Disgrace

DISGRACE by J. M. Coetzee

playwright, director, set designer – Evgeniia Safonova

costume designer – Illariya Yankina

media artist – Mikhail Ivanov

lighting designer – Konstantin Binkin

sound designer – Oleg Gudachev

director of photography — Aleksey Rodionov

Disgrace is a minimalist audiovisual installation, creatively continuing the line of Medea and Austerlitz, the line of actors' stasis and reduced minus-expression. The line of the global civilizational catastrophe and dehumanization.

The production at the Tovstonogov Bolshoi Drama Theatre doesn’t visualize the story, it installs and reveals something that the text is silent about; neither does the production lower itself to formulating ethical conclusions. A number of techniques: a system of repetitions, montage, layering – all of these produce the effect of suggestion.

Decrepitude and death, non-obviousness and blurredness of the border between man and animal – these are achieved through layering images on the screen. Safonova dissolves local (geographical, historical) colonial correlations of the novel in a wider context. She denotes the civilizational and human catastrophe, already experienced and being experienced in the 21st century. And precisely for the reason that the catastrophe is taking place now, the subject of Safonova’s most recent production is more obvious. At the end of the performance the opening video is repeated. Once again we descend the staircase, but at this time, in the basement, on a treatment table there is not a man, but a dog, which has been put to sleep, as we are certain. However, suddenly the motionless body starts moving, the dog gets up and jumps off the table. And then, no longer on the screen, but on the stage – in the depth of the central “shot” – we see the same dog, alive, on the same table. And the final “shot”, sparse and iconic in its super-expressiveness, – the slow turn of the dog’s head and a look at us, the audience.

Tatyana Dzhurova, Flying Critic

In my opinion, the director’s adaptation of this novel for theatre is one of the dimensions of the conversation about humanism. This conversation is not about humanism in its simplified interpretation of humane approach to man, but, vice a versa, in back projection, – about the approach of man, on the one side, to various circumstances, in which he finds himself, and, on the other hand, – to various entities, surrounding him. In my opinion, that’s what the production is about.

Pavel Prigara, Director, Manege Central Exhibition Hall

It was interesting to look at it, to listen closely to some suggested text, to exist in it during that hour. It seems to me that it’s a successful attempt to freeze and compress the time, to compress, convolve the characters, the sound, the cinema, which so maniacally chases everyone both on the stage and in the auditorium. Actually, an audience member, sitting straight in its place, becomes the fifth actor (or perhaps the sixth actor, after the final dog).

Vasily Stepanov, film critic, Editor-in-Chief of Seance magazine

I had a feeling that I was standing in front of a large canvas in motion – certain images, memories, questions were emerging, and I was somehow swimming in this visual space. I like the fact that I am not forced to do anything, not pulled in as an audience member, and they are not trying to amuse me or get me interested in something. I simply watch. This is most valuable. I had a space to reflect, to get distracted by my own thoughts, and then could go back to the performance… I understood that it wasn’t necessary for me to stay focused, that it was really some kind of a canvas, and I could walk past it and ask myself my own questions.

Asya Marakulina, artist

I enjoyed the production. It is non-typical, performative, with a separate line of video art. Most importantly, this production doesn’t have the kind of acting which I quite dislike: when actors raise their voices, and everything is so mannered. This production is a tad introvert, so to say, and actors deliver the text well. The main association, born in the mind right after Disgrace, is “the dog”. One may simply repeat “the dog” five times and it will be precise. At the same time, it will be Japanese poetry of the 20th century.

Alexander Tsikarishvili, artist

I really liked how the text was tempered, the soundtrack for the dog/orgasm was made very well, the almost motionless actors were not at all boring and managed to hold attention throughout the performance… I.e. Disgrace is an exemplary work of contemporary art. Its flavor reminds us of our own inner state, in which there certainly is anticipation of ruins. I don’t know what is needed so that this very professional and important spectacle could become a living organism, a work of art without the tag “actual art.” Here you can see how it as made, whereas in masterpieces you don’t notice that at all. However, and that’s most important, in this production there are honestly and a sense of proportion, which are really great qualities.

Ekaterina Andreeva, art scholar, curator, and art critic.

An expert on Russian and foreign art of the 20th – 21st centuries.

2022