Playwriting without Borders

Conference on 21st-century Russian-language Theatre

Wolfson College, University of Oxford

On Thursday 6 and Friday 7 April 2017 a group of over 30 people from 9 countries (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Britain, Italy, France, Poland, the USA and Canada) gathered in Oxford to talk about the writing and staging of plays in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus since the beginning of this present century. For several participants this was their first visit to Oxford, or indeed to Britain.

Local students, both postgraduates and undergraduates, were very enthusiastic about attending the conference, which was conducted in both Russian and English. It was the students who provided excellent ‘whispered interpreting’ in both directions, so that proceedings ran very smoothly. They also generously offered their time to give visitors tours of Oxford’s architectural and cultural landmarks at the end of their stay. All of these features contributed to a very relaxed and constructive atmosphere, in which academic papers and roundtables prompted very focused and informative discussion.

One dimension of the programme which proved very successful was the fact that academic visitors from a range of countries got the opportunity to meet with theatre practitioners. These included: Elyse Dodgson, the International Director of the Royal Court Theatre; Britain’s leading translator of contemporary Russian-language drama, Sasha Dugdale; Nicola McCartney, who is a British playwright as well as the director of youth projects in Russia and Ukraine: the playwright Mikhail Durnenkov, who is also one of the directors of the annual Liubimovka contemporary drama festival in Moscow; his colleague Masha Krupnik, who equally works on drama projects with young people; leading theatre critics from Ukraine and Belarus (Maria Miroshnychenko and Tania Artimović); as well as the three founder-members of the Belarus Free Theatre (a theatre in exile, now based in London) – Natalia Koliada, Nicolai Khalezin and Vladimir Shcherban’. This was truly knowledge exchange in action, with information, experience, opinions and analysis shared between eloquent speakers and intent listeners.

Topics addressed included: the shifting aesthetics of contemporary theatre over the last 20 years; the theatrical practices shared across the three countries during that period and fostered through festivals and competitions; and the ways in which the subject-matter of contemporary Russian-language drama continues to range widely across the geographical regions under discussion, as they develop in a post-Soviet era.

The themes of contemporary drama include issues of gender, national identity, internal and international political tensions, sexual violence, religion, Chernobyl’ and its aftermath, historical memory, and choices of language (obscene or otherwise). Much of it is explored using the techniques of documentary or verbatim drama. There was considerable emphasis on the political, social and even therapeutic functions of contemporary drama in Russian. The conference also fulfilled a practical purpose in allowing practitioners from countries now divided by political hostilities to meet in a location and an environment which fostered sympathetic dialogue – for example between Ukrainians and Russians – and this opportunity was much appreciated.

The Belarus Free Theatre gave us permission to stage one of their recent plays, Time of Women (2014) as a rehearsed reading. This play about the experiences of women human rights activists and journalists in Belarus imprisoned for protesting against the authorities was directed by Noah Birksted-Breen, and performed by four professional actors. This was followed by a Q&A session with the Belarus Free Theatre authors/founders. The occasion was attended by the 30+ conference participants, plus about the same number again of audience members from around Oxford who had heard about the event: entrance was free.

Several of us agreed afterwards as we looked over our notes what a richly informative occasion it had been. There are ideas for further collaborations of this kind in the future, and also plans to publish a volume of essays drawing these themes together. Of course we also plan to visit Russia, Ukraine and Belarus to build on the contacts we have established, and to see a great deal more theatre!

For more information about this project contact: julie.curtis@wolfson.ox.ac.uk