ART
this is a revolution and a breakthrough, and
I am a witness to that.
I have read that at the beginning of the
20th century, when the work The Rite
of Spring appeared, the audience was
in conflict over the music and ballet. I
also faced this. It’s really scary. Being a
revolutionary is very scary, because until
a certain moment you feel that you are
a provocateur and are responsible for
people who are sitting in the house as well
as those playing on the stage. In the Old
House Theatre the audience was prepared
and accepted this performance, accepted it
very well in fact.
Russia, AKHE – an engineering theatre of
St Petersburg and Moscow, people without
borders recognized by all – people of the
world! etc. The category ‘innovative theatre’ also
has its own audience. So, it was these
refined theatre-goers who came to the
premiere.
Julie: It’s inspiring! Alexander Manotskov came up with an
amazing musical score for this play. It seems
to me that this is an event of significance
not only for theatre, but also for music.
Although the score itself is absolutely not
punk, it is a very complicated professional
musical work. Actors rehearse with notes,
not having any musical education, except
for those who have a music school behind
them. They understand beats, bars, and my
deepest gratitude goes to them – they are
fighters. I could not do this, the process is
tedious for me.
Galina: The amazing masters and the
Golden Mask laureates… That’s who the
real innovators are. They won the award
in 1998, when the Mask was not such a
super-brand, having made a breakthrough
in the academic theatre system. They have
stated that an innovative theatre is not a
marginal theatre, but it is an elite theatre.
In general, AKHE has driven the innovation
award, and this is the experiment.
Julie: Let’s go back to The Snow Maiden.
Of course, the Golden Mask represents
experienced professionals who have a clear
idea about a play. But the audience sees
the play differently, don’t they? How did the
audience accept the play?
Galina: In the Old House Theatre, for
several years the audience has been
refined into one t hat is inclined towards
perception and experimentation. This is
a prepared audience. A part of repertoire
is the normal play, or classics, such as
comedy, ordinary drama, psycho drama,
80
world monitor
Thirteen people are involved in the play.
They strongly adhere to the music. For
people from the streets it sounds like
rapping on metal pans, the rustle of
rubbish. But this is a clear and fast musical
picture. The audience perceives it in
different ways: someone refers to it as
nonsense, someone takes is as a humor,
and the musicians can hear that this is
music played with quality.
The Snow Maiden is an opera, first of all,
so this ‘experiment’ with the music causes
anger among some professionals, since
There was the premiere, and on the second
day experts of the Golden Mask arrived.
In Russia, it happens quickly. And this
raises the performance to another level
immediately. The sense of significance,
importance of the action appears among
actors.
Now I do not follow The Snow Maiden’s
life: whether tickets are sold or how many
people go to the theatre. I hear some
brief reviews that the play was good, and
the actors themselves say that this is a
headline performance.
We had a meeting in Pskov, at the
Pushkin Festival. The city of Pskov and
the festival itself exist in traditions.
Conservative theatre-goers read the
name: A. N. Ostrovskiy, The Snow Maiden,
A. Manotskov – and came for classics,
confident in the reputation behind these
names. Knowing people involved in this
festival, I suppose that they explained
honestly what people were going to see.
One day before the performance, I met
Andrey Pronin (the leading theatre critic,
directing several festivals in Russia). He
loves The Snow Maiden, and is one of the
fans who approved: The Snow maiden must
be! He has written in Forbs about the seven
performances that must be seen. Andrey
has also known about ARTiShock since