Photo by: zhenya potakh
26.06.24, 10:59 2024-06-26T10:59:38+03:00
The first experience of cooperation was the reissue of the graduation performance of the students of the course Marina Brusnikina and Sergei Shchedrin “Days of Our Lives” based on Leonid Andreev. The difficulty was creating a production for a different space: at the Moscow Art Theater School-Studio we had trees, clouds, scenery and bars that raised and lowered them. The dramaturgy of the performance was linked to the scenography, and in “Practice” there were no bars. In the end, together with the performance artists, we found a solution. Recasting the performance elsewhere proved even more difficult than doing it again, as the performance was already formed. But in the end, the production fit organically into the theater’s stage space.
All photos: images of the work “Mamleev”
I know Mamleev’s stories since school. In high school I listened to Yegor Letov a lot and in one of his interviews he talked about the writer. Later, while studying at film school with Arthur Aristakisyan, they talked about his works. One way or another, the name of Yuri Mamleev periodically appeared. Then, when in July 2023 there was a laboratory of the Brusnikin Workshop in Peredelkino and it was necessary to select literary material, I remembered these stories. And I was hooked by the artistic world that Mamleev created. His stories are very theatrical: many interesting characters (Chicken, Kruglyash, Salmon Man, Vasya Kepchikov, Rats, etc.), magical worlds, in which you immerse yourself in a kind of journey.
I see this metaphysics in the representation of real life, which is invaded by something otherworldly. It would seem like just a communal apartment, but something happens in it that takes the character and the plot to another level, revealing completely new facets. Authors like Mamleev break the usual perception and thanks to this you begin to discover something surprising in everyday life.
In Mamleev’s texts there are many deaths. The question of what comes next is probably the main one. We do not try to interpret the writer’s works, we simply want to transmit them to the viewer, translate them into theatrical language. For a long time we were looking for conditions in which the author’s thoughts, vision and feelings of the world would be clearly felt. For me it is important that they fully manifest themselves on stage.
We didn’t choose the stories based on the cycle they belonged to; it happened by chance. We’ve read almost all of Mamleev’s works that can be found. And then we realized that we couldn’t make the feature films in the way we wanted; we needed a different approach; stories with a lot of philosophy, but without a specific character or story, were also not suitable for the stage. We settled on the one that had the most emotional response from the whole team.
Composer Nikita Lozovsky is the link, the glue of all the scenes. His music turned out to be a guide to Mamleev’s world. The image changes, but Nikita remains, connecting all the stories together. Speaking of sound, each character has a special speed and a grotesque way of delivering lines. The author’s text contains internal music and rhythm, and he wanted to translate it to the stage.
Yes. Theater is the center of life. The performance lasts two hours and during this time an incredible number of events happen. If, according to the plot, a person is hungry, greedy, in love, we should see this clearly on the stage. Emotions literally come to light in a character through the actor. Our reality is deconcentrated; we can walk around the city aimlessly for several hours. But on stage there must be a plastic, sonorous, dramatic, musical, dense and very compressed action that every second drags you somewhere.
It is very important that this is a joint effort. I did not personally select the stories, nor did I write the script or give it to the actors. Together we immersed ourselves in the world of Mamleev. I wanted to find those points where a specific artist connects with a specific story and character. Accurate distribution is extremely important and solves many problems: it immediately creates a flow of energy for both the actor and the entire production.
I think that, in principle, there is no need to think about it. It still seems to me that the spectator comes to the theater not to think, but to receive an impression, to feel something. At least that’s how it works for me. In the theater I rarely follow the plot, much less think about it after the performance. It seems more important to touch the viewer in this sense, not the head and mind, but the heart, the soul or whatever you call it. The brain interferes with perception. I would like to evoke something like a catharsis, something that is unattainable in everyday life. The advantage of theater is that it is continuous contact. Therefore, in an ideal situation, I would like to achieve a super meaning, to excite.
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