Mask of the era

Theater critic Marina Davydova - about the Golden Mask Award, the pain points of society and the threat of censorship

On Friday, April 18 in Moscow will be awarded the theater awards "Golden Mask". In the nominations - dozens of performances . About the most interesting dramatic performances of the competition, about the Golden Mask as a portrait of the theater era, about the theater European capital of Moscow, about the politicization of the theater, the attention of the authorities and the dangers of censorship in an interview with Radio Liberty says theatrical critic Marina Davydova:

Marina Davydova

- There are a number of productions that seem interesting to me, starting with Dodin’s performances, especially the “enemy of the people” , who acquired a completely new sound. It was relevant a year ago, but now the monologue of the protagonist Dr. Stockman, which he pronounces in the second act, in the final, is such a monologue that the majority is always not right, he somehow sounds especially piercing in the current circumstances. From the very beginning, I was a fan of the “ideal husband” of Bogomolov, I am glad that he at least got into the program. I am sure that he will not get anything, knowing what the internal alignment is. As for the Moscow productions, among the nominees-Kirill Serebrennikov’s “Summer Night Dream , and I like him, but, it seems to me that, say, an“ idiot ”, which was also set last season, is no less, and maybe more important and more interesting work.

The monologue of loneliness is that the majority is always not right, in the current circumstances it somehow sounds especially piercing

At the festival, Moscow critics usually watch provincial performances. From these discoveries, I would single out Onegin , which was set by Timofei Kulyabin in Novosibirsk, in the Red Torch theater. I have been following this quite young director for a long time, but somehow here he went to some new level. Hand on my heart, this “Onegin” seems to me more substantial and interesting than “ Eugene Onegin” , say, Tuminas, and this is such a Moscow hit is a beautiful and visually impeccable performance, but by how much it falls into today's spectator, by some threads of tension, which stretch from the scene to the hall, if from this point of view, I will probably give preference to work. Kulyabina.

- Can I predict the success of a particular performance? You can say with a certain degree of probability, who will win?

The portrait of the era still loosen

- Sometimes yes. But in this case, I would not dare, because, firstly, extensive nominations, many positions, and very often a random circumstance turns out to be decisive, something wins with the advantage of one voice. I can say, rather, that I will not get a "mask". Here I have some assumptions. Whoever receives is largely a lottery, frankly, with so many nominees. 10 performances are only in small form, even more of them in large form, and directors are generally almost 20 pieces. Moreover, among them there are real masters, like the same Dodin, Fokin, Zhenovach, Serebrennikov, Butusov, Bogomolov ... In fact, if I were asked to make a portrait of, say, this twentieth anniversary, and this year the “mask” celebrated the 20th birthday, according to the laureates of the award, I would say that this is almost impossible. But if by nominees, then the portrait of the era still looms. Despite the fact that, well, sometimes something worthy did not hit, it is inevitable, and sometimes, of course, it falls, and this year, too, there are quite a lot of some kind of garbage. Nevertheless, in general, it is this nomination list that reflects each specific season and discovers some trends. In the compilation of the nomination list there are fewer accidents than in the definition of laureates. But I think this concerns any bonus, in fact.

- You say that the “mask” is a portrait of the era. Do you like this portrait?

The sensation of the European theater capital in Moscow was born. It is sad if it ends

