ENTERTAIN AND EDUCATE?

As part of the One Theatre - One Festival project of the Union of Theatrical Workers (UTW) of Azerbaijan, Baku hosted productions of the children's theatre Our Theatre Festival II. The festival was held at the Zafar studio. It was opened by the UTW chairman Azar Pasa Neymatov. The programme of the festival included four performances. These are the works of young film directors and the artistic director of the Children's Theatre, Intiqam Soltan.

The children's theatre was established in 1988, but in the early 1990s, its activities were suspended due to the well-known tragic events. Later, the artistic director travelled around the city, visiting each actor and returning the troupe under the roof of the premises allocated by the city authorities in the boulevard. Consolidating its position in the status of a repertory theatre, the team received a permanent residence in the village of Qaracuxur (formerly Serebrovskiy), where it is located to this day.

Today the staff of the theatre have their own audience and the status of a state theatre. They have participated in many theatre festivals, including international ones. The average age of the actors of the theatre is 25 years. The repertoire includes performances in different genres: sad comedies, lyrical musical dramas, dramas and pantomimes. This is the position of the theatre and its artistic director. According to his deepest conviction, theatre as an art form should not lose its positions in relation to its audience. This means being able to talk about situations that create problems in society: drug and drug addiction, moral and ethical values, cruelty, violence and love, love and patriotism. That is what should make a man a man. Not all repertory theatres of the city take such a civil position. It seems that Intiqam Soltan sees theatre as one of the most effective ways of emotional impact on the minds and hearts of those to whom all the performances are addressed. And it is young people from 14. It is the most vulnerable age for all sorts of temptations. Those who are on the stage and those who are in the auditorium understand each other perfectly well. Therefore, moral questions and problems of adolescence are the essence and meaning of the dialogue between the audience and the theatre. And this dialogue, judging by the reaction of the audience, is built and has existed for a long time. It is verified by time and demanded by the viewer. Therefore, the artistic director of the theatre is not looking for easy ways and is not currying favour with the audience, trying to appease them with his lightweight pulp comedies. The festival presents the best of the multi-genre performances.

"Games"

Director - Rasad Nuri. Actors - Niyaz Qasimov and Konul Sahbazova. The plot of the story is simple. Two lovers face a test, which happened to many generations before them. Now they are also going through this test. This is a test of ... poverty. It is strange to talk about poverty in our time, and yet ... Both are beginner specialists. There is no money for a luxurious life. And there is barely enough money for an ordinary life! The test of poverty is hard, especially when you are young and want to live a luxurious life today, not sometime later when you are old and have saved money! And the decision comes itself: better to separate. But what to do if the mind says one thing and the heart - another? There is a solution: you can escape into the game! And now they have come up with the role functions of completely different people who first go to an imaginary restaurant and then to an imaginary journey abroad, where they meet on the plane. Then by chance they encounter each other in a queue for a taxi and then at a hotel. And now there are imaginary joint walks on the beach, an imaginary boat and ... love. And it does not matter if the imaginary boat is a bench and the beach is your own apartment. It is impossible to escape from poverty into the game. But it is possible to get away from negativity and find yourself again, recalling and experiencing the joy of getting to know each other! And the conflict is exhausted, because in this world, nothing is more important than love. The actors play their characters with authenticity, forcing us to believe in the reality of the plane, the boats floating on the waves and the hot beach sand. They easily sink into their characters, and, taking the viewers through the twists and turns of the plot, give pleasure with their professional performance. The problem is recognizable and relevant. And this conversation is very necessary today...

"If I was a beggar"

Director - Ilham Ahmadov. Actors - Sahin Kazimov and Kamala Mustafayeva. The story of a young man, too, is associated with a moral choice. He is a child of wealthy parents and has never been denied anything. Jaded life became boring very soon and turned him into a drug addict. This is the only thing that could "save" him from the tedious reality and spiritual solitude, because money, as you know, cannot compensate for the lack of attention, care and true parental love. You cannot pay the child off with money. But you can lose him. And then he will find something to replace the void with. There are drugs and alcohol, and then you can get close to crime. The character of this story almost died from drugs. And he ended up in hospital. But in the hospital, where he ended up, he met a girl. A nurse. And his life gained a totally different meaning and a different sound. She is a person from the real world and was able to bring him back to reality, teaching him to understand that only real life and live human feelings have a meaning and great value. Life can continue if it had a meaning and the desire to go beyond the horizon: always forward. Only forward.

