A Poet’s Last Days Captured in Play at Montauk Library

The Montauk Library will present a free performance of “The Past Is Still Ahead,” a play by Sophia Romma based on the life of Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva, a Russian poet who died in 1941 while exiled in Siberia, on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

Inspired by contemporaries such as Akhmatova and Rilke, Tsvetaeva was one of several prominent Russian poets persecuted by the Communist party. The play, which has been performed in Europe, Moscow, and New York City, is set during the final days of the poet’s search for political and artistic freedom in the face of political oppression and personal turmoil. Ms. Romma, a Russian-born playwright, director, screenwriter, and poet, is the producing artistic director of the O’Neill Film and Theatrical Foundation.