A scene from the disturbing and award-winning
"Claustrophobia"
St Petersburg's Little Drama Theater reopened recently and is reclaiming its traditionally unusual role in theater.
Director Lev Dodin's name is almost inseparable from the Little Drama Theater. It was he who opened the theater in 1978 and in the 1980s attracted worldwide acclaim with his stagings of "Home" and "Brothers and Sisters."
Dodin is a professor who teaches his own course at the St Petersburg Academy of Theatrical Art.
He is constantly invited to direct in the West, but he has always refused, opting instead to work in his own country.
"Brothers and Sisters" was written by a young teacher at the theatrical institute after he took his students to the village of Verkola near Arkhangelsk.
The famous writer Fedor Abramov lived in Verkola.
After the play's debut, people all over the world gave standing ovations to the play's peasant heroes in quilted jackets from the northern village of Pekashino, who withstood the hunger and devastation of the Great Patriotic War.
The play itself came under the eye of the Soviet government, and was branded as slanderous and treasonous. However, in 1986, it received a state grant.
The play's appeal has not diminished through the years. Audiences are still sympathetic to the trials of the people of Pekashino.
In the first half of the play, the villagers long for the end of the war -- for peace, for their families to return.
In the second half, the villagers celebrate victory but find that life is not what they thought it would be. Indeed, some characters lament the end of the war and talk about it with nostalgia.
The actors drew on the songs, rhymes and props from the village of Verkola. One actress, showing what a deep conection the actors feel with the village said, "These props are a witness which cannot lie."
Two other plays, "Gaudeamus" and "Claustrophobia," are the works of one of Dodin's former students. "Gaudeamus" was awarded the State Bonus of Russia in 1993.
"Gaudeamus" is, on the surface, similar to a type of army show. The characters get raging drunk and smoke, and are violent, cruel and stupid. The dark and sinister play can be viewed as a metaphor for the coarseness of everyday life.
Like "Gaudeamus," "Claustrophobia" is a metaphorical and tragic farce.
Fear of the crowded space makes the play's heroes destroy the harmonious dazzling white space of the dance hall.
They tear the curtains away, knock out the doorways and pull down the walls, and all of this is done only in order to get away from the horror of life.
Dance students, beggars, orchestra members, soldiers, Lenin's mummified ghost all swarm around the stage in a dreadful but exhilerating display.
Briefly, it can sound confusing, but on the stage it looks energetic and fascinating.
Dodin also presents his version of "The Cherry Orchard," an unusually calm interpretation of Chekhov's famous play.
The heroes are quiet solipsists, and the comedy of their relationships soon turns to tragedy.
The facile, water-color style of the play is also observed in the scenery. On the stage a labyrinth of tall mirrors converts, when lit, into windows with flourishing cherry trees.
Some of the most well-known painters in the country collaborate with Dodin on scenes, among them David Borovsky, Mart Kitayev and Edward Cochergin.
At present Dodin and his students are working on a production of Chekhov's early play "Platonov."
The cast of the poignantly wrenching play "Brothers
and Sisters"