On July 1st and 2nd, Park "Dolphin" will host a new project of the International Platonov Arts Festival - Festival of street theatres. Within two days, residents and guests of the city will be able to attend the performances of 12 collectives from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Samara and Voronezh. 24 shows are scheduled. The admission is free.
The Platonov Arts Festival regularly initiates projects relevant and significant for the region. In 2022, it turned to the public space theatre. Thanks to the festival, the first street theatre - the Voronezh Academic Street Theatre - appeared in Voronezh. Continuing to develop this direction, the forum will hold a Festival of street theatres. Spectators will see a big, bright holiday with the participation of the teams representing different genres and forms of street theatre art.
Please note that the programme of the Festival of street theatres include both performances designed for a large audience and chamber works. Each production has its own technical features, which determine the location of the show and the optimal number of spectators for comfortable viewing. Please consider these factors when planning your visit to the festival events.
Programme of the Festival of street theatres
Street theatre AspektR (St. Petersburg)
Performance-procession "Cosmo" (6+)
July 1st | 12:00-12:40 p.m.; 5:00-5:40 p.m.
July 2nd | 12:00-12:40 p.m.; 5:00-5:40 p.m.
Venue: the starting point is beside the Lighthouse
"AspektR" is the only street theatre in Russia that specialises in the "walking act" genre (performance in motion), which is uncommon for our country, but is a very popular form of performance in Europe. In their shows, the group uses the technique of mask animation, dance and interactive engagement with the audience. While creating images of the characters, they rely on the personality of the artists themselves, who set the plasticity, mood and atmosphere of the performance.
The performance "Cosmo" is the capture of the city by benevolent aliens who change our perspective on familiar things. You see these streets every day and you know every tree in the alley, and for these strange creatures this is the first meeting with an unfamiliar space. Join now! Exploring the place by themselves, they are sure to show you something new and amazing. Discover your hometown from a new angle!
Puppet theatre named after V. Volkhovsky (Voronezh)
Performance "Thumbelina" (6+)
July 1st | 1:00-1:40 p.m.
Venue: Skatepark
The performance was created by the team of Anna Shishkina and Oleg Skotnikov, the founders of the oldest street theatre in Russia - "Mr. Pejo's wandering dolls" (St. Petersburg). The authors of the production do not just transfer the action of Andersen's fairy tale to the square, they invite the audience to look into the backstage of the theatre. An additional storyline about an actress saying goodbye to the stage and dreaming of playing her favorite role for the last time also appears in the performance.
"This is not a postmodern story based on Andersen's work - this is "Thumbelina", not limited to a fairy tale. And the most important thing for me in this performance is that it ends well - at the level of children's reading, and at the level of adult understanding. This is what I want to give the viewer: a little joy, a little happiness - a little theatrical happiness." Director Anna Shishkina
Voronezh Puppet theatre named after V. Volkhovsky is one of the oldest puppet theatres in Russia, with its history beginning in 1925. It was recreated in April 1944, a year after the liberation of Voronezh. It takes part in international festivals of puppet theatres in Russia and Europe. The theatre is the laureate of the Fyodor Volkov Award and a multiple winner of various festivals. The theatre's repertoire includes more than 40 performances for all categories of the audience - for children from 2 years of age, parents with children from 10 years of age and adults.
Theatre KARLSSON HAUS (St. Petersburg)
Show-promenade "Weekends are only once a week" (6+)
July 1st | 1:00-2:30 p.m.; 5:00-6:30 p.m.
Venue: the starting point is the New Acquaintances Park
Theatre Karlsson Haus was created by a group of St. Petersburg puppeteers in 2006 and quickly turned into one of the most notable puppet theatres in the country. Such well-known directors as Alexey Lelyavsky, Evgeny Ibragimov, Boris Konstantinov, Pyotr Vasilyev, Anna Ivanova-Brashinskaya have produced performances here. The theatre has received many awards and has repeatedly participated in international festivals.
"Weekends..." is a puppet show-promenade, which can be watched by anyone who is in the park. You just need to stop for a minute and look: what are these elderly heroes doing? They are busy with their simple affairs: someone is dancing, someone is taking pictures, someone is having a picnic. The oldies can afford not rush anywhere and spend time with pleasure. The only thing they can't do is talk. The project removes the stigma from the topic of old age, makes the invisible visible and works with the practice of non-verbal communication. It helps to feel that speech and intelligence are only a small part of our communication capabilities.
Educational theatre project "Shakespearia" (Voronezh)
Performance "King Lear" (12+)
July 1st | 2:00-2:20 p.m.
