Savva Savelyev's play refers to the historical meeting of Marlene Dietrich and Konstantin Paustovsky. The brilliant Ekaterina Varnava and Simon Shteinberg perform a dozen of roles turning into Hollywood stars and villagers, finding themselves in the TV studios, huts and red carpet awards. The show makes you feel the power of life and fate, melancholy and joy, dancing, music, laughter and most importantly – love. "I am Marlene" is a biopic of a legendary woman who did not kneel in front of the evil of the XX century, but did in front of the dying Soviet writer.

Savva Saveliev, Ekaterina Varnava, Simon Steinberg.

A puzzling play that you’d crave to reveal from the very first minutes.

At the end of the Thaw, 63-year-old Hollywood star Marlene Dietrich pays a visit to Moscow and on the stage of the Central House of Writers kneels in front of a Soviet author Konstantin Paustovsky. Savva Saveliev's play and performance sprout of an archived photograph of this moment. It reveals a striking connection between the film legend of the 20th century and the dying old woman from the village of Zaborye, the heroine of Paustovsky's story ‘Telegram’. Two women, two destinies that have so much in common. 

The play ‘I am Marlene’ is as cinematic as the biography of Marlene Dietrich. At the top of her film career Marlene Dietrich refuses to co-operate with Goebbels, gets American citizenship and performs for three years to in front of the soldiers of the anti-fascist coalition. She underwent the loss of her homeland, the horrors of the war and her return to the hometown that did not accept her. ‘I am Marlene’ is a biopic of a legendary woman who did not kneel in front of the evil of the XX century, but did in front of the dying Soviet writer.

The magnificent Ekaterina Varnava and one of a kind Semyon Steinberg play several roles at once in this performance. In a blink of an eye they transform into Hollywood stars and  The show makes you feel the power of life and fate, melancholy and joy, dancing, music, laughter and most importantly – love. "I am Marlene" is a biopic of a legendary woman who did not kneel in front of the evil of the XX century, but did in front of the dying Soviet writer. Why? The answer to this question the audience themselves find in the play.

What you’d feel: 

Saudade (Portuguese) — Melancholic longing, nostalgia, dreamy sadness.

Hết sảy (Vietnamese) — Ultimate delight, beyond the power of words; awesome, magnificent; a superb experience.

Eleutheromania (Greek, ελευθερομανία) — An intense, irrepressible desire for freedom.

Creators of the performance:

A playwright and a director Savva Saveliev, twice nominated for the Golden Mask Award. His play "Take Care of Your Faces" in 2022 became the last premiere of the Gogol Centre, one of the most progressive theatres of Russia. The plays I Am Marlene (2023) and The Leap (2024) were the second and third parts of Saveliev's trilogy about freedom and memory. Saveliev has worked with Kirill Serebrennikov in a number of projects, and as a writer and director with Danila Kozlovsky in the musical FRANK (2024) and Ingeborga Dapkunaite in Sveiki Sulaukę. Each of his works is a manifesto of freedom, a statement about the importance of being oneself. 

Ekaterina Varnava is a TV star, one of the creators and participant of the show "Comedy woman", which turned the concept of female stand-up in Russia upside down. A theater and film actress, she has played in two productions at the Theatre on Malaya Bronnaya ("Bulba.Pir" 2020-2021, "Platonov Bolit" 2021-2022), as well as the lead role in the Crave cabaret theatre production "Absolutely Naked", which thanks to Ekaterina's striking charisma has been sold out for more than a hundred times.

Semyon Shteinberg is one of Gogol Centre's leading actors who played leading roles in Kirill Serebrennikov's productions of Little Tragedies, Kafka and The Executioners. He played flawlessly in the series "Soderzhdenki", in Kirill Serebrennikov's film "Petrovs in Flu", in Andrei Smirnov's film "The Frenchman". In the play "I am Marlene" Semyon Shteinberg confirms his title of an actor with a thousand faces, appearing as Jean Gabin, Konstantin Paustovsky, an American surgeon or a country boy Tisha.