Konstantin Kostenko (b. 1966) is a contemporary Russian playwright and fiction writer who lived and worked in Khabarovsk for a long time. His novels and plays of great talent not only won a number of prestigious awards, but were also considered scandalous and controversial. In the Russian Drama Award Competition (1995), the play Hitler and Hitler was awarded the first prize. However, Kostenko did not attend the prize-giving ceremony to receive his honourable award due to a lack of financial means to make the long journey from Khabarovsk to Moscow. As Kostenko pointed out in one of his interviews, ‘To be a writer and playwright in Khabarovsk means to be nothing.

Hitler and Hitler is not a conventional play as it does not have a consistent plot, marked by logical sequence of events and a story, developing from the beginning to the end. Instead, the play is composed of separate episodes, with two characters acting in each of them: Hitler, a protagonist, who appears throughout all scenes, and a certain service worker - a barber, a cook, a photographer, a doctor and a tailor. While providing his or her services, the second character listens to Hitler‘s monologue. Kostenka‘s Hitler does not represent the exact historical figure, as the play is not based on any specific biographical facts; rather, it is a surrealistic farce about Hitler, inspired by impressions after reading the book Mein kampf and Hitler‘s table talk. The texts of the play are filled with caustic paradoxal humour, vivid imagination and rich fantasy that create a new yet painfully recognizable portrait of the paranoid dictator. Thus, in front of us, a tyrant is brought into existence. But there is also a city dweller who is ready to accept the tyrant with certain pleasure and relief, hoping that eventually all problems will be solved. The dictator‘s portrait is universal and remains relevant in today‘s political context. This makes the play sound like a political, aesthetical and moral challenge in the times of populist, demagogic and conjectural governments. Emergence of a Woman charges the play with special emotions. The Woman- lover, whore, mother – marks the culmination of all paranoiac ideas, while her childhood lullaby provides sheer bliss and comfort.

The bright and memorable character of Hitler is played by the actor Alexandras Rubinovas. All other roles are performed by the actors of younger generation - Gintautas Bejeris ir Simona Bladzenauskaite.

Premiere in September 2008

5th Festival of Chamber Performances in Panevėžys (Lithuania), 2009