The story is edifying. It has no mentoring and directorial directives. But there is a desire to explore and understand the essence of the problem that is gaining a larger scale in our society, claiming the lives of young people, destroying families and killing the future...

"Hold me"

Director - Intiqam Soltan. Actors - Vusala Basirova and Ruslan Adigozalov. The basis of this tragic and romantic history is a relationship between two people in love who dated secretly enjoying every minute they spent together. Their relationship was chaste. They did not violate moral prohibitions: no kissing or cuddling before the wedding. He is a young man from a poor family and her father is a wealthy man. The couple waited for a favourable moment to be able to legalize their relationship. But a war breaks into their relationship. It destroys not only their plans and ability to be happy, but makes it impossible to live a normal human life. Once in a war zone, they lose both hands. Life is there, but at the same time it is not, like there is no future, which was treacherously taken away by those who need and benefit from the war in whatever land and in whatever time it occurs: in Azerbaijan, Syria, Serbia or Ukraine. There is no future, there is no continuation of life. It is a problem that cannot be dismissed. You cannot pretend it does not exist, closing the door of your apartment.

"Motherland"

Directors - Intiqam Soltan and Aysad Mammadov. Actors - Niyaz Qasimov, Cavansir Maharramov and Rauf Huseynov. Genre - pantomime. Where does the motherland start? And what is this notion about - motherland? Probably you cannot write about it better than Mikhail Matusovskiy in his poems. And many still remember the song of Mark Bernes from the movie "Shield and Sword". The song is touching, heartfelt and sad. And in this simple song there was a poignant truth: your motherland is where you took the first step, where you went to school and where your true friends and parents live. It is the place where you first felt like a personality. But the motherland is also the history of your ancestors and your country. It is a land with its traditions, customs, rituals and cultural memory that is handed down from generation to generation. This is what makes us special and different from other people. All this is represented by our national flag. This performance is about the rise of self-consciousness and a sense of belonging to an ethnic group. The emergence of Turkic roots is painted in blue. Behind this is the thousand-year history of Turkic-speaking tribes. Green is historical belonging to the Islamic religion. And the red colour is the embodiment of the democratic development of society and its willingness to follow the way of modernization. Past-present-future. A reflection of the times and willingness to become one of the links connecting the structure of time, that is to say to become a present that has taken the baton from the past and is ready to pass the baton to the future.

Of course, pantomime is a special genre. And not all actors wield the technique of pantomime flawlessly. But the idea of the play and the emotional state of the actors perhaps compensate for their technical imperfection. At the end of the play, when the anthem of Azerbaijan is played, the actors and the audience experience the same feelings of elation and pride in the fact that the motherland is a much greater concept than a geographical point on the world map.

Result

This festival graphically demonstrated the uncompromising stance of the repertory theatre in relation to its audience. The rigidity of the repertory policy of the artistic director makes it possible not only to talk openly about the moral and social problems of society, but without fawning before the audience, to draw it into the audience, turning it into a kindred spirit and co-creator. So maybe other theatres should also reconsider their position in relation to the repertoire, and finally, determine what functions modern theatre should perform? Entertain? Educate? Enlighten? And what kind of theatre does today's audience need? A theatre that primitively illustrates dramatic material or emotional impact and intellectual provocation? A primitive and boring, or bold and shocking theatre? It is clear that the repertory line of a theatre is determined by the main director or artistic director (by the way, the main director and the artistic director are not the same thing! - Editor). However, the period of their confusion in determining the repertory position of theatres has been dragging on for too long. Today it is impossible to offer the viewer plays about nothing and entertain him with stupid pulp comedies. Not least because the viewer, in fact, is much smarter and more demanding. Today, the viewer needs smart and aesthetically pleasing performances that do not "kill" time, but leave a trace in the minds and hearts. We need performances, which the viewer, leaving the theatre, will remember for at least two more days rather than for five minutes on his way from the auditorium to the wardrobe...