Dramatising Solidarity and Unification in Divided Palestine: The Chorus and the Ghost in Kamel EL-Basha’s Following the Footsteps of Hamlet (2013)

This essay explores how Kamel EL-Basha’s theatre production Following the Footsteps of Hamlet (2013) preaches unity and resistance in a post-2006 divided Palestine. After giving a brief historical account of the causes of the internal Palestinian political divisions that distract Palestinians from achieving liberation, the article traces how El-Basha uses theatrical devices such as the chorus and the ghost to materialise a sense of unification in the theatrical space. The analysis draws on other international theatrical practices like Einar Schleef’s (1980) ‘Choric Theatre’ and cites critical works such as Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy (1872) to locate El-Basha’s theatrical practice in a broader context regarding the significance of the chorus in dramatising unity. The essay also traces how the performance of traditional Palestinian songs, ululation, dances like dabke and other rituals in the play, help foster Palestinian identity and shape their sumud (steadfastness) in facing the occupation. Finally, the essay focuses on the role of the ghost in evoking nostalgia in the audience for the days of unity and collective resistance promoted by the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat before his death.

Performing the Elements in Indian Eco-Theatre: Deepan Sivaraman’s The Legends of Khasak

This article considers The Legends of Khasak, a Malayalam play by Deepan Sivaraman, as a landmark Indian eco-theatrical production. I argue for the play as an important development in a nascent Indian eco-theatre, telling an ecologically significant tale about the relationship between humans and nature through performative and scenographic innovations that transform the theatrical space into a sacred grove, a place of deep significance in terms of ecological balance. This essay elaborates on how the play celebrates the pancha bhutas, the five elements of nature, by displaying their agency and invoking the pancha indriyas, or the five pathways of human perception, and thereby awakening an awareness of our status as ecological beings enmeshed in the non-human world. In The Legends of Khasak, Sivaraman has evolved an eco-material aesthetics of performance that, influenced by traditional folk performance forms and rituals and post-independence syncretic theatre, makes a lasting contribution to the development of an Indian eco-drama.

The specifics of the creative representation of classical and modern texts in the direction of A. Prikhodko

The purpose of the article is to reveal the peculiarities of the interpretive theater direction of A. Prikhodka in the context of experiments with the representation of classical and modern texts. Methodology. Comparative and structural methods have been applied in order to reveal the versatility of the director's intention; the method of hermeneutic and the semiotic method, which contributed to the opportunity to explore the specifics of the director's representation; the hermeneutic method is dominant in the process of evaluating performances since it contributes to the perception of the production as an artistic whole, provided that the functionality of its individual components is understood; the method of semiotic analysis of postmodern stage works, etc. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the fact that the specificity of the representation of classical and modern texts in the work of theatrical director A. Prikhodka is considered in the context of the trends of this process in the modern theatrical space on the basis of comprehensive art history, theater, and cultural analysis. The theoretical views of A. Prikhodka are analyzed, the factors of influence on the production process and its specifics are revealed; an attempt is made to consider the phenomenon of the representation of literary texts from the perspective of postmodern trends in the development of modern Ukrainian theater. Conclusions. The work of A. Prikhodka is characterized by the reworking of the literary source of the production at the text level, including, among other things, a significant substantive reworking - highlighting plot lines, building plot lines, a successive reworking of prose characters into dramatic ones, the emergence of new, non-fictional characters, etc. - turning into a unique a literary script for the author's embodiment of a stage composition with the help of specific means of director's expressiveness of postmodern, realistic and avant-garde theater. The study revealed that the creative representations of classical and modern tests by A. Prikhodka reveal the hidden potential of the literary source, giving it a new philosophical and worldview understanding. The purpose of the article is to reveal the peculiarities of the interpretive theater direction of A. Prikhodka in the context of experiments with the representation of classical and modern texts. Methodology. Comparative and structural methods have been applied in order to reveal the versatility of the director's intention; the method of hermeneutic and the semiotic method, which contributed to the opportunity to explore the specifics of the director's representation; the hermeneutic method is dominant in the process of evaluating performances since it contributes to the perception of the production as an artistic whole, provided that the functionality of its individual components is understood; the method of semiotic analysis of postmodern stage works, etc. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the fact that the specificity of the representation of classical and modern texts in the work of theatrical director A. Prikhodka is considered in the context of the trends of this process in the modern theatrical space on the basis of comprehensive art history, theater, and cultural analysis. The theoretical views of A. Prikhodka are analyzed, the factors of influence on the production process and its specifics are revealed; an attempt is made to consider the phenomenon of the representation of literary texts from the perspective of postmodern trends in the development of modern Ukrainian theater. Conclusions. The work of A. Prikhodka is characterized by the reworking of the literary source of the production at the text level, including, among other things, a significant substantive reworking - highlighting plot lines, building plot lines, a successive reworking of prose characters into dramatic ones, the emergence of new, non-fictional characters, etc. - turning into a unique a literary script for the author's embodiment of a stage composition with the help of specific means of director's expressiveness of postmodern, realistic and avant-garde theater. The study revealed that the creative representations of classical and modern tests by A. Prikhodka reveal the hidden potential of the literary source, giving it a new philosophical and worldview understanding.

