Christmas Cabaret by Lyudmila Petrushevskaya (Varvara Shmykova, Artur Smolyaninov)

Christmas Cabaret by Lyudmila Petrushevskaya, dedicated to the 85th anniversary of the living classic of contemporary culture.

Popular theater and film actors Varvara Shmykova and Artur Smolyaninov will join the stage at the Vilnius Legendos Klubas for the legendary writer and singer Lyudmila Petrushevskaya and her famous cabaret.

A play based on Petrushevskaya's texts, long established as classics, will be performed by two individuals: the star of the series "Chiki," one of the brightest theater actresses of her generation, Varvara Shmykova, and the recent premiere at the Sovremennik Theater, famous since the times of "The Ninth Company," Artur Smolyaninov.

Paradoxes and aphorisms, short humorous verses, and lines of different lengths will blend in this show with merry and poignant songs in the anti-war "Petrushevskaya Cabaret." At 85, Ms. Lyudmila composes plays and prose, novels and haikus, poems and fairy tales, paints pictures, dances, and, in a completely charmingly mischievous manner, performs the main cabaret hits from the genre's history—Polish and French, German and Gypsy, Jewish and American—mixed with songs she herself composed, yet sounding as if you've known them since childhood.

Meeting with this great contemporary, hearing how remarkably relevant today are the texts, some of which were written almost 50 years ago, is why it's so important not to miss this season's main theatrical event.