Press releases

MOGILEV, 20 March (BelTA) – The 12th international youth theater forum M@rt.contact will open with a performance “Classmates. The life lessons” by Bayten Omarov Almaty Theater “Zhas Sakhna” on 21 March, BelTA learned from the organizers of the forum.

This is a produciton of Tadeusz Slobodzianek’s play Our Class by director Barzu Abdurazzakov. The tragedy was the 2015 best Almaty performance and got international awards in 2016.

On 21 March, Mogilev Drama Theater will also host Fyodor Volkov Russian State Academic Drama Theater (Yaroslavl) with a Yevgeny Marcelli’s production of A Month in the Country by Ivan Turgenev. The performance got six nominations at 2016 Golden Mask Award in Russia.

The forum will feature two performances by the project "Director's Lab: Tuminas’ Students" under Vakhtangov Theater and Shchukin Institute – the production of Eugene Ionesco’s Exit the King, and No Exit after the play by Jean-Paul Sartre.

The program also features the best performances by Bryantsev Young Viewers Theater (Saint Petersburg), Russian Academic Youth Theater (Moscow), and Golden Gate Theater (Kiev). The stand-up show If I Were Dad by Hayk Petrosyan will be accompanied by live jazz.

This year newcomers to the forum are Caprile Theater (Vienna, Austria); Bremner Duthie (New York, the United States) with “33: a Kabarett” show; and Tbilisi State Academic Russian Drama Theater (Georgia) with highly praised "Kholstomer: The Story of a Horse" based on a story by Leo Tolstoy.

The audience will also see two productions of The Brothers Karamazov – by Director Silva Krivickiene from Theaomai theater-studio (Vilnius, Lithuania), and by Nebolshoy Drama Theater (Saint Petersburg).

The playbill of the festival will traditionally feature dance performances – by Caro Dance Theater (Poland), and by the Belarusian State Youth Theater.

All in all, five Belarusian theaters will partake in the forum, including Mogilev Oblast Drama Theater with The Kreutzer Sonata based on a work by Leo Tolstoy. Mogilev Oblast Puppet Theater will show a one-man performance Blue Blue based on a work by Vladimir Korotkevich.

The Baltic House Festival Theater (Saint Petersburg) will close the forum’s program.

This year the playbill will feature 22 plays by 20 theaters from 10 countries. The project was launched in 2006. In the past 11 years the festival has grown into one of the most important cultural events in Belarus. Over the years the festival has shown 168 performances from 17 countries. The aggregate audience has made up more than 36,000. The founders of the festival are the Culture Ministry of Belarus, the Mogilev Oblast Executive Committee, and the Mogilev Regional Drama Theater.