“Faces of Heritage”: Far Eastern aborigines spoke about the life and traditions of their ancestors. “Faces of Heritage”: Far Eastern aborigines spoke about the life and traditions of their ancestors Theater festival face cordon 2

The culture and traditions of the indigenous peoples of the Far East may be of interest not only to ethnographers, but also ordinary people. Unusual ceremonies and rituals, songs, dances and costumes could be observed during the “Faces of Heritage” festival in Khabarovsk, but they looked most impressive in the authentic setting of the village of Sikachi-Alyan. About what surprised the holiday under open air, read the material "HubInfo".

Closer to nature

From Khabarovsk to Sikachi-Alyan it’s only a couple of hours by car, but most residents of the regional capital know about it mainly thanks to images carved on stone boulders dating back to the 12th millennium BC. Of course, you can see them on one of the excursions that depart from Khabarovsk every weekend, but it was much more interesting to look at the drawings after getting acquainted with the traditions and rituals of the inhabitants of the Amur region.

At a large concert, representatives of the indigenous peoples of the Khabarovsk Territory spoke about life in close connection with nature, danced and sang and thanked the sky, sun, rivers and earth for the opportunity to live in the same place where their ancestors lived. The big advantage was that the action did not take place in concert hall, but in the open air. Agree, in this format it is much more pleasant to perceive scenes about important stages the life of a Far Eastern aborigine: birth, first hunt and transition to adulthood.

About another indigenous holiday small peoples— read on habifo.ru

The concert program perfectly showed how closely the life of indigenous peoples is connected with nature. For example, the initiation rite for teenagers is associated with the ability to fish and hunt, because these are the crafts that still remain the main occupation of people living a traditional way of life. Deer, wild animals and birds and, of course, salmon become not only a source of food, but also the main material for sewing clothes, building houses and creating jewelry. Naturally, modern fishermen rarely wear clothes and shoes made of fish skin, but at the fair, which was held as part of the Faces of Heritage festival, one could consider several options for men's and women's summer robes, decorated with patterns, again emphasizing the beauty of nature.

How do the indigenous peoples of the Khabarovsk Territory have fun?

In the open air, residents of the village of Sikachi-Alyan held a fair where they could purchase shamanic amulets, taste fresh fish soup and other traditional dishes. Here you could also look into traditional dwellings. There were several of them on display: some were covered with branches, others with fabric. Everyone was able to not only take a photo against the backdrop of such a building, but also go inside, look at the elements of everyday life and try traditional dishes. The shaman's dwelling stood out, in which the attributes of its owner were presented: figurines symbolizing spirits, candles, incense and a tambourine.

For most peoples, dancing is the basis of mass entertainment, and the indigenous peoples of the Khabarovsk Territory in this regard are not much different from other cultures. Choreographic elements copy the movements of animals, the swaying of branches and the influence of the elements on the surrounding world. For example, a dance with twigs symbolizes unity with nature and the harmony of the wind, while the plot of a dance with sticks is more mundane - imitation of the games of deer during the mating season.

An equally important part of the holiday is songs and games. At the opening of the Faces of Heritage festival, indigenous peoples showed how they spent their leisure time several centuries ago. Some activities, such as traditional archery tournaments, still attract people today. True, if in the Iron Age the ability to shoot an arrow directly at a target was necessary for survival, now archery is practiced more for sport or for fun.

Visiting the Golds

In addition to the festival visitors, other peoples also visited the Golds - this is how the Nanais introduced themselves to Russian explorers in the 19th century. In addition to the indigenous residents of the Khabarovsk Territory, creative groups from Sakhalin, Yakutia, the Jewish Autonomous Okrug and South Korea. The latter attracted special attention from the audience with their bright costumes. Under the bright sunlight, their costumes, flags and makeup literally glowed.

Despite the fact that the festival “Faces of Heritage” is a qualifying stage all-Russian competition“Together we are Russia,” there was practically no spirit of rivalry and competition on the site. Representatives of different nations communicated with each other and happily talked about the peculiarities of the culture of their people. And indeed, at such a celebration, it seems that it doesn’t matter who goes to Moscow for the finals of the competition in 2019.

Read about others designed to unite the peoples of the Khabarovsk Territory on the website.

My dear “prose people”, I was a participant in a wonderful theatrical festival in places where everything breathes the poetry of A.S. Pushkin. Here's my story.

