New Russian Drama

An Anthology

Susanna Weygandt, Maksim Hanukai, Susanna Weygandt, Maksim Hanukai

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9780231545846
• Topic: Literatur
• Subtopic: Drama

New Russian Drama took shape at the turn of the new millennium—a time of turbulent social change in Russia and the former Soviet republics. Emerging from small playwriting festivals, provincial theaters, and converted basements, it evolved into a major artistic movement that startled audiences with hypernaturalistic portrayals of sex and violence, daring use of non-normative language, and thrilling experiments with genre and form. The movement's commitment to investigating contemporary reality helped revitalize Russian theater. It also provoked confrontations with traditionalists in society and places of power, making theater once again Russia's most politicized art form.

This anthology offers an introduction to New Russian Drama through plays that illustrate the versatility and global relevance of this exciting movement. Many of them address pressing social issues, such as ethnic tensions and political disillusionment; others engage with Russia's rich cultural legacy by reimagining traditional genres and canons. Among them are a family drama about Anton Chekhov, a modern production play in which factory workers compose haiku, and a satirical verse play about the treatment of migrant workers, as well a documentary play about a terrorist school siege and a postdramatic "text" that is only two sentences long. Both politically and aesthetically uncompromising, they chart new paths for performance in the twenty-first century. Acquainting English-language readers with these vital works, New Russian Drama challenges us to reflect on the status and mission of the theater.

PLASTICINE VASSILY SIGAREV TRANSLATED BY SASHA DUGDALE^1

It has passed

The roses are dead

Their petals float down

Why did I dream of roses

All the time

We hunted them together

We hunted out the roses…

…It has passed and the roses are forgotten.

Dino Campana

CHARACTERS

MAKSIM

LYOKHA (ALEXEI VASSILIEV)

GROOM (SLAVA)

BRIDE

SCHOOLTEACHER (LUDMILA IVANOVNA)

LYOKHA’S MOTHER

HEADMASTER (OLEG PETROVICH)

MAKSIM’S GRANDMOTHER (OLGA IVANOVNA)

SPIRA

NEIGHBOR

NATASHA

MAN IN T-SHIRT (CADET)

BARE-CHESTED MAN (SEDOY)²

SHE, HER (TANYA)

VARIOUS MEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN

1

He sits on the floor in a room that is bare apart from a table, a bed, and a carpet hanging on the wall. His fingers are working plasticine into a strange shape. He finishes and puts the strange thing he has created in a bowl containing a glutinous, dirty white mixture. Then he takes the lead plates out of a car battery and bangs them on the edge of the bed to knock the residue off them, breaks them into pieces, and puts them in a pan. He fetches a small burner with a bare element, places the pan on the burner, and turns the burner on. He takes the bowl and touches its contents with his hand: it is as hard as stone. He scrapes out the plasticine. He looks into the pan—a small lead-colored pool of liquid reflects his face and a white pin of light from the lampshade on the ceiling. He takes the pan and pours the lead into the bowl. The remains of the plasticine hiss, catch light, and flare up. Smoke rises to the ceiling and goes in his eyes. The tears well up. He turns away, but the tears continue to roll down his nose and then down to the corners of his mouth. Now he is actually crying. He is sobbing.

Crying as if he knew something…

The bowl cracks…

2

The entrance hall of a shabby five-story apartment building. MAKSIM climbs up the stairs to the fourth floor. People pass him on the way up. They are silent, their faces empty. The stairway comes to an end. There is a door in front of MAKSIM. It is open; a felt boot stuffed in the crack keeps it ajar. There is a mirror hanging inside opposite the door. A red plush tablecloth with a fringe hangs over it, covering it. MAKSIM stops by the mirror and looks at it. The tablecloth suddenly falls to the floor and MAKSIM sees his own reflection in the mirror. He looks at it in amazement as if looking at it for the first time.

Someone touches him on the shoulder. MAKSIM turns around and sees a WOMAN in a black shawl.

WOMAN: What you do that for? You shouldn’t have. Are you a schoolmate of his?

MAKSIM nods.

Go on through…

MAKSIM goes into the main room. It is full of people. In the middle of the room there is a coffin with its lid on. MAKSIM stands behind TWO OLD WOMEN. He stands on tiptoe, trying to look at the coffin.

FIRST OLD WOMAN: Hey—don’t push!

MAKSIM: Say what?

FIRST OLD WOMAN: Beat it!

MAKSIM looks at her in bewilderment.

I said beat it!

MAKSIM: But I…

SECOND OLD WOMAN: Go on then.

MAKSIM moves away.

FIRST OLD WOMAN: There was one like him on the bus. He got right behind me and started to rub himself up and down on me. Got a hard-on straight away. I took hold of him and pulled his hair. The things that bleepin’ go on. I mean, you’d think he was only a kid—but he was already getting it up…

VOICE FROM THE ENTRANCE HALL: The crane is here.

The WOMAN in the black shawl goes over to the window and looks out. A LITTLE MAN in an overlarge jacket goes up to her.

MAN: Where do you want the logs?

WOMAN: What? Oh…(She was caught up in her own thoughts.) Put them over there and here. It’s all the same, isn’t it…

The MAN goes out and the WOMAN begins to open up the French win...

Table of contents

• Cover 
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents 
• Foreword
• Introduction
• A Chronology of New Russian Drama
• 1. Plasticine
• 2. Playing the Victim
• 3. September.doc
• 4. The Brothers Ch.
• 5. The Blue Machinist
• 6. The Locked Door
• 7. The Soldier
• 8. Summer Wasps Sting in November, Too
• 9. Somnambulism
• 10. Project “Swan”
• Notes
• About the Authors
• Series List