Bloodthirsty Urges, Papier-Mâché Pigs and More: Behind the Scenes of Golyi Korol’

Last week we published a review of the recent Russian play. Now, one of the actors, Year Two student Bryony Lingard, gives us her insider’s perspective on the production… This year I made a more concentrated effort to get involved in pretty much everything I could at university, and one of the things I decided …

Students impress in Russian play

In an earlier post, Olivia Hellewell reported on the preparations for this year’s Russian play, Golyi korol’ (The Naked King) by Evgenii Shwartz. Now, Cynthia Marsh, Emeritus Professor of Russian Drama and Literature, reviews the play, which was performed in the University of Nottingham’s Performing Arts Studio over three nights earlier this month (10-12 June …

Russian Play: The Naked King

For the third consecutive year, the hard work of undergraduate and postgraduate students from the Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies will culminate in the staging of a Russian-language theatre performance, which for 2014 will be Evgeny Shvarts’ Golyi Korol’ (The Naked King). Shvarts began writing children’s literature during the 1920s, and in 1929 he …

Blessed are the Translators: An Evening of Slovene Poetry

Final-year students Katie Harrison (English and Russian) and Christopher O’Rourke (Russian and Serbian/Croatian) were part of a translation workshop in Russian and Slavonic Studies this semester. Here are their thoughts on translating works by the award-winning Slovene poet Katja Perat. Anyone who has ever been faced with the task of translating a piece of writing …

Anthems of Slovenia (Part Two): A Toast to Translation – Janez Janša’s Okopi

In his second post in this series, Dr David Denton of the Department of Russian & Slavonic Studies introduces us to a new translation – produced with CLAS involvement – of the book Okopi by the former Slovene Prime Minister Janez Janša. The Slovene Publishing House Nova obzorja is set to publish an English translation …

Dreaming of Russia in Sochi

Dr Polly McMichael, lecturer in the Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies, gives some first impressions of the opening ceremony for the Sochi Winter Olympics, and considers how it played to global and Russian television audiences. At 20:14 Moscow Time on Friday 7 February the worldwide live broadcast of the opening ceremony for the Sochi …

Anthems of Slovenia (Part One): A Toast to Translation – France Prešeren’s Zdravljica

In the first of a two-part series, and to mark the Slovene Cultural Holiday, Dr David Denton from the Department of Russian & Slavonic Studies introduces us to the National Anthem of Slovenia and its writer, France Prešeren. Prešeren Day, the Slovene Cultural Holiday (Prešernov dan, slovenski kulturni praznik), is a public holiday celebrated in …

Пусть начнутся Игры!

On February 7 the 2014 XXII Winter Olympic Games begin in Sochi in southern Russia with alpine events to be held in the Mountain Cluster of venues in the resort of Krasnaya Polyana some 50 kilometres from the Coastal Cluster where six spectacular stadia have been constructed at massive expense. This is the most prestigious …

Final sneak peak: Windows on Russia

The eagerly-anticipated book ‘Windows on Russia and Eastern Europe’, written by Nottingham alumni, finally launches on 26 October! In our final sneak peak before the launch, Rod Thornton describes his experience as part of a British army contingent sent to protect fuel supplies in Bosnia… We arrived at the Egyptian barracks in the middle of …

More Windows on Russia and Eastern Europe

In our latest sneak peek of the forthcoming book ‘Windows on Russia and Eastern Europe’, written by Nottingham alumni, we hear from Daniel Vowles, who worked in the Soviet Union at the fall of the Berlin Wall. Doing business was chaotic to say the least…  My next “dream” posting was to Kaliningrad. I have to admit …