Review of Belarusian Culture: Theatre (May-August '22)
REVIEW OF BELARUSIAN CULTURE: THEATRE (MAY-AUGUST '22)
REVIEW OF BELARUSIAN CULTURE: THEATRE (MAY-AUGUST '22)
REVIEW OF BELARUSIAN CULTURE: THEATRE (MAY-AUGUST '22)
REVIEW OF BELARUSIAN CULTURE: THEATRE (MAY-AUGUST '22)
REVIEW OF BELARUSIAN CULTURE: THEATRE (MAY-AUGUST '22)
REVIEW OF BELARUSIAN CULTURE: THEATRE (MAY-AUGUST '22)
REVIEW OF BELARUSIAN CULTURE: THEATRE (MAY-AUGUST '22)
REVIEW OF BELARUSIAN CULTURE: THEATRE (MAY-AUGUST '22)
REVIEW OF BELARUSIAN CULTURE: THEATRE (MAY-AUGUST '22)
REVIEW OF BELARUSIAN CULTURE: THEATRE (MAY-AUGUST '22)
Faded Summer of Belarusian Theater
The Main Trends of the Season:
Faded Summer of Belarusian Theater
The Main Trends of the Season:
  • Private theater in Belarus has almost been banned as a result of successive state policy which has been put into practice since 2020. The new hierarchical system, imposed from above, is prioritizing only the titles and topics approved by authorities.
  • This kind of policy along with the support of the Russian aggression towards Ukraine by the Belarusian government has resulted in international isolation of domestic theater and led to the appearance of the "iron curtain" which is bilateral by nature.
  • Emigration and further development of theater groups abroad turned out to be an alternative way of Belarusian theater evolution. The theater groups are experiencing management problems and they have no leading stage director with a clearly defined art program.
  • The "equal funding" scheme proposed by authorities for financing Belarusian theaters indicates the state of economic crisis and at the same time a lack of culture and cultural policy understanding.
Festivals as Mirrors of Cultural Crisis
Festivals as Mirrors of Cultural Crisis
The specific and humble geography of the festival movement had formed in Belarus before 2020.

Belarusians were able to attend live performances by world-famous directors at TEART event in Minsk. "М.@rt.contact" held in Mahilioŭ dwelled on the youth experiment. "Bielaja Vieža" event organized in Brest was mainly academic at its core and aimed at expanding theater geography. The Festival of national dramaturgy took place in Babrujsk every other year. Which was basically a review of the Belarusian plays. Local drama theater along with artistic groups from Bryansk (Russia) and Chernihiv (Ukraine) grouped around the "Slavic Theater Meetings" held in Homieĺ (here we would take the forums organized by the Opera Theater off the table as there were mainly solo performers invited from abroad rather than plays).

The Russian attack on Ukraine has put an end to the Slavic brotherhood as well as to the Homieĺ Festival (at least to its previous format). "Belgazprombank" stopped financing TEART after Viktar Babaryka was sentenced. Hrodna forum named "Liaĺki nad Niomanam" (Puppets over Nioman), reincarnated after the eight-year pause, unexpectedly joined the cohort of the festivals still remaining on a theater map. In total, only four remained, which is literally nothing for a 10-million country.

The program of three of them that will be held in autumn (Mahilioŭ festival takes place in March) was announced just this summer.

Posters of all four forums dramatically illustrate the fact of international isolation of Belarusian theater (we mean those groups that stayed in Belarus). There are only performances of Belarusian and Russian origin on this year`s agenda of the Hrodna and Mahilioŭ festivals, while the Babrujsk festival agenda (according to its concept) has exclusively domestic performances.

In the end, programs coming from some CIS countries got into the Brest festival agenda. Only three plays, included in the program, are of a foreign origin (the other two are the production of the Danish-Russian theater).

The abovementioned facts mean that the number of foreign plays is getting closer to zero.
New Barriers: Farewell to Private, Farewell to Touring
New Barriers: Farewell to Private, Farewell to Touring
The formation of a theater "iron curtain", bilateral by nature, is to be acknowledged. On the one hand, the average quality level of Belarusian festivals has decreased dramatically. Only a handful of plays can be considered worthy events. For example, a Russian play "Spotted Dog Running at the Edge of the Sea", included in the Grodno festival agenda, can be highlighted. In 2021 the play was awarded "The Golden Mask" — the most prestigious Russian theater award, in the nomination for "Best Designer", and had been nominated for "Best Production". When it comes to plays of Belarusian origin, we can mention "Pačupki" staged in Brest by the Republican Theater of Belarusian Drama (RTBD). However, most popular theatrical performances from neighboring countries had been delivered on a regular basis to theater forums, especially to TEART and Mahilioŭ festivals before 2020.

