Tien Theatre Company was founded by Maya Krasnopolska and Ilya Epelbaum in 1991 as one of the first private theatres in Russia. The name has its origins in the character of their first performance. It was a peculiar combination of modern shadow theatre and an acting plan with the audience joining in. A choice of a dramatic form became the foundation of their artistic programme. It was not avant-garde in a traditional sense, but rather a new approach to a traditional genre and classical art. Some of their productions were a mixture of drama, music, puppet theatre and visual arts. The company has realised ten productions, each of a completely different character, however all of them were directed by the same couple of artists, Maya Krasnopolska and Ilya Epelbaum, their range spanning from performances for children to ballet performances for elites, from happenings to classical stage realisations rooted in Stanislavsky’s theatre school. The company is considered to be one of the most renowned theatre groups in Russia. They were awarded a prestigeous prize at the 6th Golden Mask Festival.They have performed at fifty theatre festivals throughout the world. In ‘Metamorphosis’ a painter works on the variations of paintings on the screen, employing various unusual techniques. Painting is accompanied by music: sounds emerging in the most fantastic way, constituting a humorous commentary, playing games… everything comes into being on a small piece of glass, sketches are transferred onto a screen, they change along with the music, transforming one into another. The painter’s imporvisation is seen only for a moment to disappear completely, get transubstantiated into classical art…