The directors of many theatrical festivals came to Wroclaw straight from the Tbilisi Showcase, where the Georgian theaters presented the plays that will probably be on festival programs for the next two to three years. Unfortunately, the promotion of Ukraine’s theatrical art abroad is up to private individuals. I have failed to ascertain the real reason why Ukraine has never been represented at the Wroclaw festival.
Dialogue-Wroclaw, the fifth International Theater Festival, celebrated the first decade of its activities. The festivities were embodied in the rich program, which attracted theater lovers — from students to masters — from around the world, including Poland, and filled the halls to capacity.
An immanent component of the Polish character is the need to do things that you can be proud of. Dialogue-Wroclaw is an object of pride for cultural institutions, national and municipal authorities, the mass media, sponsors, and, naturally, Polish citizens.
My personal motivation for being proud of the Polish festival lies in the triumph of artistic cognition in the contemporary world.
In Hamlet staged by the Vilnius City Theater, King Lear by the Wspolczesny Theater (Wroclaw), and Bali by the Po Theater (Rotterdam, Holland), power is diagnosed as a defect and a curse. It is the essence and the propelling energy of violence, affecting both those who embody it and those who are forced to yield to it. The world is presented as the interplay of self-sufficient entities — money, politics, and economies. Doesn’t the world economic crisis assign the individual the role of an outsider, while the ministers, CEOs, and economists are the masks that play out the comedy of management for the human masses?
The producers of the first two plays, O. Korsunovas and C. Grauzinis, together with E. Nekrosius (he presented his staging of Dostoevsky’s Idiot) belong to the so-called “wonderful six” Lithuanian producers who are actively presenting their country’s theater abroad. The Lithuanian theater differs from its Ukrainian counterpart in the solidarity of its participants, as well as in the active handling of objects, duplicating the text with metaphors on the stage, and the deliberate and sometimes even intentionally slow character of the action with a focus on details.
In these days A. Mnushkina and E. Nekrosius can afford a five-act, four-intermission play that continues for over five hours. Regarding the latter’s productions, his admirers, present author included, have moved from being enchanted by the constant play of metaphors to predictions. For example, two huge leather-bound chests on the stage are predictably transformed into the two parts of a draw bridge in St. Petersburg. On the other hand, the burning of money, a famed scene in Dostoevsky’s Idiot, appeared to be alien to the author’s style. Rogozhin kicks a wad of banknotes, pushing it toward to the proscenium, as if he were a man who intends to jump off a bridge and is now moving his rock. Smerdiakov puts on big red glasses and gesticulates, signifying burning fire. The cute, but not in the least fatal, Nastasia Filipovna calms down the worked-up men.
Apart from Idiot, the topic “In the face of evil,” which was announced at the previous festival, is addressed by the plays Everything Is Fine between us and T.E.O.R.E.M.A.T. by the TR Theater (Warsaw). They speak about passion that burns love as a candle flame destroys an unwary butterfly. The question is only whether there is love without passion. In the play from Warsaw a grandmother and her granddaughter look, dress, and react in the same way and resemble the two poles of life. It looks as if years have evaporated with all their passions, joys, and sorrows. The protagonist in T.E.O.R.E.M.A.T. is a handsome young man with obvious virtues, such as freedom of feelings and selflessness of desires. He arouses the withered sexuality of mother and father, son and daughter, and even the maid — everybody wants love. He disappears in the same way he came — as a passionate gust of wind. However, he leaves behind a broken glass and the shaken window frames of souls.
The above plays confirmed the current trend in scenographic fashion: from the demonstrative conceptuality of the past years to an image that emerges from a detail that develops along with the action and assumes a final character with the last chords of dramatic action.
Another feature of the contemporary theater is the way actors communicate with the audience: they employ mirrors on dressing tables, speak among the members of the audience and over their heads, use direct dialogue, and even employ, it seemed, satellite connection.
A decade of work for the sake of several minutes that are worth more than all earthly treasures — this is indeed something to be proud of.