In general, among the guests, there were some theatre troupes that had not participated in the festival movement for years. For example, a puppet theater from Chuvashia was invited to the Brest festival. And some so-called "senior plays" were also present: "The Black Lady of the Niasviž Castle" by the National Academic Janka Kupala Theater (the play premiered in 2000) was on the Babrujsk forum agenda as well as "The Theater of Merchant Yepishkin" by the Movie Actors Theater Studio (1993). Despite the fact that such forums tend to stage the latest releases.

On the other hand, the number of tours of Belarusian theater groups has been reduced to a minimum, and this is how the theater "iron curtain" manifests itself. So they can go on tour only in the Eastern direction. But even there, domestic plays are held only in the format of Belarusian Culture Days events. For instance, the two plays by the Janka Kupala Theater, "Paŭlinka" and "The Wedding", were shown in Moscow in June this year.

Tours are rare. And if they happen, their main destination is Russian regions. For example, the Musical theater went on tour to the Russian cities of Kursk, Belgorod, Tula, Kaluga, and Ivanovo (https://musicaltheatre.by/gastroli-2010-2022) this summer.

Unsurprisingly, those groups which tended to go on tour abroad on the regular basis are now undergoing a rather prompt personnel reshuffle. For instance, one-fourth of the Opera Theater ballet troupe was renewed this summer. But there is no doubt that staff purges and disagreement with the management approach of Kaсiaryna Dulava, the new director, could have impacted the situation.
Change of Hierarchy: Involuntary Shifts
Change of Hierarchy: Involuntary Shifts
The agenda of the Belarusian cluster of festivals has also indicated changes in the hierarchical system of Belarusian theaters imposed from above. Before 2020 productions of private theaters and platforms had been at the very frontline, figuratively speaking. As well as the plays by top Belarusian directors staged at different state theaters.

The private theater in Belarus has been nailed to a cross: "ART Corporation" was shut down, OK16 has been retrieved by authorities. In total there are only two private theaters that receive touring certificates needed for staging: "Three T Format" (a project of Viera Paliakova, wife of Uladzimir Makiej, the Minister of Foreign Affairs) and the Chamber Drama Theater (a project of Natallia Bašava).

Jaŭhien Karniah is the only director, one of the leaders of his generation, who stayed in Belarus. Jury Dzivakoŭ is now working in the West. AAliaksandr Januškievič and Ihar Kazakoŭ — in the East.

As a result, plays by other artistic groups have come to the fore. Such groups as the Youth Variety Theater, the Movie Actors Theater Studio, and the Musical Theater, which have never participated in the festival movement and have been targeting the mass audience for a long time, got into this year`s festival agenda. The focus has shifted to the titles and topics approved by authorities.

A play named "The Alps. The year 1941" by the Youth Theater, which hasn`t been invited to domestic forums for a decade has now been included in the festivals in Brest and Babrujsk. And as s long as the topic of the Great Patriotic War is trending now, "Alpine Ballad" by the Republican Theater of Belarusian Drama (RTBD) is also doing a guest performance in Babrujsk. No one is concerned about the general superficial level: even one of the best plays of recent years "Marriage with the Wind" by RTBD was taken off the agenda (the play was planned for the festival agenda of 2021, but later the forum was rescheduled to this year).
New "National" and Quiet "Honored" Artists
New "National" and Quiet "Honored" Artists
One can be quite sure forecasting that Vasiĺ Bykaŭ plays are going to be the front-runners of the next National Theater Award. This will become one of the traits of the award depreciation process, which is running fast now. It is related to both festivals and theater titles. In order to get the latter, one needs to demonstrate additional loyalty.

The actors who got these awards this summer and at the beginning of autumn can be divided into two categories.

Those who haven`t expressed their political views over recent years — Anton Kraŭčanka, a dancer in the Opera theater, and Marharyta Alieksandrovič, a singer of the Musical Theater, received the title "National Artist".

And there are those who on the contrary actively supported the government. Ruslan Čarniecki from the Maxim Gorky Theater was a show presenter of the "For Belarus" forum and obtained the title of "Honored Artist", Tamara Mironava was entitled "National Artist". The latter definitely deserves the title, but it is (no) coincidence that she got it by staying in the Janka Kupala Theater while many quit. Meanwhile, some domestic artistic groups haven`t been entitled for a decade. For example, the Puppet Theater or the Musical Theater – there had been an extremely long pause before Alieksandrovič was awarded.
Problems Abroad: Choice of Management, Absence of Leaders
Problems Abroad: Choice of Management, Absence of Leaders
Working abroad has turned out to be the alternative to domestic state theater. Let`s put the work of talented individuals away (for example, Palina Dabravoĺskaja, actress and stage director) and have a look at the artistic groups which left Belarus. Here we see the Belarus Free Theater, "Kupalaŭcy", "August Theater" and Team Theater.

