Mikhail Baryshnikov Stars in Lincoln Center's IN PARIS, Now thru 8/5

The multi-faceted Mikhail Baryshnikov, who famously left the Soviet Union in 1974, returns to the theater to perform for the first time in his mother tongue in the Dmitry Krymov Laboratory's production of a haunting new play, In Paris, as part of the Lincoln Centre Festival this Summer.

Taken from a short story by Ivan Bunin, the first Russian to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1933, it was adapted and directed by the prolific visionary Russian director Dmitry Krymov. Krymov is a director, painter, set designer, and graphic artist who creates staged works he calls "painters theater," that have a dominant visual language.

Baryshnikov plays Nikolai Platonitch, a former general of the White Russian army who meets a beautiful younger Russian émigré, played by Anna Sinyakina, a waitress in a Paris restaurant. They fall in love, but time is their enemy. Rounding out the ensemble are actors from Russia and Finland who are members of the Dmitry Krymov Laboratory, which was founded in 2005 in Moscow.

Krymov's production is designed in black and white and combines music, poetry, pantomime, video projections and giant photographs to create a dynamic setting for this haunting piece of poetic theater, which so evocatively portrays the sense of exile in Bunin's story.

One of the greatest dancers of the 20th century, Mikhail Baryshnikov's theater roles have included Gregor Samsa in Steven Berkoff's adaptation of Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis on Broadway in 1989; Rezo Gabriadze's The Doctor and the Patient for Lincoln Center Festival 2004; and Beckett Shorts, a collection off four short plays by Samuel Beckett directed by JoAnne Akalaitis in 2007.

In Paris will be performed in French and Russian with English supertitles.

A production of Baryshnikov Arts Center & Dmitry Krymov Laboratory, in association with the A.G. Foundation and the Korjaamo Theater. This presentation is made possible in part by generous support from, Jennie and Richard DeScherer and the members of the Producers Circle.

Six performances in the Gerald Lynch Theater at John Jay College: August 1, 2, 3 at 7:30 PM; August 4 at 2 and 7:30 PM; and August 5 at 2 PM.

For more information, visit: http://www.krymov.org/lab/

Photo Credit: Maria Baranova.