VIII International Theatre Forum “TEART” will take place in Minsk from 20th September to 16th October with the slogan “DECAPSULATION”. 9 major theatre performances of our time will be shown within the International Program, 10 greatest Belarussian shows will be performed in the showcase “Belarus Open”, and the “School of TEART” will teach how to “hear, see and speak”. Tickets to the most outstanding performances of this autumn are already available at teart.by, and soon will be for sale on ticket counters and websites bycard.by, kupalauski.by, smsbilet.by.
The organizers of the International Theatre Forum “TEART”: Visual and Performing Arts Centre “Art Corporation”, OJSC “Belgazprombank” and Gazprom Transgaz Belarus with the assistance of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Belarus and of the Minsk City Executive Committee.
Largest theatre forum of Belarus traditionally consists of three sections: International Program, showcase “Belarus Open”, and the educational platform “School of TEART”. Theatre groups from Belarus, South Korea, France, Finland, Vietnam, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Belgium and Russia are among participants this year.
“Belarus Open” will open the Forum
The Festival will start from performances of the “Belarus Open” showcase, which takes place from 20th till 24th September. This year 35 theatre groups from all over the country have applied for participation in the program. Ludmila Gromyko, theatre critic and curator, have chosen the best plays of the past years among them. Program includes works of the most outstanding young directors from Belarus: Evgeny Kornyag, Yura Divakov, Aleksandr Marchenko, Dmitry Bogoslavsky, Aleksandr Yanushkevich, and also of theatre productions by the “older generation” – Nikolay Pinigin and Aleksey Lelyavsky, Saulius Varnas and Aleksandr Kozak.
A new version of “The Government Inspector” directed by Nikolay Pinigin, art director of the Janka Kupala National Theatre, and his student Dmitry Tishko will open “Belarus Open” program. The famous Nikolay Gogol’s play was translated to Trasianka (translation by Maria Pushkina) especially for this theatre production. The scenography was made by Marijus Jacovskis, Lithuanian theatre artist, whom Belarusians remember for his previous work with Nikolay Pinigin – “The Seagull”.
Another adaptation of a classic play – “Mann Ist Mann” by Bertolt Brecht – will be presented by director Aleksey Lelyavsky. Theatre show of the Belarussian State Puppet Theatre following the creator of the “epic theatre” assures: “Today there will be an entire human remade – decomposed and gathered, without any fuss, like a machine from old spare parts, without losing, however, anything at all”.
Showcase traditionally gathers the best performances all around Belarus: on 21st September the Brest Puppet Theatre will show “A New Land” by Jakub Kolas directed by Aleksandr Yanushkevich, and on 23rd September the Brest Academic Drama Theatre will present original one-man performance “Path of Mine” performed by Ivan Kirchuk, the leader of the ethnic trio “Troitsa” which was created on the basis of Belarussian folklore (production by Aleksandr Kozak). On 23rd September as well “July” will come unexpected – a one-man performance of the Mogilev Region Drama Theatre. This is one of the key plays of Ivan Vyrypaev directed by Saulius Varnas.
This year Evgeny Kornyag will present in the Belarussian program two of his last works– “Graeae Sisters” and “Concrete”. Each performance of this director is unique: being the author of the idea, working in the physical theatre genre, creating a theatre staging in the process of work with actors, Evgeny Kornyag offers the viewer his own theatre. “Graeae Sisters” is a theatre production without words of the Minsk Region Puppet Theatre “Batleyka”, created on the basis of the myth about three Greek goddesses of Phorcides, living on the edge of the Country of Death. Myth about Orpheus and Eurydice inspired the director to create “Concrete” (Republican Theatre of Belarussian Drama), in the sounding of which Evgeny Kornyag finds loneliness of a modern human, encased in the concrete wall of a city. Both performances will be played on 22nd September.
On 22nd September “The Man from Podolsk” (this play is a Golden Mask award winner in the category Best Playwright), will transfer the viewers from Minsk right to Moscow Police Department. Drama debut of a famous Russian prose-writer Andrey Danilov was staged in the Belarussian State Youth Theatre by Dmitry Bogoslavsky – director, actor, author, who himself is a representative of the “new drama” generation.
Two independent theatre productions were selected to Belarus Open as well. Within the new project “TOK” Visual and Performing Arts Centre “Art Corporation” has created stage performances on the basis of plays by playwright Andrey Ivanov – “Suchilischa” and “Children’scrusade”. This year play “Suchilischa” was nominated for the Russian National Theatre Award the Golden Mask in the category Best Playwright. On 22nd September theatre production by Aleksandr Marchenko will tell what happens when life of the “golden youth” intertwines with reality of an ordinary girl from a college.
On 23rd September – “Children’scrusade”, created by the most eccentric director of our days Yura Divakov. In this theatre performance a real medieval story about children’s crusades turns to reflection on a person’s growing-up, where the first independent choice is a decision to go away to the unknown.
