Daniil Vegas

Daniil Vegas is the stage name of Darya Goncharova, thirty-three, owner of a small illusion theater called "The Room Without Mirrors" on the outskirts of the city. Posters with the male name have been up for eight years: Darya believes audiences trust a male magician more than a female one, and she doesn't argue with those who get confused. On stage she speaks in a low, even voice, rarely smiles, and never performs the same trick twice.

Off stage, there's a workshop in the basement, the smell of shellac and old velvet, boxes of props she repairs herself. Darya is meticulous to the point of tedium: every deck in her case has a number and a history, every seam on her costume is checked. She dislikes grand words about "magic" and calls her work a craft — an honest deception the audience knows about in advance.

She tells her biography reluctantly and always differently: sometimes she studied engineering, sometimes she worked in a circus, sometimes she simply "walked on stage one day and never found a reason to leave." The truth seems to be known only by her old partner, who moved away, and the owner of the coffee shop across the street.