The weekend before last, Kyiv saw the opening of a new theater with an unusual name, unexpected repertoire, and in a place which, regrettably, Kyivans have long forgotten about.
From now on, every weekend the Theater of Lights, Lux Aterna, will draw inquisitive audiences with its fantastic, surrealistic images, a combination of sounds, lights, and color. These very components are the actors in Danylo Friedman’s new theater, which opened in the Kyiv Planetarium on Chervonoarmiyska Street.
With its premier performance entitled The Inebriation of Milky Way, the theater, created in 1982, has turned over a new leaf in its history in Kyiv, which once began in Uzhhorod. This theater is the brainchild of Danylo Friedman, art historian, constructivist, synthetic arts enthusiast and author of a number of books, who returned to Ukraine from Hungary. Since 1987, the professional Theater of Lights worked on the premises of the Zakarpattia Oblast Music and Drama Theater. After years of tours, it finally ended up in Hungary, where until recently it worked on the premises of the Hungarian Artistic Fund, D’arts. An exceptionally creative and active personality, Friedman returned to Ukraine with a concept of a permanent Theater of Lights of a new kind. Together with his colleague, lights artist and producer Taras Vorotniak, he invited Attila Kuruts, an expert engineer and lights artist. In Kyiv, a student physicist, engineer, and lights artist, Oleksandr Kasyan, joined them. Friedman and company intend to give up the principles of an extravaganza and will be looking for new forms of synthesis of the drama of lights and sounds. In the near future, an original multi-channel sound system is to be installed in the Planetarium, which will allow the audience to experience an unmatched lights and sounds display under the starlit sky.
The musical score by Vangelis dominated the premier. It enchants and immerses the audience in the long-forgotten world of imagery, associations, visions, and illusions. The technical complex that made such an unusual premier possible was manufactured in the theatrical workshops of Hungary. The images were created using laser beams, holographic objects, and sounds resonating in the dome of the Planetarium. It was worthwhile just to see the children and grownups look at the complex with unconcealed interest after an hour-long performance.
However, the importance of this event is found in that a new personality has come to Kyiv (which, regrettably, has of late seen an exodus of creative personalities) capable of rekindling public interest in the Planetarium. It will be recalled that in its prime, the Planetarium raised whole generations teaching them the basics of astronomy. Now this unique complex has been deserted and turned into a marketplace, in which various Moon Rovers bear an ominous reminder of a once thriving space industry. By contrast, planetariums in America or Canada are open round the clock and with strong proceeds. It is strange that in the epoch of Star Wars, virtually daily space voyages, and teenagers’ insatiable interest in science fiction, a huge complex in downtown Kyiv should be standing idle and not cashing in on the current trends. One can only hope that, with the new theater on its premises, the Planetarium will regain its lost popularity. The more so that Lux Aterna is planning to enlist real actors and Ukrainian composers who will create music for the bizarre ideas of Danylo Friedman.
