On February 2nd in the frames of the "Cherry Orchard" International Festival of the Arts on the stage of Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Chicago a one-man show Brodsky/Baryshnikov took place directed by Alvis Hermanis, director of The New Riga Theatre.

The only performer of the play was Mikhail Baryshnikov, who celebrated his 70th anniversary this year.

The play, which makes people to emigrate to the places where it is held, was defined by creators as "emotional journey into the depths of poetry." The unsurpassed Baryshnikov reads poetry and prose of the Nobel Laureate in literature, his friend Joseph Brodsky. Appearing on stage with the suitcase which might be the one Brodsky left his homeland with, the hero of Baryshnikov takes a book out of it, puts on his glasses and dives into reading ... a memory, an emotional experience.

The culmination of the interweaving of the allusions of the great poet and great dancer became the voice of Brodsky himself heard from the old reel recorder, which found its harmonious place in laconic, but emotionally incredibly dense decorations.

Reading the text, Baryshnikov, who has repeatedly overcome gravity in his ballet performances and has refused to believe in the inaccessibility of perfection, gradually starts to outline them in motion, with a hint, but eloquently; involuntary gesture, but in the rhythm of the text; indirectly, but precisely, leaving the viewer alone with a whole gamut of inexpressible impressions.

At the end of the play, on behalf of ARARAT, in the quintessence of which is the mastery and search for new forms of its expression, a special reception was held, where the guests could share their impressions with a glass of legendary Armenian brandy.