“Unprincipled Readings” — Uncompromising Readins

On December 13, “Unprincipled Readings” will make its debut at the Neftyanyk Palace of Culture, featuring Alexander Tsypkin and Gosha Kutsenko!

“Unprincipled Readings” is one of the most vibrant and distinctive literary-theatrical projects of recent years. The project brings contemporary Russian prose to the stage, performed by the authors themselves, as well as actors and other prominent public figures.

In 2016, Alexander Tsypkin, together with producer Anastasia Prits, created “Unprincipled Readings”, inviting Alexander Malenkov, editor-in-chief of Maxim magazine, and Alexander Snegiryov, winner of the Russian Booker Prize, to take part.

“Unprincipled Readings” have been presented at leading theatres and cultural venues across Russia and around the world, including Paris, Berlin, New York, San Francisco, Limassol, Tel Aviv, and many other cities.

In addition to the authors themselves, stories from the project’s repertoire have been performed on stage by such prominent actors as Sergey Burunov, Maxim Vitorgan, Mikhail Gorevoy, Ingeborga Dapkunaite, Pavel Derevyanko, Viktoria Isakova, Polina Maksimova, Anna Mikhalkova, Pavel Tabakov, Konstantin Khabensky, Dmitry Chebotaryov, Katerina Shpitsa, as well as numerous other artists from Russia and abroad.

In 2019, the first intimate edition of “Unprincipled Readings” took place in New York, where Alexander Tsypkin’s stories were performed in English for the first time.

The first annual summer festival, titled “Open Unprincipled Readings,” was held at Hermitage Garden in Moscow in 2016. In 2019, the festival expanded beyond Moscow for the first time, travelling to cities across Russia, including Irkutsk, Kaliningrad, Ufa, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Sochi, St. Petersburg, and Moscow.

Over the course of five years, more than 400 readings have been held in 15 countries around the world. The programme has featured works by the three writers who founded the project, as well as Narine Abgaryan, Sasha Filipenko, Andrei Astvatsaturov, Marina Stepnova, Masha Traub, Guzel Yakhina, and many other authors from cities across Russia.