Periodical: Saratov Region Newspaper Date: 04.12.2008 Author(s): Olga Kharitonova

Creative laboratory dedicated to teenagers and the modern dramaturgy, “4th Height. New Drama. Different theatre”, which took place in the Academic Kiselev Youth theatre for the fourth time already, has finished. It became a tradition for actors to read the text while performing (because they usually rehearse a performance for about several days, not more). So this time the organizers followed this tradition even more strictly than usual. TUZ’s actors together with playwrights Alexey Slapovsky, Oleg Yumov (a young student of Sergey Zhenovach) and Dmitriy Egorov (a playwright from St.Petersburg) presented the audience such plays as “Voya Song”, “Tekkereya Fairy”, “The Winner” and “Incredible Love”. The author of the play “Voya Song” Anna Baturina won the Dramaturgy Contest “Eurasia-2008” in the nomination “A  Play for a Youth Theatre”. And as for the play “Tekkereya Fairy” it was written by Natalya Skorokhod after a fairytale “The Rose and the Ring”.  And in one’s time the famous Youth theatre in Riga, Latvia had folded up after the staging of this play – the premiere show of the “Fairy” was on only once. The autor Alexey Slapovsky was a solo in the presentation of both “The Winner” and “Incredible Love”. In the framework of the laboratory’s creative process there is usually a discussion and an exchange of view points after a performance, and the laboratory’s ideologist Oleg Loyevsky is navigating the discussion and supervising it’s meaningful character. This traditional state of things of the “4th Height” had been interrupted only once – when the young actress Olga Lysenko with the director Dmitriy Egorov’s (alias Danila Privalov, whose play “5-25. Here We Go Again” is in the Kiselev theatre’s repertoire) delicate and competent assistance read at sight and lived out in front of the audience the monologue by 20-year old Yaroslava Pulinovich called “Natasha’s Dream”. The audience stood up and applauded them with sincerity as if following an unspoken agreement. Yaroslava Pulinovich is a young student of Nikolay Kolyada (Yekaterinburg), whose school proves to be of a really high standard. Our theatre’s actress Olga Lysenko was truly inspired by her heroine’s (a 16-year girl from an orphanage) story. In that project the two of them managed to demonstrate how modern theatre can reveal sharp and painful aspects of our everyday life, and convey them by means of tightwad but pure theatrical tools. Properly speaking, the theatre exists for this very kind of emotions, feelings and experience. And by virtue of such events the realization of this creative laboratory gains significance. What interests us now most of all is whether Saratov Kiselev Youth theatre will include “Natasha’s Dream” into one’s repertoire or not, and consequently will there be an opportunity for the audience to see this talented and quite controversial monologue or not.

Oleg Loyevsky, theatrical critic, the project’s moderator (Yekaterinburg):

- It’s not really important to actually know contemporary teenagers to be able to write about them. The world of art, if created naturally, its rules conveyed distinctly and emotionally expressed, will substitute for so called truth about teenagers, which is usually presented by modern drama as a gloomy, creatively unpolished and a non-comprehended material. Some of the authors remarkably deliver youth slang not showing any events and not telling stories. Though it is a writer’s aim to narrate a story.

In the case with “Natasha’s Dream” the actress from Saratov Olga Lysenko and the director from St. Petersburg Dmitriy Egorov created that very type of unseen spiritual essence that is broader than our views on theatre or life. And to my mind this is what we came here to create. By what means? By minimal. What is the theatre?  What on the whole can we offer to the audience except impressions and emotions? We can try and give a thought and sort through the text’s philosophy. But what should we do with our emotions?

I don’t think that any of those who watched the play and were deeply moved will to work to an orphanage, no one will immediately rush to change one’s life. It’s not that clear and plain. I guess the art had been created as a reminder of a huge world of suffering that actually exists, so that we could clearly realize the emotional range of the world we live in. And to my mind the fact that we feel sympathetic improves our world. And when we are steel-hearted and rough the world becomes worse. And even at my time of life I wouldn’t be knocked off this opinion of mine. And the seriousness with which we treat our craft is the only guarantee of improving our world into a better place.

Alexander Sokolyansky, theatrical critic (Moscow):

- I suppose the older audience most certainly remember “Tale of the Troika” (a 1968 satirical science fiction novel written by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky). According to the plot the wizards invented a device that improved each person it was navigated onto: fools started talking sensible things, sycophants showed civil boldness. But as soon as the magic gadget is turned off, its wonderful effect vanishes leaving nothing in the end. It is one of the art’s features. So it goes. It would be too self-confident to think it can change us forever. We were all overwhelmed with delight, because in case of “Natasha’s Dream” a fortunate agreement of the playwright’s, actress’s and the director’s efforts occurred. We had such expressions on our faces as if we’ve had one’s full of cakes. We did it! In my opinion, everyone of those who were present on that first reading of the play, and especially those who rose in applause, will undoubtfully say: the performance “Natasha’s Dream” tree-run, in the way we saw it today, must be delivered to the audience as soon as possible.

Назад в раздел