immense tapestries of the world. He rewrote War and Peace, his overwhelming epic, as many as seven times, overflowing massive chests of drawers with drafts and notes. “Each work of art attains its highest point when one forgets about the artificial nature of its genesis and perceives its existence as reality. With Tolstoy this sublime illusion is generally perfect.” (Stefan Zweig)

French-based and internationally renowned Romanian opera and theatre director Silviu Purcărete will adapt the towering novel by Leo Tolstoy for the stage with a cast of Slovenian actors and his longstanding artistic collaborators. Many of Purcărete’s shows emerge from a pervading sense of the apocalypse, the moment when humans abandon all hope of redemption; it is precisely this crucial dimension that his rich theatrical worlds are built on.

War and Peace is the main event of the Tolstoy, a Truth Seeker festival, to be held in 2017 at Cankarjev dom. “Violence, emotions and cruelty take viewers on an inner spiritual journey, recreating in them the feelings of faith, hope, pain and love,” read the review of Purcărete’s thrilling Faust hosted by Maribor, the 2012 European Capital of Culture.