... Watching a snail on the slope...

A magical journey through an unfathomable Forest.

A small group of spectators will leave the city of Perm and travel to the unknown. It is just south of the old quarry, towards the Nizhniye Vyselki. It is an hour trip by bus. As the crow flies is much faster. The audience will witness and participate in ancient rituals. The rules are known. The words are written down. The actions are specified. Yet one doesn't know what is going to happen.

 Anton Adasinsky is a stage director, theatre and film actor, musician, choreographer, member of the AVIA rock band. He performed in Vyacheslav Polunin's Litsedei theatre company, starred in films by Alexander Sokurov, and interpreted the role of Drosselmeyer in the Mariinsky Theatre's The Nutcracker directed by Mikhail Shemyakin. In 1988, Anton Adasinsky founded the physical theatre Derevo (the Tree), in which the principles of Japanese buto dance are mixed with elements of modern dance, pantomime, clowning, and many others. The theatre company stages performances and artistic actions at the most famous venues in the world, in the open air, in circuses, on the streets of cities, releases its own music albums, photo books and films.

Nikita Vasiliev is an actor and director, a graduate of the Nizhny Novgorod Theatre College and Andrey Moguchy's directing course at the Russian State Institute of Performing Arts. As an actor, he interprets the role of Kurnosy (the Pug-nosed) in Andrey Moguchy's production The Mother's Heart (BDT, St Petersburg). As a director, he has been staging performances on the BDT Educational Stage since 2021. In 2024 he directed episodes of the The Old Woman's Route project in Saint Petersburg based on Daniil Kharms's creative work, and in 2025 he worked as the main director of the project. In 2025, he staged the play The Quarter Hidden in the Foliage at the Specific Festival in Nizhny Novgorod. From 2025 to 2026, he directed episodes in the Kharms Christmas Tree project (St. Petersburg, Museum of Theatrical and Musical Art).

The production staged by Nikita Vasiliev, a graduate of the Workshop of Andrey Moguchy, is a phantasmagoria based on Thomas Mann's short stories Mario and the Magician, The Clown, and Louisa. The audience finds themselves in a grotesque magical session by the Yugoslav hypnotist Branko Dušić, a cynic and a wit. He manipulates the audience's attention and his small troupe, which puts up a performance to tell the story of an unequal marriage and an unfulfilled hope.

Is it an accident or a pattern? Who is the victim and who is the aggressor? Reality turns out to be more complicated than moral constructs.

The stage director comments on the idea of the production, which balances genres between stand-up and thriller, 'In Thomas Mann's novels, I was most intrigued by the theme of will as such: lack of will or, conversely, its excess. In the directing profession, I have to manipulate other people to achieve the desired result, and I wonder if I have that right to do so. It seems that every person lives in two guises all the time – the abuser and the victim, and it depends on the circumstances what role exactly he plays.'

... Watching a snail on the slope...

A magical journey through an unfathomable Forest.

A small group of spectators will leave the city of Perm and travel to the unknown. It is just south of the old quarry, towards the Nizhniye Vyselki. It is an hour trip by bus. As the crow flies is much faster. The audience will witness and participate in ancient rituals. The rules are known. The words are written down. The actions are specified. Yet one doesn't know what is going to happen.

 Anton Adasinsky is a stage director, theatre and film actor, musician, choreographer, member of the AVIA rock band. He performed in Vyacheslav Polunin's Litsedei theatre company, starred in films by Alexander Sokurov, and interpreted the role of Drosselmeyer in the Mariinsky Theatre's The Nutcracker directed by Mikhail Shemyakin. In 1988, Anton Adasinsky founded the physical theatre Derevo (the Tree), in which the principles of Japanese buto dance are mixed with elements of modern dance, pantomime, clowning, and many others. The theatre company stages performances and artistic actions at the most famous venues in the world, in the open air, in circuses, on the streets of cities, releases its own music albums, photo books and films.

Nikita Vasiliev is an actor and director, a graduate of the Nizhny Novgorod Theatre College and Andrey Moguchy's directing course at the Russian State Institute of Performing Arts. As an actor, he interprets the role of Kurnosy (the Pug-nosed) in Andrey Moguchy's production The Mother's Heart (BDT, St Petersburg). As a director, he has been staging performances on the BDT Educational Stage since 2021. In 2024 he directed episodes of the The Old Woman's Route project in Saint Petersburg based on Daniil Kharms's creative work, and in 2025 he worked as the main director of the project. In 2025, he staged the play The Quarter Hidden in the Foliage at the Specific Festival in Nizhny Novgorod. From 2025 to 2026, he directed episodes in the Kharms Christmas Tree project (St. Petersburg, Museum of Theatrical and Musical Art).

The production staged by Nikita Vasiliev, a graduate of the Workshop of Andrey Moguchy, is a phantasmagoria based on Thomas Mann's short stories Mario and the Magician, The Clown, and Louisa. The audience finds themselves in a grotesque magical session by the Yugoslav hypnotist Branko Dušić, a cynic and a wit. He manipulates the audience's attention and his small troupe, which puts up a performance to tell the story of an unequal marriage and an unfulfilled hope.

Is it an accident or a pattern? Who is the victim and who is the aggressor? Reality turns out to be more complicated than moral constructs.

The stage director comments on the idea of the production, which balances genres between stand-up and thriller, 'In Thomas Mann's novels, I was most intrigued by the theme of will as such: lack of will or, conversely, its excess. In the directing profession, I have to manipulate other people to achieve the desired result, and I wonder if I have that right to do so. It seems that every person lives in two guises all the time – the abuser and the victim, and it depends on the circumstances what role exactly he plays.'

... Watching a snail on the slope...

A magical journey through an unfathomable Forest.

A small group of spectators will leave the city of Perm and travel to the unknown. It is just south of the old quarry, towards the Nizhniye Vyselki. It is an hour trip by bus. As the crow flies is much faster. The audience will witness and participate in ancient rituals. The rules are known. The words are written down. The actions are specified. Yet one doesn't know what is going to happen.

 Anton Adasinsky is a stage director, theatre and film actor, musician, choreographer, member of the AVIA rock band. He performed in Vyacheslav Polunin's Litsedei theatre company, starred in films by Alexander Sokurov, and interpreted the role of Drosselmeyer in the Mariinsky Theatre's The Nutcracker directed by Mikhail Shemyakin. In 1988, Anton Adasinsky founded the physical theatre Derevo (the Tree), in which the principles of Japanese buto dance are mixed with elements of modern dance, pantomime, clowning, and many others. The theatre company stages performances and artistic actions at the most famous venues in the world, in the open air, in circuses, on the streets of cities, releases its own music albums, photo books and films.

Nikita Vasiliev is an actor and director, a graduate of the Nizhny Novgorod Theatre College and Andrey Moguchy's directing course at the Russian State Institute of Performing Arts. As an actor, he interprets the role of Kurnosy (the Pug-nosed) in Andrey Moguchy's production The Mother's Heart (BDT, St Petersburg). As a director, he has been staging performances on the BDT Educational Stage since 2021. In 2024 he directed episodes of the The Old Woman's Route project in Saint Petersburg based on Daniil Kharms's creative work, and in 2025 he worked as the main director of the project. In 2025, he staged the play The Quarter Hidden in the Foliage at the Specific Festival in Nizhny Novgorod. From 2025 to 2026, he directed episodes in the Kharms Christmas Tree project (St. Petersburg, Museum of Theatrical and Musical Art).