“And I felt such an insult towards you and towards the Church”: how our performance in the women’s colony turned outtranslated

On Easter and Christmas, our Orthodox theater, consisting entirely of my comrades, travels around the colonies of our region with a new performance. I myself am untalented, I don’t take part in performances, but with my father’s blessing I teach the Law of God and sobriety lessons in a women’s colony. This time, together with the convicted women, I was lucky enough to be a spectator, and then a conductor of feedback and even an interpreter of the play “Vasily and Vasilisa” based on the story of the same name by Valentin Rasputin.

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I sat and seriously languished: when will Vasilisa come to her senses and forgive her husband Vasily, whom she sent to the barn for the sins of his youth. In his youth, Vasily was prone to private property sentiments and loved to drink, which is why he became rowdy and picky.

Years passed on stage, their children grew up, and their eldest son died in the war. Vasily fought and returned from the front alive, but the resentment did not go away, turning the bright, humorous worker Vasilisa into a grumpy old woman.

The first tears appeared in the hall when Vasilisa did not allow her husband to attend her son’s wedding. In order not to overshadow the holiday with the shadow of discord, Vasily remains in the barn and, like an orphan, resignedly listens to the sounds of fun coming from the house. My sympathies, at first...