THE PAST IS STILL AHEAD Returns To NYC 11/27 At The Millennium Theatre

"The Past is Still Ahead," a five-character play about Marina Tsvetaeva, Soviet Russia's most famous poet, debuted in the Cherry Lane Theater, Manhattan in December 2007. It's returning to New York November 27 for one performance (in Russian this time) at The Millennium Theatre, 10-29 Brigton Beach Ave, Brooklyn.

The play was written in English by the Russian-born NY playwright Sophia Romma and was based on a monologue by Israeli playwright Oded Be' eri. The piece has been touring in Russia and England. It stars YeLena Romanova, a well-known Russian actress of theater and film, as the famed poet.

Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva (1892-1941), a great Russian poet of the twentieth century, was also one of Stalin's most prominent victims. Her life reads like a profound, tragic reflection of Russian suffering during the first half of the twentieth century, and her popularity is perhaps greater today than ever before. She was inspired by contemporaries like Akhmatova and Rilke, studied the philosophy of Swedenborg, and blended classical and modern poetry in a unique manner. Her whirling and staccato rhythms were forceful and original. Her lyric poems fill ten collections; the uncollected lyrics would add at least another volume. Dmitri Shostakovich set six of Tsvetaeva's poems to music.