The 16th International Chekhov Theatre Festival will take place in Moscow from 24 May to 8 October 2023.
As tradition dictates, the programme will consist of the World Series, the Moscow Programme, the Regional Programme, the Educational Programme and a number of additional events for a wide audience.
Tickets for the World Series performances will go on sale on 24 October 2022 on the Festival's official website: www.chekhovfest.ru.
The World Series programme of the 16th Chekhov Festival includes 15 performances across a range of genres from 13 countries around the world – Argentina, Armenia, Belarus, Brazil, Chile, China, Cuba, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, South Africa, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.
The Festival will open with "Wild Tango" by Herman Cornejo. This dance spectacle stirs the senses and the imagination with its Argentine colour, artistic innovation, original costumes, the charisma of its performers and gravity‑defying acrobatics. Herman Cornejo's company is known to Russian audiences from the production "Tango After Sunset" , presented in the Chekhov Festival programme and at the Pacific Festival in Vladivostok in 2021.
As part of the Festival, the world premiere of "Mumu" – based on Ivan Turgenev's short story of the same name – will take place. This is a co‑production of the Taganka Theatre (Moscow) and the International Chekhov Theatre Festival. The project will be realised by an international creative team. The production team includes: director Narine Grigoryan (Armenia), set designer Victoria Riedo‑Oganesyan (Armenia), choreographer Yuri Kostanyan (Armenia) and composer Artyom Kim (Uzbekistan). The production will feature actors from the Taganka Theatre, with the role of the Lady played by Irina Apeksimova.
Another significant co‑production is "The Stone of Folly" – a joint project of the Republican Theatre of Belarusian Drama (RTBD), the International Confederation of Theatre Unions, and the Regional Public Foundation for the Support of the International Chekhov Theatre Festival, involving theatre practitioners from Belarus and Russia. The creative team includes playwright Konstantin Steshik (Belarus), director Dmitry Zimin (Russia), set designer Alena Igrusha (Belarus), composer Alexander Sitnikov (Russia) and actors from the theatre. Director Dmitry Zimin comments: "This production is about the illusory nature of the meaning of life and about human loneliness within that illusion. 'The Stone of Folly' is a story about how much a person needs another person – someone with whom one is not afraid to be oneself." This is the second joint project of the International Confederation of Theatre Unions and the Republican Theatre of Belarusian Drama. The first was the production "The Quiet Rustle of Departing Footsteps" (2013), which is still performed on the RTBD stage.
The theme of theatre art in the post‑Soviet space will continue with performances by companies from Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan – participants of the 4th Youth Theatre Forum of the Commonwealth, Baltic and Georgia Countries (2021, Tashkent, Uzbekistan), which is held every three years by the International Confederation of Theatre Unions under the auspices and with the support of the Interstate Fund for Humanitarian Cooperation of the CIS Member States.
A vibrant musical production, "Kulager", directed by Farkhad Moldagali, will be presented by the M. Musrepov State Academic Theatre for Children and Young People (Kazakhstan) together with the ethno‑modern‑jazz group Steppe Sons. The production is based on the poem of the same name by Ilyas Zhansugurov, dedicated to the 19th‑century singer‑poet Akan Seri and his horse Kulager.
The production "Gardenia", based on a play by contemporary Polish playwright Elżbieta Chowaniec, directed by Gor Markaryan, will be brought to the Festival by the K. Stanislavsky Yerevan State Russian Drama Theatre (Armenia). "Gardenia" is a message addressed to today's reader and, subsequently, to the audience – about the role of women, the challenges fate throws at them, and self‑discovery.
A stage version of Chingiz Aitmatov's famous short story "Mother Earth" – which the writer dedicated to his parents – will be presented by director Nigora Gaibnazarova and actors from the Syrdarya Regional Theatre of Musical Comedy (Uzbekistan). The production raises questions about human purpose, grief, happiness, courage and destiny.
Also in the programme is the touching production "Paper‑Plane Letters" , based on Éric‑Emmanuel Schmitt's works "Oscar and the Lady in Pink" and "Monsieur Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran" – about childhood, death, life and dreams. The production features puppets and dramatic actors from the B. Kydykeyeva State Theatre for Youth and Young Spectators (Bishkek). "Paper‑Plane Letters" tells the story of a little boy, Arthur, who realises that he will soon die. Following the advice of a nurse who becomes his close friend, the child begins to write letters to God and, folding them into paper planes, sends them out of the hospital window. The production was created with the support of the "Helping is Easy" Foundation and the Union of Theatre Workers of the Kyrgyz Republic.
