A PROVOCATIVE THEATRICAL EXPERIENCE

Three years ago, theatre “ADO” has suddenly emerged from the mundaneness of our city and has immediately drawn the attention by daring show a naked female character to the audience. The rumours have flown around the city with the speed of light, and the audience rushed to the theatre, which was called “ODA” (a room) at that time. Those who attended their performance have split up: some were complaining calling it the lamest performance ever not even close to the theatrical art, the others found it rather fresh – a long-waited new word in the art, something unusual, unconventional, bold and talented. But neither the professionals, nor the audience could identify the genre of this new endeavor. Everything was revolving around pure emotions, positive or negative opinions. Then, finally, the audience was presented two performances - “Stop” and “White and Black”. The author of both performances is Elmin Badalov – a good fellow who dared try theatrical experiments without any training but with a keen sense of justice, the desire to be heard and the certainty that nothing is inaccessible or impossible for a person with intelligence.

“Stop”

The cast includes Rumiya Aghayeva, Elsa Furtado, Aynur Zaritaj, Nihad Gulamzadeh, and Zaur Hajizadeh. The actors do not utter a single word. The whole plot is built upon physical action. The characters have no names. This is just a crowd. No names since any personal name determines a family, a nation, or a state that the person belongs to. Thus, the characters of this play are the people of the world. And the presented story is the story of the modern world, swiftly flying into the abyss of genetic, spiritual and moral degeneration. This world is ruled by women who prefer same-sex marriage and lesbian relations. They are cruel, ugly, and sometimes ridiculous in their ambitions. But never can a woman replace a man in the society, in the same manner as a neck cannot replace the head on a human body. In fact, the writer, who is also directing the performance, warns the audience with a clear message: the process of monstrous substitution has gained momentum and the humanity is on the brink of degeneration. But one can still do something to prevent the upcoming disaster! Together, we can say stop, if there is no indifferent people in our society. Because we are the only culprits of all the spiritual, physical and moral catastrophes of all times.

 “White and black”

The cast of this performance includes Elmin Badalov, Elsa Furtado, Orkhan Iskanderli, Rumiya Aghayeva, Nihad Gulamzadeh, Zaur Hajizadeh, and Jeyhun Zabitli. This is a story about another defect of our contemporary lives called the drug addiction. There is no more room for halftones in this life. So is in the play. All colors are gone leaving only the black and white behind. Black is the color of evil, sin and crime. White is the color of death. There is no light, no hope for the future. There is no hope for a better world, where debauchery, lust, and spiritual degeneration are the only realities of life. This black and white world is under a total control of money and power. Money is the driving force of human vices and basic instincts. The only few words are pronounced by the character of Rumiya Aghayeva, inviting someone (presumably the paparazzi) to come and film the ugliness of intoxicated rich idiots. There is a lot of provocative scenes that imitate violence, urging the audience to act and be a part of the events. The reaction of spectators is unpredictable. But it seems the team has taken this aspect of performance into account too.

ODA - ADO

The law on theatres allows and supports the creation of alternative theatre groups and non-repertory theatres. The more different theatres, the better. It is important though that they are interesting in their position and understanding of what and why they do something, sacrificing the genius of acting for creative ambitions. ADO is an independent association of creative-minded people, including college students, teachers, artists, and even an employee of the French Embassy, working in various fields in real life. They all are passionate about theatre. It is, in fact, a union of interests. Previously, it was simply called a drama club amateur talents. Needless to say, this definition was pretty straightforward. But once being a part of our everyday life, this reality remains in the past now: there are no culture centres, where all circles and clubs of amateur talents have been registered and the parents could develop the talents of their children absolutely for free with a guaranteed protection of children from the wicked temptations of the streets. Now you should pay for everything including the pleasure of developing creativity of your children. But not everyone can afford it. Therefore, one of the reasons behind the problems referred to in the performances of Elmin Badalov is that the social institutions no longer pay attention to cultural and recreational activities of the children. Alas! However, we often hear talks about the abundance of such theatres in Europe. It is considered to be a positive indicator of cultural development but the subtext is always the same: whatever is in Europe that is good and we have to learn from Europeans. Any question? Of course, no! We must learn indeed. But you need to learn what you are not able to do or do not know. If you had this kind of experience in your social life before, there is no need to repeat well-known truths!

Parallels

The 2500-year-old Theatre has always gone through different periods of crisis usually accompanied by the emerging of theatres tuning to the spirit of the times and nursing the audience. Our long habit of seeking diversion has made us forget the idea of a serious theater, which inspires us with the fiery magnetism of its images and acts upon us like a spiritual therapeutics. And that’s when the theatres with an alternative idea emerged. Like Antonin Artaud’s Theatre of Cruelty. That’s what he wrote back in in 1933: “Everything that acts is a cruelty. It is upon this idea of extreme action, pushed beyond all limits, that theater must be rebuilt. We envisage producing a spectacle unafraid of going as far as necessary in the exploration of our nervous sensibility, of which the rhythms, sounds, words, resonances, and twitterings, and their united quality and surprising mixtures belong to a technique which must not be divulged”. Something similar is present in Elmin Badalov’s endeavor with the only difference that his pursuits miss imaginative ways to identify the reality through the action on stage. As if his only desire is to demonstrate truthfulness and sincerity of feelings on the stage; he lacks the knowledge, skills and understanding of the discipline called “scenic movement”. The stage, whatever it may be, requires artistic touches but not an imitation of reality.

Provocativeness of physical theatre 

The structure of the physical theatre is as old as the world. There is nothing new or peculiar about it. The physical theatre is older than the one to we are so accustomed to thanks to Aristotle. However, compared to traditional and sometimes boring municipal theatres, Elmin Badalov’s endeavor looks rather provocative. It is this outrageous provocativeness that attracts the public attention. These shocking performances blowing the minds full of common stereotypes about morality and traditional values is part of his trick so featly designed to somehow shake up the audience with no interest in theatre. Shocking is one of the tools of trade in contemporary controversial art with its own set of novelties invading the accustomed environment of old forms and provoking new discoveries and debates. Let’s hope that Elmin Badalov’s shocking theatre, which opened the season three years ago with Matei Visniec’s “Do you think they will beat?”, is the first step to create a true physical theatre. A theatre that will retain its provocative nature, being at the same time highly artistic and professional. By all means… After all, sometimes the body language and the precise emotional state of actors express more than the words that traditional actors usually use to hide behind...