From August 1st to August 8th, 2009 The 5th International Theater festival"Laboratory of Arts Kordon-2" (LIC-2)
From the website www.lik-masterklass.com:

“LIK-2 is located near the village of Mikhailovskoye and is an important creative addition to the work of the Pushkin Mountains Nature Reserve. The former foresters' cordon is currently being reconstructed in Cultural Center. The founders of the laboratory proceed from the fact that the cultural potential of these places is not exhausted by the activities State Museum-Reserve A. S. Pushkin. One of the cultural niches that the “Arts Laboratory” can occupy is an informal and non-traditional approach to understanding and mastering modern culture.
-The form of work of the complex is a laboratory-seminar, in which creative figures different genres exchange experiences, demonstrating the results of their work to each other and the general public at a festival organized once a year.”

Every day brought new meetings with different people, frank creativity. Amazing performances, the discovery of new names and new unexpected topics - that’s what I received during these days of the festival.
Amazing directorial work by Jonas Buzuliauskas from Lithuania. The play “Devilishly Lonely” was performed in Lithuanian, and we watched in fascination and empathized with the hero. His pain, his aggression, and his tragedy were understandable.
In the second performance of this director, “The Witch” by Anton Chekhov, the audience was spellbound by the performance of the young actress Tatyana Paramonova. This is true talent.
The work of my former compatriots from Latvia is also interesting. The monologue of the hero in the play “Shizm” sounded powerfully.
What was new for me was the acquaintance with Russian apocrypha in the play “Two Lazarus” by the Lusores theater. An interesting combination of dramatic play and plasticity.
Performances based on stories by Yengibarov students music college from Moscow are close to me with their dance and plastic drawing.
The viewer empathized with the heroine Maria Borodina in the play “The Catechumen” with keen interest.
The innovative performance showed artistic director festival Grigory Kofman “Rozanov against Gogol”. The interweaving of the word, the sound of the saxophone and the rhythm of the drums was surprising.
With joyful joy we greeted the production of Gogol’s “The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich,” with the participation of the young actor P. Muratov and the festival director Pyotr Bystrov.
This same story was talentedly performed on one of the days of the festival People's Artist Russia by Viktor Nikitin.
I, Yulia Tagali, performed my play “Isadora...scarf...Yesenin”. I believe the viewer empathized with the characters in the story along with me. At the final concert, I showed a sketch based on N.V. Gogol’s story “Nevsky Prospekt”.
Dear friends! November 26 (Thursday) 2009 in Moscow in the concert hall
The Ukrainian Library will host the premiere of the composition "Nevsky
Prospekt", as well as the play based on the poems of A.S. Pushkin "Time of Love".
Starts at 18-30. Address: 61 Trifonovskaya str., Rizhskaya metro station.
Pyotr Bystrov and Natalya Dubinets are invited to the evening.
I’m glad to see many of you, come. Let’s get to know each other.

The festival is wonderful for its diversity, non-traditionality, and closeness to the audience. A warm atmosphere, the joy of creativity, amazement at talent - that’s what surrounded the festival and the cordon.
Enthusiasts, devotees, talented PEOPLE– these are the organizers of LIC-2.
I'll name them
- Pyotr Bystrov, artist, restorer, woodcarver. He started as an actor in the studio of V. Filshtinsky, then for almost 20 years he worked as an artist-restorer in the Reserve, was closely acquainted with S.S. Geichenko, and was his associate. Currently, he is a freelance artist, taking part in exhibitions, opening days and fairs in Pskov, St. Petersburg, and Moscow. He is the author of the original Cordon scene. He built one and a Chapel in the village of Kosokhnovo - it’s a MIRACLE.
- Grigory Kofman, theater actor and director, graduated with honors in 1990 Theater School them. B.V. Shchukin, founded in the same year one of the first independent theaters in Leningrad - the Little Petersburg Theater, later, in 1995, renamed the PARAMON Theater. Associate Professor at theater schools in Berlin and Vienna. 2005 - 2008 Grigory Kofman directed the Russian Theater in Berlin.
- Joseph Budylin, writer, scientist and practitioner of museum and excursion business, researcher of the life and work of A.S. Pushkin.
-Natalia Dubinets, philologist and tour guide.
Thanks to the LIK-2 festival, thanks to the organizers and all participants.
CREATION. LOVE. JOY.
See you in the sun in 2010.

