Tatyana Ozhigova Chamber Stage (Omsk State Drama Theater)

Russian Engineering Theater "AKhE" (Russia) St. Petersburg

"Faust³. 2360 words"

Directed by - Yana Tumina

 

In 1989 Maxim Isaev, Pavel Semchenko and Vadim Vasyliev formed a group called "AKhE" They have claimed to be genre-free from the very beginning.  They came up with a name Russian Engineering Theater "AKhE" in 1999. They show their understanding of "engineering" and "optical" in such projects and performances as "Hero's Catalogue", "Pookh and Prakh" ("Broken To Pieces"), "Mr. Carmen" and "Faust³. 2360 words" ("Pookh and Prakh" will be shown in Omsk at the festival club programme) Since 1995 to the present moment "AKhe" has been a laureate of many theater festivals in Spain, Switzerland, Great Britain, Ireland, USA, Italy and France. 

In 2005 "AKhE" started a new international project dedicated to Dr. Faust. The opening night of the "Faust³. 2360 words" was at The Satire Theater on Vasilievsky in February of 2006.

 

 

Authors speak on the performance:

 

"For the last couple of years we've been thinking of the same combinations of ideas and themes. There are not many. Eventually, all of them end up on stage. Dr. Faust had been on that list for quite a long time, but we hesitated to stage it. The plot is well-known and familiar; nevertheless we decided it would have been unfair to go too far from the original. So, in order to correctly communicate our view of "Faust" to the audience, we had to talk on stage. It was the first time we did. We picked the words carefully, just the way we selected props for the play. It came out to be a lot of them - 2360.  We could have, might as well, counted the pauses, they are equally important. As usual, the real work on the play starts after the premiere, so "Faust" is going to change quite a bit".

 

 

 

Review

The main rule of their performances is to have on stage a silent emotionless professional illusionist, rather than an actor. But the tricks aren't the main goal for "AKhE" -  what's important is that the result is darker, than Beckett, funnier than circus and more heart-piercing then any soap opera. This conception seems to be successful - the theater is in demand at both classical and alternative theater festivals.

 

Anna Ivanova-Brashinkaya,  "Kommersant", 2006