Photo: Annabel Moeller

Photo: Annabel Moeller

From the cultural perspective, London is an extremely privileged urban center: the delights it enjoys are unprecedented. Brodsky/Baryshnikov testify is one of such rare artistic feasts available to the local litterati. Information technology is a rare occasion when two geniuses so harmoniously meet. What makes it fifty-fifty more than precious to the Russian public is the fact that it is highly unlikely that the show might tour  Russia someday soon. Therefore, many admirers of Brodsky'southward verse traveled from Russia to see this performance of astonishing ability and depth which runs at the Apollo Theatre in May.

I can merely add that those who might have fabricated such sacrifice then equally to watch several performances by Mikhail Baryshnikov did non exercise and then in vain: Brodsky/Baryshnikov is a work of genius. And perhaps, to dub the whole performance a "show" is not exactly accurate: information technology is a revelation.  Baryshnikov is a unique creative person with a remarkable gift for refined expression and transformation. His movements and gestures (he particularly insists that he is not dancing during the performance) are suffused with significant and grace. Just gently moving his finger-tips he manages to transform himself into a brusque- lived butterfly, the fawn chasing a nymph, or into a symbolic face up of tragedy declining into a farce.  What Baryshnikov and the stage manager Alvis Hermanis have managed to create onstage, is an expressive, intense, pulsating Gesamtkunstwerk which stays in memory for a long time after the show, repeatedly bringing the lines from Brodsky'south poetry to i's mind.

Photo: Annabel Moeller

Photograph: Annabel Moeller

The operation starts with the muted, barely aural sounds of spiritual Orthodox chant. Baryshnikov enters clutching a suitcase, from which he unpacks an former alarm clock, books and the bottle of booze.  The wave of sound is emerging out of nowhere. Then against its background, one starts hearing indiscernible poetic lines of Brodsky in a gentle whisper. The whisper grows stronger and becomes a living speech communication. Nosotros cantankerous the borderlines from silence to word, making this subtle transition from decease to life, and Brodsky becomes alive to us over again through his poesy read out aloud past Baryshnikov with subtle dramatic intensity.

The sets are very elementary: a dilapidated and dreamy Art Nouveau pavilion with cherubs and sinuous lines, which, depending on the angle of falling stage lights, becomes a boundary, a Lethe of oblivion, or the Royal Doors to Eternity. It evokes a poignant sense of longing and nostalgia. It is a demarcation line between the world of the living (retention, sound) and the world of the expressionless (oblivion, silence). Depending on the context, it is either an entrancing silent messenger of the Russian Silver Historic period, so much loved past Brodsky,  or the structure reminiscent of Leningrad communal flats with their pre-Revolutionary grandeur and mail service-Revolutionary squalor.The performance starts with the muted, barely aural sounds of spiritual Orthodox chant. Baryshnikov enters clutching a suitcase, from which he unpacks an old alert clock, books and the canteen of booze.  The wave of audio is emerging out of nowhere. And then confronting its background, one starts hearing indiscernible poetic lines of Brodsky in a gentle whisper. The whisper grows stronger and becomes a living speech. We cross the borderlines from silence to give-and-take, making this subtle transition from death to life, and Brodsky becomes alive to u.s.a. again through his poesy read out aloud by Baryshnikov with subtle dramatic intensity.

Having now watched this performance, I disagree – I strongly disagree that it is about death, dying and the onetime age or fright of expiry – that would be far as well simplistic and literalistic a reading. Through the means of movement, poetry, discussion and calorie-free cues (for the quality of light also plays an important part in this show), the viewers hover betwixt the two worlds: the routine, dim and wearisome existence with its fear and threat of expiry and the world of poetic symbols which grade themselves from Baryshnikov'southward retentiveness. It is the operation about the word, and more chiefly, the true intonation with which this give-and-take should be uttered and shared with the audience. It is as well well-nigh an Come across (in the sense it was meant by Martin Buber or Rilke).

Photo: Annabel Moeller

Photograph: Annabel Moeller

Throughout the operation, Baryshnikov sustains a very serious and trusting conversation with the audience through the poems of his genius friend Joseph Brodsky. At times it seems Baryshnikov is lending his body and memory to make Brodsky live onstage, even faithfully copying Brodsky's intonations while reciting a poem. This manner, he becomes our Virgil, who takes us by the hand and guides through the inner landscapes of Joseph Brodsky's man and poetic soul. It is a gentle, loving and profound tribute to a dead friend.

Baryshnikov resurrects the poet for whom to be alive meant to resound in his poetic lines. Through word and motility, nosotros see a man suffering from being exiled from his country and his metropolis, his circumvolve of friends, his memories and his past, alienated and alone. Then gradually in front of the audience emerges a poet of genius, a tormented soul grappling with philosophical questions of existence and struggling to resolve them. Like Brodsky's butterfly, his poetry is chirapsia its wings against the tragedy and grief, the sorrow and regret for the unfulfilled dreams, hopes and aspirations, the feeling of extreme loneliness, the fear of oblivion ( silence), the fear of the meaninglessness of life and ultimate metaphysical void which annihilates all. Life and Death lead their dialogue and their epic battle through the lines of Brodsky. He is the man condemning the earth and demanding theodicy at the aforementioned time! And above all this, there comes out a hope for meaning, beauty, God and his presence.

Baryshnikov is regal, refined and very informal at the same time. He invites united states of america not merely to share the retention of his dear friend and enter the world of Brodsky'due south poesy but likewise to beginning engaging with those monumental questions which inspired, disquieted and disturbed the poet in his later life. These are exactly "those damned questions" as Dostoevsky outlined them. During this one-human fine art performance, Baryshnikov appears every bit a suffering Hiob, a lonely immigrant, a sarcastic middle-aged man,  and a quiet, sympathetic and apprehensive friend who is entirely congenial to what he reads onstage in memory of Brodsky. The final poem is particularly heart- rending equally it is a juvenilia of the 17-year-one-time poet who appears to foresee his future destiny. Strangely, the poesy of a immature man sounds as his testament, equally if he were saying: I lived to the all-time of my ability. Live a ameliorate and more fulfilling life, if you can.

I personally felt as if I had a risk to meet Brodsky in person. Not the Brodsky hidden between the black and white lines of a printed book, only the Brodsky of flesh and blood, with human weaknesses, failings, and contradictions, which he does not attempt to hide.  A complex homo: a person whose listen is incisive but whose soul is utterly vulnerable and sensitive. Someone who adopts a somewhat sarcastic and cynical opinion in order to stay sane and distance oneself from the pathos and emotion of his poetry.  This makes his tone not only distanced and understated but strangely intimate, trusting, bewildered by life, seeking, lost, hopeful.  There lays a huge gulf between the enormity of the question hurled at the universe and the limitations of human being powers to grasp and resolve, which notwithstanding brings the poet to the realm of eternity. With Baryshnikov's apprehensive help the viewer has the opportunity to come into contact not just with Brodsky'southward  poetry but with its creative powers and the vector fields of the poet'southward inspiration — the whole universe of Joseph Brodsky which we briefly indwell.

 The tour of Brodsky/ Baryshnikov was presented by the companyBird&Carrot and made possible through the generous back up of Norvik Banka.

This commodity was originally posted at Russianartandculture.com. Reposted with permission. Read the original article here.

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