"Golden mask" holds the face. The "Golden Mask" holds the face Poor Relatives: Operetta and Musical

In Moscow, at the Bolshoi Theater, on April 15, the ceremony of presenting the national theater award "Golden Mask" following the results of the 2016-2017 theater season took place. Here is a list of winners (laureates) in all categories.

DRAMA / LARGE FORM PERFORMANCE
FEAR LOVE DESPAIR, Maly Drama Theater - Theater of Europe, St. Petersburg

DRAMA / SMALL FORM PERFORMANCE
CHUK AND GEK, Alexandrinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg

DRAMA/DIRECTOR'S WORK
Yuri BUTUSOV, "Uncle Vanya", Theatre. Lensoveta, St. Petersburg

DRAMA / MALE ROLE
Vyacheslav KOVALEV, Ben, Exile, Theatre. Vl. Mayakovsky, Moscow

DRAMA/FEMALE ROLE
Alla DEMIDOVA, “Akhmatova. A poem without a hero, Gogol Center, Moscow

DRAMA/MASTER ROLE
Dmitry LYSENKOV, Svidrigailov, "Crime and Punishment", Alexandrinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg

DRAMA/SUPPORTING FEMALE
Anastasia LEBEDEVA, Manke, Drums in the Night, Theatre. A.S. Pushkin, Moscow

DRAMA
Dmitry DANILOV, The Man from Podolsk, Theatre.doc, Moscow

To the staff of the Gogol Center Theater under the direction of Kirill Serebrennikov - "For the creation of a space for creative freedom and a bold search for the language of theatrical modernity"

SPECIAL PRIZE OF THE JURY OF THE DRAMA THEATER AND PUPPET THEATER
Khabarovsk Theater for Young Spectators - "For the subtle and scenically expressive reading of Leo Tolstoy's story "Childhood" by means of a holistic ensemble of actors."

DRAMA/ARTIST'S WORK
Ksenia PERETRUKHINA, Breath, Theater of Nations, Moscow

DRAMA/COSTUME WORK
Elena SOLOVIEVA, King Lear, Gran Theatre, Novokuibyshevsk

DRAMA/ LIGHTING WORK
Stas SVISTUNOVICH, "Governor", Bolshoi Drama Theatre. G.A. Tovstonogov, St. Petersburg

DOLLS/PERFORMANCE
AND THE DAY LASTS LONGER THAN A CENTURY, Museum of the History of the Gulag and the Creative Association "Taratumb", Moscow

DOLLS/DIRECTOR'S WORK
Vladimir BIRYUKOV, Parrot and Brooms, Doll's House Theatre, Penza

DOLLS/ARTIST'S WORK
Emil KAPELYUSH, Yulia MIKHEEVA, The Snow Maiden, Puppet Theatre, Kostroma

DOLLS/ACTOR WORK
Natalia PAVLENKO, Marina DYUSMETOVA, Ekaterina ROMAZAN, Señora Tepan - "Picnic", Theater of Puppet and Actor "Skomorokh" them. R. Vinderman, Tomsk

COMPETITION "EXPERIMENT"
I am BASE, Uppsala Circus, St. Petersburg

OPERA / PERFORMANCE
BILLY BUDD, Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow

OPERA / CONDUCTOR'S WORK
Oliver von DOCHNANY, The Passenger, Opera and Ballet Theatre, Yekaterinburg

OPERA/DIRECTOR'S WORK
Kirill SEREBRENNIKOV, Chaadsky, Helikon-Opera Theatre, Moscow

OPERA/MALE ROLE
Evgeny STAVINSKY, Mephistopheles, Faust, Novaya Opera Theatre, Moscow

OPERA/FEMALE ROLE
Nadezhda BABINTSEVA, Lisa, The Passenger, Opera and Ballet Theatre, Yekaterinburg

BALLET / PERFORMANCE
SUITE IN WHITE, Musical Theatre. K.S. Stanislavsky and Vl.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, Moscow

MODERN DANCE/PERFORMANCE
IMAGO-TRAP, Provincial Dances Theatre, Yekaterinburg

BALLET / CONDUCTOR'S WORK
Teodor KURENTZIS, Cinderella, Opera and Ballet Theatre. P.I. Tchaikovsky, Perm

BALLET-MODERN DANCE/ WORK OF A CHOREOGRAPHER-CHOREOGRAPHER
Alexey MIROSHNICHENKO, Cinderella, Opera and Ballet Theatre. P.I. Tchaikovsky, Perm

BALLET – MODERN DANCE/MALE ROLE
Nurbek BATULLA, "The Call of the Beginning", the Creative Environment Foundation for Cultural Initiatives and the Theater Project "Stone. Cloud. Bird, Kazan

BALLET – MODERN DANCE/FEMALE ROLE
Anastasia STASHKEVICH, New Girl, The Cage, Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow

OPERETA-MUSICAL / PERFORMANCE
SWEENIE TODD, THE MANIAC BARBER OF FLEET STREET, Taganka Theatre, Moscow

OPERATA-MUSICAL / CONDUCTOR'S WORK
Alexander NOVIKOV, The Nameless Star, Musical Theatre, Novosibirsk

OPERA-MUSICAL/DIRECTOR'S WORK
Alexei FRANDETTI, Sweeney Todd, Maniac Barber of Fleet Street, Taganka Theatre, Moscow

OPERATA-MUSICAL/MALE ROLE
Pyotr MARKIN, Sweeney Todd, "Sweeney Todd, Maniac Barber of Fleet Street", Taganka Theatre, Moscow

OPERATA-MUSICAL/FEMALE ROLE
Anastasia ERMOLAEVA, Yam-Yam, Mikado, Musical Comedy Theatre, Yekaterinburg

OPERETTA-MUSICAL/BEST SECONDARY ROLE
Evgenia OGNEVA, Mademoiselle Ku-Ku, The Nameless Star, Musical Theatre, Novosibirsk

WORK OF A COMPOSER IN A MUSICAL THEATER
Alexey SYUMAK, Cantos, Opera and Ballet Theatre. P.I. Tchaikovsky, Perm

Anna NETREBKO and Yusif EIVAZOV - for a unique creative duet in the performance of the Bolshoi Theater "Manon Lescaut".