LIC-2 is located near the village. Mikhailovsky and is an important creative addition to the work of the Pushkin Mountains Nature Reserve. The former foresters' cordon is currently being reconstructed into a cultural center. The founders of the laboratory proceed from the fact that the cultural potential of these places is not exhausted by the activities of the State Pushkin Museum-Reserve. One of the cultural niches that the “Arts Laboratory” can occupy is an informal and non-traditional approach to understanding and mastering modern culture.

The complex operates in the form of a laboratory-seminar, in which creative figures from different genres exchange experiences, demonstrating the results of their work to each other and the general public at a festival organized once a year.

During the 1st week of August (the 1st festival took place on August 01 – 07, 2005), the territory of the cordon turns into a playground non-stop - performances . Objects artistic creativity, exhibited for public viewing throughout the entire complex, including in the open air (for example, sketches for performances, scenery elements, master classes), are available to the public during daylight hours. Theater works have a fixed display time every night.

During the period from September to July, the leaders of LIK-2 offer various cultural organizations space in the complex for holding small-scale cultural events, such as visiting master classes for theater or art schools, literary seminars, lecture halls, etc.

2. Creative tasks of LIK-2

A lot of cultural information, be it works of art or systemic knowledge, remains accessible only to a very narrow circle of consumers (viewers). This is due to specific features cultural competition in major cities. LIK-2 can partly simplify the entry of a creative product into the exchange market.

The program theme of the festivals is associations and parallels with Russian classical culture and literature. The selection of invited works is carried out on the basis of professionalism of execution and novelty of the creative solution.

3. Potential festival participants

Domestic groups of artists and theatrical figures, leading the search for ways to develop typical forms of Russian culture.

Foreign cultural figures who are professionally involved at the chamber level in the influence of Russian art on the cultures of their countries.

Established and successfully operating international groups that have found their format in the zone of cultural integration.

Separate creative personalities, specialists in literature, theater, cinema, problem solvers interlingual integration, remaining in the tradition of a specific “Russian text”.

From our point of view, foreign Slavic students represent a special group of participants.

4. Specifics:

Being geographically located at almost equal distances from Moscow, St. Petersburg and the capitals of the Baltic republics, and having the already developed infrastructure of the Reserve, the complex can become an objectively convenient place for creative meetings for cultural figures different countries and regions without the organizational difficulties traditionally characteristic of such undertakings. Experience shows that such a simplified scheme leads to a reduction in expenses for organizers and a reduction in the financial burden on festival participants or guests of LIK-2.

5. Project initiators

Peter Bystrov - artist, restorer, woodcarver. He started as an actor in the studio of V. Filshtinsky, then for almost 20 years he worked as an artist-restorer in the Reserve, was closely acquainted with S.S. Geichenko, and was his associate. Currently, he is a freelance artist, taking part in exhibitions, opening days and fairs in Pskov, St. Petersburg, and Moscow.

Grigory Kofman -theater actor and director, who graduated with honors from the Theater School named after. B.V. Shchukin, founded in the same year one of the first independent theaters in Leningrad - the Little Petersburg Theater, later, in 1995, renamed the PARAMON Theater. IN last years Grigory Kofman took part in many European theater projects, has repeatedly staged productions in various cities in Germany. Associate Professor at theater schools in Berlin and Vienna. 2005 - 2008 Grigory Kofman directed the Russian Theater in Berlin.

Go to the literary and theater festival!
Photo by the author

This has been my lifestyle for two summers now. Lifestyle for a whole week at the beginning of August.

First, a day of driving along Novorizhka. The distance can be covered overnight (or in a day) if you put it in fourth gear and don’t look around. But my husband and I prefer to drive slowly - not 40 km/h, but with feeling, with sense, with balance, sometimes turning off the road and looking at oncoming settlements. Contrary to popular belief in the capital, life outside the Moscow Ring Road is just beginning. The road, the town, the village, the wild lakeside beach have their own face. Contemplation of smiles and even grimaces home country and her nature sets her in a lyrical-philosophical mood. This is exactly the mood with which you should come to the Pskov region, to the protected land of Pushkinogorye (in official terms, Pushkinogorsky district of the Pskov region).

