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LIVING CORPSES WALK MOSCOW’S STREETS
The theatre doesn’t always mean a comfortable chair, photographs of venerable actors lining the walls, old ladies with programs, and visits to the drinks counter during intermission. Sometimes theatre hides in the most unexpected of places: on the streets, in a paper-factory store, or in the basement of a House of Culture. Here you don’t need to buy tickets, just show up. Or just be in the right place at the right time.
A correspondent of “MK” got to know the most non-standard theatrical projects in the capital, whose performances make any spectator reexamine his understanding of “Art”.
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In the capital, “street theatre” comes along fairly rarely. Usually it comes from improvised performances on Old Arbat: concerts with small instruments, broken-glass or coal walkers, jugglers, dubious magicians and illusionists…These days it seems less strange. On the contrary any street theatre performance attracts a sizeable crowd.
It was with performances on Old Arbat that “The Fire People” – one of the best known Russian “street” theatres – got their start. As the guys say about themselves, “we are 20 people lit by a single match.” Their performances are an incredible mix of clowning, fire-illusions, fireworks, pantomimes…Here there are no supporting roles, every character is a protagonist. And of course, the main character is the all-enveloping flame.
Performances of “The Fire People” don’t even resemble the standard “actors act and spectators watch” paradigm. Here everything mixes into one. Passersby jump over a flaming jump rope, dance around a fountain of fire, or follow with their eyes a flaming heart as it flies into the sky. Every person who takes part in the performance, whether as a spectator or a performer, plays a specific role.
One of the most incredible characters is the clown “White”. It seems like he creates almost everything from atop his stilts: he dips and ducks, he sways from side to side!…All the while giving the impression that he is about to fall on the crowd. He finds a common language with absolutely everyone at the show. When this Pierro in white sheets and white make up on huge stilts sits down like a sparrow on the shoulder of a serious oligarch, and asks in a business-like tone, “well, when are you going to feed me?” it’s impossible not to laugh. And the best part is that plump business men are happy as schoolchildren, because finally someone is speaking to them like regular people without hypocrisy or subservience!…
As for safety, these guys have it all under control, even if an outside would suspect otherwise: the performance reminds one of a powerful bomb always on the verge of exploding.
“Sometimes we don’t even understand ourselves what’s going on around us, it seems like nothing depends on you,” says Dmitri Melkin, a member of the troupe. “And so it’s not worth getting worked up if from time to time you hear the cry ‘Everyone get down!!!’”
Their work takes these guys to weddings, birthday parties, and corporate events. This is when even the most serious businessmen forget about their positions and give themselves over to mindless fun.
But more than anything “The Fire People” like to organize various street performances. Last spring, for example, they set up a carnival procession in honor of Firemen’s Day from MkhAT on Kamergersky to the Circus on Tsvetnoy Boulevard. The spectacle was a success even then. An ordinary spring evening. People hurrying home. And all of a sudden from around the corner with pomp and fanfare pours the firemen’s orchestra: gold helmets, badges, lively music, fireworks. Out of somewhere comes a motorcyclist on one wheel, “White” on his big stilts. One of the performers gives a passerby a flaming rose…The procession becomes a festive whirlpool that pulls in everyone it meets on its path.
Unbelievable tricks make normal passersby forget where they are. They return to childhood. They are not only spectators, but full participants in the performance: they squeal, they laugh, they clap, they dance. Everywhere there are happy faces with tears in their eyes. Just like in the 1980 Olympics when the Olympic teddy bear flew away. Is that not a true festival?
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9 March 2007
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