This is an unforgettable play, a drama almost too intense, layering on us loneliness, surprise, disappointment, amazement, regret, childish stubbornness and disillusionment... emotions that often spur us to reflect on the meaning of our lives.
When the play is done, we ask what is to become of the teacher who has surrendered the key, and thus her morality, and we wonder how the morally denuded youth will face the next day, and days thereafter.
To me Beloved Elena Sergeevna is not a tragedy or even a play as such. Rather it is a slice of the most tragic moments of real lives, a rendering of events past, present and yet to be - events always happening in some shape or form somewhere In the world. But this is not the only way to look at the play. Indeed, rather than dwell on this, my direction has focused on the characters' internal conflicts and how their values are formed.
Life is colourfully abundant, giving us a myriad of choices. Our motivations at the moment determine how we choose. As such, we need not be shocked or outraged by the choices made by the characters in Beloved Elena Sergeevna. Instead, we should look at their motivations and thereby empathise with their plight, and understand their transience.
Be it fiction or fact, this too shall pass. But while it lasts:
Let us build a civilization free, peaceful and affluent!
Let us have steely resolve. yet a warn, heart!
I believe that good and evil exist in equal measure.
Dr Diao Haiming
