The Regina Maria Theatre has the honor of collaborating, for the first time, with one of the most important theater and opera directors of his generation, Timofei Kuliabin, who is staging the show „"The Broken Mirror"” a screenplay by Roman Doljanski after Arthur Miller.

Born in 1984 in Russia, Kuliabin trained at the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts (GITIS) in Moscow, and after graduation joined the Novosibirsk Academic Red Torch Theatre. In 2015, at the age of 31, he became the artistic director of the institution, making him the youngest artistic director of a Russian theatre at the time.

He led the institution until 2022, during which time he staged numerous productions, radical reinterpretations of classic texts such as Onegin (2012), which brought him the National Award "Golden Mask", confirming early on the strength and originality of his directorial vision, KILL (2013), based on Schiller's "Intrigue and Love", but also the famous staging of the play Three sisters by Chekhov (2015), awarded not only with the „Golden Mask”, but also with the title of „Show of the Year” from the Russian Association of Theater Critics. Kuliabin continues to explore great human themes through striking productions such as The process by Kafka (2016), Children of the sun by Gorki (2018), another show awarded the "Golden Mask", or Mallard by Ibsen (2021), confirming once again the courage and acuity with which he approaches universal dramaturgy.

In parallel, he expanded his activity to other important theaters in Russia and Europe, consolidating his reputation as one of the most versatile contemporary directors. He has directed productions such as electrically (2013), Ivanov (2016) and The broken pitcher (2020) at the State Theater of Nations in Moscow, and on the stage of the Residenztheater Munich is staging Tales from Kolyma after Varlam Shalamov (2018). To be continued Nora (A Doll's House) at Schauspielhaus Zürich (2019), then Miss Julia (2020) and Platonov (2022) at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. In 2023, he will stage Macbeth at the Schauspiel Frankfurt, and in 2024 The terror and miseries of the Third Reich by Bertolt Brecht at the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe. The year 2025 marks two new landmark productions: The long journey of day into night by Eugene O'Neill at the "Radu Stanca" National Theatre in Sibiu and Hedda Gabler at the "Ivan Vazov" National Theater in Sofia.

In 2022, Kuliabin also signed an exceptional collaboration with Ingeborga Dapkunaite and John Malkovich for In the solitude of the cotton fields by Bernard-Marie Koltès, at the Dailes Theatre in Riga — a show that has since toured 12 countries. And in July 2024, its staging after Iphigenia in Aulis by Euripides opened the Epidaurus theater festival, marking the first time in the festival's history that the inaugural moment has been entrusted to a non-Greek director.

Recognition also in international opera

Timofei Kuliabin made his opera debut in 2009, with Prince Igor by Borodin, at the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre. In 2014, the staging Tannhäuser by Wagner generated a political scandal caused by circles close to the Russian Orthodox Church and was withdrawn after only four performances — a moment that did not discourage the young director, but rather confirmed his disruptive artistic force. He continued with a series of important productions: Don Pasquale by Donizetti (2016), Mermaid by Dvořák (2019) at the Bolshoi Theater, Rigoletto by Verdi (Opera Wuppertal, 2017), The Wedding / Oedipus Rex by Stravinsky (Opera Wuppertal, 2019), The Distant Sound by Schreker (Prague National Opera, 2022) and Queen of Spades by Tchaikovsky at the Lyon National Opera (2024) — named "Show of the Year 2024" by the magazine Opera world and ranked first in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in the top of "The best opera productions of the year".

A free voice in European theater

Due to his explicitly anti-war stance, Timofei Kuliabin was forced to resign as director of the Red Torch Theater in February 2022, with his planned productions in Russia for the coming years being canceled. Currently, Timofei Kuliabin lives and creates in Europe.

„"The Broken Mirror" on the stage of the Regina Maria Theater

The staging of this text in Oradea marks the beginning of the collaboration between Timofei Kuliabin and the Regina Maria Theatre. The director proposes a stage reading in which unexpressed emotions become visible, and psychological tensions manifest themselves through a refined theatrical aesthetic, which emphasizes the actors' interpretation and the deeply human dynamics between the characters.

„"We are not turning Arthur Miller's narrative into a detective novel. We are simply observing how events unfolded." — Timofei Kuliabin

For more information about the show, team and cast, we invite you to access the article dedicated to the show "„Broken mirror".