SPECIAL PRIZE OF THE JURY OF THE MUSICAL THEATER
Performance "Cantos", Opera and Ballet Theatre. P.I. Tchaikovsky, Perm (Alexey SYUMAK, Semyon ALEKSANDROVSKY, Ksenia PERETRUKHINA, Lyosha LOBANOV, Ksenia GAMARIS, musicAeterna choir and Teodor KURENTZIS - "For artistic integrity and the creation of an innovative form of musical performance by an ensemble of authors and performers."

THE WORK OF A LIGHTING ARTIST IN A MUSICAL THEATER
Alexander NAUMOV, Salome, Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg

COSTUME DESIGNER WORK IN MUSICAL THEATER
Tatyana NOGINOVA, Cinderella, Opera and Ballet Theatre. P.I. Tchaikovsky, Perm

ARTIST'S WORK IN MUSICAL THEATER
Paul STEINBERG, Billy Budd, Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow

The Golden Mask Russian National Theater Award Ceremony was held on the New Stage of the Bolshoi Theatre. The winners were selected from 832 performances staged in more than 100 Russian cities. The decision was made by a two-member jury: the Drama and Puppet Theater, chaired by theater expert and critic Alexei Bartoshevich, and the Musical Theater, led by conductor Pavel Bubelnikov.

In the nomination "Operetta - musical" the winner was "Sweeney Todd, the Maniac Barber of Fleet Street" by Moscow's Taganka Theatre. He received two more awards: the best male role - the actor Peter Markin, the director's work - Alexei Frandetti. Anastasia Ermolaeva was named the best performer of the female role, who played in the production of "Mikado, or the City of Titipu" by the Musical Comedy Theater from Yekaterinburg. The Musical Theater from Novosibirsk took two awards - for the work of the conductor (Alexander Novikov) and the best supporting role (Evgeny Ogneva) in the musical "Nameless Star".

Category "Ballet" the best was "Suite in White" of the Musical Theater named after Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko. The best performance in "Modern Dance" was called "Imago-trap" of the Yekaterinburg theater "Provincial Dances". Production of the Perm Opera and Ballet Theater named after. P.I. Tchaikovsky's "Cinderella" was noted in the nominations "The work of the conductor" (Teodor Currentzis) and "The work of the choreographer-choreographer" (Aleksey Miroshnichenko). The Golden Mask for male and female roles was given to Nurbek Batulla (The Call of the Beginning, Kazan) and Anastasia Stashkevich (The Cage, Bolshoi Theatre).

A scene from Sweeney Todd, the Maniac Barber of Fleet Street. Moscow Taganka Theater. Photo: tagankateatr.ru

A scene from the operetta The Mikado, or the City of Titipu. Sverdlovsk State Academic Theater of Musical Comedy, Yekaterinburg. Photo: rewizor.ru

A scene from the play "Imago Trap". Theater "Provincial Dances", Yekaterinburg. Photo: kudago.com

Best Opera- "Billy Budd" Bolshoi Theatre. The work of the director in the opera is Kirill Serebrennikov for the production of Chaadsky at the Helikon-Opera. The work of the conductor - Oliver von Dohany in the opera "The Passenger" of the Opera and Ballet Theater of Yekaterinburg, and the actress of this theater Nadezhda Babintseva received the prize for the best female role. Yevgeny Stavinsky was noted in the male role - he performed Mephistopheles in Faust at the Novaya Opera Theater. E.V. Kolobova.

Best Dramatic Performance in Large Form was the production of "Fear Love Despair" of the Maly Drama Theater - Theater of Europe (director Lev Dodin), and small form- "Chuk and Gek" of the Alexandrinsky Theater (director Mikhail Patlasov). For the female role, Alla Demidova was noted (“Akhmatova. Poem without a Hero”, “Gogol Center”), for the male role - Vyacheslav Kovalev (“Exile”, Theater named after V. Mayakovsky). Best playwright - Dmitry Danilov ("The Man from Podolsk") of the Moscow "Theater.doc", director - Yuri Butusov ("Uncle Vanya") of the Theater. Lensoviet.

A scene from the opera The Passenger. Yekaterinburg Opera and Ballet Theatre. Photo: belcanto.ru

A scene from the play "Fear, Love, Despair." Academic Small Drama Theater - Theater of Europe, St. Petersburg. Photo: mdt-dodin.ru

A scene from the opera Billy Budd. State Academic Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow. Photo: bolshoi.ru

In the nomination "Dolls" the performance "And the day lasts longer than a century" by the creative association "Taratumb" and the Museum of the History of the Gulag won. They also noted the work of artists Emil Kapelyush and Yulia Mikheeva (Snegurochka, Kostroma), director Vladimir Biryukov (Parrot and Brooms, Penza), actors of the Tomsk Puppet Theater and actor Buffoon named after. R. Vinderman.

Special awards from the jury of the Drama Theater and the Puppet Theater were awarded to the Khabarovsk Theater for Young Spectators and the Moscow Gogol Center. Special Jury Prizes of the Musical Theater - the play "Cantos" of the Perm Opera and Ballet Theater named after. P.I. Tchaikovsky and the creative duet of the play "Manon Lescaut" at the Bolshoi Theater - Anna Netrebko and Yusif Eyvazov. In the "Experiment" competition, the performance "I BASYO" by the St. Petersburg "Upsala Circus" was named the best.

This year, for the first time in the history of the award, two award ceremonies were held. The first took place on March 27, at. In the White Foyer of the Historical Stage of the Bolshoi Theater, 12 laureates were awarded in the honorary nomination "For outstanding contribution to the development of theatrical art in Russia." Golden Masks were awarded to Valentin Gaft, Alexander Shirvindt, Ivan Krasko, Vladimir Recepter, Nikolai Boyarchikov, Alla Pokrovskaya, Galina Anisimova, Vera Kuzmina, Alla Zhuravleva, Anatoly Gladnev and Yuri Bure-Nebelsen.

Photo by Dmitry Dubinsky

For almost a quarter of a century, the Golden Mask award has been bearing its cross. In 1995, the first presentation of prizes took place - then still at the Moscow level. Literally a season later, "Mask" became an all-Russian, and soon turned into a festival, in which performances-nominees tour in the capital, around the country and abroad. In 2019, the Golden Mask will be awarded for the 25th time.

