Dancer and Sex In The City star Mikhail Baryshnikov will be performing in the UK premiere of Brodsky/Baryshnikov at London’s West End Apollo Theatre for a limited run this May.
Found somewhere between a play, a poetry recital and a piece of performance art, Brodsky/Baryshnikov is Baryshnikov’s nostalgic tribute to his once dear friend, Nobel laureate Joseph Brodsky. The production is an emotional journey deep into the poet’s visceral and complex compositions. For the UK premiere, the show comes to the West End’s Apollo Theatre for a limited run of four nights only.
Brodsky/Baryshnikov is conceived and directed by Alvis Hermanis, noted Latvian director of The New Riga Theatre. Performed in Russian with English surtitles, Baryshnikov recites a selection of his long-time friend’s poignant and eloquent works. His subtle physicality transports the audience into Hermanis’ reverent imagining of Brodsky’s interior world.
Baryshnikov first remembers reading Brodksy’s poetry when he was aged 16, having just arrived in Leningrad to study ballet. Brodsky and Baryshnikov were introduced at a party in New York, soon after Brodsky’s forcible 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. Found somewhere between a play, a poetry recital and a piece of performance art, Brodsky/Baryshnikov is Baryshnikov’s nostalgic tribute to his once dear friend.
The production will run at the Apollo Theatre from Wednesday 3 to Saturday 6 May 2017, playing at 7.30pm each evening.