Press releases

MINSK, 3 August (BelTA) – The 6th edition of the International Theater Forum TEART will be held in Minsk from 28 September to 20 October, BelTA learned from the organizers.

This year TEATR will show 22 performances of various genres and forms from 9 countries: Belarus, Russia, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, Germany, France, and Switzerland. The program of the festival consists of three sections: international program, Belarus Open and additional program.

The festival will begin with the Belarusian theater showcase Belarus Open, which will be held from 28 September to 5 October. The event will open with From life of Insects based on verses by Nikolai Oleinikov directed by Svetlana Ben and Dmitry Bogoslovsky (music by Valery Voronov). The program will be continued with the productions based on the Russian classics: The Lower Depths based on a play by Maksim Gorky (Director Igor Kazakov) and The Kreutzer Sonata based on Leo Tolstoy’s same name novel (director Saulius Varnas) from the Mogilev Regional Drama Theater. The national theater program will conclude with Dzyady (Forefathers’ Eve), a Belarusian-Polish production by Pawel Passini. This is a ritual drama after the poem by Adam Mickiewicz produced by the Brest Academic Drama Theater.

Young people will be interested to see the performances about “heroes of our time” who are struggling with the challenges of modern times: Sasha, Take Out the Garbage directed by Dmitry Bogoslovsky based on a play by young Ukrainian playwright Natalya Vorozhbit and Opium directed by Alexander Marchenko - the first theatrical project created with the help of crowdfunding. Of note will be the program of Belarusian performance penAatra(C)tion-VII and a dance performance Subject Talk by Olga Skvortsova who seeks to show the diversity of the Belarusian perfomative art. It is worth noting Belarus 4:33 Belarus. A Sun City of Dreams Point Zero which is based on the novel Minsk. A Sun City of Dreams by Artur Klinov. Working with the ideas of the writer Tanya Artimovich and Anton Sorokin create global and local images of modernity, turning the literature piece into an exhibition-multimedia project.

Puppet shows have again been included in the program of TEATR. Viewers will enjoy the Greek literature classics by watching the production of Aleksei Lelyavsky, the winner of the Russian National Theater Award Golden Mask. The Birds, one of the most popular comedies of Aristophanes, is a must see for dreamers and utopists. This is not the only work of the famous Belarusian puppet theater director in the playbill of the festival: on 4 October the Belarusian State Youth Theater will show The Visit by the Grodno Regional Puppet Theater created after Friedrich Durrenmatt’s novel. Another puppet show Fro by the Brest Puppet Theater is based loosely on Andrei Platonov’s story. The story of separation staged by the chief director of the Grand Puppet Theatre, winner of the Russian National Theater Award Golden Mask Ruslan Kudashov, will touch the hearts of any viewer.

The international program will open on 6 October with the amazing dance adventure called The Roots La by Rochelle choreography center. The show is a perfect blend of electro music, melodies of Brahms and Glazounov, and exceptional hip hop dancers.

‘Nobel productions’ will be a great gift to the Minsk audience. Director Oskaras Korsunovas will bring to Belarus his Krapp’s Last Tape by OKT Studio after Samuel Beckett’s play with Juozas Budraitis in the lead. Director Vladimir Petrovich from Mogilev Oblast Drama Theater will bring his production of Svetlana Aleksiyevich’s work Second Hand Time.

The TEART program will also feature William Shakespeare’s masterpieces to mark the writer’s 400th birthday. The Slovene National Theatre Drama will present Igor Pison’s The Tragedy of Macbeth. Another surprise for Minsk will be Declan Donnellan’s Measure for Measure. The tragicomedy received the Golden Lion at the 2016 Venice Biennale. The play created by the Moscow Pushkin Drama Theatre jointly with the Cheek by Jowl Theatre Company has become one of the most discussed cultural events in Moscow. Lucio is played by Alexander Feklistov, a cinema and theater actor, a holder of the Golden Mask and Chaika Awards.

Theatre Vidy-Lausanne will bring Christoph Marthaler’s King Size play, a tender and melancholic music love story. Full of music is also another play titled as Chopin Without Piano by the Warsaw theater company Centrala. Actress Barbara Vysocka and director Michal Zadara have created an experimental work: they took out the music part from two Fryderyk Chopin’s piano concerts, replacing it with an actor’s monologue.

Well-known Hungarian cinema and stage director Kornel Mundruczo explores human nature showing the world of mentally-challenged people in the play Dementia. Despite its complicated theme, the play is full of humor, dances and songs that take the spectator out of a social drama into an eccentric musical.

The co-production of Staatstheater Hannover and Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen festival The Mission. Memories on a Revolution, based on the play by Heiner Muller, is full of thoughts about the society and its values. The main heroes of the play arrive in Jamaica to spread the ideas of “freedom, equality and fraternalism”.

Winner of St. Petersburg's Highest Theatre Golden Soffit Award Yury Butusov’s City. Marriage. Gogol will close the international forum of theater art TEART 2016 on 19 and 20 October. The Yanka Kupala National Academic Theater will welcome Russian theater stars: Anna Kovalchuk, the winner of St. Petersburg's Highest Theatre Golden Soffit Award for Best Female Actress, Sergey Migitsko, Evgeny Filatov, Alexander Novikov, the winners of St. Petersburg's Highest Theatre Golden Soffit Award for the Best Ensemble Cast.