The Reading for Those in Despondency (16+)

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Maya Alexandrovna Kucherskaya is a writer and a literary critic, the author of the novels «God of Rain» and «Aunt Motya», the laureate of Bunin’s Prize for «The Reading for Those in Despondency».

This book was published in 2004 and it made a furor, was republished six times and its phrases became proverbs. Indeed we had no such book before. «The Patericon» divided the audience into two camps. The stories of churchmen and their congregations seem acid to someone, others think they are written with a great warmth and love to people.

...One upon a time there lived a priest who could do nothing. He could not repair a temple. He could not start up a book business. He could not fight for a venue for the Sunday school. He had no useful relations, no generous sponsors, no car, no mobile phone, no computer, no e-mail. He served with so quiet a voice, that you could not hear him sometimes. So the priest lived his life, and then he died. He was serviced over in a gloomy November day, and when people wanted to light candles, as it was the custom, the candles were lit by themselves in everybody’s hands, and the temple was filled with an unearthly light. (From the story «A Clumsy One»).

«A real patericon (a collection of stories from the lives of good Christians and wise parables) is a serious documentary genre. The aim of such books is to lead a person to the God». (From the preface to the book).

The author writes with a special warm feeling not only about priests and monks, but also about the simple parishioners. About us. А special feeling?.. Yes, and it feels in the entire book! Was not this feeling that inspired Vyacheslav Dolgachev and his young actors to stage «The Reading» and to tell different interesting stories from the stage, that we don’t observe sometimes: the funny, bitter, joyful and spiritual stories.

«There are so many people living in this world, and all these unknown people from Petersburg, Moscow, Kiev, Tomsk, Milan, Toronto, Boston, they open your book one day. They read, they smile, they grieve, they agree or disagree with you. Even yesterday we didn’t know about each other, but now we get closer. This is a wonder of knowing a person. I am very grateful for all them and still a little bit astonished of this». M. Kucherskaya.

Vyacheslav Dolgachev:

«We didn’t want to moralize, to pretend we knew and understood everything, all the more so that the book is about a hotly discussed theme of the Faith, Religion and Church. „The Reading for those in Despondency“ performance is a reading for us, twelve actors, first of all. May be there are people who will want to join us».

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