Cucchi’s production sets this in the ’50s

 – with stellar Neil Fortin costumes and a nicely abstracted set by Julia Noulin-Mérat –

and makes great use of both setting up specific sections of the stage like islands of isolation in seas of darkness,

and also closing the curtains in a pattern that recalls a dilating camera zoom, so common to dramas of the era the production is set.

Many of the other updates are incredibly sharp, not only witty but moving.

The example still reverberating for me the next morning is changing the duel between Lensky and Onegin into a game of Russian Roulette,

and the feast where that erupts into a long, drunken casino night makes the flashes of self-awareness, of regret,

but plowing through anyway in a misguided sense of ego hit hard.

The wordless presence of Wiser Tatanya (a terrific Krista Stauffer) also adds a gravitas,

a visual reminder that life moves on and we’re all stuck with the consequences of our actions, underscoring the theme subtly and powerfully.

(Richard Sanford, Columbus Underground)

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Eugene Onegin

Columbus, Ohio Theatre, March 1, 2

Rosetta Cucchi (director)

Artist’s personal website