DELIRIUM World Premiere to be Presented at Boston's Calderwood Pavilion
Delirium runs June 18 – July 2, 2026 at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA.
Fresh from international acclaim and following the award-winning success of Our Class, Arlekin returns to Boston with DELIRIUM, a bold new adaptation of Eugène Ionesco's Frenzy for Two, adapted and directed by Igor Golyak. Running June 18 – July 2, 2026 at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA for a strictly limited engagement, Delirium brings together two of the most celebrated international stars Andrey Burkovskiy and Chulpan Khamatova — in a darkly comic, deeply human piece about survival, love, and the fragile architecture of reality.
In Delirium, a couple is locked in an endless argument while the world outside collapses into chaos. As the boundaries between reality and delusion dissolve, Khamatova (“Her”) and Burkovskiy (“Him”) inhabit a space where conflict becomes connection, and contradiction becomes a form of devotion. What begins as absurdist comedy reveals its deeper truth: two people fighting not against each other, but for each other's continued existence.
Directed by Igor Golyak, one of the most inventive voices in international theater, Delirium continues Arlekin's tradition of formally daring, emotionally resonant work. The production reunites Golyak with an international design team behind the company's critically acclaimed award-winning production of Our Class, won the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Revival and Best Director, and the Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Visiting Play and Outstanding Performance by Khamatova.
“Andrey and Chulpan remind us that identity is not what you lose when you leave home, but what you discover you can create anywhere,” said Golyak
Acclaimed screen and stage actors Burkovskiy and Khamatova bring extraordinary depth and lived experience to the production. Both artists, having left Russia in the wake of political upheaval, carry within their work the urgency and emotional truth of displacement making Delirium not only a reinterpretation of Ionesco, but a reflection of the present moment.
A company of immigrant artists, Arlekin continues to create work that explores identity, exile and belonging through a distinctly international lens. Known for productions that blur boundaries between languages, cultures and theatrical forms, the company has earned widespread recognition in Boston, New York and abroad for its innovative storytelling and emotional immediacy.
“As admirers of Igor's singular creative voice, we are excited to work with Arlekin to bring Delirium, Igor's follow-up to his award-winning Our Class, to the stage," said producers Craig Balsam, Patrick Catullo and Thomas M. Neff, who are working in association with Arlekin.
Delirium is theater shaped by urgency — a work that asks what remains when everything else disappears, and whether love itself can be an act of resistance. Delirium runs June 18 – July 2, 2026 at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA.
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