من يعرف بحق الجحيم في مسرح QE2

DMITRY NAZAROV & OLGA VASILYEVA: APOCALYPSE FOR TWO

They met amid the ruins. Quite literally.   People's Artist of Russia Dmitry Nazarov (Kitchen, The Challenge, Penal Battalion) and Honored Artist of Russia Olga Vasilyeva (Tobol, Barkhanov and His Bodyguards, Glukhar) — a legendary duo whose names are inseparable from the history of the Chekhov Moscow Art Theatre — present a tragic farce that critics have already hailed as the defining theatrical event of the Russian abroad. Their new work, Who the Hell Knows!, is more than a play. It is a bold, ironic, and achingly sincere attempt to reboot the universe.  

Babylon has fallen. Humanity has been wiped from the face of the earth. Only two remain: HIM and HER. Modern-day Adam and Eve, thrown together by catastrophe, who can barely stand the sight of each other. But biting into the apple of knowledge — now one apple for two — is no simple matter under these new circumstances. Save a world that is already beyond saving? There is only one way: against all odds, to learn to love.  

This version of Alexey Arbuzov's An Old-Fashioned Comedy, which the masters once dreamed of performing within their native walls, has found a second life far from home. Fate, emigration, and the creative will of director Georgy Mnatsakanov have transformed an intimate chamber piece into a parable of cosmic scale. The premiere triumphed at Paris's Théâtre Le Ranelagh in the spring of 2024, after which the production toured Europe and dozens of cities across the United States and Canada.  

Who the Hell Knows! is a rare case where phantasmagoria becomes utterly recognizable. Beneath the futuristic costumes of Taras Glushakov, the eccentricity, and the virtuoso choreographic visions of Misha Kostin, there are two people. Two solitudes. Two pains. Two masks, beneath which beats a living heart. This is a play on a seesaw: one moment you are laughing until you cry; the next, you realize those tears are no longer from laughter.  

This is not the classic Arbuzov story of a holiday romance. This is a text that peels open an existential abyss — yet leaves the audience a lifeline: the belief that even the last two people on Earth still have a chance. A chance for forgiveness, tenderness, and a conversation with God.  

On stage — Dmitry Nazarov and Olga Vasilyeva, whose inner fire makes the very air in the hall vibrate. Direction and music: Gosha Mnatsakanov. Set design: Taras Glushakov. Choreography: Misha Kostin. Lighting design: Yura Galkin.    

Don't ask what this play is about. It is about us. About the world we build on ashes — and about the people we choose, even when the choice seems to have been made for us.