New Drama in Russian: Performance, Politics and Protest in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus (Library of Modern Russia)

In New Drama in Russian, Julie Curtis brings together an international team of leading scholars and practitioners to analyze the role of New Drama in the post-Soviet era. Since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, theatres, dramatists, and critics have used the genre as a lens through which to explore a wide topics from human rights and crime to sexuality and racism. Through providing analytical surveys of the transnational and outspoken genre alongside case-studies of plays and interviews with playwrights, this volume sheds much-needed light on the key issues of performance, politics, and protest in the post-Soviet world. Cover page Halftitle page Library of Modern Russia Title page Copyright page Contents Contributors Acknowledgements A note on transliteration Introduction Recent developments in Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian drama Russia Ukraine Belarus Notes Part I Russia 1 The story of Russian-language drama since 2000 PostDoc, the postdramatic and Teatr Post The origins of ‘New Drama’ Teatr.doc and others The manifesto of Teatr.doc and its consequences Debates around the ‘postdramatic’ Konstantin Bogomolov’s writing for the stage The outsiders of Teatr Post: Dmitrii Volkostrelovand Pavel Priazhko Experimentation under threat Notes 2 Giving testimony in the face of an authoritarian regime Notes 3 From Stalinist Socialist Realism to Putinist Capitalist Realism Cultural policy in Russia during the 2010s Policy in practice: the case of Kirill Serebrennikov and the theatre Conclusion Notes Bibliography 4 Conversation with Mikhail Durnenkov and Maria Kroupnik (Liubimovka Festival, Moscow, September 2017) Note 5 ‘Class Act’ in Russia and Ukraine ‘Class Act’: historical overview Structure and Organization: ‘Class Act’ in Scotland The aims, values and creative practices of ‘Class Act’ in Scotland and abroad Notes 6 Conversation with Sasha Denisova (Moscow, October 2013) 7 Conversation with Ivan Vyrypaev (Moscow, May 2013) Note 8 Absence on Stage in Ivan Vyrypaev’s July Notes Bibliography Part II Ukraine 9 The watershed year of 2014 Ukrainian theatre in the 1990s Ukrainian drama between the Orange Revolution and the Maidan The impact of the Maidan and Russian military expansionism on theatrical production The birth of a post-Maidan fringe ‘Ukrainian New Drama’ Conclusion Acknowledgements Notes Bibliography 10 The playwright overlooked Olena Apchel and ‘decolonizing the actor’ Teatr Lesi Bad Roads Moscow’s Teatr.doc tour to PostPlay Theatre, November 2018 Ukrainian independent theatre ‘Zaporizhzhian New Drama’ 11 A new ‘dawn’ in Ukrainian theatre Note 12 Stages of change Notes Bibliography 13 ‘Ne skvernoslov’, otets moy’ [‘Curse not, my son’] Anna Iablonskaia and transnational contexts Staging obscenities: The Pagans and the 2014 profanity ban Language, religion and authenticity Conclusion Notes 14 Natal’ia Vorozhbyt’s Viy The cellar scene: locating the Ukrainian subject The interrogation scene: autoethnographic storytelling Lukas’s return home: intercultural acts of kindness Viy in production Conclusion Notes Bibliography Part III Belarus 15 The transformation of the language of ‘New Drama’ in Belarus, as a reflection of a new model of identity ‘New Drama’ in Belarus: the early 2000s Historical context: language as a political field Representation as a way to produce meanings Notes Bibliography 16 Conversation with Natalia Koliada, Belarus Free Th eatre (London, March 2019) Notes 17 Pavel Priazhko: the Text as an Instant Photograph (2012); Conversation with Pavel Priazhko (2011); Essay on Pavel Priazhko’s Methods Extracts from lecture ‘Pavel Priazhko: the Text as an Instant Photograph’, Minsk, 2 June 2012 Tania Arcimovich: Conversation with Pavel Priazhko (2011) Essay on Pavel Priazhko’s methods Notes 18 The artistic space shared by Eastern Slavs, and the ways in which that is created Notes Conclusion Summer of 2019 Russia Ukraine Belarus Notes Recommended reading Index "How and why does the stage, and those who perform upon it, play such a significant role in the social makeup of modern Russia, Ukraine and Belarus? In New Drama in Russian, Julie Curtis brings together an international team of leading scholars and practitioners to tackle this complex question. New Drama, which draws heavily on techniques of documentary and verbatim writing, is a key means of protest in the Russian-speaking world; since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, theatres, dramatists, and critics have collaborated in using the genre as a lens through which to explore a wide range of topics from human rights and state oppression to sexuality and racism. Yet surprisingly little has been written on this important theatrical movement. New Drama in Russian rectifies this. Through providing analytical surveys of this outspoken transnational genre alongside case-studies of plays and interviews with playwrights, this volume sheds much-needed light on the key issues of performance, politics, and protest in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Meticulously researched and elegantly argued, this book will be of immense value to scholars of Russian cultural history and post-Soviet literary studies."-- Provided by publisher