The play "Notes of a Madman" in Paris 23 September 2025

"Notes of Madmen" is a new play by Dmitry Krymov with Chulpan Khamatova and Maxim Sukhanov. This is the first Russian-language performance by director and artist Krymov, staged by him in exile with the participation of two popular artists. Chulpan Khamatova and Maxim Sukhanov, who almost 30 years ago played in Valery Todorovsky's movie "The Land of the Deaf", are together on the same stage for the first time.

Krymov's productions are distinguished by a special creative language, a mix of styles and genres. In his new work, the director has taken his own text as a basis - a phantasmagorical story about people lost in space and time.

The heroes of "Notes of Madmen" are two people who have found themselves unwillingly in new life circumstances. The settled life is now in the past, and the heroes need to find a use for themselves in a foreign country, a new place in life.

Dmitry Krymov: "The problem of not lived and not lived life concerns many people today. Since our characters are actors, and the actors are not young, in their case this pain lies even more on the surface and does not allow us to breathe. The fat man with shortness of breath who played neither Romeo nor Mercutio, and the actress who dreamed of Juliet and Antigone and hides behind costumes of bugs and ladybugs - this is about us. About people. About the last chance."

Khamatova and Sukhanov appear on stage as actors Chulpan and Maxim, endlessly changing guises and intertwining real life stories with scenes from different literary works, fascinating, exhilarating, misleading the viewer.

Chulpan Khamatova: "This is a play about crazy love, about loneliness and loss, about the sense of duty and dignity, about the world around us, which has long gone mad and, apparently, for a long time.In normal, in the usual theater I will never play Juliet, but in our I - and Juliet, and Antigone, and even Anne Frank, who was 13 years old, and I am almost four times more."

"Notes of Madmen" - a European project, created with the help of the British foundation "WE EXIST!", supporting Russian-speaking culture in exile.

Chulpan Khamatova and Maxim Sukhanov are involved in the performance
Author of the idea, staging and director - Dmitry Krymov
Scenography - Dmitry Krymov, Pyotr Voznesensky
Video artist - Pyotr Voznesensky
Costume Designer - Tatiana Dolmatovskaya
Lighting designer - Oskar Paulins.
Choreographer - Anna Abalikhina
Director Producer: Inna Krymova