It's hard to be a mask

Like any competition, the Golden Mask exists on a minefield: you can’t hand out awards in such a way that there are no offended and dissatisfied people left. On the one hand, even the nomination for "The Mask" is an enviable line in the resume; on the other hand, there is still a residue from the fact that the cherished porcelain face did not go to you or your favorite.

One can also find fault with the institutional status of the Mask, since its co-founder and main source of funding is the Ministry of Culture. For theatrical figures, cooperation with the Ministry looks like a difficult choice. Nevertheless, it is justified: not even for the sake of the award as such, but for the sake of the existence of the festival, which over the years has developed into a large-scale complex of events. Performances-nominees from the provinces come to the capital, and go get tickets for some of them; Moscow and St. Petersburg productions go to Ulyanovsk and Cherepovets; people get acquainted with the Russian theater in Lithuania and Estonia. The Mask organizes, among other things, film and Internet broadcasts of performances, and if this is not a precedent for the opera and ballet theater in Russia (there is the Bolshoi Ballet in Cinema, there is Mariinsky TV, there are film screenings of the Perm Opera), then dramatic performances now go to a remote audience only as part of the "Mask".

Learning is light

Golden Mask is actively engaged in the development of the professional community from within. Since 2012, under its auspices, there has been an educational project "Institute of Theater". This is a set of activities aimed at the development of young theater specialists, the exchange of experience, the study of modern theater and the development of its new forms and practices.

Within the framework of the "Institute" there are laboratories and conferences for theater critics, theater managers, theater practitioners of all areas - whether it is dance, set design, theater education, puppet theater, and so on. Not only intrashop issues are raised, but also, for example, the problem of audience development; issues related to the social responsibility of the theater are discussed: for example, whether it should and whether it can resist violence in society.

For the projects of the "Institute", "Mask" attracts not only domestic, but also prominent foreign practitioners: for example, in 2018, Bernard Focrule, intendant of the festival in Aix-en-Provence, and Stefanie Karp, intendant of the Ruhr Triennale, were among them.

International Theater Festival "Golden Mask 2018". Theater Institute. Conference "Artistic idea as a business strategy". Photos by Dmitry Dubinsky

Not a single mask

The status of the Golden Mask as the main theatrical award of the country today is unshakable, and the scale of festival activities is unprecedented. Such centralization is expectedly compensated by centrifugal currents.

So, since 2016, with the support of the Ministry of Culture, the festival of the Association of Musical Theaters “See the Music” has been held, which is very similar in format to the masked one in its musical part: theaters from the provinces bring their productions to Moscow, and Moscow theaters declare their performances as festival ones. No prizes are awarded - it's just a review. Of course, this festival does not encroach on the dramatic and experimental theater covered by the "Mask", but it's a start. They are also trying to blur the status of The Mask as an award: in 2016, the Onegin National Opera Prize was established. So far, the scale of these phenomena is not comparable to the "Golden Mask", but any of them can be used, if desired, in order to divert attention from it.

The problem is that in the perception of all these events, the last one counts. While select performances are brought to the "Mask", then to "See the Music" - any that the participating theaters want to present. And the low level of competitors devalues ​​the achievements of leaders and lowers expectations from them. As a result, the scale of what the Golden Mask does is no longer perceived adequately: this is just one of all these festivals, there are so many of them.

iron mask

Be that as it may, the Golden Mask continues to defend its values. At the awards ceremony held on April 15, 2018, everyone was united by one theme - solidarity with Kirill Serebrennikov, Alexei Malobrodsky, Sofia Apfelbaum and Yuri Itin. The director of the festival, Maria Revyakina, who opened the ceremony, and Pavel Kaplevich, who came out to receive an award for the best work of a director in an opera instead of Kirill Serebrennikov (Kaplevich produced his Chaadsky), and Ksenia Peretrukhina, who received a special prize along with the rest of the creators of the play "Cantos", and Zinovy ​​​​Margolin, who presented awards for the best work to artists.

Lighting designer Stas Svistunovich also spoke about freedom when he received an award for the performance "The Governor" - this happened exactly in the middle of the ceremony, and by this moment it was already possible not to explain what kind of freedom was meant. But the mention of Serebrennikov and Malobrodsky sounded especially good in the mouth of Roman Romanov, director of the Gulag History Museum and producer of the puppet show “And the Day Lasts Longer than a Century” staged there, and the director of this performance Anton Kalipanov. “And longer than a century…” became the best puppet show of the season.

Drama/Small performance: Chuk and Gek, Alexandrinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg. The creators of the show. Photos by Gennady Avramenko

Alla Demidova, receiving an award for the best female role in a drama, burst into a peremptory monologue in which she connected the loss of freedom by Kirill Serebrennikov with the loss of influence on the minds of the theater.

“We are all confident that this terrible injustice will soon be corrected,” said Alexei Bartoshevich, presenting a special prize to the staff of the Gogol Center. The general director of the theater Anna Shalashova, receiving this "Mask", delivered a heartfelt speech and emphasized the importance of consolidating the theater community. There is no doubt that the community is united, just as there is no doubt that it is helpless. This helplessness was heard best of all in the request addressed to nowhere to release Alexei Malobrodsky, uttered by Yuri Butusov when he received the award for the best work of a director in a drama for the play "Uncle Vanya" at the Lensoviet Theater, and in the words of Lev Dodin, obviously no longer hoping for anything - Director of the best dramatic performance of a large form "Fear Love Despair".

The entertainment part of the ceremony, staged by director Nina Chusova and stage designer Zinovy ​​Margolin, on the contrary, was an idiotic and cheerful description of the theater of the future - a kind of futuristic performance-educational program for primary school age in line with the Soviet strategy to infantilize the viewer. It was difficult to suspect Chusova of an attempt at irony, since in 2018 too many people practice optimism and glee with or without reason. But the hurray-optimistic holiday did not work out: the theater responded with a theatrical gesture. Mikhail Patlasov, the director of the best dramatic performance of a small form "Chuk and Gek", did not squeeze loud words into the half-minute allocated to the laureates, but called for silence and immersion in oneself - but this silence turned out to be not so much meditative as mourning.

Golden Mask Awards Ceremony 2018 Photographer Dmitry Dubinsky

Quotes about "The Mask"

"... The presentation of the national theater award "Golden Mask" lined up in an integral plot - you can call it civil, political or the plot of the unity of the theatrical community" (Pyotr Pospelov, Katerina Vakhramtseva, Anna Gordeeva, Vedomosti).

