Art or attraction: “Black Russian” and the boom of immersive theater. Immersive performances What does immersive theater mean?

Art - dynamic " the science", and therefore every year we increasingly see new words unfamiliar to us in the headlines of posters. So, the word " performance" behind last couple years has become firmly ingrained in the vocabulary of not only the artist, but also “ contemplative" And auteur cinema is often called “ arthouse».

However, behind the emergence of new terms there are also more global discoveries. Surely you have heard William Shakespeare say: “ The whole world is a theater, men, women - all actors in it!“If we take it quite literally, then a new way of spending leisure time that is rapidly becoming “fashionable” is immersive theater- can really be described with this quote.

What is immersive theater?

A new type of theater, also called " wandering theater", differs from the traditional one by completely immersing the viewer in the plot of the production. That is, an amateur theatrical arts, accustomed to observing the process of the game, now becomes its full participant.

Directors, actors and the audience themselves claim that this method of presentation visual arts allows you to feel the work most deeply, experience new emotions and simply immerse yourself headlong in virtual reality.

Another feature of immersive theater is that performances can take place not only on big stage, but also in small art spaces, on the streets and even in apartments. This means that everyone will be able to find a production whose location and atmosphere they will like.

And yet, this type of leisure activity is most widespread among young people. They not only attend abstract performances, filming what is happening with a smartphone camera, but, moreover, organize their own performances. Therefore, if, while walking along the streets of Arbat, you come across young speakers or find yourself at an open performance (for example, a poetry reading) in a small coffee shop or library, know: these are tricks " young geniuses».

How and where is it developing?

Surprisingly enough, immersive theater has become widespread in China. Being futurists and generators of non-standard ideas, Chinese architects pay great attention to creating interior design, because with its help they achieve the effect of realism of what is happening.

WITH artistic point view immersive theater is actively developing in London and New York. Thus, the first is famous for the vibrant group Punch Drunk, which created and completely immersed the viewer in a space similar in atmosphere to the mysterious films of legendary film directors Stanley Kubrick (“ 2001: A Space Odyssey"), Alfred Hitchcock (" Psycho") and David Lynch (" Twin Peaks»).

And the New York creative team Third Rail Projects became famous for its non-standard approach to the choice of performance locations and love to combine dance, sound, painting and theater into one whole. By the way, one of the loudest performances of the group was the play “ Then She Fell", which took place in an abandoned psychiatric hospital in the city of Brooklyn.

How are we doing with this?

In Moscow, such a phenomenon as immersive theater can be called, first of all, a “trend”. Rapidly developing it, Russian artists draw inspiration from Western Europe, complementing their ideas with your own abstract solutions.

In our country, theatrical quests like “ Moscow 2048" from " Claustrophobia" Essentially, this is 3 in 1: a play, a movie and a computer game, where the participant will have to interact with the actors and decide logic problems and accept " fateful" solutions.

And in 2016, one of the main theater newsmakers, Maxim Didenko, together with the theater company Ecstàtic, presented in the capital the first immersive musical based on the unfinished novel by A.S. Pushkin " Dubrovsky"under the title "Black Russian". Within its framework, the audience was divided into three groups, each of which had its own guide - Dubrovsky, Troekurov or Masha. Each participant received a mask, which was forbidden to be removed until the end." games».

“In this house it is forbidden to fall flat on your face, so every guest is required to wear a mask».

In addition, each participant had to remain silent until the end of the game. But you could feel the smells characteristic of a particular location, try the dishes - everything made it possible to fully immerse yourself in the mystical atmosphere of Pushkin’s work.

Today in Moscow there are several absolutely non-classical “productions”. For example, you can become the main character " no-show» « Shared experiences» Victoria Privalova, talking about first love, or explore yourself in a chamber performance-game of the Swiss theater company « Magic Garden» « Questioning/WHO ARE YOU?».

Immersive theater is something like virtual reality. Refusing the classical understanding of theatrical art, the unity of action and statics, the viewer becomes for himself the main character of the production, feeling complete freedom and undisguised curiosity about how his “ fate"in one action or another.

This is contemporary art, and it finds new ways to attract audiences, reveals new facets and throws away all boundaries, experimenting with new ones.” dishes" Who knows, maybe immersive theater is the future of theatrical art in general.

Now it’s official: immersive theater is booming in Moscow. With the usual excess of everything fashionable, places appear in the city where you can not only watch, but also participate in performances, which now take place on the streets, in apartments and even shopping centers. We explain how and where this is done.

Ride in the back of a truck

The main immersive premiere of this summer. Fifty people get into a truck, driven by real truckers, who take the audience around Russia for 90 minutes: from Moscow to the very Petushki of Magadan. The authors of the project are theatrical innovators Rimini Protokoll, who this time invite viewers to feel what it’s like to always go somewhere, cross state borders, sleeping in the car, missing home-cooked food and listening to strangers' stories.

