This week Ryazan had a chance to watch 3 performances from a famous Chekhov's theatrical festival: "The 12th night” by tbe English director Declan Donnellan (17 of April), "Donka” by the famous Swiss director, playwright and choreographer Daniele Finzi Paska (20 and 21 of April) and "A cat that walks where it wants” by Russian Youth Theater (26, 27 April - you still have a chance to buy tickets!).
Actually, I visited our Drama Theatre on the 20th of April and watched Finzi Paska's "Donka” and now I'd like to share my impressions. What did it look like?
Imagine that you find yourself in a surrealistic dream, subtle like shadows and fragile like ice. I mentioned ice and shadows not by chance, they were in the very performance: during the 2-hour dream on the stage the actors demonstrated almost everything one can imagine. The actors were speaking Italian, French, English and even Russian (of course with a charming Italian accent). They were playing the button accordion, tambourine and guitar, they were tap-dancing and showing different acrobatic etudes, they were juggling, presenting shadow-theater, ice-skating. They were even beating ice and pulling water out of the enema syringes on the stage. It all created an awesome eclectic but harmonic performance that can hardly be associated with the banal notion "theater”. It was just another world. P.S. I do recommend you to watch the video below - I guess it'll explain everything))))
Well, there were not so many dialogs at all)) And it was VERY easy to understant actor's English. A lot of phrases were translated by them into Russian (for example the monologue from the video where an actress is standing speaking French and then she throws rose petals on the shoes). And while they were speaking Italian some words (very few, I must admit) that are pronounced like the Spanish ones were also easy to comprehend to get the idea. the only problem for me was French.
I'm amazed! This is the very kind of Modern Art I DO appreciate, like, treasure, enjoy,...! By the way, Rina, was it difficult for you to understand the gist and monologues not knowing the language?!
Well, the plot. First of all I should mention, that it wasn't linear, the whole performance seemed to be a unity of different pieces and symbols that were stuck together by actor's narrating in 4 languages. Then it's necessary to add, that the performance as a part of Chekhov's festival was to be somehow connected with this famous Russian writer. The full title of the performance is “Donka. A message to Chekhov”. So, while watching it we could notice different allusions to some of his works, such as “3 sisters” or “Ward #6”. But on the whole, it was about Chekhov's life. The performance was full of hints at his medical practice (The actors in the white doctor's smocks were running over another actors lying on the stage by a hospital bed – it symbolized the death of the patients), at his terrible disease (red rose petals, red ribbons and the song in Italian dedicated to his sufferings from TB). The Donka itself is Anton Pavlovitch's favorite fishing rod. All these symbols and images were overlapped and interconnected creating the very comprehended narrating.
The clip once again convinced me that THEATRE is a really comprehensive and multiperspective kind of visual arts. The stage space is used alternatively, the stage scenery is empty but functional, the performance in based on non-verbal communication. I like what I have seen. Like MissJane I would like to know the plot itself to make up my mind about it.