“The main Golden Masks this year were given to Kirill Serebrennikov, Alexei Malobrodsky, Sofia Apfelbaum and Yuri Itin” (“Vedomosti” on the Facebook page).

“The main leitmotif of the ceremony was the words of support from its participants to their colleagues, who today are defendants in a criminal case on embezzlement of public funds and are under house arrest” (RIA News).

“The main theme of the award ceremony of the 24th Golden Mask theater award, which was won by Kirill Serebrennikov, Teodor Currentzis, Lev Dodin and others, was support for the defendants in the Seventh Studio case” (Interfax).

“This year the jury of the musical theater in the “Opera” section showed not only wise diplomacy, but also the ability to hear the era” (Maria Babalova, Leila Guchmazova, Irina Korneeva, Rossiyskaya Gazeta).

Many of the awardees considered it necessary to thank the members of the expert council of the award - those who traveled around the country during the previous season and watched performances, from which long and short lists were then compiled.

Chairman: Marina Gaikovich- music critic, head of the culture department of Nezavisimaya Gazeta, candidate of art history

Anna Gordeeva- ballet critic, author of the Lenta.ru online publication, Musical Life magazine, Petersburg Theater Journal

Leyla Guchmazova- music and ballet critic, author of Rossiyskaya Gazeta

Sergey Konaev- theater critic, ballet critic, expert of the archive of the Bolshoi Theater Music Library, senior researcher at the State Institute of Art Studies, candidate of art history

Maya Krylova- ballet and music critic, columnist for the Internet publications Gazeta.ru, Lenta.ru, Musical Seasons, Inspector General

Ilya Kukharenko- musical critic

Dmitry Renansky- music critic, editor of the online publication "Colta"

Alla Tueva- theater critic, head of the literary part of the theater "Moscow Operetta"

Olga Fedorchenko- ballet critic, columnist for the Kommersant newspaper. Saint-Petersburg”, Senior Research Fellow, Russian Institute of Art History, Candidate of Art History

Except for the Petersburgers Renansky and Fedorchenko, all the experts are from Moscow. In addition, at that time, in the 2016/17 season, the expert could still be affiliated with a potential participant in the award (the example of Alla Tueva, who is involved in the musical theater): the current Regulations on the Golden Mask festival, adopted on March 13, 2017, stipulate that the theatrical a critic who is in an employment relationship with the theater cannot be a member of the Expert Council due to a conflict of interest.

What the Regulations do not take into account and can hardly take into account is the personal attitude of experts to the material that they are called upon to evaluate. Even a critic known for his partiality to a particular theatre, director or conductor can get into the expert council of the Mask.

If you look at the expert council in the drama theater and the puppet theater, consisting of 12 people, you can see that there are much more people associated with professional theatrical education: there are none at all in music. This is not surprising: musical education in Russia does not include a deep study of musical theater, and therefore does not allow it to be critically comprehended later, as is required from experts.

Who are the judges

The laureates vying with each other thanked those who perform the most thankless job at the competition - the members of the jury. In fact, 12 people can select for each nomination three, five, ten performances or people out of several hundred, and 9 people in the musical theater. But in order to choose from these three to ten the only one who should receive an eyeless face with wings, you need at least fifteen.

Jury in musical theater:

Chairman: Pavel Bubelnikov- Chief Conductor of the St. Petersburg State Children's Musical Theater "Through the Looking Glass", St. Petersburg

Maria Alexandrova- ballerina, People's Artist of the Russian Federation, Moscow

Ekaterina Vasileva- chief director of the Chelyabinsk Opera and Ballet Theatre, head of the KoOperation laboratory, Chelyabinsk-Moscow

Anna Galayda- ballet critic, leading editor of the literary and publishing department of the Bolshoi Theater, columnist for the Vedomosti newspaper, Moscow

Manana Gogitidze- soloist of the St. Petersburg Theater of Musical Comedy, St. Petersburg

Ilya Demutsky- composer, laureate of the Russian National Theater Award "Golden Mask", St. Petersburg

Sergei Zemlyansky- choreographer, director, Moscow

Mikhail Kislyarov- musical theater director, Moscow

Evgenia Krivitskaya- music critic, professor of the department of the history of foreign music of the Moscow State Conservatory. P.I. Tchaikovsky, editor-in-chief of the Musical Life magazine, Doctor of Arts, Moscow

Yuri Mazikhin- musical actor, producer of the Open Musical project, Moscow

Irina Muravieva- musicologist, music critic, columnist for Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Moscow

Vyacheslav Okunev- chief artist of the Mikhailovsky Theatre, production designer of the Mariinsky Theatre, People's Artist of the Russian Federation, St. Petersburg

Natalya Petrozhitskaya- soloist of the Moscow Academic Musical Theater. K.S. Stanislavsky and Vl.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, Moscow

Kirill Simonov- choreographer, artistic director of the ballet of the Children's Musical Theater. N.I. Sats and the Musical Theater of the Republic of Karelia, Honored Art Worker of Karelia, Petrozavodsk

Elena Cheremnykh- musicologist, music critic, columnist for the Business Online publication, author of the Vedomosti newspaper, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Musical Life magazine, Petersburg Theater Journal, Moscow

Pavel Bubelnikov, Maria Alexandrova, Manana Gogitidze and Yuri Mazihin are themselves laureates of the Golden Mask. Bubelnikov already headed the Mask jury in 2010, and was a member in 2005 and 2016.

Again, life is concentrated around two capitals. And again, if we look at the drama, we see a completely different coverage of the regions - Yekaterinburg, Voronezh, Krasnoyarsk, even Elista appear. Of course, the number of musical theaters cannot be compared with the number of drama theaters, but they are not limited to Moscow and St. Petersburg. It must be hard even for Maska, despite its all-Russian level, to go beyond a certain circle of handshakes.

