The Queen of Spades – Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin

First Performance: January 23, 2026

Praxi Theatre Company

The Queen of Spades, by Pushkin, also well-known from Tchaikovsky’s opera of the same name, constitutes the archetype of Dostoevsky’s works Crime and Punishment & The Gambler. It is a work that moves with subtle irony between supernatural romanticism and a peculiar realism.

The axis of the short story is the transformation of young Hermann from a model of a restrained man into an obsessive gambler. When he learns that the old Countess Anna Fedotovna knows a great secret that will guarantee him a sure win at cards, the young man of limited financial means, who has never risked anything before, does not simply succumb to temptation but makes it his life’s goal to subjugate fate itself.

In his attempt to control the whims of chance, chasing an easy and sure victory on the green felt, Hermann will reveal a self attracted to the darkness. He counts for nothing and displays minimal resistance to the bidding of an all-powerful malice.

In order to extract the secret from the Countess, he uses people with incredible cynicism and leaves deaths behind him.

And as director Stathis Livathinos characteristically notes, his extreme individualism and manic desire to “strike it rich” will weave his fatal demise.

Source: Kefallinias Street Theatre