International program starts on 25th SEPTEMBER
The International Program will open with a theatre performance “Wedding” – a modern play by Bertolt Brecht directed by Oskaras Koršunovas. For the Lithuanian director it will be the fifth visit to “TEART”, and it is expected to become unforgettable for theatre-goers: because in this performance cultural accents change depending on the city that hosts “Wedding”.
For example, in St. Petersburg Brecht’s bride married accompanied by the DDT songs and jokes about bascule bridges. Belarussian version of “Wedding” will be played on 25th and 26th September on the stage of the Republican Theatre of Belarussian Drama.
Another frequent guest of “TEART” – Timofey Kulyabin, he is well-known to viewers for performances- numerous nominees for the Golden Mask – “Ivanov” and “Onegin”. A stage performance “Three Sisters” of the Novosibirsk State Academic Drama Theatre “Red Torch” is a true genre parade, where you can find features of a black comedy, a psychological drama and a thriller. A special atmosphere is created by roles performed in the sign language: now Chekhov’s characters don’t hear each other “for real”. One can have a look at the performance-awardee of the Special Award of Drama and Puppet Theatre Jury “For Outstanding Cast” (Golden Mask-2017) on 6th and 7th October in the “MAZ” Palace of Culture.
“TEART-2018” offers three choreographic performances for dance genre admirers at once. On 30th September a South Korean Contemporary Dance Theatre “Modern Table” will show “Darkness Poomba” – a production about travelling musicians. Through sorrow, despair, joy and faith, a group from Seoul will tell about a faraway and unknown to us culture in a traditional Korean dance. Polish Dance Theatre from Poznan will bring two performances. On 8th October on the stage of the Central Officers’ House – a theatre production by a famous Norwegian choreographer, director and a member of the Writers Guild of Norway, Jo Strømgren. A performance “Czterdzieści” (“40”) is multi-layered: it tells a story of a woman, celebrating fourth decade, a story of a whole country and Poznan Dance Theatre. And on 9th October a theatre performance “Harvest” directed by Igor Goshkovsky and choreographed by Iwona Pasińska will plunge the viewers into a pastoral life. Everything in this performance –choreography and music – tell about everlasting connection between a bread grain and soil, a man and a woman, a leader and society, and finally, life and death.
“TEART” invites to appreciate a classic story about three musketeers in a non-classic performance. Athos, Porthos and Aramis, who fell asleep in France of the XVII century, have woken up in the present time in Vienna. The rules are the same in our century. But there’re border guards, politicians, refugees, and businessmen instead of burghers and royalties. A significant place in the musical mockumentary is given to video-materials, documentarily reflecting the real journey of the musketeers in the modern countries of the Central and Eastern Europe. “3 Musketeers – East of Vienna” of the Klokriketeatern Theatre (Helsinki, Finland) and the Ģertrūdes ielas teātris Theatre (Riga, Latvia) directed by Valters Sīlis will be shown on 1st October.
A legendary Finnish director Kristian Smeds is coming to Minsk! On 4th October within the Forum a showing of a stage play “Just filming” of the Finnish National Theatre will take place. An awardee of a major theatre award Europe Theatre Prize has created a performance-confession of love to the art of cinema and invited key actors from Hungary and Estonia – Annamária Láng and Juhan Ulfsak – to perform it. Actors talk about films, show scenes from films. But this all is just a game set against spread out popcorn.
The participants of the Festival d’Avignon will continue the program. On 11th October a Belgian director Anne-Cécile Vandalem will present viewers a political thriller “Arctic” (Das Fräulein Company, the National Theatre of Belgium and the Odeon National Theatre (Paris, France), where the cinema language is used to create an effect of travelling to 2025. Six passengers of a cruise liner appear to be involved in a political plot, and all that remains for them to do is to try clearing it up and getting out of the ice trap.
The second performance from the Festival d’Avignon is “Saigon” of a Theatre Company “Les Hommes Approximatifs”, which will be shown on 15th October. Created in co-production of the French National Theatre in Strasbourg, Odeon National Theatre, the Festival d’Avignon and Vietnam, it will tell stories of “the foreign Vietnameses”, who started new lives in France, where everything turned out to be more prosaically than the way they dreamed of. The theatre performance takes place at a restaurant, which has nostalgic vibes: despite being located in modern France, its atmosphere is close to the one that prevailed in restaurants of Saigon in the 50s of the XX century.
Festival closing – “TEART. “DECAPSULATION” – will take place on 16th October in a Cultural Incubator “OK16”. Actors and producers, scene designers and directors – all the active participants and involved people will gather together on the “TEART” closing to break air-tightness of their own boundaries and to find something in common. We will unveil more information on the event, as well as the program of the “School of TEART”. Stay tuned and follow our news on teart.by