Petersburg and the Idiot

We went to St. Petersburg's acting and directing school and they invited us back for their rendition of "The Idiot."
I thought this production would be 4 hours of pain; instead, it was very entertaining and witty. The exception to this being the 45 minute monologues...in Russian...that I couldn't comprehend. However, I could follow the play pretty well based on their body language and facial expressions. There was one point in the play when the main guy told the bonde daughter that she was nearly as beautifula as Nastacia = it was at this point that I said to myself, "What an idiot!" Hence I got the title of the play finally.
I thought that the set was minimal, but that it was used fantastically. The curtains allowed for multiple stage areas/ scenes at the same time. The use of the doors to run into different areas of the stage was particularly usefull as well. The minimal set was actually advantageous as it made one focus on the acting more-so than the set itself.
I loved when they were all at the dinner table (the main character and the family of the general) and how they were ACTUALLY eating the pears and it wasn't pretend or with a phony sound affect-that was refreshing. I think that the acting was superb for 5th year students and possibly far better than most of the professionals that we have seen thus far. Not to mention that the blocking was fantastic- even when 20 people were on the stage, you could always see everyone's face. ...Plus the director was adorable when he would come in and say, "Thank you all for not leaving!"
Overall, I was very glad that we attended this performance and I feel that it did justice to the St. Petersburg institute of acting and directing.