The Bench, by Alexander Gelman, is a production that makes you reflect on life, love, and human relationships—one that you'll want to watch again.

Actors Alexey Panin and Olga Demidova have formed a remarkable duo. Their performance is full of nuances, irony, and drama. This duo became a true celebration for the audience.

Gelman's play, written in the 1980s, has not lost its relevance. The themes of loneliness, the search for meaning in life, and human relationships continue to resonate with audiences. The performance is filled with subtle humor and deep drama. Laughter and tears alternate, keeping the audience engaged.

Alexander Gelman, one of the most significant playwrights of his time, wrote The Bench in 1983. Since then, it has been translated and played in thirty countries and it keeps being played, due to its profound human angle but also to its bitter humor that renders it timeless and up to date in a tragicomic way.

It was written in the Soviet Union of the eighties, the period before its fall, when arbitrage and corruption prevail. Society is at an impasse as well as its people. They dream of another life somewhere else, somehow differently. They get away to other worlds, to other people’s lives, they create fictional stories, they evade a suffocating and intolerable routine, claiming for an efflorescence.   

It’s a tragicomic story of two lonely people. One day they find each other in the public park. He and She bring on stage the most vivid, the most prolific of the themes, Love. They walk together the route from lie to truth. A route in which lie is confused with the need for personal freedom, free reflection, ideas. A route where in some moments a lie becomes the only truth.  

They suffer and practice the everlasting game of duel between man and woman that either shall bring them closer or shall signify their movement towards loneliness.  
Both of them look for a new start, although they already know it’s made long ago… 

A story that could take place in every public park, in every country.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30 at 7:30 PM

RUNTIME:
2 hours with 1 intermission

TICKETS:
RESERVED SEATING
$55 - $75

Please note that each ticket is subject to a $3 service fee at checkout.

There will be NO LATE SEATING for this production.

GENERAL INFORMATION

*Online sales will end 30 minutes prior to the scheduled curtain time. At this time tickets may be purchased in-person at the box office.

The box office opens 2 hours prior to the performance time for WILL CALL and walkup sales.

All sales are final. No refunds or cancellations available after purchase.

Why is there a $3 service fee per ticket? CLICK HERE for details.

MATCH Concessions will be open 1 hour prior to event start time. Enjoy a cocktail or a quick snack before the event. For a concessions menu CLICK HERE.

Location & Parking: For information on area parking CLICK HERE.

Area Restaurants & Bars: CLICK HERE for a list of area restaurants and bars.