In the Pushkin Mountains, for two summers now we have not been in a hurry to the scientific and cultural center of the Pushkin Museum-Reserve, we have not turned into Mikhailovskoye or Trigorskoye - we leave this “for later”. We drive through the village of Pushkinskie Gory along its long main street (named after Lenin, of course) and find ourselves among fields where the road picturesquely winds. This year they laid asphalt on it - I wonder, by the way, how long it will last? When will we have to remember again probably the most famous characteristic of Russia (that it has two troubles - roads and you know who), attributed, among other possible authors, to the genius of these places, Pushkin? There is also a more radical version - supposedly Emperor Nicholas I threw out this phrase in his hearts after reading the book of the Marquis de Custine “Russia in 1839” - because he expected praise from the French guest for his reign, but received a series of cartoons about elite And absolute monarchy. However, Alexander Sergeich also “noted” the road topic (in the seventh chapter of “Eugene Onegin”): “Over time... our roads will surely / Our roads will change immensely... Now our roads are bad...” The deadline was given for changing the roads - nothing at all - “ in five hundred years"; but they have not yet passed.

However, we are distracted by the topic of the day - and meanwhile late summer people go to the Pskov region not for topicality, but for eternal values! Moreover, the asphalt road is only needed for two kilometers. At the third kilometer it’s time to say goodbye to her and turn onto the dirt road – across the field, further into the forest. There are five hundred meters of smooth shaking of Onegin's cart - and we are there. The place is marked with a catchy wooden sign “Cordon-2 Art Laboratory”. This is where we were aiming.

The first cordon was apparently the forester's "point". The second stands guard over broader concepts - right up to the ecology of the spirit. Art Laboratory "Cordon-2" is a public non-profit organization, which has existed in the Pskov region since 2004, and since 2005 has been organizing the Small International Theater Festival “LIK” in early August. The festival is “called” in the same way as a laboratory is affectionately called among itself, however – appreciate the pun!.. Not theatrical masks – but FACE!

LIC is a partnership (brotherhood? A non-secret order of chivalry?) of Pyotr Bystrov (artist, sculptor, actor), Grigory Kofman (artist, director of the Russian Berlin Theater), Joseph Budylin ( museum worker, cultural scientist, academician Russian Academy natural sciences) and several more people. LIC is based on the principles of the work of the first director (from 1945 to 1993) of the Pushkin Museum-Reserve, Semyon Geichenko. He organized an open “Green Hall” at the Mikhailovskoye estate for meetings with guests of the reserve, poetry readings and informal communication. Ten years after the death of Semyon Stepanovich, the knights of LIK revived the initiative - only more informally and even more openly - on an area of ​​​​about 1800 square meters. m, owned by the artist Pyotr Bystrov, an employee of the museum-reserve since the time of Geichenko. For more than thirty years, Bystrov built a house for living in a clearing - a “forest artist’s shop”, coupled with a creative workshop, “ green theater"with a stage, a white bathhouse, a summer kitchen under a canopy and several stunning wooden sculptures: "Birdhouse Man" (portrait of Geichenko), "Swift Pushkin", "Pushkin's Nanny". Festival guests are now admiring them. They never tire of taking photographs.

This clearing hosts “interactive” cultural events every year. Small international festival“LIK” took place for the eighth time in 2012. Since the summer of 2007, students from creative universities have been doing internships at Cordon-2. Since 2007 (the Year of the Russian Language in Mikhailovsky), Cordon-2 has been organizing poetry festivals - on Pushkin’s birthday, June 6. Five informal holidays have already passed. They in no way compete with the “official” Pushkin Days in the reserve; on the contrary, they complement them: for the viewer, two holidays are better than one!

I did not have the honor of knowing Semyon Geichenko, but it seems to me that his dream was to open the “doors” of the Pushkin Reserve as wide as possible - of course, in the figurative sense, for the reserve is not only several estates with their parks, but also forests, hills, the Sorot River and trees - three pines, for example, included in Pushkin’s textbook poem. And the sky, which sometimes “shines”, sometimes “breathes in autumn”, sometimes “is covered in darkness”... Now it “shelters” the festival “LIK”, managing - you won’t believe it! - go without rain for seven days. Two years in a row as a guest at LIK, I observe an amazing phenomenon: a week of luxurious weather, on the eighth and final day - rain; nature is upset, the sky is crying.

