Cheer Up, Dostoevsky

It is five years after the end of the Age of the Internet. The American Metronome has slowed its tempo down a bit, and the American Heart is yearning for answers. Vera - a lost soul thrust into political activism - reunites with her childhood friend James - a depressed bookworm obsessed with old Russian literature; and the two try to navigate their surroundings while re-connecting for the first time in years. Sam - an ex-journalist - turns to political activism to raise the country's awareness of the desperate state of its press. And Gregory - a brilliant and jaded professor who lost everything when the internet collapsed - drinks himself into a stupor as he watches it all unravel.

Cheer Up, Dostoevsky began in 2011, when Alex Bechtel began reading the novels and short stories of Fyodor Dostoevsky. As he read, he knew he wanted to make a musical that was somehow in conversation with this body of work. He made detailed notes on character, plot, theme, and aesthetic. And in the fall of 2014, he created an original story that spoke to Dostoevsky’s writing. 

In August of 2018, Cheer Up, Dostoevsky received its first workshop and public reading.