“The Dead Princess” – focuses as much on death as resurrection. The motif of light is attributed an essential role in this obscure drama. The title refers to a fairy-tale which all Russians know in a poetic version of Pushkin. In Kolada’s play Rimma is dead as a woman – she has never been in love and reached the rock bottom in a social sense. However, ‘a prince’ will appear to wake her up…Will he wake her up to a new happy life which should begin right now?
Kolada wrote this play at the age of thirty. The characters featured in ‘The Dead Princess’ are of the same age. At that point man looks back at his life, wondering what he has achieved so far. Nikolai Kolada’s plays originate from difficult reality, however their poetics touches upon fantastic realism. Rimma cannot find her place on the earth. Perhaps she will find it in the stars, but …. In Kolanda’s drama she lives the way she dreamed out for herself. Russia understands such dreams… The performance was awarded the Grand Prix at Counterpoint, the Festival of Small Theatre Forms, in Szczecin and the Audience Award at Interpretations, the Festival of Directing Art in Katowice.