On April 27 at 7:30 PM, the Studio Stage will host the premiere of I Created Audrey Hepburn by A. Gizatullina.
The production is directed by Adeline Gizatullina. Production Designer — Elzar Abdrakhmanov. Costume Designer — Alexandra Vakhrushina. Lighting Designer — Alexander Matveev. Makeup Designer — Honored Cultural Worker of Russia Olga Kalyavina. Composer — Andrey Bulatov. Choreographer — Olga Logvina. Vocal Coach — Alexander Sazonov. Sound Designer — Ekaterina Volkova. Technical Support — Dmitry Lazarev. Assistant Director — Irina Gromova.
Cast: Honored Artist of Russia Elena Sotnikova and actress Anna Chumak.
Adeline Gizatullina’s play I Created Audrey Hepburn tells the story of the complex relationship between the great actress and her mother. While the plot is based on real facts from Audrey Hepburn’s biography, the focus is placed on the woman behind her becoming who she was.
What is true maternal love? What does it contain more of — support or demands, acceptance of a person or the desire to reshape them? In this production, playwright and director Adeline Gizatullina raises these questions, seeking to convey the living truth of human relationships.
From a conversation with the director of the play, Adeline Gizatullina:
“The world knows Audrey Hepburn as an actress and a style icon. But very few people know what she truly dreamed about. I believe this story will resonate not only with women. Men, too, will recognize themselves in these characters. As a child, I was fascinated by Audrey, and I continue to admire her today — a woman of extraordinary purity and kindness.
Audrey will be portrayed by Anna Chumak, while her mother will be played by the wonderful actress Elena Sotnikova. It is especially meaningful that the premiere of the play takes place on the eve of a beautiful date — the birthday of Elena Viktorovna Sotnikova.”
Audrey Hepburn (May 4, 1929 – January 20, 1993) was born in Belgium and spent her childhood and youth in the Netherlands, in Arnhem, which was occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II.
Her mother, Baroness Ella van Heemstra (1900–1984), was a Dutch aristocrat. Her father, Joseph Hepburn-Ruston, left the family in 1935, an event that caused deep emotional trauma for six-year-old Audrey.
She studied ballet and in 1948 moved to London, where she began working as a dancer in local theatre productions.
After appearing in several films, Audrey Hepburn attracted the attention of actress and writer Colette, who chose her for the lead role in her stage production Gigi, later staged on Broadway.
Audrey Hepburn’s most important film roles include Roman Holiday, Sabrina, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Funny Face, Charade, My Fair Lady, and How to Steal a Million, among others.
Charming, open-hearted, and remarkably charismatic, she captivated her co-stars — many of whom were major Hollywood legends — as well as millions of viewers and demanding critics alike. She was awarded the Academy Award for Best Actress for Roman Holiday (1954).
After leaving the world of cinema and theatre at the height of her career, Audrey Hepburn became an international Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF, where she actively drew global attention to the needs and struggles of children in disadvantaged regions of Africa, South America, and Asia.
Adeline Gizatullina is an actress, director, and playwright.
As a child, she dreamed of becoming a ballerina. Life circumstances led her in a different direction, and the girl from Yakutia entered the M.S. Shchepkin Higher Theatre School in Moscow, studying under People’s Artist of the USSR Viktor Korshunov. After graduation, she was invited to the Lenkom Theatre, and in 2014 she joined the Vakhtangov Theatre’s First Studio, later becoming a member of the main troupe four years afterward.
On the Studio Stage, she initiated and performed in the one-woman production Miss Nobody from Alabama, about the dramatic fate of Zelda Fitzgerald, wife and muse of American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Through her initiative, and in collaboration with author Nika Simonova and director Leila Abu-al-Kishek, two productions were created on the Simonov Stage — Frida. Life in Color, about Frida Kahlo, and Nijinsky. Brilliant Idiot, in which Gizatullina played the title roles.
Among her other notable stage roles at the Vakhtangov Theatre are Mademoiselle Bourienne in War and Peace and Anitra in Peer Gynt.
After leaving the theatre in 2024, Adeline Gizatullina graduated from the directing department of the Moscow Film School. This year, the emerging director proposed to the Vakhtangov Theatre the staging of her play I Created Audrey Hepburn, developed in collaboration with Honored Artist of Russia Elena Sotnikova.
Her directorial debut — the premiere of I CREATED AUDREY HEPBURN — will take place on April 27 on the Studio Stage.
