A CONTROVERSIAL PRODUCTION

Troupes of actors from CIS and Baltic countries met at the Baltic House theatre festival for the 11th time. They brought their best works to the St Petersburg audience and the expert commission of critics and theatre journalists. It is pleasing that the International Theatre Festival 'Meetings in Russia' is expanding its borders - theatre troupes from Costa Rica, San Jose and Berlin arrived to take part this year. What's more, a master class for young Russian-speaking actors from CIS countries has been working at the festival for the last five years. The theme of the course changes from year to year. But one thing remains constant: the finale is a theatre performance. This year the master class in movement by Igor Kachayev, a teacher at the St Petersburg Academy of Theatre Arts,  was crowned by a performance of "Variations in Movement on Gogol" which was timed to coincide with the 200th birthday of N. V. Gogol (1 April). This work was shown on the opening day of the festival, immediately after the organizers' news conference for journalists from St Petersburg, Moscow and Baltic countries.

The action itself

Over the years our country has been represented five times at this festival: three times by the Samad Vurgun Russian Drama Theatre and twice by the Ibrus Theatre. In 2001, the Russian Drama Theatre was invited to give a performance of "The Vizier of the Lankaran Khanate", in 2003 - the Ibrus Theatre performed "Like a Lion", "Mixed Feelings" was shown in 2006 (the Samad Vurgun Russian Drama Theatre) and, in 2007 - "The Last Fight of Ivan Bunin" (Ibrus). In 2009 it was the turn of A. Sharovskiy's production of "The Seagull" (the Samad Vurgun Russian Drama Theatre) to participate in this festival marathon. The audience which gathered in the great hall of the Baltic House Theatre watched almost three hours of stage action with bated breath. Unfortunately, the RDT troupe saw representatives of our diaspora only in 2001 - for the first and last time at the festival. The text by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov acquired a new, modern meaning in the performance directed by Aleksandr Sharovskiy via the character of Doctor Dorn (Azerbaijani actor Fuad Poladov). The doctor is a kind of guide between real and unreal worlds - between the inhabitants of an estate and the magical lake which exercises some kind of hold over people. It seems that this power affects Dorn in a different way from everyone else. The doctor, who is professionally required to cure body and soul, in fact acts in the completely opposite direction. In response to Sorin's complaints about his illness and Arkadina's advice to take medicinal water baths, Dorn says indifferently: "Maybe you should go and maybe not." To Masha, who falls at his feet pleading for help, he says with irritation that he cannot do anything, and then he cynically adds that only strong and agile people should survive. He is the centre of universal indifference - an emptiness of the soul which is capable of creating a great space, void of human emotion, around itself, destroying many lives by its inaction and, momentarily gaining energy, moving on to somewhere else,. This is because he has nothing else to do near this magic lake, where the lives of people who are mere objects of observation for him are tragically ruined. Boring! Dorn-Poladov is first amused by the fact that they live in some isolation from each other without feelings of love, or even human affection. But it amuses him in a very bizarre way - through a spiritual boredom and a universal feeling of being drained. This Dorn knows how everything might end… And he feels even more bored as a result. This is why he leaves for two years… for Genoa. After his return, he almost unexpectedly expresses compassion for Arkadina who has been caught up in her own indifference: her son, who had once shot himself, had finally committed suicide. And everything becomes clear: the lake is a paranormal zone. Dorn is its guide. Having retired for two years, he seems to have rid himself of its influence. But here, near the lake, the Shamrayevs, Sorin, Kostya Treplev and Masha and her unloved husband continue to live…

Long applause

Critics noted the original and unusual interpretation of Chekhov's work, which has undergone hundreds and hundreds of theatrical incarnations. The same critics have had to watch quite a few versions, but this was the first time they had encountered one like this! Aleksandr Sharovskiy's production, which is quite unusual, is dramatically different from all the traditional classical versions also in that it is full of quotations and references to the culturological aspects of the classical Russian poetry of the Silver Age and of Bulgakov's prose. This version was so unusual for the well-established literary critics of the last millennium that the performance, which was unusually attractive to the general public, also drove reviewers poles apart on the question: can Chekhov be interpreted in this way today, or not? 

The question turned out to be a rhetorical one, because it is the audience who decides everything in the end. And the audience was unusually attentive and captivated on the evening of the performance. There were many bouquets from the St Petersburg guests, the applause was long and even the charm of Russian actor Roman Gromadskiy, who went onstage together with the organizers of the festival in order to congratulate the director and actors on their successful, though controversial work, did not have its habitual effect on the audience. Usually, when he appears the audience freezes in anticipation of a speech. This time the rapturous and lengthy applause did not subside for long. The actor himself applauded with pleasure, together with the audience, and then he said that he was happy with the creative process in the troupe, which he recognised from the works the theatre regularly showed within the framework of this festival. 

During discussions the following day, the critics observed that a distinctive feature of the 11th International Theatre Festival was its tendency towards non-standard interpretations, including Aleksandr Sharovskiy's production; also the work of Mikhail Bychkov, who brought a performance to the festival based on Moliere's play "Don Juan", with Estonia's Russian Theatre; the production of "Emotions around the Inspector" by Aleksandr Grigoryan from Yerevan  and a modern interpretation by Irina Sokolova-Gordon of Byron's play "Cain" (Russian Scenic Theatre, Berlin). 

According to the leading critic of Russia and Europe, Rimma Krechetova, this shows that, while remaining diverse in genre and staging, theatre acquires common features dictated by a desire to bring classical works to the modern viewer, discovering those "painful" issues which continue to be topical.

… The theatre troupe left with a special diploma, a gift and an invitation to new dialogue in the future. Moreover, the art director of the RDT received an offer to take part in the Chekhov festival in Melekhovo next year - with a new performance and, possibly, a new version. It seems that the Baku director Aleksandr Sharovskiy now has a reputation for being "a true original" in terms of theatrical interpretation. As a rule, such people are not loved and are even "beaten", sometimes too much. For this reason, like no-one else, they provide food for dispute and thought and a pleasant opportunity for intellectual training. What can be more appealing to critics, or to directors of productions themselves? The difference is only in how the process pans out for each of them.