What will bring Geichenko’s dream to life more “wide open” than a theater festival in the forest? The artists live in tents right in the clearing, the audience is free to choose - to stay in a tent next to the creative workshop or rent a corner in the Pushkin Mountains, because it is close to the “theater” in the evening, and the entrance - and, most importantly, the exit - is always free. In the summer, Pushkinskiye Gory and the surrounding villages, like your Sochi, live for tourists, providing them with rooms and beds. But living in the clearing is much more interesting: you easily get acquainted not only with the results of the artists’ work, but also with the process itself, with rehearsals, classes, master classes and the faces of actors without stage “disguises”. This year, for example, watching a rehearsal laboratory work young directors Natalya Postovalova and Borislava Sharova, the play “The Road”, collected from four stories by Chekhov: “Grief”, “The Witch”, “The Huntsman”, “I Want to Sleep” - we memorized these stories almost word for word. Otherwise, you know, there’s no time to re-read the classics at home... But here it’s real cultural leisure. During the long summer days, you have time to visit museums (since last year, the House-Museum of Sergei Dovlatov appeared in Pushkinogorye), drive around or bypass the surrounding area, climb the fortresses of Izborsk and Porkhov... looking at your watch so that you can be in the auditorium exactly by seven in the evening.

The unusual format of the theater festival attracts not only spectators - after all, if Cordon-2 did not have a rich program of entertainment, there would be nothing for the public to do there. During the time that the LIK festival was convened, more than 70 theater groups (more than 260 people) from all over Russia and from eight European countries, especially from the neighboring Baltic countries and Belarus. This guard performed more than 100 performances and “solo performances” for adults and children - almost 18 thousand people passed through the clearing. And the performances, even though they are performed in an unofficial forest format, are staged almost with greater responsibility than during working hours in theaters. The Cordon-2 laboratory is busy searching for fundamentally new methods in productions: prose (from Marquez to Pavich), poetry (from Rubtsov to Brodsky), and “theatrical jam” from numbers of different genres are staged here. Thus, the audience gets a complete idea of ​​what is current in the theater now - and what is eternal. And that’s why many theater lovers return here every August. Lifestyle, nothing can be done.

In Russia today there are a great many theater festivals, and it is almost impossible to keep track of all the shoots that grow and wither on this tree. About the theatrical festival that will be discussed here, we can say without any exaggeration that it grew like a mushroom, and the mycelium turned out to be tenacious. After all, the LIK festival has been revived for the fifth of August under the fir trees and birches of the forest of the Pushkinogorsk Museum-Reserve, not far from the entrance alley of the Mikhailovskoye estate, on the shore of Lake Bugrovskoye.

Many years ago the territory famous museum was guarded by three cordons located on the then borders of the reserve. The borders have expanded, security techniques have changed, but the cordon houses have been preserved. The theater festival “LIK” settled on the territory of Cordon-2.

The legendary creator of the reserve, Semyon Stepanovich Geichenko, before his death, managed to transfer the second cordon for 50 years for free rent to the artist Pyotr Nilovich Bystrov, who initiated the creation of the non-profit partnership “Art Laboratories Cordon-2” (LIC). The security house has turned into a unique creative platform. Inside the hut there is a cozy exhibition hall, an internal stage, and a small museum of the famous guardians of the Pushkin reserve. Outside there is a large open-air auditorium and an external stage, an exhibition of wooden sculpture, a forest artist’s shop, and a tea gazebo. Every building, every interior is intricately designed and skillfully decorated by the hands of the owner. Every week at Cordon-2 there are literary evenings, exhibitions of folk artists are often held, film projects are organized jointly with creative universities of St. Petersburg, special art festivals are held on memorable Pushkin days. But the largest creative festival, which celebrated its fifth anniversary this year, is the theater festival.

Several interesting theatrical ideas drive its creators: artist Pyotr Bystrov (village of Kosokhnovo) and director Grigory Kofman (Berlin). One of them is the revival of the idea of ​​an estate theater in new conditions. The estate theater is understood in this case quite broadly: how performing arts, integrated into the natural landscape; as a cultural initiative of the educated part of provincial Russia, addressed to the most wide circles spectators; as a private, informal affair that allows you to combine the fruitful efforts of professionals and amateurs in your space.

Another important idea of ​​the festival is an experiment in creating a chamber theater space. It’s interesting how performances can be placed in the space of a hut, in a forest clearing, right between the trees in the forest, on the edge of a rye field. What energy does each space have? How does it influence the acting style? Each festival participant is free to choose the space that suits him best and organize communication with the audience in his own special way.

