THE THEATRE IS DEAD. LONG LIVE THE THEATRE?!

"God forbid you live in the period of changes!" It seems it’s time to recall the proverb that became popular in the late 1990s, but there is no point in that. In an attempt to establish the authorship of the proverb, historians and analysts have determined that, albeit its attribution to the Chinese tradition, it has nothing to do with China indeed. It is assumed that the saying is a product of the Anglo-Saxon tradition of the first half of the twentieth century. But if you ponder it, you may well conclude that the human race is constantly drifting through imaginable and inconceivable changes. Two world wars of the last century, followed by revolutions, nationalization, expropriation, perestroika, pandemic, etc. In a word, there is not a single century that we can associate with the spiritual rise and flourishing of the humankind. All countries and peoples do suffer from the ongoing pandemic. Life seems to slow down depriving people of their usual way of life. And most importantly - the opportunity to feel like people: going to museums, cinemas, visiting exhibitions, theatres, meeting friends and talking to them in real time. The situation with theatres, currently paralyzed by the pandemic, looks sad indeed. For more than a year, actors, directors, artists have been deprived of the creative process, professional activity and communication with the audience. And what about the repertory performances frozen by the pandemic? How long will it take for theatres to reanimate? How long will it take for the actors to return to their professional form? It is sad to celebrate the 148th anniversary of the Azerbaijani theatre under the pandemic lockdown. It is sad to meet the International Theatre Day with closed theatre halls. We talk about the difficulties and problems caused by the pandemic with leading theatrical experts of Azerbaijan: scientists and practitioners. That is, with people who know, observe and analyse the process as direct participants. We asked them to answer two questions: How can the forced downtime affect repertory theatres? What is the future of our theatres?: are they in the process of transition to digital technologies, or will they remain theatres of "people and for people" in real time?

Aydin Talibzade

Professor, Honoured Art Worker of Azerbaijan, Head of the Department of Theatrical Studies of the Azerbaijan State University of Culture and Arts, Doctor of Philosophy in Art History.

“Theatre online is nonsense. Digital technologies, in general, contradict the very essence of theatrical art. For theatre is a ceremony, ritual, participation, co-presence, empathy, joint meditation and prayer, striving for unity in the process of co-creation. If the so-called pandemic does not finally “bury” the theatre, then it will have two ways of returning to life: either it will return to its ritual roots, to the magical light of purification, or it will follow the path of post-dramatic mutation. But in any case, I think that repertory theatre is already a distant past of theatrical art."

Vidadi Gafarov

Doctor of Philosophy in Art Criticism, Associate Professor, Head of the Department of Theatre, Cinema and Television of the Institute of Architecture and Art of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan, Associate Professor of the Azerbaijan State University of Culture and Arts, co-founder and editor-in-chief of the art portal teatro.az

“Theatre is a living and collective form of art. Art of people and for the people. Therefore, we cannot ignore the audience factor, which is an inseparable part of the theatre. Such a downtime, firstly, breaks apart the connection between the components of the collective art; secondly, the staff lose their creative and professional form, because acting is a harmonious psychophysical state. Consequently, an actor who has lost his professional form will be unable to convey the necessary expression on the stage. It is almost impossible to restore professional form in 1-2 months. Thus, even after the opening of theatres, we will not see performances of high artistic level. The audience, on the other hand, lost the habit of going to theatres, and they will not immediately fill the halls.

“In addition, we know that theatre is a space-time art. Since the art accompanied with digital technologies, the so-called virtual art, is not in this category, it means that it cannot replace the live theatre. Therefore, theatre as a form of art will remain theatre for people in real time.”

Chingiz Aleskerov

Theatrical critic and playwright, author of 35 plays (25 of them staged in Azerbaijan), 15 books, 5 screenplays; head of the literature and drama section of the Azerbaijan State Academic National Drama Theatre.

“Theatres have not been operating in Azerbaijan for more than a year. This is a big loss both for the theatres and for the audience. Downtime caused by the pandemic can have a detrimental effect on theatrical processes in general. To return to the previous way of active and dynamic creativity, to resume contacts with the audience at high artistic level so to speak, it will take a lot of time and effort. We first need to actors restore their forms of creative and professional activity. Secondly, we need to revive all repertory performances that have not been performed for over a year. This is a serious problem. The plays live and breathe while they are performed on stage. They die if they are not performed too long.

“As for your second question, theatres must work in real time. Because the demonstration of performances online, where there is a screen between the viewer and the actor, not only kills the nature of live theatre, but also badly affects the work of actors. Demonstration of performances online not only repels the audience, but also kills the meaning of the theatre's nature, kills the very idea of theatre as a revelation. I am sure that the performance, as a produce of living and momentary art, can and should live only in real time - here and now, so to speak. Actors on stage and spectators in the hall are the only form of mutual action and meaning of theatrical action.”

