A scene from the Life and Fate performance, dir. Leo Dodin, Small Dramatic Theatre, St. Petersburg, photo:. Victor Vasiliev
Da!Da!Da! presents Warsaw audiences with a series of 11 special theatre productions, with artists from Moscow and St. Petersburg’s leading stages coming to the Polish capital. The first review of Russian performances in Warsaw kicks off on the 17th of May
The curators of the project, Agnieszka Lubomira Piotrowska and Roman Pawłowski, explain that they are putting the East in the spotlight,
Because it is there, on the rubbles of the Soviet empire, that a new way of thinking about the art of theatre is emerging. We want to show Polish spectators its new, democratic face, which is awakening together with the Russian society, and which engages in reality and breaks various taboos.
The performances will thus tell the story of a nation that is struggling with its totalitarian past, and they will deal with painful, untouched historic themes of the Second World War, Stalinism and antisemitism. They will also attempt to portray the fates of Russian intelligentsia and youth.
The programme of the Da!Da!Da! festival is divided into four parts: Premieres, Big Productions, New Documentary Theatre and Focus: Pavel Prizhko. As part of the Premieres section, Marat Gacalov stages Life Is Beautiful, a coproduction with the Teatr Studio in Warsaw. In the Big Productions section, three major Russian directors present their work: Leo Dodin, Dmitryi Krimov and Konstantin Bogomolov. Staging adaptations of 20th century prose and plays based on classic literature, the directors present Life and Fate by Vasiliy Grossman, Gorki 10 and the politically charged Lear. Comedy, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy. The Focus: Pavel Priazhko section is devoted to the playwright regarded as a contemporary Chekhov. Priazhko lives in Minsk in Belarus, and although he is undervalued and officially unrecognised in his home country, he has garnered great acclaim in Russia, with his first play staged by Teatr.Doc from Moscow.
In a talk with Culture.pl, Agnieszka Lubomira Piotrowska says the playwright's work is quite difficult in reception:
There are more things going on in the stage-direction notes than in the actual dialogues. The descriptions are incredibly meticulous, each gesture is noted and even the thought of each character. That’s what makes it so difficult to stage. The director Dmitryi Volkostrielov has found the key to his work, and they have staged six pieces together already, making a very consonant duo. Something rather extraordinary emerged out of this - the director listened in to the author’s text, a demanding sound score as it were, and he didn’t touch the structure of the text.
Spectators are given the opportunity to watch three performances by the Priazhko -Volkostrielov duo: The Closed Door, which depicts the daily life of shopping centre employees and corporate workers, I Am Free, a photo-drama that is an experimental piece in the form of a few hundred photographic slides, and The Solider, which intertwines theatre and performance art.
The showcase of the new wave of Russian artists also presents two contemporary performances: Sasha Denisova depicts the rock ’n roll generation of the declining Soviet Union in her play Light My Fire, directed by Yuri Muravecky, and Uzbek directed by Talat Batalov presents a difficult emmigrant’s experience.
Along with the stagings, the festival features meetings with authors, discussions and a presentation of new Russian music, as well as a conference celebrating the 150th anniversary of Konstantin Stanislavsky’s birth.
All of the performances are hosted by Warsaw’ s major stages: the Teatr Narodowy (National Theatre), TR Warszawa, Teatr Dramatyczny and the Iluzjon movie theatre. The Da!Da!Da! project is organised by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute in cooperation with the Golden Mask theatre festival in Moscow.
For more information about the project in Polish and Russian, see the ДА!ДА! ДА! website
Editor: Anna Legierska, translated by Paulina Schlosser, 13.05.2013
source: press release