“Unprincipled Readings” featuring Alexander Tsypkin and Viktoria Isakova

On October 31, the Neftche Palace of Culture hosted Unprincipled Readings, featuring writer Alexander Tsypkin and actress Viktoria Isakova.

Unprincipled Readings is one of the most distinctive and unconventional literary and theatrical projects of recent years. As part of the project, contemporary Russian prose is performed on stage by the authors themselves, as well as by actors and other public figures.

In 2016, writer Alexander Tsypkin and producer Anastasia Prits brought together around a hundred literary works, dozens of writers and actors, numerous cities and countries, and thousands of spectators as part of Unprincipled Readings.

In addition to the authors themselves, stories from the project have been performed on stage by such acclaimed actors as Sergey Burunov, Gosha Kutsenko, Maksim Vitorgan, Mikhail Gorevoy, Ingeborga Dapkunaite, Pavel Derevyanko, Polina Maksimova, Anna Mikhalkova, Pavel Tabakov, Konstantin Khabensky, Dmitry Chebotarev, Katerina Shpitsa and many other artists from different cities and countries.

In 2019, the first intimate Unprincipled Readings were held in New York, where Alexander Tsypkin’s stories were performed in English.

The first annual summer festival, titled Open Unprincipled Readings, took place in Moscow’s Hermitage Garden in 2016.

In 2019, the festival expanded beyond Moscow for the first time and went on to visit cities across Russia, including Irkutsk, Kaliningrad, Ufa, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Sochi, St. Petersburg and Moscow.

Over five years, more than 400 Readings were held in 15 countries around the world. The program featured works by the project’s three founding writers, as well as Narine Abgaryan, Sasha Filipenko, Andrey Astvatsaturov, Marina Stepnova, Masha Traub, Guzel Yakhina and many other authors from across Russia.

On November 1, 2022, the 400th anniversary edition of the Readings was held at the Moscow International House of Music, featuring Konstantin Khabensky.