Belarusian Drama Theatre “moves” to the underground
The house is sold out every night for the performance “Capital Around” of the Belarusian Drama Theatre. The audience applause for several minutes after it is over. Critics say the performance is the best of all the BDT’s performances and one of the best in Minsk. But at the beginning the theatre did not plan to direct it and did not allocate any money for it. Two actors (Maxim Panіmatchanka and Dzyanіs Parshyn) and the producer Volha Saratokіna gathered together and made the performance. They did it in the way not to be ashamed for their work. Then they showed it to critics who answered: we are billing it.
Two guys meet in the subway and their train suddenly stops. The only thing that remains is talking. They talk till they start fighting and then talk about the wedding of one of them that is to take place in a week, and then they drink the champagne meant for somebody’s bride together. And they understand who each other’s brother is. And then they fight again.
The performance was difficult to create. Everyone felt the necessity to express their thoughts but they managed to do it only when they gathered together. The actors say it is their first full expression on the stage.
Dzyanіs Parshyn: “It should have been done long ago. These are our first words on the stage. The whole theatre should have been developping in this direction. And nowadays many theatres have started doing the right thing. They have to continue doing it.
Belarusians are wise people, they are clever but art needs some insanity, youth, a certain explosion! It may even need folly! Our theatre lacks it”.
The performance is adopted for the stage by the play of Syarhey Hirhel. But the author is surprised at what the actors managed to do. They tried to adopt the play for the stage in Moscow but it failed. The actors admitted they did not really like the text when they first saw it. Dzyanіs Parshyn says.
Dzyanіs Parshyn: “When I first read it I was indignant, I did not like it at all and did not want to work with it. I said – find some other actor, I will not work with it, I won’t even think about it! The thing is that it did not look like a normal play, it was more of a sketch. Nothing else.
It was a senseless set of exclamation marks. No wonder that Hirhel was stupefied after the first night. The performance was very different from his play. It was hard, because we expressed something the author did not write about. We played passages that impressed us. But they were not detailed in the play”.
The actors say their rehearsals were very different from the usual ones. They even say it can be called a new way of rehearsing. The actors joke that it may grow into a system some day. The performance is Volha Sarokina’s diploma project. The majority of the performance’s remarkable moments appeared thanks to Dzyanis and Maxim. But they think they would not be able to do it without Volha.
Maxim Panіmatchanka: “We gave her the right to chose out of different variants. We played it over and over and she had to choose. We tried to help her in everything. Her participation was really important. You can be a very good actor but you always need the producer to assess what you are doing.
You can think whatever you like but only the producer can tell you: it will be much better if you stand half a meter to the left”.
The conflict with the material appeared from the start but it led to success in the end – says Maxim Panіmatchanka. The actors had to make a choice while reading every page of the play. Probably that’s why the performance “Capital Around” turned out to be up-to-date and remarkable.
You can listen to the performance’s final song on our web site.
Photo by www.hayinfo.ru
Two guys meet in the subway and their train suddenly stops. The only thing that remains is talking. They talk till they start fighting and then talk about the wedding of one of them that is to take place in a week, and then they drink the champagne meant for somebody’s bride together. And they understand who each other’s brother is. And then they fight again.
The performance was difficult to create. Everyone felt the necessity to express their thoughts but they managed to do it only when they gathered together. The actors say it is their first full expression on the stage.
Dzyanіs Parshyn: “It should have been done long ago. These are our first words on the stage. The whole theatre should have been developping in this direction. And nowadays many theatres have started doing the right thing. They have to continue doing it.
Belarusians are wise people, they are clever but art needs some insanity, youth, a certain explosion! It may even need folly! Our theatre lacks it”.
The performance is adopted for the stage by the play of Syarhey Hirhel. But the author is surprised at what the actors managed to do. They tried to adopt the play for the stage in Moscow but it failed. The actors admitted they did not really like the text when they first saw it. Dzyanіs Parshyn says.
Dzyanіs Parshyn: “When I first read it I was indignant, I did not like it at all and did not want to work with it. I said – find some other actor, I will not work with it, I won’t even think about it! The thing is that it did not look like a normal play, it was more of a sketch. Nothing else.
It was a senseless set of exclamation marks. No wonder that Hirhel was stupefied after the first night. The performance was very different from his play. It was hard, because we expressed something the author did not write about. We played passages that impressed us. But they were not detailed in the play”.
The actors say their rehearsals were very different from the usual ones. They even say it can be called a new way of rehearsing. The actors joke that it may grow into a system some day. The performance is Volha Sarokina’s diploma project. The majority of the performance’s remarkable moments appeared thanks to Dzyanis and Maxim. But they think they would not be able to do it without Volha.
Maxim Panіmatchanka: “We gave her the right to chose out of different variants. We played it over and over and she had to choose. We tried to help her in everything. Her participation was really important. You can be a very good actor but you always need the producer to assess what you are doing.
You can think whatever you like but only the producer can tell you: it will be much better if you stand half a meter to the left”.
The conflict with the material appeared from the start but it led to success in the end – says Maxim Panіmatchanka. The actors had to make a choice while reading every page of the play. Probably that’s why the performance “Capital Around” turned out to be up-to-date and remarkable.
You can listen to the performance’s final song on our web site.
Photo by www.hayinfo.ru