Elchin Jafarov

Doctor of Philosophy in art history, theatrical critic, lecturer at the Theatrical Science department of the Azerbaijan State University of Culture and Arts, co-founder and editor-in-chief of the web-portal teatro.az, head of the literature and drama section of the YUG state theatre, vice-president of the International Association of Theatre Critics.

“This forced suspension of theatrical life will have a very bad effect on the entire creative process. Theatre, as a living form of art, will definitely suffer from the lockdown. Because consistency and stability are very important in the theatre. Prolonged downtime seriously affected both the creative and management bodies of the theatre. By the way, the problem has affected not only state repertory  theatres, which are financially backed by the state, but also private theatre-enterprises, where the nascent art of alternative theatres will suffer profoundly, since it is practically impossible to survive under the conditions of forced downtime, without funds to pay for rent and maintain the team. Before the pandemic, non-state theatre groups such as HUMAN, dOM, Shah ve Mat, Cosmo, inclusive theatre ƏSA, M-theatre, etc. made great efforts to consolidate their positions, and practically kept their life on the basis of enthusiasm alone. I'm afraid the pandemic will be a fatal blow to them. I hope I am mistaken.

“As for the repertory theatres, the pandemic has become, in a sense, a strength test for them, which has shown their position in relation to the problems of finding a sustainable dialogue between theatres and modern society. Most of them exist by inertia. And the forced time-out made it possible to discover that many theatrical personae and the audience were not ready to say that they could not live without theatre, or desperately need the resumption of theatrical activity. With their indifference to the situation, they confirmed that these words meant nothing for them. If you ask me why I make such a statement, I’d say that because it is extremely rare to see in social networks critical statements about the closure of theatres – both from the theatrical staff and from the audience. Yet every day I come across comments about the closed restaurants and gyms. I think this is because theatre, as a phenomenon of art, has ceased to be a lively place of human communication. It failed to be as lively as to maintain a stable interest among the residents of our city. The lockdown confirmed the validity of Peter Brook's statement about the non-existing theatre. It is not about the death of the theatre, which would no longer existed, that’s it. Yet the inanimate theatre is much scarier! Because it doesn’t seem dead, but does not live either, eking out its miserable existence in complete ignorance of how to become necessary for the spectators. In short, the pandemic made it possible to see something that we had not noticed before: not everything is in order in our theatrical sphere. This means that we need to change, we need to go beyond the established, hence the usual forms of interaction with our audience; we need to go beyond our ageing habitats and return to reality in order to at least touch the heart of the society.

“The pandemic has stopped our theatrical art at the line, beyond which the question is: what to be? Some believe that this situation will be the end of the performing arts. Personally, I am not so pessimistic, but I am absolutely sure that in the post-pandemic period the theatre will not be the same as before. Because the pandemic has changed everything: the world, society, people's view on life, interpersonal relationships. The theatre, as a micro-model of society, is doomed to change. Perhaps it will take on completely new forms, but it will always live. Well, as for digitalization, all new technologies are good for the theatre as auxiliary means of expressiveness. By themselves, they cannot replace the theatre. In essence, theatre has always been and will remain a living art, speaking with people about people, living for people within specific time and space boundaries."

Theatre will live!

Post-dramatic theatre... The definition coined by the German theatrical expert Hans-Ties Lehmann and popularise by the Russian director Anatoly Vasiliev in the Russian theatrical space takes on quite real features of the time. Theatre, as an art phenomenon, has become multifaceted. The variety of forms prevent us from defining a single unifying theatrical style. Modern theatre is developing rapidly. It has long gone beyond the established rules. It violated all the canons of the classical balance between content and form, hence presenting to our curiosity something that had already ceased to be a theatre – in its classical meaning – and became a mutated hybrid. Not always attractive and intelligible. So what is it? Is the theatre dead? Not at all! Since its inception, theatre has died and resurrected so many times that the next rumours and assumptions may be premature. Despite the modern diversity of forms, the theatre with its inseparable forms and content, will survive its competitors again. This has already happened. And more than once. Including in our city. Let's remember the period from 1911 to 1920! There were so many different theatres in Baku, so many large and small theatrical forms of different styles and directions, but only one survived. The classic one. Or, if you like, the traditional theatre. There was, there is and there will be a theatre. Always. At least as long as we, persons, bear souls, living feelings and emotions. In other words, Long live the Theatre! Now, and forever and ever...