- Recently, I began to like it more and more. About three years ago, about four years ago, maybe four ... For many years, the nomination lists have been presented mainly by the masters, and some rare intrigues of the other were practically not, the youth at all, and the middle generation was with difficulty breaking through there, it did not notice the expert community. Yes, it may not have been so noticeable, on the other hand. Now we see that, firstly, this is a generationly balanced list, there are completely new names, and some people who experience a creative acme. For the director, in general, the peak is such a situation-it is about 40-50 years, because this profession is not only talent, not only fantasy, it is also energy, the ability to charge themselves, with their ideas, a large number of people. And with age, as a rule, this quality somewhere disappears. This is a rule from which there are, of course, exceptions. And there is a middle generation. I remember with what difficulty the same Serebrennikov and Bogomolov made their way, received the recognition of critics. It was a rather painful process. In addition, the geography of the Golden Mask has expanded quite. We see here performances not only from large cities, such as Novosibirsk, provincial, but also a performance from the city of Lysva "Cloud-Ray" . Unfortunately, I did not look, I was not in Moscow, but they praised me very much. Lysva is a small town, and the fact that the performance is made from there to the national award is joyful. Even until recently, it was difficult to imagine. In my opinion, some positive changes in the Russian theater have happened in the Russian theater in the last years. Some kind of high-quality leap occurred. The efforts and cultural workers affected, who conducted a huge number of all kinds of laboratories, including dramatic, in the province, not only in large cities, such as Krasnoyarsk, Perm or Novosibirsk, but also in small cities. It was affected that some young directing came to these laboratories, and many remained there, tried to do something. Sometimes it ended sadly because of some conflicts with local authorities, as, for example, with director Boris Pavlovich in Kirov. Sometimes it is more or less safe. But one way or another, some kind of mutual enrichment occurred. On the other hand, some new theaters began to open inside the capitals, sometimes they were transformed from the old, like Gogol-Center from the Gogol Theater, sometimes some new teams came to the theater, but the feeling of how to say on slang, it has appeared for about three years, and I have been living in this feeling. The festival of Russian theater life also affected. By the number of festivals, international festivals, we reached almost the first place in Europe. Especially if we talk about Moscow and St. Petersburg. By the number of tour. There was an integration of cultural, theatrical especially life in Russia in a pan -European one. I directly feel how we have become some kind of single cultural space. Again, the number of co -products that began to be done in Moscow. Only over the past year-both Robert Lepage and David Boba releases Hamlet, and Declan Donnalan puts the “measure for the measure”, and the Italian theater, Tandem Richie/Fort, two artist directors work here. The feeling of the European theater capital in Moscow was born, and it remained stable for me over the past few years. It is sad if it ends.

- In Russia, the atmosphere is now significantly politicized. So you said that the play "The enemy of the people" sounds in a new situation. Has the theater become more politicized?

The theater began to fall into the pain points of society

- Yes, by the way, for many years the main message of my criticism of the Russian theater was just that it was a theater that existed as a whole in a kind of flask, that it was like an impenetrable wall from life as such, from its problems and so on. Basically, the whole socially charged drama appeared on very small scenes, such as the Theater. The Dod, Practices, but these are all semi-basement rooms for 30-60 seats. Recently, it all went on big scenes. That is, there was also some kind of breakthrough. The same Gogol Center is increasingly compared with the early Taganka. And the Bogomolov performances on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater, this is a big scene of the main, in fact, drama theater of the country. The theater began to fall into the pain points of society. And this immediately affected the theater itself. Because if you honor the Russian press, you will see that these are all attempts to repressiveness on the part of the state, censorship of cultural space - they mainly concern the theater. The theater unexpectedly again was in the spotlight, as in Soviet times. It's just amazing! I did not think that I would live before. It seemed that the theater of power was absolutely not interesting, because how can one -million television audience, or an audience of cinemas, or even people reading books published with a large circulation with a theater that, by definition, could not see a lot of people? It covers a small part of the population, and this is even in the most developed countries like that. No, it is the theater that is now criticized, and read all these terrible advanced men in the newspaper Culture, see the central channels, in analytical programs, which tells about the foreign policy atmosphere, the terrible Bandera, the Maidan and so on, suddenly the plots are dedicated to the theater. He fell into the pain points of society, fell into the center of attention in general. Even those who have not seen any performances have heard of them, they are talked about. They talk about the theater on Taganka, about the Moscow Art Theater. Theater right in the center of public discussions. This pleases me, but this is a very dangerous situation, because it is fraught with a return, in fact, a direct censorship to the theater. If these nuts are twisted, then their theatrical life will fall as a victim of them, and not something else. That is, for the publishing business, they will take up the film distribution much later, and the first thing that will be censored is the theater. I can say this firmly.