Such troupes are permanently experiencing a lack of connection with their regular audience, facing the necessity to operate in a different language environment, and they have to choose between online and offline projects. The former make it possible to establish a connection with the Belarusian audience, but their disadvantage is the absence of a keen response to the performance, which artists tend to get accustomed to. While the advantage of the latter is the presence of such a response and the existence of stage presence sensation. At the same time, there is a seat occupancy problem (it becomes very evident abroad that the theater as an elite art has never been a mass phenomenon).

The abovementioned theatre groups have been dealing with those issues in their own way.

The Free Theater seems to be the most successful. In March 2022 they staged "Dogs of Europe" inspired by the novel of Aĺhierd Bacharevič. The creators transferred the performance, which premiered in Minsk as far back as 2020, to the London stage. In Belarus, it was perceived as a typical Belarusian experimental performance with its pros and cons, which didn`t go ahead of its time and fell short compared to the primary source. But in the UK, "Dogs of Europe" got positive attention from the local press.

The presentation of the play at the Paris Festival "Festival d'Automne à Paris" is planned for December. The Free Theater has no match in Belarus when it comes to management and promotion.

"Kupalaŭcy" faced two problems. Resource constraints in the system management: unfortunately, the troupe didn`t manage to exploit its image and positive vibe of the choice made in 2020 to the full extent. Moreover, they have no leading stage director with a prominent artistic program. This position remains vacant since Raman Padaliaka, who staged several plays last season, has left the group.

The latest collaboration experience with Mikalaj Pinihin ("Notes of a Red Army Soldier") and Pole Pawiel Passini ("Dziady") led to the production of rather one-dimensional plays with overly straightforward messages appealing to the educational experience of the Janka Kupala Theater as of the 2010s. Being loyal to the aesthetic standards of the past makes it hard for the "Kupalaŭcy" to integrate into the European theater network: the niche of political theater is already occupied by the Free Theater.

A fraction of artists from Hrodno chose another way: they united behind their leader, director Andrius Dariala, and formed a group named "August Theater". Three of their plays — the educational project "Why?" in memory of the executed poets, and such plays as "The Third Shift" and "The Cancelled Show" found their place in the Old Theater of Vilnius. The actors can use its stage for performances, appear on its posters, go on tours, and progress in general within the structure of a state repertory theater. Therefore, the Old Theater becomes partially responsible for management issues, which gives "August Theater" the opportunity for growth.

Team Theatre which relocated from Homieĺ to Warsaw found its niche and is going to proceed with immersive theater.
Financing: a New Scheme
Financing: a New Scheme
This summer Prime Minister Raman Haloŭčanka announced a new financing scheme for Belarusian theaters which he called the equal funding scheme. With that he referred to the preceding Aliaksandr Lukašenka`s statement. In February 2021 the latter formulated it this way: "two million dollars earned — we’ll top it with two million budget dollars. Five million earned — five million top-up".

A unified theater funding model having some specific adjustments is used all over the world. General income consists of three components: approximately one-third is provided by the government, one-third — by sponsors, and one-third is earned by the theater. Belarusian theaters had managed to gain one-third before 2020. According to Natallia Zadziarkoŭskaja, a former official of the Ministry of Culture, in 2017–2019 the off-budget income share in big state theaters reached 34% and made it up to 37% in the regional ones. Nevertheless, here we’d like to add, that such numbers were possible to achieve due to the harsh plan fulfillment and necessity to demonstrate a huge amount of entertaining production which was an obstacle for the development of troupes and actors.

Haloŭčanka`s proposal seems logical from the point of view of the economy facing hard times now. However, officials believe that the cultural sphere is pretty similar to industry or agriculture. If a specific amount of money is invested, the relevant profit is to be expected then. Such an approach testifies that there`s a gross misunderstanding of culture and cultural policy as this sphere is operating in a different way.
Where the Theater is Heading
Where the Theater is Heading
Theaters operating in current Belarusian conditions are unable to attract sponsors on their own, without resorting to the administrative resource, to provide for one-third of income. At the same time, they cannot increase the off-budget income share, as they have already maxed out.

Haloŭčanka`s words are just declarations of intentions that haven`t been put into practice. But if realized, the domestic theater will go into an even deeper crisis compared to the current situation.