Best Opera Performance

1. Cantos Opera and Ballet Theatre. P.I. Tchaikovsky, Perm (7 nominations, 1 win, special award)
2. "Billy Budd", Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow(8 nominations, 2 wins)
3. Manon Lescaut, Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow (6 nominations, special award)
4. The Passenger, Opera and Ballet Theatre, Yekaterinburg (4 nominations, 2 wins)
5. "Motherland of Electricity", Opera and Ballet Theatre, Voronezh (5 nominations)
6. Salome, Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg (6 nominations)
7. Turandot, Helikon Opera Theatre, Moscow (8 nominations)
8. Faust, Novaya Opera Theatre. E.V. Kolobova, Moscow (7 nominations, 1 win)
9. Chaadsky, Helikon-Opera Theatre, Moscow (6 nominations, 1 win)

A scene from the play "Billy Bud". Photo by Damir Yusupov

On the wave of solidarity, it would be logical to give the "Golden Mask" to "Chaadsky", staged by Kirill Serebrennikov. But the winner was "Billy Budd" - the verified work of his international team is still several goals higher than what the domestic theater is capable of doing. At the same time, "Billy Budd" is a performance about the absence of freedom, frankly touching on a number of topics inconvenient for the establishment: from abuse of power to homosexual relationships.

But a good decision for the "Mask" could be the award of two performances at once. This could create a resonant precedent for the same Chaadsky. The “Mask” had to refuse to award an award in one category or another at one time. Or the main theatrical award of the country can afford only stinginess, but not generosity?

However, de facto the second award was also given, and received it - in the form of a special jury award - the opera "Cantos": "for artistic integrity and the creation of an innovative form of musical performance by an ensemble of authors and performers." "Cantos" really fascinates with its form: from the passage along the dark corridor to the stage, turned into an auditorium, to the exit from the theater to the bonfires burning in the night. This is how it should be, because only the form affects the viewer in this performance.

Best Performance by a Conductor in an Opera Performance

1. Yuri Anisichkin, The Motherland of Electricity, Opera and Ballet Theatre, Voronezh
2. Oliver von Dohnany, The Passenger, Opera and Ballet Theatre, Yekaterinburg
3. Felix Korobov, Chaadsky, Helikon-Opera Theatre, Moscow
4. Teodor Currentzis, Cantos, Opera and Ballet Theatre. P.I. Tchaikovsky, Perm
5. Jan Latham-Koenig, Faust, Novaya Opera Theatre. E.V. Kolobova, Moscow
6. William Lacey, Billy Budd, Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow
7. Vladimir Fedoseev, Turandot, Helikon-Opera Theatre, Moscow
8. Philip Chizhevsky, "Galileo", Stanislavsky Electrotheatre and Polytechnic Museum, Moscow

Opera/Conductor: Oliver von Dokhnanyi, The Passenger, Opera and Ballet Theatre, Yekaterinburg Photographs by Gennady Avramenko

The newly discovered Weinberg continues to excite the minds - nothing else can explain the victory of Oliver von Dohnanyi over everyone's favorite Currentzis and over William Lacy with his phenomenal fine work on Britten's score. Although it is possible that the jury wanted thereby to encourage the opera The Passenger itself, with its theme of freedom and lack of freedom and resistance to oppression.

Best Direction in Opera

1. Dmitry Bertman, Turandot, Helikon-Opera Theatre, Moscow
2. Mikhail Bychkov, The Motherland of Electricity, Opera and Ballet Theatre, Voronezh
3. Ekaterina Odegova, Faust, Novaya Opera Theatre. E.V. Kolobova, Moscow
4. David Alden, Billy Budd, Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow
5. Kirill Serebrennikov, Chaadsky, Helikon-Opera Theatre, Moscow
6. Adolph Shapiro, Manon Lescaut, Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow
7. Tadeusz Strassberger, The Passenger, Opera and Ballet Theatre, Yekaterinburg

Kirill Serebrennikov

In this nomination, Serebrennikov's victory, in principle, balances the "Mask" that Chaadsky did not receive for the best performance: the director's work is of decisive importance in the success of the production today.

Best female and male role in opera

Among the ladies who competed were Anna Netrebko (the title role in Manon Lescaut at the Bolshoi Theatre) and Mariinsky supernova Elena Stikhina (the title role in Salome). But “The Mask” went not to the dazzling soprano divas in the roles of objectified women, but to the mezzo Nadezhda Babintseva, who in “The Passenger” played the ambiguous role of a camp warden who is in a difficult relationship with her conscience.

In the men's competition, three of the eight soloists were from "Billy Budd", but if too many performers from one performance are declared in the nomination, then none of them will receive the "Mask". So it was with the "Rodelinda" last year, so it happened with the "Billy" now. And if there are only two, as with Faust from the Novaya Opera, then nothing else - so the award went to Evgeny Stavinsky, who sang Mephistopheles.

Yusif Eyvazov, who sang in Manon together with his wife, was also a contender for the Mask. And although both lost in their nominations, the jury considered it necessary to present them with the "Mask", issuing a special prize "for a unique creative duet in the performance of the Bolshoi Theater" Manon Lesko "". That is, in fact, in the nominations for the best roles, there were also two winners each.

Thus, among the main favorites of the award, only "Turandot" of "Helikon-Opera" and Voronezh's "Motherland of Electricity" did not win in any of their nominations - but the fact that the performance of the regional Platonov Festival in Voronezh, thanks to the director's work of Mikhail Bychkov and the set design of Nikolai Simonov and Alexey Bychkov was shown in Moscow.

Best Ballet Performance

1. The Four Seasons, Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg (4 nominations)
2. "Second Detail", Musical Theatre. K.S. Stanislavsky and Vl.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, Moscow (1 nomination)
3. Cinderella, Opera and Ballet Theatre. P. I. Tchaikovsky, Perm (8 nominations, 3 wins)
4. The Cell, Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow (3 nominations, 1 win)
5. Naiad and fisherman. Suite, Opera and Ballet Theatre, Yekaterinburg (5 nominations)
6. The Snow Queen, Opera and Ballet Theatre, Yekaterinburg (6 nominations)
7. “Suite in white”, Musical theater named after. K.S.Stanislavsky and Vl.I.Nemirovich-Danchenko, Moscow(3 nominations, 1 win)

Scene from the performance "Suite in White", choreography by Serge Lifar, MAMT im. Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko. Photo by Mikhail Logvinov

Awarding the prize to Serge Lifar's abstract white tunic "Suite" breaks the chain of decisions behind which one wants to see a hidden political meaning. Perhaps the jury thought that Miroshnichenko's "Cinderella" recalls the cannibalistic Soviet times too fondly.