Venue: Amphitheatre
The educational theatre project "Shakespearia" was created in 2014 on the initiative of the Head of the foreign language schools IH linguist - Natalia Vlasova and an actor and director Kamil Tukaev. The project combines foreign language teaching and theatre practice. Since the creation of "Shakespearia", its participants have presented their productions at international festivals in Europe: Great Britain, Belgium, Italy, Latvia. Voronezh teenagers had a chance to work with directors such as Paul Bourne, Jonathan Salway, Ian Raby, Solimano Pontarollo, Etta Ermini, Jesper La Cour Andersen, Emily Butler and others.
"King Lear" was born back in 2021, but over time it has transformed from a dramatic production into a street performance in the genre of clowning. The artists will act out a well-known plot using the language of plasticity, the text of the original play translated by Boris Pasternak and storytelling techniques. At the festival "Edges of Talent" in Moscow, the performance was awarded in the nominations "the best interpretation of Shakespeare's text" and "the best female role".
Air theatre "UFO" (Moscow)
Show "Air Oceanarium" (6+)
July 1st | 2:20-2:50 p.m.; 4:00- 4:30 p.m.; 6:00-6:30 p.m.
Venue: the starting point is beside the Lighthouse
The air theatre "UFO" was created on the initiative of Pavel Kiselev, who launched more than 15 show projects, stage performances and interactive installations. This is the first team in Russia that specialises in working with kites.
The show "Air Oceanarium" connects the underwater and air worlds, presenting their amazing inhabitants. They travel to different cities and countries to give people joy, delight, excitement and beautiful photographs. The characters of the show: kites of unusual shapes, tadpoles, jellyfish, octopuses, caterpillars, stars and other bright inhabitants of the "Air Oceanarium" - love to interact with the audience, affectionately flirting with them and frankly wagging their tail right in front of their noses.
"Plasticine Rain" Theatre (Samara)
Performance "White Dreams" (6+)
July 1st | 3:00-3:40 p.m.
July 2nd | 3:00-3:40 p.m.
Venue: Skatepark
During its 30-year history, "Plasticine Rain" has gone from plastic youth theatre to one of the leading street theatres in Russia. Performances of the group are wordless, and thus understandable to viewers anywhere in the world. Artists often perform on stilts, doing impressive tricks on them.
"Plasticine Rain" is a participant of street theatre festivals in St. Petersburg, Perm, Arkhangelsk, Tyumen, Kemerovo, Novosibirsk, Tula and other cities. The artists performed at the official closing ceremony of the Olympic Games in Sochi, participated in the programme of the World Cup in Samara. Since 2011, "Plasticine Rain" has been holding a festival of street art of the same name, where theatres from Russia, Hungary, Belarus, Australia, Argentina, Germany, Canada, France, the Czech Republic, Spain, Chile and other countries have performed.
"White Dreams" is an incredible story, in which the audience become the participants. No matter how much you pinch yourself, you won't be able to wake up. You will not want to break away from such a dream with tricks on stilts, crazy dances and humorous miniatures.
Street theatre "Sky Carousel" (St. Petersburg)
Performance "Sky Carousel" (6+)
July 1st | 7:00-7:40 p.m.
July 2nd | 7:00-7:40 p.m.
Venue: Amphitheatre
They could have become astronomers, doctors, engineers, mathematicians, but they became street performers, doomed to the freedom of flight. Theatre "Sky Carousel" was created in 2014. Since then, the team has shown many theatre performance events and created three full-length performances, which they presented at almost all street art festivals in Russia. At the Festival of street theatres, the team will present the performance "Sky Carousel".
When a small child is sung a lullaby, he plunges into the magical world of sleep, where it is possible to reach the clouds, fly without wings, where childhood manifests itself beyond the game and it is easy to find the bluebird. Keep the feather safe: it remembers the beauty of flight.
"Mr. Pejo's wandering dolls" (St. Petersburg)
Performance "Moonsters" (6+)
July 1st | 8:00-8:40 p.m.
July 2nd | 8:00-8:40 p.m.
Venue: Skatepark
They are smiling. They play the flute. They are dancing. They will put you to bed and tuck you in a blanket. In the performance "Moonsters", five Months establish their lunar orders and, at the end, put the audience to sleep, plunging them into the world of magical dreams. A lyrical and funny interactive performance filled with gentle paradoxes of that time of childhood, when a magical world with secrets and snowy caves fit under the blanket, and the realm of sleep was a zone for games, walks and revelations.
"Mr. Pejo's wandering dolls" is a theatre of carnival culture, masks, grotesque and buffoonery, which was founded in 1993 in St. Petersburg. The actors draw inspiration from baroque opera, historical fencing, martial arts, medieval miniatures, Fellini's circus and literally everything that surrounds them. During the theatre's interactive performances everyone has a chance to become a King, a Brave Knight, a Beauty Princess, a Beast or just an amazed spectator. The "Wandering dolls" charm with their simultaneously scary and beautiful masks, magical stories and the magic of a spectacle that goes back to the best traditions of European carnival.
