In 2009, director Sergey Zhenovach opened the small stage of his theater with an adaptation of Andrei Platonov's story. According to the director, the conversation with the audience on the Small Stage should be special. It is important for the viewer to catch not only the words themselves but also what resonates between the words. It should be an intimate conversation face to face. Therefore, he maximally engages the audience in the space of the play's action, arranging simple wooden seats along the walls so that the audience lives in the same atmosphere as the actors and characters. This is the atmosphere of post-war life in the first quarter of the 20th century - with aluminum mugs, boiled potatoes, and black bread (which the audience is treated to before the performance), but most importantly - with the smell of freshly carved wood, which embodies both naturalness and simplicity, and the steadfastness of the most important human values. This simplicity is also carried by the artists. Everything is built on their sincere intonations. There are no bright flashes or sudden decorative surprises. Minimalism and trust in everything. Only in such an environment can one talk about "uncomfortable" topics that are usually kept silent: the complexity of relationships between men and women, despair, everyday inconveniences, and death. Red Army soldier Nikita returns home from the front and finds radical changes: poverty in the house, his mother did not wait for him - only his father meets him. But one must adapt to the new life. Soon, the young man finds a kindred spirit, his long-time acquaintance Lyuba. Lyuba's mother was once in love with Nikita's father, who was put off by her intelligence, and now he curses himself for his timidity. Nikita and Lyuba become close friends. Finding each other in a city wounded by need was their fate, as there was no one else to cling to. From friendship, love is born. But Nikita is brutally wounded by the realization of his masculine inadequacy, and he leaves, losing his ability to speak and wishing to end his life. In despair over his departure, Lyuba tries to drown herself in the river; she is saved, but she falls seriously ill.