Copy Rites

This chapter considers two contemporary versions of The Rite of Spring: Xavier Le Roy’s Le Sacre du Printemps and Jérôme Bel’s self-titled production. Because there is relatively extensive documentation of Nijinsky’s original choreography for the Rite, so-called reconstructions are widely known and available. But Le Roy and Bel seek to reimagine the ballet completely. Le Roy loosely “conducts” the score as it is piped out of speakers placed among the audience, thus inverting the traditional spatial and artistic dimensions of theatrical space. Bel drastically denudes his Rite, with naked dancers, a nearly bare stage, and a flimsy monophonic rendition of the gargantuan score. He embarks on a subcutaneous exploration of a dance performance to discover its most basic constituent parts. In reworking the ballet’s “original” materials, these artists expose some basic assumptions about music and dance as media, both as performance acts and as objects of study.

Agafonov’s Early Kharkiv Creative Period: Dialogue with the Theatre

This article is dedicated to the study of the nature of E. Agafonov’s creative ties with the theater – a topic that has been insufficiently covered in the native art history. The author’s field of view is set in the artist’s early Kharkiv period, marked as the years of 1905–1913. The article focuses on the exceptional role of E. Agafonov in the organization and the artistic practice of the first modernist theater “Blakytne Oko” in Kharkiv (1909–1911). Agafonov belonged to the constellation of masters who was very sensitive to the problem of evolving the artistic speech. He viewed the theater as a convincing platform for promoting and approving of the latest artistic values, discovered by Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. Experiments in easel art (with color, plastic, line, techniques, materials, etc.), largely inspired by the work of D. Burliuk (1906–1908), were directly reflected in Agafonov’s stage practice, namely in numerous designs of the modernist productions based on plays by M. Maeterlinkc, A. Schnitzler, S. Pshybyshevsky and O. Blok. In turn, it was established that theatrical motives were reflected in E. Agafonov’s easel art, as well as in the art of the students of his artistic studio – O. Rybnikov, I. Terentyev, M. Sinyakova, and K. Storozhnichenko. In this regard, a special attention is given to the linocuts by F. Nadezhdin. It was found that the program of “total” design of theatrical space (stage and auditorium), as well as the implementation of production ideas in the cabaret theater “Blakytne Oko” were the result of the master’s fascination with the concepts of artistic synthesis, actualized in the era of Modern. Agafonov moved from dramatization of paintings (of A. Beklin, F. Malyavin, and O. Rodin) to staging experimental show-programs like “The Evening of Autumn”, “Visiting Pierrot” and “In the Middle of Nowhere”, partial reconstruction of which was undertaken for the first time by the author of the article. Agafonov was close to the idea of artistic synthesis, identified by him in F. Malyavin’s paintings, in V. Komissarzhevska’s theatre and I. Duncan’s choreography. The study of E. Agafanov’s theatrical art expands the understanding of the history of formation and development of Ukrainian scenography at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Vladimir Magar’s spectacle “Don Juan” (Lunacharsky Russian Drama Theatre in Sevastopol, 2006)

The subject of this research is poetics of the spectacle “Don Juan” created by the stage director Vladimir Magar in Lunacharsky Russian Drama Theatre in Sevastopol in 2006. Analysis is conducted on the main peculiarities of the directing artistic manner: creation of fiction atmosphere and romantic plot, montage and musical means of structuring action, montage of literary-dramaturgical material. The author reviews fiction method and experience as the conditions for formation of an actor ensemble; examines the role of scenography, eurythmics, music and other elements of dramatic action. The article is based on the use of comparative-historical method, personal audience experience of its author and analysis of publications dedicated to the spectacle. The research of Vladimir Magars’ directing manner, which is insufficiently studied and can become illustrative for determination of patterns common to the regional theatrical life. This article is a continuation of a series of publication of the topic. Analysis of poetics of the spectacle “Don Juan” is important for understanding the fundamentals of his directing activity, which contributed to the fact that Sevastopol Theatre became a noticeable phenomenon within the Russian theatrical space.