Theatre "Ognennie Ludi" (Moscow)
"Sincere show" (12+)
July 1st | 9:00-9:40 p.m.
July 2nd | 9:00-9:40 p.m.
Venue: Pier
"Ognennie Ludi" theatre is a laboratory of images and special effects, a mobile carnival workshop, an original group that appeared on the Moscow alternative scene when a wave of interest in street theatre and new forms of performing arts rose in the early 2000s. Starting with street performances, spontaneous carnival processions and club shows, they are remembered by the public for their unique comic presentation and an independent look at creativity. Today "Ognennie Ludi" is an accomplished and recognisable project that combines strict form and improvisation, maintaining a balance between theatre and circus, trick and human sincerity, danger and laughter.
"Sincere Show" is a story about simple things, told in the language of clowning and fire. To the sounds of copper pipes, thunderous applause, bursts of laughter, cries of delight and exclamations of gratitude, the artists involve the spectators in their game, filled with unexpected game moments and bright special effects.
Voronezh Academic Street Theatre
Performance "Comedy at random" (6+)
July 2nd | 1:00-1:40 p.m.
Venue: Amphitheatre
The Voronezh Academic Street Theatre was created at the initiative of the International Platonov Arts Festival, which organised a street theatre laboratory in 2022. The VAS theatre started its history with a street performance "How Peter the Great ..." staged by Anna Shishkina (Mother Meadows), artistic director of the St. Petersburg theatre "Mr. Pejo's wandering dolls." The second work of the VAS theatre was the environmental performance "One thousand tons under water" - a fantasy on the theme of Joseph Brodsky's poem "The new Jules Verne" (director - Daniil Chekrygin). Among the new productions in the repertoire of the VAS theatre are "How Peter the Great made the New Year a winter holiday" in the genre of a street carnival (director - Kamil Tukaev) and "Comedy at random", referring to the aesthetics of the Italian street theatre of the Renaissance period (director - Daniil Chekrygin).
"Comedy at random" is an improvisational street theatre performance created in the aesthetics of the Italian comedy of masks. In the centre of its plot is a classic story of lovers, which face many obstacles on their way to happiness, but thanks to the help of their clever friends, they overcome all difficulties. A lot of music, blank verse, interactive acts and comedy pantomime are awaiting the audience. And even the actors themselves do not know how the action will develop: at the beginning of each performance, the audience chooses one of the four plots and distributes roles to the characters.
Moscow Children's Shadow Theatre
Performance "First Theatrical Aid" (12+)
July 2nd | 1:00-2:30 p.m.; 3:00-4:30 p.m.
Venue: beside the Lighthouse
The Moscow Shadow Theatre was founded by Ilya Epelbaum and Maya Krasnopolskaya in 1988. The team has repeatedly become the winner of the "Golden Mask" award and other Russian and international festivals, including forums in Spain, France, Germany, Brazil, the USA and other countries. In 2022, the "Shadow Theatre" was merged with the Moscow Children's Shadow Theatre.
"First Theatrical Aid" is a fast and powerful theatrical "injection". This is a legendary project of directors, the founders of the theatre "Shadow" Ilya Epelbaum and Maya Krasnopolskaya, restored specifically for the Platonov Arts Festival.
Inside the theatremobile there is a pompous theatrical box, in front of the audience there is a half-meter stage, on which there are opera performances in the Lilikan manner for adults and children. Each of them lasts no more than 10 minutes (in the puppet country of Lilikania, the audience do not tolerate long performances).
Authentic theatre "Eskizy v prostranstve" (Moscow)
Performance-procession "Lost caravan" (6+)
July 2nd | 6:00-6:40 p.m.; 8:00-8:40 p.m.
Venue: beside the Lighthouse
"Eskizy v prostranstve" is an independent theatre created by Moscow actors, directors and artists. Going beyond classical theatre productions, the team specialises in creating street performances and theatre performance events. "Eskizy v prostranstve" is a participant of the Theatre Olympics - 2019, as well as international festivals in Germany, France, China, Romania and the CIS countries. In the summer of 2020, the team bought a cottage in the Vladimir region at their own expense and, together with the creative community "MIRA", turned it into the Rural Drama and Comedy Theatre in Fomikha. "Eskizy v prostranstve" is a resident of the New Space of the Theatre of Nations, the Praktika Theatre and the creative community "MIRA."
"Lost Caravan" is a performance-procession of mythical animals led by unusual characters that resemble shamans or dervishes. They slowly, mesmerisingly move through the crowd, making several stops, during which they present plastic interludes. "Lost Caravan" is a poetic action of a mystical nature about the beauty and fragility of our world.