The program of the Festival consisted of three parts:
The basis of the program of the World Series by tradition became the most fascinating works of masters of the Drama and Music theatre of recent years.
The program of XI Festival was featuring the productions of directors and choreographers, who have successfully worked with Chekhov Festival for more than one season. The new works were presented by Robert Lepage (“Playing Cards 1: the SPADES”, Canada); Matthew Bourne (“The Sleeping Beauty”, Great Britain); James Thiérrée (“Raoul”, France); Victoria Thiérrée-Chaplin (“Murmures des Murs”, France); Joseph Nadj (“Sho-bo-gen-zo”, France); Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota (“Rhinoceros”), Lin Hwai-min (“Nine Songs”, Taiwan). Among the performers were also well-known and loved by Russian public Sylvie Guillem (“6,000 Miles Away”, Great Britain); Aurelia Thiérrée-Chaplin (“Murmures des Murs”, France); Maria Pagés (“Utopia”, Spain).
Also, the festival 2013 presented to the audience the work of directors and collectives, little known to the Russian public. Among them, there were productions of two German directors, who already had successful experience of working in Europe: Andreas Kriegenburg and David Marton. “The Trial” by Franz Kafka, staged by Kriegenburg, was presented by Münchner Kammerspiele within the framework of “Cross Year Germany-Russia”. David Marton's "Harmonia Caelestis" based on Peter Esterhazy’s novel showed the Viennese ",", which hasn’t toured in Russia for over ten years.
A small British company “1927”, which has already won recognition at home and abroad, presented an inventive and “incredibly strong-imaged” production “Animals and Children Took to the Streets”. São João National Theatre of Portugal showed the production of "The Shadows" directed by Ricardo Pais, which was praised by critics as “a theatrical miracle”. Legend Lin Dance Theatre of Taipei (Taiwan) introduced the audience to the unique art of the choreographer LIN Lee-Chen.
For the first time, the program of Chekhov Festival was featured by two ballets of the famous company from Israel Batsheva Dance Company (“Deca Dance” and “SADEH21”). The spectators saw the joint work of one of the outstanding contemporary choreographers Ohad Naharin and the dancers of ”Batsheva", called also as the ”modern-ballet diamonds".
In the program of the Festival, there were two co-productions with the participation of the Chekhov Festival. One of them was the joint production of the Festival with the Vidy-Lausanne Théâtre, (Switzerland) Soundrama Studio and the Rudra Béjart School (Switzerland) of ”Orpheus Syndrome” based on the works by Vladimir Mayakovsky and Jean Cocteau (directed by Vladimir Pankov). The other one was the production "How You Like It" based on Shakespeare's play "Midsummer Night's Dream" made together with the theatre "School of Dramatic Art" and the Dmitry Krymov Laboratory (directed by Dmitry Krymov).
For the first time, the production of the young director from Belarus Catherine Averkova took part in the World Series of the Festival. It was “The Office" based on the play of Ingrid Lausund. The director was awarded this right as the winner of the first prize of the Youth Theatre Forum of the CIS, the Baltic States and Georgia (June 2012, Chisinau, Moldova). The next workshop of young directors of the CIS, the Baltic States, Georgia, and China took place within the framework of the festival.
Chekhov International Theatre Festival carries on the program of performing the shows of the Festival in the regions of Russia. In 2013 it included five productions of the World Series – “Murmures des Murs”, “Orpheus Syndrome”, “Deca Dance” and “Animals and Children Took to the Streets”, “The Office”. International projects of the Chekhov Festival such as “The Tempest”, “The Twelfth Night” and “The Three Sisters” were presented in the regional program as well. These productions were shown within the framework of the Platonov Festival in Voronezh, and also in theatres of St. Petersburg, Samara, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk and Khanty-Mansiysk. The regional program was organised by the Regional Public Foundation of Chekhov International Theatre Festival Support.
Three productions from the festival program were presented in Riga by the Chekhov Festival and Mikhail Chekhov Russian Drama Theatre.
The Moscow program of the 2013 Festival was dedicated to the memory of the outstanding Russian director Peter Fomenko and included productions staged by the maestro and his disciples.
Within the framework of the program of the 2013 Festival, there was also the exhibition called ”Stone. Scissors. Paper. An attempt of the museum" made by the Dmitry Krymov Laboratory. Organisers: Bakhrushin Museum, Exhibition hall "Manege", Dmitry Krymov Laboratory, ART MYTH.
As You Like It after Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night’s Dream
War and Peace. The Beginning of the Novel
Theatrical Novel (Notes of the Deceased)
The Dowerless (Bespridannitsa)
The Madwoman of Chaillot