The third idea is the creation of a territory of “Russian theatrical abroad” on the northern border of Russia. In their program documents the organizers of the festival write that its participants should be “domestic groups of artists and theater workers, searching for ways to develop typical forms of Russian culture, solving problems of interlingual integration, remaining in the tradition of a specific “Russian text”, foreign cultural figures professionally dealing with the problem of the influence of Russian art on the cultures of other countries." The theme of each festival is the reflection and development of motifs of Russian literature and drama in the literature and drama of other countries. The first festival "LIK", held in 2005, was dedicated to Pushkin's motifs, the fifth festival in 2009 - to Gogol's. Performances are performed here in Russian, German, French, Lithuanian and other languages.

The non-profit partnership "LIK" has virtually no financial support, and yet, year after year, the festival develops, becoming larger and more interesting. In the anniversary season, 14 theater groups from different cities of Russia gathered for the festival: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Gatchina, Pskov, Orel, as well as from Germany, Latvia and Lithuania. Some of them brought two works, and the most interesting thing is that during the festival theatrical miniatures were born, created right here as a result of the creative cooperation of several theaters.

Festival participants live in spartan conditions - in tents on the territory of Cordon-2. Their life is tense and intense: master classes in the morning, rehearsals and excursions in the afternoon, 2-3 performances in the evening, and discussions of the past day at night.

The atmosphere of festival screenings is an amazing combination of openness and intelligence. Entrance to the festival glade is free and free. Therefore, the most people gather for performances different people: local residents and metropolitan summer residents; children, adults and old people; people of art and science, peasants and workers of the reserve. All together they probably constitute the integral audience of the “people's theater” that Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin dreamed of. Before each performance, the organizers turn to the audience with the traditional request to turn off Cell phones, and with less traditional requests - not to be distracted by rain and mosquitoes; make sure that small children, for whom viewing will be difficult, are supervised and moved from the theater area to the living area. Here, in a forest clearing, the audience meets all these requests with unanimous understanding. There is perfect silence at performances. General friendly attention. In conversations with inexperienced theater audiences, I discovered amazing fact: everyone understands and feels everything. People who come to the play for the first time easily grasp the sophisticated aesthetics of the theater of the absurd; preschoolers empathize with the hero of the play, which is performed in a foreign language. The naive viewer even has his own explanation for the phenomenon: « It seems that if the actors were far away, there were too many people around, lights, velvet and all that, it wouldn’t be so interesting what was on stage, I wouldn’t take everything so to heart”; “When you watch a performance on the screen, everything seems smooth, it doesn’t really affect you, but here it’s as if you’re being pulled inside.”. In a word, the live exchange of energy between the actor and the viewer is very noticeable here and helps to overcome language barriers very different levels.

The most radical experimental work at the 2009 festival there were performances presented by Grigory Kofman and his GOFF-Company (St. Petersburg-Berlin) “Rozanov against Gogol” based on Viktor Erofeev; “The Announced” by the “Treasured Cart” Theater Group (Moscow) and “How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich” by the “Gallery” Commonwealth (Pushkin Mountains).

An unusual trio participates in the work “Rozanov against Gogol”: Gogol’s voice is represented by the saxophone part (Nikolai Rubanov), Rozanov’s voice is represented by drums (Alexei Ivanov), and human speech is given entirely to Viktor Erofeev, whose role in the play is played by Grigory Kofman. Jazz improvisation on philosophical topics– the most difficult genre to understand presented at the festival.

“The Catechumen (reading Gogol)” - monologue of the actress. This is how the work of the author and performer Maria Borodina and her fellow artists Tatyana Spasolomskaya and Victor Delog was listed on the poster. For four festival days, this group hid in the forest beyond the Cordon: project participants dragged incredible-sized boulders from place to place and painted them, pulled ropes and wires between pine trees, carried buckets of apples and armfuls of hay. And on the fifth day, in incredible natural settings, slightly adjusted by the hand of experienced theater set designers, they told the story of how “... somewhere in the Balkans, a fired actress who became a travel agent lives through the conflicts of her failed romance with the theater in Gogol’s texts.. ."

Participants of the “Gallery” community showed amateur improvisation on the themes of the famous story. The performance was attended by artist Pyotr Bystrov, schoolboy Pavel Muratov and philologist Vera Khalizeva. Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, who appeared before the audience in the form of a plaster bust, became a direct participant in the performance. At first he looked at what was happening from the window, then the “servants” placed him on the table between vodka and a snack, and then they whirled Gogol in a round dance of a scandal he had written. The work of the “Gallery” was funny and provocative; its creators clearly demonstrated to the viewer that everything described by Gogol is still part of our common life that we are all actors of this play and constantly live in its scenery.

