Dina Goder. You will be pleased

You will be pleased
Dina Goder

Publication date: August 17, 2004

Usually, by the end of August, theater critics, who have been tired of sucking events out of thin air during the off season (you have to fill the newspaper pages with something), begin to announce the premieres of the coming season. Like, don’t expect sensations today or tomorrow. I also need to announce something, otherwise you probably forgot over the summer that such an art form exists - theater. But I won’t talk about the premieres, which are not going anywhere anyway. It is more useful for theatergoers to know about upcoming theater festivals so as not to miss something that will not happen again.

In fact, in the capitals the second half of the season is traditionally considered the most festival time. In the spring the Golden Mask takes place, and every two years the shock marathons of the International Chekhov Festival take place. But so far the decision of the expert council on which productions will come to the festival of the best Russian performances has not been made, and the program of the Chekhov theater, which will take place at the end of the coming season, has not been finalized. So I’ll tell you about the festivals of the first half-season.

The main autumn festival has long been considered the St. Petersburg "Baltic House", which takes place in October. Several years ago, the poor but ambitious Moscow NET began to catch up with it (November - early December). And in the most recent years, in September, the “ New Drama ”, born in the depths of the “Golden Mask”, was formed in Moscow. So the capital’s autumn is now also fully stocked with festivals.

The main surprise of the beginning of this season is that this time “New Drama” has moved to St. Petersburg. The reasons for the move, apparently, are financial, but I think that for the second capital, which jealously guards its spirituality, it is most important to see the opuses of young radicals, popular in Moscow, full of swearing, sex and teenage exaltation. And in general, listen to what current playwrights write about. And there you can return to the classics - the eyes will be different.

The main venues of the St. Petersburg "New Drama" are the Baltdom, the Liteiny Theater and the Lensovet Theater. As usual, there are two programs - Russian (it includes productions of plays by domestic authors written over the last ten years) and international (plays by foreign authors staged here or abroad). Details can be found at www.newdrama.ru, www.goldenmask.ru. Naturally, some particularly famous productions do not come to this festival, which is aimed at finding new names. So all participants from abroad are usually dark horses. But in the plays of the international program it is especially recommended to pay attention to two young Baltic playwrights - the Latvian Inga Abele (Riga play “The Iron Grass”) and the Lithuanian Laura Sintija Cherniauskaite (the Chamber’s play “Sliding Luce”). I haven’t seen these productions, so I don’t have my own opinion.

I advise St. Petersburg theatergoers not to miss several very interesting Moscow productions. First of all, the performances of " Theatre.doc " - a very important association for the entire "new drama" movement. They will bring “Oxygen” by Ivan Vyrypaev, a performance that has already traveled the world and received a bunch of prizes. And also “The War of the Moldovans for a Cardboard Box” and “The Big Chow”, which use some of the techniques of “documentary theater”. I like “The Box” (this is a story about homeless Moldovans working in the market) more, it is more entertaining and more complexly conceived. But the hugely successful “Zhrachka” (it parodies the behind-the-scenes life of the “Windows” program) is more provocative and effective. But if you are chaste and can’t stand swearing, you shouldn’t go to “Korobka” or “Zhrachka”. Other Moscow attractions include the Moscow Art Theater's "The Siege" by Evgeniy Grishkovets (a very nicely modernized retelling of ancient myths) and "The Red Thread" by the Center for Drama and Direction - a performance based on the results of ethnographic expeditions around Russia. The playwright brothers Presnyakov from Yekaterinburg, who have come into great fashion over the past couple of years, will be represented at the current drama by a Youth Theater performance from their hometown. He will play the same play, “Playing the Victim,” which will premiere at the Moscow Art Theater during the festival. And the Tolyatti playwright brothers Durnenkov, discovered by the previous “New Drama”, will bring the play “Cultural Layer”. The performance itself looks very amateurish, but the play is entertaining.

“New Drama” will last from September 17 to 26, and “Baltic House” will begin on September 30. The Baltdom program is very strong, so those who are ready to go to St. Petersburg specifically for theatrical experiences will not be left at a loss.

This time there will be two masters at Baltdom. Firstly, the main character of the festival, for which crowds of theatergoers from other cities and even countries travel to St. Petersburg, is Eimuntas Nyakrosius . This time he is showing his Shakespeare retrospective: “Hamlet”, “Macbeth”, “Othello”, which was in Moscow for the 10th anniversary of the “Golden Mask”. And a very recent premiere - “Song of Songs”. The second master is Kama Ginkas. He is bringing not only two Youth Theater performances - "Dreams of Exile" and "Rothschild's Violin", but also several productions by his student directors from the Moscow Art Theater School, which show mainly plays by new authors. So in this sense, “Baltdom” turns out to be a natural continuation of “New Drama”.

