Published on: 2026-09-10
Source: Moscow Government – Правительства Москвы –
An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
For 106 years now on the stage Moscow Theater of Young Spectators they stage plays for children and teenagers. Here they recall beloved works of fiction, filled with profound imagery and philosophical meaning, interpret famous plots, and seek new theatrical solutions that are interesting to audiences of different ages.
Each performance allows adults to recall their own childhood experiences and anxieties in order to better understand children, while young viewers are encouraged to believe in themselves, become braver, and it simultaneously helps not to rush growing up. We tell about performances based on the novel “The Neverending Story,” the story “Winnie-the-Pooh,” and the tale “The Four-Legged Crow.”
A Journey into the World of Magic
When life presents unpleasant surprises and sets overly difficult tasks, it is the perfect time to turn to fairy tales. The world of adventures and fantasies helps to distract from everyday life and look at everything around from a different perspective. In the theater, they know: if a child is going through a difficult period, a good way to start a conversation is to come to the play “The Neverending Story” based on the novel by Michael Ende.
At the heart of the plot is the story of 10-year-old Bastian, whose life has taken a dark turn: his mother has passed away, classmates bully him at school, and his father is becoming distant as he tries to cope with his grief. Bastian feels very lonely, and his only friends become books. One day, while once again running away from bullies, the boy ends up in an antique shop and notices a beautiful leather-bound book titled “The Neverending Story.” He steals it, hides in the attic, and reads it. This is how his incredible adventures begin.
German writer Michael Ende found inspiration for creating a fairy tale novel in his childhood. In the 1930s, the artist Fanti and a family of circus performers lived next door to the family of the future writer. Fanti constantly invented and told the boy fantastic stories, accompanied by his own illustrations. Young Michael forever remembered the time spent in the company of the storyteller — magical, full of extraordinary adventures and fictional plots. Later, Fanti became the prototype for some characters in Michael Ende’s books.
At the Moscow Youth Theatre “The NeverEnding Story” Andrey Goncharov’s performance has been running for three years now, drawing full houses. On stage, a fairy tale is created, brought to life thanks to lighting effects, stage smoke, vivid character images, original costumes, and decorations.
“This is an unpredictable, incredibly beautiful, and slightly sad story about how difficult the journey through the unknown is, past the soul-chilling Nothingness, past fears and doubts. In countless adventures, the hero needs friends, and touching, funny, brave creatures set out with him on a dangerous long journey to the edges of the world. And the world needs bold ones, ready to move forward without hope, driven only by love, only by the desire to save a life,” the theater says.
Critics call “The Neverending Story” a landmark work for the theater, a work on a new level of spectacle, where the performance is played not only on the stage but also in the audience. The production can be seen on September 18 and October 9.
Humor and the absurdities of life
Performance “Four-legged Crow” based on the eponymous story by Daniil Kharms, will allow you to look at even the strangest and most absurd situations with humor. Director Pavel Artemyev has created a performance full of grotesque, irony, and paradoxical situations.
“There is nothing more plausible than Kharms’ absurdity. Nothing more phantasmagoric than the prose of Kharms’ life. Nothing more tender than Kharms’ irony. More hopeless than the dream in Kharms. And so we ended up with a ridiculous, terribly familiar, hooligan-like, and incredibly funny Kharms world, a world of nonsense and absurdities. And the cat partly walks on the road, partly smoothly flies through the air,” the theater notes.
Kharms’ story set the tone for the play, and the main plotline embodied the director’s idea. The surrounding reality is conveyed hyperrealistically through dialogues, conflicts, and the climax, while the characters are revealed from unexpected sides. After all, that’s how it is in life: sometimes the most irritated and embittered person turns out to be a wounded child trying to cope with difficulties alone.
The outstanding writer Daniil Yuvachev (Kharms) made a significant contribution to the development of 20th-century Russian literature. He was born in Saint Petersburg in 1905. Even in school, Daniil began composing poems and wordplays. The earliest surviving poem of his is considered to be “In July, somehow our summer…” (1922). Notably, even in these youthful texts, features of his future authorial style can be discerned: elements of the absurd emerge. Daniil invented his creative pseudonym “Kharms” in 1921–1922: the new surname soon became a calling card, and courage and talent paved the way into the literary world.
In Kharms’s legacy, a central place is occupied by works built on the destruction of usual logical connections. The writer willingly resorts to nonsense, grotesque, and dark irony; his texts abound with linguistic puzzles — from acrostics to paradoxical plot twists. His work was highly appreciated by the poet Samuil Marshak and the artist Kazimir Malevich.
Kharms wrote: “I am interested only in ‘nonsense,’ only in that which has no practical meaning. I am interested only in life in its absurd manifestation. Heroism, pathos, daring, morality, ethics, tenderness, and excitement are words hateful to me. But I fully understand and respect: delight and admiration, inspiration and despair, passion and restraint, debauchery and chastity, sadness and grief, joy and laughter.”
The performance can be seen on September 11, October 7, and 24.
About true friends and adventures
These heroes have won the hearts of millions of readers in 70 countries. Their names are familiar to everyone — Winnie-the-Pooh, Christopher Robin, Piglet, Eeyore, and Rabbit. Together they explore the world, ponder complex philosophical topics, compose, and play. Born from the imagination of A.A. Milne, these characters have long become universal symbols of childhood, alive and loved by many generations of readers and viewers.
The Moscow Theatre for Young Spectators invites you to the play “Winnie-the-Pooh and All-All-All” based on the book by A. A. Milne “Winnie-the-Pooh.” This production is a conversation between an adult and a child on equal terms, a desire to feel the world as it was experienced “when the trees were tall.”
“A performance for those ready to befriend the plush teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh. It opens up to children and teenagers a whole world where usual rules and patterns do not apply. The best way to write poetry is to let things go where they want, a river has absolutely no need to rush, and a biscuit cough is not the kind told about to mothers. Viewers will learn how to properly throw a tricky stick to win at ‘Trifles,’ from what meters, liters, and kilograms tigers are made, how many pockets Rabbit should have, and how many days it will be next Friday since no one talked to Eeyore. In short, many useful, extremely important, and terribly fun things,” the theater explains.
The history of the creation of the book is closely connected with the family of Alan Alexander Milne. In 1920, the writer’s son Christopher Robin was born, and when the boy turned one year old, he was given a plush teddy bear. Gradually, Christopher acquired other toy friends: a donkey, a piglet, a kangaroo, and a tiger cub. They all became characters in the future story. At first, the father told stories to his son before bedtime, and then he began to write them down.
The book became world-famous in 1926 when it sold 150,000 copies. In the USSR, “Winnie-the-Pooh” became widely known in 1958 thanks to Boris Zakhoder’s translation, and then the animated film by Fyodor Khitruk, where the characters were voiced by Yevgeny Leonov (Winnie-the-Pooh) and Iya Savvina (Piglet). This is how the story of the little bear was born, which continues to be developed by contemporary writers, directors, and animators.
The play can be seen on October 2 and 18.
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