Bunin/Berberova: In Paris / The Waiter And The Slut

December 18 – 29, 2019

Pushkin Hall
165 West 86th Street

Returning for a limited time after a sold-out run, The Russian Arts Theater and Studio presents two gripping love stories by Russian émigré writers: Nobel Prize winner Ivan Bunin and the lesser-known yet captivating Nina Berberova.

Driven to exile following the revolution, former Russian aristocrats now find themselves isolated as new immigrants in Paris. Their new lives are spent battling sickness, searching for afforable apartments and waiting in pawn shops, Ivan Bunin’s In Paris tells the brief and bittersweet encounter of an ex-general of the old imperial army and Olga Alexandrovna, a young woman now working as a waitress in a Russian restaurant. Upon a chance meeting, they momentarily find a sense of home in each other’s arms. In Nina Berberova’s raw and searing The Waiter And The Slut, Tania Shabunina longs to find a wealthy man to take care of her, only to attract a former lieutenant now working as a waiter at an upscale restuarant. Living bitterly among ghosts of her past, Tania soon grows to hate her lover as her dream of “Parisian happiness’ seem farther and farther out of reach.

Performed in English