Walk around the city

For the third summer, groups of people wearing headphones have been wandering around the city, carrying out various strange tasks of an unknown mentor. This season is the last opportunity to take part in the Moscow version of the hit of the same German theater company Rimini Protokoll. This is a promenade performance that takes place in dozens of cities around the world from Berlin to Taipei. Spectators move along a given route, random passers-by play the role of actors, and the urban environment acts as scenery.

Sleep

The performance is a dream: you need to come, put on your pajamas, go to bed and fall asleep. Those who cannot fall asleep will be given a master class on falling asleep. Strictly recommended for overexcited residents big city. This time there is no gigantomania - an hour awaits you with an academician of yawning and a master of snoring, after which all that remains is to get home as quickly as possible.

Improvise

“Implicit influences” is an intervention performance with a super task of cosmic importance: giving birth new theory"world cause-and-effect relationships". Director Vsevolod Lisovsky explores the butterfly effect: how anyone can influence anyone, anywhere. This is the most punk and emotional of the theatrical promenades available in Moscow. It is not known in advance in what order, under what circumstances and what texts the actors will say, how frightened passers-by will behave and whether everything will end at the police station.

Study the Tomsk aliens

"Museum alien invasion"is, on the one hand, an installation imitating a storage facility for exhibits, and on the other, a theater of mutual actions. Visitors, led by guides, learn the pseudoscientific history of the alien landings in forgotten village near Tomsk and are trying to understand the creators’ metaphor about the lostness of man in Russian history. We have already talked about the project in detail here.

Be honest with strangers

Choose your own fairy tale

Kirill Serebrennikov's production is immersive in the sense that you do not sit in the hall, but move around the space of the theater, in which 12 small performances are performed simultaneously. True, they are not allowed to wander around without permission: the audience here is divided into three groups, which follow a given route from “Kolobok” and “Marya Morevna” to other fairy tales by Alexander Afanasyev.

Take a closer look at the other

A simple performance by the Swiss theater company Magic Garden, translated into Russian. There are no actors here, only spectators who are seated in two rows opposite each other. The purpose of the production is to take a closer look at the stranger and try to guess how he lives. And he will peer and guess about you.

Become a victim or witness

"Sweeney Todd, the Maniacal Barber of Fleet Street"

Place: Taganka Theater

Address: st. Zemlyanoy Val, 76/21

Tickets: in the new season

The first immersive in Russia musical performance based on the famous plot of love and revenge. You will be drawn into the gothic atmosphere of old London, murder mystery will take place right between the rows, and spectators could easily find themselves victims of a bloody maniac.

Drink and watch the orgy

The closest thing to the pioneers of modern immersive theater. Here, as in Sleep no More, the viewer can freely wander through the four floors of a mansion from the last century; there are no set routes, divisions into groups or other restrictions. But there is a bar and an already famous orgy scene, which, according to eyewitnesses, cannot be missed.

Buy something

Performance-auction by Yuri Kvyatkovsky, director of Normansk, one of the first immersive projects in Moscow. Then the action united the five floors of the Meyerhold Center, and now - the intimate space of a bar and part-time antique salon. “WeDym” is based on the texts of the Oberiuts: the young actors of the “Dmitry Brusnikin Workshop” with whitewashed faces play along with antique furniture and interior items, which, as the creators hope, Kharms and Vvedensky still remember.

Survive in post-apocalyptic Moscow

A large-scale and detailed game or performance, invented and staged by Kirill Serebrennikov’s student Alexander Sozonov. The given circumstances are post-apocalyptic Moscow contaminated with radiation with mutants, the struggle for survival and a test of the strength of your moral qualities.

Sit at a dinner party

The premiere of “Vanya” will take place on September 13, while little is known about the production, except that it is based on Chekhov. This is the first production of the Theater Beyond Theatre, which describes itself as “the creator of a theatrical dream machine that transports guests to the heart of history.” Already now this sounds like an outdated marketing ploy: now it’s not enough to just allow the viewer to attend dinner party in Serebryakov's house.

Break your head

It is absolutely impossible to say anything about this performance, because it is on the understatements and mysteries that the entire immersive framework is built. However, if you've always been fascinated by the red room scenes from Twin Peaks, then this is the right choice.

"Your game"

Place: Experience Space

Address: st. Pushechnaya, 4, building 2

Don't move or see

On Smile off you will be completely disconnected from outside world and will offer you to live with only tactile-auditory sensations for half an hour. It's about about complete deprivation of movement and vision - with hands tied and blindfolded the spectators to a wheelchair. According to the organizers, there will be no torture.

Prepare for totalitarianism

The name of the project “Live Theater” speaks for itself: immersive performances are their specialty. New production"1984" is art game based on Orwell's novel about the phenomenon of power and totalitarian violence. Even though the reality outside the window already resembles a dystopia, director Anastasia Kireeva still calls on the audience to “conquer reality” for 2.5 hours, becoming an employee of the special department for managing the past of the Ministry of Truth for the duration of the performance.

