The Director Reveals the Secrets of Audrey Hepburn’s Childhood
Adeline Gizatullina presented a play at the Vakhtangov Theatre about the great actress and her mother.
Evgeniya Maslennikova — May 4, 2026
The premiere of I Created Audrey Hepburn took place on the Studio Stage of the Vakhtangov Theatre. The play was written by Adeline Gizatullina, who also directed the production. The story is based on real events from Audrey Hepburn’s life, but its focus lies on her relationship with her mother, Baroness Ella van Heemstra. The playwright explores questions surrounding the nature of maternal love, the balance between support and high expectations, acceptance and the desire to change another person.
The role of Audrey Hepburn is performed by actress Anna Chumak, while her mother is portrayed by Honored Artist of Russia Elena Sotnikova. The production team includes production designer Elzar Abdrakhmanov, costume designer Alexandra Vakhrushina, lighting designer Alexander Matveev, makeup artist and Honored Cultural Worker of Russia Olga Kalyavina, composer Andrey Bulatov, and choreographer Olga Logvina.
“The world knows Audrey Hepburn as an actress and style icon,” says director Adeline Gizatullina. “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. I was fascinated by Audrey as a child, and I still admire her today — a woman of extraordinary purity and kindness… Audrey will be played by Anna Chumak, while her mother will be portrayed by the wonderful actress Elena Sotnikova. It is doubly meaningful that the premiere took place on the eve of Elena Viktorovna Sotnikova’s birthday.”
Today, on May 4, Audrey Hepburn would have turned 97 years old. She was born in 1929 in Belgium and spent her childhood and youth in the Netherlands, in Nazi-occupied Arnhem. Her mother was a Dutch aristocrat, while her father left the family in 1935 when Audrey was six years old. Hepburn studied ballet and moved to London in 1948, where she began working as a dancer.
She achieved worldwide recognition through films such as Roman Holiday (which earned her an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1954), Sabrina, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Funny Face, Charade, My Fair Lady, and How to Steal a Million. Later in life, the actress stepped away from her film career and became a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF.
Adeline Gizatullina is an actress, director, and playwright, and a graduate of the M.S. Shchepkin Higher Theatre School. She worked at the Lenkom Theatre and joined the Vakhtangov Theatre’s First Studio in 2014, later becoming a member of the company four years afterward. On the Studio Stage she initiated and performed in the one-woman production Miss Nobody from Alabama, about Zelda Sayre, the wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald. She also participated in the creation of productions including Frida. Life in Color and Nijinsky. The Brilliant Idiot.
In 2024, Gizatullina left the theatre, graduated from the Directing Department of the Moscow Film School, and proposed to the Vakhtangov Theatre the staging of her play I Created Audrey Hepburn, developed in collaboration with Honored Artist of Russia Elena Sotnikova.