Bitef

That was thè officiai explanation. Cióse friends also could not Help me with thè meeting. Maybe that is my personal problem, because I want to meet that man with all my heart. Maybe the problem is in the fact that Sokolov (these are, again, assumptions) has been working on his new nove! for the past ten years and that's why he is in hiding. In that he feels very familiar and understandable -not only aesthetically but ethically.

Katarina Vasenyina

AWRY FORMALISMI OF THE PERFORMANCE "BETWEEN DOG AND WOLF" new performance by Andrey Moguchy In the middle of November (2005), on thè stage of thè Cooperation of Actors ofTaganka thè performance Between Dog and Wolf by thè director Andrey Moguchy opened the 7th NETTheatre Festival. The audience waited an hourforthe performance to begin, which wore out the spectators, but did not ruin the concentration of the actors of Formal Theatre from Saint Petersburg. ln thè left corner of thè stage several awkward, suspicious guys managed to place themselves... One is playing accordion, the other is kneading something with a huge handle in a large mortar, as tali as a man... It's not like he is doing a significant Household work, but-for no reason at all...The third one, lying comfortably on thè apron in thè opposing corner, is saying something slowly, as a recitative... And those few words, that is all in this performance that is left from the text by Sasha Sokolov, The guys seem tobe Russians, but for some reason they resemble those middle-age heroes, as if they really carne down into the Russian Never iand, directly from the canvas of Peter Breugel the Eider, The performance based on Sokolov's novel, in the theatre biography of Moguchy is thè second in a row (so thè director is offen pestered with the question when will his Palisandrija appear) - and thè performance is like something unnatural: Sokolov's text is sticky, like sludge, if you get stuck -you'll drown... The space, we must admit, is appropriate: as soon as thè stage opensfully, many diverse objects are being lowered down from thè top. There are Russian "vaijenkas", and boots, and gigantic ladies, and images - photographs... everywhere you turn you must bump into something, with your arm or leg... the crammed, neglected everyday life... At one moment, when the next shiny projection falls on thè improvised screen, thè next unseemiy guy appears holding a lantern in his hand. The lantern throws strong light on thè video projection so it becomes blurry and faint.The point is clear: there are situations in which light will not make things more visible, but on the contrary, will blurthe thought. And so shall we dwell between dog and wolf in the blurriness of the twiiight. Breugel's paintings transform into Cartoons with movable skaters waving their arms in all directions, and all that looks like a viewfrom a window, outside... timeless... in thè city... on the water, in the fenland... is it the 17th or the 20th Century, is it Saint Petersburg or Amsterdam... People are rustie everywhere. Here - life, there - death. Moguchy's theatre is mysterious, multilayered. Down - snow, a child passes on the sledge, and above, on the roof of a communal apartment- dwelling, someone is putting горе around his neck, someone who is fed up with life. And then skis, skating, directly on stage. Each scene has its own name, and it is being projected onto the screen.This scene is called: skating on thin ice. So, what's left of Sokolov there? What's left is a myth. It means that Sokolov did not disappear. He is"responsible"forthe density of thè script, he guaranaes the density ofthe characters. It is known that about ten years ago Moguchy shook Europe, he was welcomed ecstatically, as a brilliant representativa of the Saint Petersburg new wave. In the years passed he got used to premiering his productions in Europe. And now he is being introduced as a representativa of new European theatre. There, it happens that a point of view can change everything. Abroad, when Moguchy was given an opportunity to make performances in the open, nobody was equal to him and he created grandiose spectacles in which he included tournaments, fireworks... After returning to the traditional theatre "box" he did not abandon his old "Street" habits: his actor banters like a Street entertainer- he notices a book in thè hand of a lady in thè audience, so he runs over, snatches thè book, plays with itfor a while, then returns it... With an invisible thread, the mundane pullsthe lofty, and thegod-given lofty falls into thè mud in a second.The rape scene, thè group sex scene, director stages like an intricate ballet number, and people Handling the man who was hanging on the горе act like clumsy f 0015... It must be said that the Saint Petersburg style is more"awry", but also more rooted into thè culture. The most important thing about it is notto say a word, but transform it, give it a form. It is not by chance that Andrey Moguchy's theatre is called Formal.

Grigory Zaslavski