With particular warmth, the audience received the performances of students of the College of Theater and Musical Art No. 61 from Moscow, the Theater Academy from St. Petersburg, the Milky Way Theater Studio from Orel, and the Grotesque Studio of the Pskov State Pedagogical University named after S.M. Kirov. But the undisputed leaders of the festival were the Rebus Theater from Lithuania and the Valki City Theater from Latvia.

Young Moscow actors performed one-man performances: one based on the prose of L. Engibarov, the other based on the prose of T. Tolstoy. Two completely different “germinations” Gogol's theme: the sad loneliness of the artist in the clown’s short stories, embodied by Sergei Batov, and the merciless comedy of “Kysi”, revealed by Victoria Pechernikova. Students from St. Petersburg performed a small play by H. Berger “What the Oriole Cried About” from the “Evil Plays” series. The plot is similar to the story “About How They Quarreled” - a rural squabble among neighbors that develops into a monstrous phantasmagoria. And if the Muscovites demonstrated a lyrical and dramatic temperament, the St. Petersburgers demonstrated a masterly command of the technique of tragic farce.

The Oryol student theater brought work done in the genre of literary and plastic composition. By such means, the young actors sought to transfer the parable sound of the selected material to the stage. “The Iron South” by A. Radensky is a parable about a craftsman who forged nails for a crucifixion. In the program we read: “...Kali Yuga – Black or Iron Age, the last of the eras into which the process of human development is divided. This is a philosophical parable about Man, about our insane desire for a superman." The tragic tension of the struggle between the divine and the devil in man makes the play similar to Gogol's texts. And finally, the Pskov students temperamentally played “The Raft” by Slavomir Mrozhek, once again making the viewer think about where the line is, after crossing which a person ceases to be a person.

Lithuanians and Latvians brought very mature works that could decorate any large-scale festival. Latvian director Aivars Ikšelis directed modern play Agita Dragoons "Mother". This is a monologue young man, who is awaiting trial for raising his hand against his mother. Mystical, terrible, irresistible fear was the main feeling that he experienced all his life. In the Jewish town where he grew up, the idea of ​​the original sinfulness of man and the inevitability of cruel punishment for every offense was cultivated. Disciplinary religiosity did not allow love to develop. And it was love that turned out to be a fatal milestone that changed the hero’s life. Love awakened a sense of dignity and pushed to commit a crime. But she also rewarded me with a sense of personal responsibility and an understanding of freedom of choice. And therefore the hero does not escape from an open prison cage and, having condemned himself, is ready for the judgment of people. Abysses and ups human soul here, rather, not Gogol’s, but ancient ones. And the acting is amazing with its constant tension of thought. Sasha Primax forces the viewer to go on a journey of self-discovery along with the hero of the play. IN scary story Each hero reflects his own story of struggle with childhood fears and grievances, which take possession of a person forever, leaving him a captive of hatred, or are overcome, which allows him to become an adult and allow himself to love fearlessly.

The Lithuanians performed two performances: “Devil's Lonely” based on the poems of Paulus Širvis in Lithuanian and “The Witch” by A.P. Chekhov in Russian. The director and performer of the main roles in both performances is Jonas Buzilyauskas. This middle-aged, baggy, short man captivated the viewer. A tragic actor is a huge rarity in our time. Jonas Buziliauskas is a real tragic actor. As befits a Lithuanian, he is alien to pressure and acting hysteria, he is restrained, almost cold. And the viewer who watches his performance is filled with the deepest sympathy for the heroes, although they are far from the idea of ​​an ideal. They are petty, weak, embittered, but “devilishly lonely”, they have the enormous power of the unrealized, which will never be allowed to happen. Jonas Buziliauskas plays the heroes of Shirvis and Chekhov in the same way as Akaki Akakievich from the second part of “The Overcoat” could probably be played.

During the week from August 1 to August 8, the small space of Cordon-2 accommodated great amount people, ideas, texts, experiences, aesthetic searches. The experience of the LIK festival in the Pushkinogorsk Museum-Reserve seems unique, because it reveals the possibility of the existence of complex art today in an extremely simple environment. The LIK festival is a territory of freedom of creativity and freedom of perception, it is a dream come true about folk theater, about the revival of the Russian province, about theater without borders.

Nobody knows how many years are left for this disinterested and naive project. Five is already a considerable age that deserves respect.

Photo by Joseph Budylin

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