EVGENIIA SAFONOVA
Out of the theatre directors, who emerged in the 2010s, Evgeniia Safonova seems to me the only one, who produces truly radical gestures in the realm of Russian theatre.
This purely artistic radicalism has no relation to social and political radicalness, nor to the relevance of the theme. It is manifested in Safonova’s personal refusal to compromise, in the rigidity and complexity of tasks, which she sets for the actors and the audience. This radicalism is in the very artistic technology of the production development, implying deep immersion of actors in the material as well as alengthy rehearsal period indeed.
Indeed, Safonova uses the laboratory method of work in that very old way, familiar to us thanks to the laboratories of Jerzy Grotowski or Anatoly Vasilyev: as a factory for developing qualitatively new actors’ existence. However, this always happens under the circumstances of the production process and interaction with the material – in most cases, with prose.
The presence of actors in Safonova’s productions is never something perfunctory, but a constant recollection and reproduction of effort. An actor, according to Keti Chukhrov (who, in her turn, is quoting Gilles Deleuze), is someone who repeatedly reproduces the effort of jumping in place, the effort of “jumping out” of his or her everyday identity. Acting “is not a profession, but a trained ability to go through an event and repeat it.” We are not talking here about becoming the character, but about the process, during which the everyday identity and everyday experience are “melting.” Here the persona, “the role” is an instrument of transition, realignment.
In Evgeniia Safonova’s productions an actor’s voice often becomes the leading means of expression and the main instrument of making an impact on the audience. The audience, in the system of the production, is deliberately allotted the role of “a resonator”, reflecting the sound, the source of which is the actor in particular as well as the acoustic space.
Although indirectly, Safonova succeeds in engaging the audience in the performance and interacts with our corporality as a vehicle. Handling various devices and instruments, she consistently works with perception.
© Alexandra Magelatova
This purely artistic radicalism has no relation to social and political radicalness, nor to the relevance of the theme. It is manifested in Safonova’s personal refusal to compromise, in the rigidity and complexity of tasks, which she sets for the actors and the audience. This radicalism is in the very artistic technology of the production development, implying deep immersion of actors in the material as well as alengthy rehearsal period indeed.
Indeed, Safonova uses the laboratory method of work in that very old way, familiar to us thanks to the laboratories of Jerzy Grotowski or Anatoly Vasilyev: as a factory for developing qualitatively new actors’ existence. However, this always happens under the circumstances of the production process and interaction with the material – in most cases, with prose.
The presence of actors in Safonova’s productions is never something perfunctory, but a constant recollection and reproduction of effort. An actor, according to Keti Chukhrov (who, in her turn, is quoting Gilles Deleuze), is someone who repeatedly reproduces the effort of jumping in place, the effort of “jumping out” of his or her everyday identity. Acting “is not a profession, but a trained ability to go through an event and repeat it.” We are not talking here about becoming the character, but about the process, during which the everyday identity and everyday experience are “melting.” Here the persona, “the role” is an instrument of transition, realignment.
In Evgeniia Safonova’s productions an actor’s voice often becomes the leading means of expression and the main instrument of making an impact on the audience. The audience, in the system of the production, is deliberately allotted the role of “a resonator”, reflecting the sound, the source of which is the actor in particular as well as the acoustic space.
Although indirectly, Safonova succeeds in engaging the audience in the performance and interacts with our corporality as a vehicle. Handling various devices and instruments, she consistently works with perception.
© Alexandra Magelatova
