The Rehearsals

Written by Vladimir Sharov

Narrated by Al Bernstein

Seventeenth century Russia, New Jerusalem Monastery. The recently deposed Patriarch Nikon, whose reforms lead to a schism in the Orthodox church, employs a French dramatist to stage the New Testament and hasten the Second Coming of Christ. Jacques de Sertan’s troupe consists of untrained and illiterate peasants. The actors are divided into roles, whole families play different social or ethnic groups that lived in Jerusalem around the time of Christ. No one, however, is allowed to play the Messiah.

The preparations take years and are interrupted when consequences of the schism catch up to Nikon. Everyone is arrested and forced into exile. Despite all the hardship, the rehearsals continue for years even after the deaths of the original actors with children inheriting their parents’ roles...

“The Rehearsals” is a stunning reflection on Russian history of ideas, national identity, art, literature and religion.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Heraclon Publishing Canada
• Release date: Jan 1, 1992
• ISBN: 9781989558140

Vladimir Sharov

A historian of late-medieval Russia by training Vladimir Sharov, born in 1952, first turned to fiction in the late 1970s. It was not until the 1990s, however, that his extraordinarily imaginative and daring novels come to the attention of the public. When they did, they caused acrimony and controversy. Before and During in 2014 was his first novel to appear in English, which will be followed in January 2018 by The Rehearsals, both translated by Oliver Ready. He has won all the major Russian literary prizes including the Booker Prize in 2014. Before and During won The Read Russia Prize in 2015.