The basis of the documentary performance were letters of Dmitri D. Shostakovich to I. I. Sollertinsky and Solomon Volkov's book Testimony. The contrast of half-joking correspondence between friends and serious reflections on life we alternated with vocal interludes that complemented the narrative with musical dramaturgy. The play was performed at the Day of Russian Music festival in St. Petersburg as a kind of introduction to the opera Antiformalist Rayok.