The third very important block of the festival program will be performances by directors of the already established middle generation (and in this it has something in common with the Moscow NET festival, which will take place two months later). There is no need for additional explanations here - every theatergoer has heard these names. There will be performances by directors who worked at the Baltic House. Victor Kramer will show a production of “Superflu” together with Italians (this is based on Gogol’s “Marriage”, it was brought to Moscow a year ago). Andrei Moguchiy - “ProTurandot”, released in the spring at the “Shelter of Comedians” theater (they say this performance has almost nothing to do with Gozzi’s fairy tale). Anatoly Praudin - "Singing Ghosts" (this is a poetic performance based on "Poem without a Hero"). Klim - this is his second production at Baltdom - "The Thunderstorm", called "Why don't people fly." And one of the Baltdom regulars will be the great and terrible Ukrainian Andrei Zholdak, who has been the cause of festival scandals more than once. He will bring two whole performances from Kharkov: “The Month of Love” (based on “A Month in the Country” by Turgenev) and “Goldoni. Venice”. Another guest will be Lithuanian Oskaras Korsunovas, the most famous young director in Europe from the post-Soviet space. He will bring “Romeo and Juliet” - the same performance commissioned by the Avignon Festival a year ago, the premiere of which did not take place due to the cancellation of the festival. The interesting things about Baltdom don’t end there, but I don’t want to rewrite the entire festival program...

And finally, the final festival of the first half-season - NET. It must be said that the New European Theater Festival, whose ambitions have always been greater than its financial capabilities, has noticeably gained momentum in recent years, but this time it seems that it will make a qualitative leap. The fact is that NET is now uniting with the dance festival TSEKH and the new children's festival DEPO. The resulting festival of festivals under the mysterious name “Res: public” (with a colon!), although its engine is still NET, as it turns out, has much more possibilities. To begin with, the entire festival program will begin with a grandiose performance by the AXE theater "Sine Loco", brought from Germany only once to St. Petersburg and there received the "Golden Mask" in the "Innovation" nomination. The performance, which in Germany was performed in an abandoned factory, and in St. Petersburg - in the Lenexpo pavilion, in Moscow will take place in the newly built Crocus City Mall. It will be November 28th.

NET itself will begin on December 1 and will last until the 13th. It will open with a new one-man show by Josef Naja, “The Diary of a Provincial.” Then there will be three performances that an impatient theatergoer may already have time to watch at Baltdom - “Romeo and Juliet” by Korshunovas, “The Thunderstorm” by Klim and “A Month in the Village” by Zholdak (they wanted to bring it to NET last year, but then replaced with "Hamlet" - remember what the scandal was?). Digressing for a moment, I’ll say that if one of the Moscow theatergoers does not have the opportunity to go to “Baltdom” at all, then he will be consoled not only by NET, but also by the organizing committee of the Stanislavsky Prize, which at about the same time will bring Nyakroshyusov’s “ Song of Songs."

" AKHE " will arrive not only with the epoch-making "Sine Loco", but also with a small, completely fresh performance "Mr. Carmen" that fits in one suitcase. NET's mascot Evgeniy Grishkovets, who shows something new at the festival every time, will definitely be in the festival program, although it is not yet known in what form. However, Grishkovets is always successful, as they say, “be it a carcass or a stuffed animal.” And Ivan Vyrypaev will show a new project, made in collaboration with one of the German festivals (here’s a link to the “New Drama”!).

And, finally, two foreigners who have never been to Moscow before. The most famous young Hungarian, the brutal and radical Arpad Schilling, will show Chekhov's "The Seagull", unexpectedly for everyone, on a completely empty stage. And - most importantly - Thomas Ostermeier. The organizers of NET tried to bring his productions from the first festival, but the fees that this young, but practically the most famous director in Europe today asked for, were much more than the price of the entire program. Of course, it would not have been possible to bring a well-promoted German (this pleasure costs approximately 200,000 euros) even this time if it had not been for the successful year of German culture. Accordingly, the German Cultural Center covered all expenses. Ostermeier brings to Moscow the hard-hitting high-tech A Doll's House, which this summer, along with three of his other productions (an unprecedented event!), was shown in the official program of the Avignon Festival.

Well, to finish the story about the first theatrical half-season with absolutely fanfare, I will say that at about the same time (as they say - somewhere in November), thanks to the same year of German culture, the great Pina Bausch will come to Moscow. I don't know anything that wouldn't be worth putting off to see her.

As for the current capital’s premieres, we’ll somehow have time.