Best Contemporary Dance

1. “Memoriae”, Project by K. Matulevsky and S. Gaidukova, Moscow
2. “The Call of the Beginning (Alif)”, the Cultural Initiatives Foundation “Creative Environment” and the Theater Project “Stone. Cloud. Bird, Kazan
3. Imago Trap, Provincial Dances Theatre, Yekaterinburg
4. "Collector", House of Dance "Kannon Dance", St. Petersburg
5. "Object in the distance", Dance company "Air", Krasnodar
6. "Silk", Contemporary Dance Theatre, Chelyabinsk
7. "Essence", Dance company "Zonk'a", Yekaterinburg

A scene from the play "Imago Trap". Theater "Provincial Dances", Yekaterinburg

The modern dance presented in the nomination, with all the desire, cannot be pulled onto the political agenda. The victory of "Imago-traps" is a recognition of a worthy level of development of the genre in the regions.

The best work of a conductor in ballet

1. Alexey Bogorad, "Naiad and fisherman. Suite, Opera and Ballet Theatre, Yekaterinburg
2. Igor Dronov, The Cage, Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow
3. Pavel Klinichev, The Snow Queen, Opera and Ballet Theatre, Yekaterinburg
4. Felix Korobov, "Suite in White", Musical Theatre. K.S. Stanislavsky and Vl.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, Moscow
5. Teodor Currentzis, Cinderella, Opera and Ballet Theatre. P.I. Tchaikovsky, Perm

Ballet/Conductor: Teodor Currentzis, Cinderella, Opera and Ballet Theatre. P.I. Tchaikovsky, Perm Photographer Dmitry Dubinsky

Since Teodor Currentzis did not receive the "Mask" for the opera, it is expected that it was awarded for the ballet. At the ceremony itself, Currentzis’ speech did not touch the main line of solidarity with the defendants in the Seventh Studio case, but we remember that Currentzis officially supported Kirill Serebrennikov after his arrest, posting a corresponding appeal on the Perm Opera website and signing an international petition in defense of the director.

Best Choreographer

1. Tatyana Baganova, Imago Trap, Provincial Dances Theatre, Yekaterinburg
2. Yuri Burlaka, Naiad and fisherman. Suite, Opera and Ballet Theatre, Yekaterinburg
3. Riccardo Buscarini, "Silk", Contemporary Dance Theatre, Chelyabinsk
4. Ilya Zhivoi, The Four Seasons, Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg
5. Konstantin Matulevsky, Sofia Gaidukova, "Memoriae", Project by K. Matulevsky and S. Gaidukova, Moscow
6. Alexei Miroshnichenko, Cinderella, Opera and Ballet Theatre. P.I. Tchaikovsky, Perm
7. Ksenia Mikheeva, Collector, Kannon Dance House, St. Petersburg
8. Marcel Nuriev, "The Call of the Beginning", the Creative Environment Foundation for Cultural Initiatives and the Theater Project "Stone. Cloud. Bird, Kazan
9. Vyacheslav Samodurov, The Snow Queen, Opera and Ballet Theatre, Yekaterinburg
10. Oleg Stepanov, Alexey Torgunakov, "Object in the distance", Dance company "Air", Krasnodar
11. Anna Shchekleina, Alexander Frolov, "Essence", Dance Company "Zonk'a", Yekaterinburg

Where the experts inflated the list, including everything from Yuri Burlaka's neat reconstruction to Marcel Nureyev's breakdancing experiments with the Tatar alphabet (it seems that he is not a relative after all), the jury settled on the typical neoclassical Alexei Miroshnichenko.

Best Female and Male Role in Ballet/Contemporary Dance

Competed mainly artists from the Perm "Cinderella", Yekaterinburg "Naiads" and "Snow Queen". "Masks" were given to Anastasia Stashkevich for the part of the New Girl in Jerome Robbins' ballet "The Cage", staged at the Bolshoi Theater, and Nurbek Batulla, the only performer in Marcel Nureyev's Kazan performance "The Call of the Beginning".

In general, this time the topical agenda was much less reflected in the dance. Whether it will be next year, when "Mask" will have to deal with "Nureyev" by Serebrennikov.

Poor Relatives: Operetta and Musical

In the light genre, the traditional lack of fish: the musical does not take root in Russia, for the life of me. Something organically lacks both the public and the audience. As a result, only two performances by the young director Alexei Frandetti from different parts of the country compete with each other: the classic operetta by Gilbert and Sullivan "The Mikado", staged at the Musical Comedy Theater in Yekaterinburg, against the classic Broadway musical "Sweeney Todd" by Stephen Sondheim at the Moscow Theater on Taganka.

As a result, "Sweeney Todd" took "Masks" for the best performance, the best work of the director and the best male role (Petr Markin), "The Mikado" won in the nomination for the best female role (Anastasia Ermolaeva), and the other two awards went to the "Nameless Star" staged by Philipp Razenkov at the Musical Theater of Novosibirsk: Alexander Novikov was awarded for the best work of a conductor, Evgenia Ogneva - for the best supporting role. In total, the expert council shortlisted only five performances; without "Masks" were "The Ugly Duckling" of the St. Petersburg theater "Carambol" and "Princess of the Circus" of the Moscow Musical Theater. The work of the composer in the musical theater: Alexei Syumak, "Cantos", Opera and Ballet Theater. P.I. Tchaikovsky, the Prize is presented by Leonid Desyatnikov. Perm Photographer Dmitry Dubinsky

There has never been such a gathering of composers at the Golden Mask award ceremony: even The Drillers, “an opera series in five evenings and six composers,” were nominated in 2016 for individual episodes – and far from all.

It is difficult to say that some work was stronger and brighter - the top selection of composers participated in the Electrotheatre project, Manotskov and Vasilyev also worked very hard. In general, “The Mask” could make a separate nomination for musical performances for children: this subgenre lacks visibility, it comes to the attention of serious criticism only when such masters as Artem Vasiliev and Vyacheslav Samodurov take it - and after all, new children's performances regularly and everywhere.

Aleksey Syumak, who defeated such strong competitors, wrote, strictly speaking, not an “opera for choir and solo violin”, as Cantos is entitled, but rather a cantata or a work of the “experimental” category. But today there is an opinion that belonging to the opera genre is established by the composer himself.

