ON NAKED SOIL
Imagining Anna Akhmatova
Written by Rebecca Schull -- Directed by Susan Einhorn

"I wrung my hands under my dark veil...
‘Why are you pale, what makes you reckless?’
Because I have made my loved one drunk
with an astringent sadness.

I’ll never forget. He went out, reeling;
his mouth was twisted, desolate...
I ran downstairs, not touching the banisters,
and followed him as far as the gate.

And shouted, choking: ’I meant it all
in fun. Don’t leave me, or I’ll die of pain.’
He smiled at me -- oh so calmly, terribly --
and said: ‘Why don’t you get out of the rain?’”

ABOUT "ON NAKED SOIL"

Rebecca Schull (foreground) plays poet Anna Akhmatova in her play, "On Naked Soil - Imagining Anna Akhmatova," which looks at the famed poet in two time frames and in the company of two other historic Russian writers: Nadezhda Mandelstam (played by Lenore Loveman, R) and Lydia Chukovskaya (played by Sue Cremin, L). Pre-production photo by Jonathan Slaff.

This three character play looks at Anna Akhmatova in two time frames, and in the company of two other women; her contemporary Nadezhda Mandelstam, the widow of the poet Osip Mandelstam, in the 1960's and Lydia Chukovskaya, a young writer who kept a journal of her meetings with Akhmatova, in the late thirties and early forties. Through scenes among the three women, and through documentary film footage and video projections, as well as through extensive use of the poetry itself, the play illuminates the life of a literary figure who, for many, was the conscience of her time. Rebecca Schull will play Akhmatova; the other parts are still to be cast.

SEE PHOTO GALLERY FOR PRODUCTION PHOTOS.

CLICK HERE FOR BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY ON ANNA AKHMATOVA BY MICHAEL SCAMMELL.