Lecture: Marina Davydova – “The Axial Age of Contemporary Theatre: When It Begins and How to Understand It”

Marina Davydova. “The Axial Age of Contemporary Theatre: When It Begins and How to Understand It” On September 3, at 6 p.m., at the Vilnius Old Theatre (J. Basanavičiaus g. 13, Vilnius), theatre critic and producer Marina Davydova will deliver a lecture “The Axial Age of Contemporary Theatre: When It Begins and How to Understand It” (in Russian). This lecture is a prelude to the premiere of director Ilya Moshčitsky’s production “LIMBO” (September 4 and 5). It is an event from the series “The Loge on Air”. How did the emergence of the director change theatre, and how has the director’s theatre itself changed? Has it lived through, to use Karl Jaspers’s words, its own “axial age”? Why do some of the most celebrated productions of past decades appear archaic to today’s sophisticated viewer, while others do not? What does the category of “contemporaneity” even mean in the context of theatre? In the more than a hundred years since the rise of directing, theatre has undergone many evolutions and mastered many new territories – but is it now facing a crisis? Marina Davydova’s lecture will discuss not only the great theatre-makers – from Tadeusz Kantor to Katie Mitchell, from Robert Wilson to Romeo Castellucci – but also how theatre has been changing in recent years. The lecture will be accompanied by video excerpts of masterpieces that, in the lecturer’s view, have shaped the direction of 21st-century theatre. Marina Davydova – theatre critic, director, playwright and producer. She wrote the monographs “The End of the Theatre Era” (2005) and “Culture ZERO” (2017), and contributed to the preparation of the book “A History of European Theatre from the Renaissance to the End of the 19th Century”. She has received numerous awards for theatre criticism. In 1998 she was one of the founders of the “NET” (“New European Theatre”) festival. She curated the drama programme of “Wiener Festwochen” (2016) and served as drama director of the Salzburg Festival (2023–2024). Her more notable directing works include the production “Eternal Russia” (“Hebbel am Ufer”, Berlin, 2017) and “Checkpoint Woodstock” ( “ Thalia” Theatre in Hamburg, 2019). These productions were also shown in Vilnius in 2019 at the invitation of the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre (LNDT). In 2023, the production “Museum of Uncounted Voices” was presented in Vienna at the “Wiener Festwochen” festival. M. Davydova’s productions are often political, openly criticising Russian reality, its system, counterculture, regime, and the freedom imprisoned by state security. In March 2022, M. Davydova was forced to leave Russia after publishing an anti-war petition on the first day of the war against Ukraine. “It seems to me that one simply has to remain honest with oneself – when you formulate a thought, write articles, give lectures, argue... I am against any kind of extremism; no political extremism is close to me. I am always ready to hear my opponent’s opinion, even if it is unacceptable to me. I believe this is also tolerance. I understood long ago: when you express your opinion honestly and openly, it is less dangerous than trying to hide or command something… Many times I have seen how people, fearing everything, become victims of the regime. The main thing is to remain clean before oneself. I remain clean before myself, however paradoxical that may sound.” (Marina Davydova) /// “The Loge on Air” is a cycle of events, evenings and conversations offering fleeting, free and unbinding discussions about theatre – about what lies behind it, beside it, about the phenomena of culture and (non-)culture. Surprises are not ruled out; here one can and should speak openly and sharply, one is allowed to be wrong, and we reserve this right for ourselves as well. Ether is both a volatile, strongly scented liquid and a cryptocurrency; in Greek mythology it is the uppermost, clearest layer of air, the abode of the immortals, something subtle and immaterial, an atmosphere, a space through which a message, a sound, travels. Let us broadcast.”

Adresas: Vilniaus senasis teatras