For the first time, the Chekhov Festival will welcome Indian director Rajaat Kapoor, known for his unique ability to create comedies from dark and even tragic subjects. His production "Macbeth: What's Done Is Done", based on Shakespeare's Macbeth, is staged in the genre of clowning and tells of greed, ambition and guilt – making the laughter sound through tears. Kapoor's production offers a perspective on world classics from another part of the world.
A true gift from Vietnam will be presented by the Thang Long Theatre – the most famous water puppet theatre. Water puppetry has existed in Vietnam for over a thousand years and is considered a masterpiece of Vietnamese and world culture. Despite its venerable age and all the historical vicissitudes, the theatre has managed to survive to this day in its original form. This is a distinctive art form, filled with unique charm, and at the same time a mesmerising spectacle that immerses audiences in an atmosphere of mystery.
Ballet and contemporary dance will be represented in a wide range of styles and forms. For the first time in the Chekhov Festival programme, "Malen" will be presented – a production once described by critics as the best Chilean dance work. In the Mapuche language, malen means young women who begin to learn and receive ancestral knowledge from older women. It is this dialogue between generations that choreographer and dancer Ricardo Curacao Curiche brings to the stage, using contemporary dance performed by sixteen dancers ranging in age from ten to seventy. "Malen" is a reconstruction and an attempt to revive the life and culture of the Mapuche, presenting women and children as the main inspirers of all action and creativity.
For the first time, the Festival will welcome the South African Vuyani Dance Company. In creating his production "Sion: Requiem for Ravel's Boléro" , South African choreographer Gregory Vuyani Makoma drew inspiration from two sources. Hypnotic magic was provided by Maurice Ravel's "Boléro" – the most successful musical composition of the 20th century – in which the choreographer heard an analogy with the ritual mourning rhythms of his homeland. Another source was the work of the famous South African writer Zakes Mda. The first part of the production's title and the main character – the professional mourner Toloki – are borrowed from his novel "Sion". But instead of telling a story, the choreographer creates a dance requiem. A universe of greed and injustice, he suggests, has turned us all into professional mourners. But it is in mourning, Makoma believes, that people are most likely to unite.
One of the most anticipated productions in the programme is "Tea Spell", choreographed and directed by Zhao Liang – a dancer and director known in China not only as a pioneer of contemporary dance but also as a choreographer exploring the relationship between Heaven, Earth and humanity. In the West, he is also known – as a "shepherd from the East." Zhao Liang skilfully combines Western contemporary dance with Eastern philosophy, psychology and aesthetics. His works are akin to philosophical journeys, in which dance is merely a medium.
Also in the programme is "Carmina Burana" – one of the most famous symphonic works of all time, which has long been a temptation for choreographers. Cuban dancer and choreographer George Céspedes, together with the Contemporary Ballet of Cuba, conceived and realised a production for the dance company. The complex and multi‑layered structure of the choreography turns the performance into a colourful, large‑scale show that harmoniously combines music, visual projections and movement. The production will feature Russian ensembles: the Moscow Philharmonic Academic Symphony Orchestra, the Minin Choir, the "Vesna" Children's Choir, as well as Russian soloists Yaroslav Abaimov, Maria Buinosova and Pavel Yankovsky.
Continuing the programme is the production "To Moscow! Palimpsest", born from a desire that almost all of us have probably felt at least once: to erase and rewrite the past. Taking Chekhov's "Three Sisters" as a starting point, the Brazilian company Setor de Áreas Isoladas created a palimpsest – literally, an old parchment whose text has been scraped off to make way for a new one, which, in the end, retains traces of what was written before. In a warm dialogue between theatre and music, four actresses and two musicians set out to compose their own version of the drama.
The programme will conclude with a contemporary ballet from Argentina's San Martín Theatre. From Gustav Mahler's magnificent composition "Das Lied von der Erde", renowned Argentine choreographer Mauricio Wainrot has created a work that deserves to be inscribed in the annals of neoclassical ballet. A production with interesting development, combining powerful group tableaux with poetic scenes, it is an attempt to express in dance the profound meaning that Mahler imbues in his music and in the poems chosen for these songs.