Best Art Direction in Musical Theater

1. Ethel Ioshpa, "Faust", New Opera. E.V. Kolobova, Moscow
2. Monica Pormale, Salome, Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg
3. Ksenia Peretrukhina, Cantos, Opera and Ballet Theatre. P.I. Tchaikovsky, Perm
4. Alona Pikalova, Cinderella, Opera and Ballet Theatre. P.I. Tchaikovsky, Perm
5. Nikolay Simonov, Alexey Bychkov, The Motherland of Electricity, Opera and Ballet Theatre, Voronezh
6. Paul Steinberg, Billy Budd, Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow
7. Evgeny Terekhov, "Sweeney Todd, Maniac Barber of Fleet Street", Taganka Theatre, Moscow
8. Alexey Tregubov, Chaadsky, Helikon-Opera Theatre, Moscow

The Music Review analyzed Paul Steinberg's set design in Billy Budd in detail: nothing pretty, nothing ugly, nothing random; in fact, the ideal work is the stage embodiment of a floating Gulag. In general, the trend among the nominees is meaningful, multi-valued scenography: this was the case in Chaadsky, and in Manon Lescaut, and in Salome, and in Turandot.

Best Musical Theater Costume Design

1. Yulia Vetrova, The Motherland of Electricity, Opera and Ballet Theatre, Voronezh
2. Kamelia Kuu, Turandot, Helikon-Opera Theatre, Moscow
3. Lesha Lobanov, Cantos, Opera and Ballet Theatre. P.I. Tchaikovsky, Perm
4. Oleg Molchanov, The Ugly Duckling, Carambol Theatre, St. Petersburg
5. Tatiana Noginova, Cinderella, Opera and Ballet Theatre. P.I. Tchaikovsky, Perm
6. Kirill Serebrennikov, Chaadsky, Helikon-Opera Theatre, Moscow
7. Maria Tregubova, Manon Lescaut, Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow
8. Elena Turchaninova, The Nameless Star, Musical Theatre, Novosibirsk
9. Constance Hoffman, Billy Budd, Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow

Constance Hoffman, with her prison overalls and guard breeches, should have been given the prize here, but the jury preferred to encourage the titanic work of Tatyana Noginova, who created a kaleidoscope of costumes for the Perm Cinderella.

Best Lighting Design in Musical Theater

1. Semyon Aleksandrovsky, Cantos, Opera and Ballet Theatre. P.I. Tchaikovsky, Perm
2. Konstantin Binkin, The Four Seasons, Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg
3. Alexander Naumov, Salome, Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg
4. Alexey Khoroshev, Cinderella, Opera and Ballet Theatre. P.I. Tchaikovsky, Perm

“Salome” won one of its five potential nominations, but thereby Alexander Naumov stood on the same board as Robert Wilson, who received the “Mask” for light in 2017.

Experiment

1. “Away. Europe”, Festival “Territory”, Moscow, and “Rimini Protokoll”, Germany
2. Returned, YBW Theater Company, Moscow
3. "Galileo. Opera for Violin and Scientist”, Stanislavsky Electrotheatre and Polytechnic Museum, Moscow
4. Lesosibirsk Lois, Poisk Theatre, Lesosibirsk
5. Museum of Alien Invasion, Theater of Mutual Actions, Moscow
6. “I am Basho”, “Upsala Circus”, St. Petersburg

Two immersive performances, an opera by five composers, a chat performance, a horizontal excursion performance and a social project competed. The public good won: the Uppsala Circus, which employs difficult teenagers and children with special needs, received the Mask.

What a drama

What a drama

As can be seen from the description of the Masks award ceremony, there were enough winners in the drama theater whose topicality was striking.

The best performance of a large form was the work of Lev Dodin's "Fear, Love, Despair" at the Maly Drama Theater in St. Petersburg, based on Brecht's texts about pre-Nazi Germany.

The best performance of a small form - "Chuk and Gek" by Mikhail Patlasov at the Alexandrinsky Theater, dedicated to the repressions of 1937.

"Mask" for the best female role went to Alla Demidova for her work in Serebrennikov's play "Akhmatova. A poem without a hero" at the Gogol Center.

For the best work of a lighting designer, Stas Svistunovich received the award for The Governor Andrei Moguchy in the BDT: the performance is dedicated to the relationship of power with itself, but power that has not lost its fear and conscience; he is a mirror in which today's government will not look.

The best work of a playwright was done by Dmitry Danilov in Theatre.doc's The Man from Podolsk. This is a utopian performance about good police officers, but Theatre.doc, which exists in a state of siege, has to deal with completely different law enforcement officers.

Of the two special jury awards in the drama, one of the wording was streamlined: Khabarovsk Theater for Young Spectators - "for a subtle and scenically expressive reading of Leo Tolstoy's story" Childhood "by means of a holistic ensemble of actors"; but with the help of the second jury, they declared what they wanted: to the staff of the Gogol Center Theater under the direction of Kirill Serebrennikov - "for creating a space for creative freedom and a bold search for the language of theatrical modernity."

The theater festival "Golden Mask" has started in Moscow, which for the 24th time will show the most significant performances of Russian cities of all genres of theatrical art - drama, opera, ballet, modern dance, operetta and musical, puppet theater. This year, about 60 performances have been announced as nominees for the award. TASS has selected the best performances that you can't miss.

One-act premiere ballets at the Bolshoi Theater

February 9th three one-act ballets by Harald Lander, Jerome Robbins and Jiri Kilian will be shown on the New Stage of the State Academic Bolshoi Theatre. it "Etudes", "Forgotten Land" and "Cell" respectively.

"Etudes" is the most famous work of the Danish teacher and choreographer Harald Lander. According to the press service of the Bolshoi Theater, he staged this plotless ballet in 1948 to the music of the 19th-century Western composer Karl Czerny, taking as a basis the development of classical ballet movements.

The performance "The Forgotten Land" staged by the Czech master Jiri Kilian is being staged on the Moscow stage for the first time. The ballet was created by Kilian in 1981 for the troupe of the Stuttgart Ballet to the music of Benjamin Britten's Requiem Symphony.

The Cage is a one-act ballet to music by Igor Stravinsky staged by the outstanding American choreographer Jerome Robbins, created in 1951. "To the daring music of Stravinsky, The Cage plunges into the world of insects, the world of natural selection, where a cruel instinct forces a female to perceive her partner as a victim," the Bolshoi Theater press service said.

Akhmatova at the Gogol Center

"Gogol-center" will present the performance "Akhmatova. A poem without a hero" on February 27. This is a performance by Alla Demidova and Kirill Serebrennikov, who is currently under house arrest. "A Poem Without a Hero" - a work by Anna Akhmatova, on the creation of which the poetess worked for more than 20 years; during the life of the author in the USSR, this work was not published.

Demidova in her book "Akhmatova Mirrors" notes that the more she delved into the work, the more clearly she understood that "it is probably not necessary to literally decipher it." “Specific persons are not so important in the Poem, the flavor of the time is important, because the Poem, among other things, included a huge layer of culture of an entire era, which for many of today's young people has become a long-gone story,” Demidova wrote.

Alla Demidova, Svetlana Mamresheva, Alexander Boldachev, Daniil Zhuravlev and others are involved in the performance.

Voronezh Opera and Ballet Theater in Moscow

Musical Theatre. K.S. Stanislavsky and Vl.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko will present on March 13 the play "The Motherland of Electricity" by the Voronezh Opera and Ballet Theatre.

This opera by Gleb Sedelnikov based on the works of Andrei Platonov tells about the events taking place at a power plant in the small village of Rogachevka near Voronezh. Platonov himself participated in the construction of the power plant and reflected his observations in the story "On the extinguished lamp of Ilyich."

The performance was directed by Mikhail Bychkov, artistic director of the Platonov Arts Festival and the Voronezh Chamber Theatre.

"Our production was born in the year of the centenary of the revolution of 1917. The spirit of revolutionary hopes, expectations that life would somehow miraculously turn to happiness, accompanied the early Platonov. But then he had his own internal evolution, which took place simultaneously with how it was transformed in the country the idea of ​​building a new world," says the director.

"Opera for violin and scientist" at the Center. Sun. Meyerhold

On the stage of the Center Sun. Meyerhold on March 13 will present the performance "Galileo. Opera for violin and scientist". This is a joint project of the Stanislavsky Electrotheatre and the Polytechnic Museum staged by the artistic director of the Electrotheatre, Boris Yukhananov.

The score, consisting of five parts dedicated to various aspects of the work of the legendary scientist Galileo Galilei, was written by five composers: Sergei Nevsky, Kuzma Bodrov, Dmitry Kurlyandsky, Kirill Chernegin, Pavel Karmanov. Each of them, through music and words, broadcasts a fragment from the life of Galileo, whose role is played by the famous Russian physicist Grigory Amosov. Feeling through the centuries the scientist's faith in the power of insight, the audience will see how academic science and the humanism of art meet on the territory of Galileo, the press service said.

Turgenev at the Theater. Evg. Vakhtangov

On March 14, the Perm Academic Theater-Theater will present on the stage of the Theater. Evg. Vakhtangov's performance "A Month in the Village" based on Turgenev's play.

Written in the first edition in 1848, the play was published only in 1855, while changing two names: "Student", "Two Women" and, finally, "A Month in the Country". Turgenev himself noted that this comedy was never intended for the stage. Nevertheless, many theaters still turn to this work today.

The director of the Perm version of Turgenev's play, Boris Milgram, has been looking for an approach to this play for many years: "I have been thinking about this play all my life. All the time I was looking for its codes and ciphers. And at some point I realized that this play could do amazing things with the audience - to excite the sensual nature of everyone, - notes Milgram, - In our performance we want to place everyone in an atmosphere of love, or rather, in the atmosphere of the emergence and birth of a feeling of love, when a person finds himself in a situation where feelings begin to grow so clearly that they control actions and thoughts."

The performance runs for 2 hours and 20 minutes with one intermission. The performance features compositions by Bach.

Alexandrinsky Theater on the stage of the Moscow Art Theatre. A.P. Chekhov

Moscow Art Theater A.P. Chekhov on the Main Stage on March 17 will present the performance of the St. Petersburg Alexandrinsky Theater "Crime and Punishment".

The production based on the novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky is the first work on the Alexandrinsky stage by the artistic director of the Hungarian National Theater Attila Vidnyansky. As the director himself noted, for Hungarians this novel is the main work of foreign literature.

“The questions raised in the novel are close to us, and the answers that Dostoevsky gives very powerfully and very unequivocally here,” the director notes. “These are the eternal questions of existence, the destiny of man. About freedom and faith - first of all. "I don't know how relevant this is for Russia. In the West, this is the most pressing problem. Dostoevsky writes it so subtly, so many-sidedly revealed,<…>that in one way or another the novel concerns virtually everything essential in human life. You can read it all your life, and each time it will sound a little different."

Stephen Sondheim at the Taganka Theater

On March 22, the Taganka Theater will show the play "Sweeney Todd, the Maniac Barber of Fleet Street" based on the play by Hugh Wheeler. This is a production of one of the most striking works of the world-renowned classic of contemporary musical theater Stephen Sondheim on the Russian theater stage. Alexei Frandetti, winner of the Golden Mask National Theater Award, worked on the premiere of Taganka.

The director notes that in the mid-70s, Stephen Sondheim showed incredible creative courage when "against the backdrop of unbridled Broadway fun, he created a musical that destroys all the usual canons of the light genre. This production is the first immersive musical in Russia, where the viewer is not only an observer, but and a full-fledged participant in the action, a performance where immersion in the events of the play takes place as realistically as possible, the press service of the theater noted.

The play premiered on January 27th. The performance was immediately awarded five nominations for the Golden Mask - 2018 award.

Molière at the Electrotheatre Stanislavsky

"Electrotheater Stanislavsky" will present the play "Tartuffe" based on the play by Molière on March 22. The great comedy of Molière is one of the key texts of the world theatre, a play with a grandiose stage history and a turbulent background, including a scandal and a double ban, the press service notes. Philip Grigoryan used Mikhail Donskoy's translation and invited Olga Fedyanina as a consultant playwright.

Actors instead of "sliding along convenient verses" have to talk "documentary", the press service noted. Choreographer Anna Abalikhina invites them to see the real space around - not the abstractness of the stage, but the duration of their movements, their physical presence in these walls and on these stages. "The absurdity, the painfulness of the situation, seemingly obvious to outsiders, should be reliable, not fantastic," the press service stressed.