"1984"

Place: CC "Khitrovka"

Address: Podkolokolny lane, 8, building 2

Photos: Cover, 2 – Remote Moscow, 1 – Andrey Stekachev, 3 – Sergey Petrov/Center for Drama and Directing on Begovaya, 4 – Theatre.doc, 5 – Marina Merkulova, 6 – Meyerhold Center, 7, 8 – “Gogol Center” , 9 – Taganka Theater, 10 – Journey Lab, 11 – “Antique Boutique & Bar”, 12 – MSK 2048, 13 – “Studio on Povarskaya”

The phenomenon of immersion (from the English immersive - “creating the effect of presence, immersion”) is one of the main trends modern industry entertainment. Today, literally everything has become immersive: it no longer seems like something out of the realm of science fiction supplemented and a virtual reality; about computer games everything is clear; The cinema genre is slowly but surely becoming immersive (if you’re in London, be sure to check out Secret Cinema); The first immersive books have already appeared; City quests are becoming more and more popular. Immersive theater has become a logical result of several trends – both in contemporary directing and in the field of urban leisure.

An immersive performance creates the effect of complete immersion of the viewer into the plot of the production; it is a theater of involvement, where the viewer is a full participant in what is happening. At any moment, the actors can begin direct interaction with the viewer - for example, they can blindfold the viewer and take them by the hand to another room and leave them there, they can hug or kiss, or they can simply look eye to eye for a long time.

Remember Shakespeare’s famous formula: “The whole world is a stage, and the people in it are actors”? In immersive theater no auditorium in the traditional sense of the word, which means there is no so-called “fourth wall” separating the actors from the audience. The action of the promenade theater develops simultaneously in different locations. Directors, in turn, offer the public new behavioral scenarios, giving them a more active role: spectators of wandering performances can choose their own route - one or another plot line - and move from one location to another, and in some cases even influence what is happening . Such a performance is made up of different plots, just as pieces are put together in a mosaic.

Immersive theater in the world

Sleep No More – an impersonal “total” performance

The London group PunchDrunk is considered to be the legislator of the immersive theater genre. famous theme, that it immerses the viewer in a space similar in atmosphere to the mysterious films of legendary film directors Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock and David Lynch.

One of the most famous performances of the immersive theater genre is famous production Sleep No More, which has been capturing the imagination of New York audiences for years now. The show is based on William Shakespeare's Macbeth. The play is on in the huge abandoned five-story McKittrick Hotel, which sometimes resembles an endless labyrinth of suddenly materialized nightmares. Upon entry, everyone who comes is asked to put on a white Venetian mask, which they undertake not to remove during the entire production. Viewers are left to their own devices in the setting of a psychiatric ward, a cemetery and a 1930s hotel, where performance and installation meet site-specific choreography.

The multi-layered action is mesmerizing: in Sleep No More you can easily feel like a voyeur and see how ghostly characters make love, kill each other, and wash off blood in the bath. Here you can do everything that is strictly prohibited in traditional theater– touch the scenery with your hands and come into contact with the “props”, but you need to be prepared for the fact that the residents of the abandoned hotel can come into contact with you.

Then She Fell – an intimate solo adventure

Contemporary immersive theater cannot be imagined without the productions of the creative production team Third Rail Projects, known for its experimental performances in unusual locations combining elements of theater, dance, sound and art installations and unusual choreography.

One of the team's most ambitious productions is Then She Fell, set in an abandoned mental hospital in Brooklyn, New York. Unlike Sleep No More, where about 300 impersonal spectators are left to their own devices, Then She Fell has a much more intimate and intimate setting. This performance, based on Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, involves 8 actors and only 15 spectators, who are divided into small groups, whose routes are thought out and verified by the directors. The interaction with the audience here is as literal as it gets: spectators of the play can easily find themselves one on one with the actor, say, while brushing the hair of the actress playing Alice.

The production team of Third Rail Projects recently presented their new immersive performance to the public in New York– Grand Paradise – a production about a family going on vacation to a resort, where various metamorphoses occur to them.

What immersive things are there in Moscow?

If you are not yet familiar with engagement theater, then a reasonable question is: how to choose a production for your first try so as not to be disappointed? Here are four of the best immersive performances currently playing in the capital.

1. "Your game»

This summer, the Belgian theater team Ontroerend Goed and impresario Fyodor Elyutin (who previously brought the city promenade performance Remote to Moscow) presented Moscow with a new individual interactive experience for one person, “Your Game.” The performance lasts about 30–35 minutes and is performed in the Tsvetnoy department store. A Game of You - that's the original name of the play - has already been performed at theater festivals in Edinburgh and Avignon, but Russian version differs in that it does not take place in an art cluster or theater building, but in a busy shopping center.

“The most exciting performance of the season... is you,” says the project’s website. Indeed, it is hardly possible to think of a more quick way look at yourself through the eyes of another person and understand how you appear to others.

2. "Black Russian»

In September of this year, one of the main theater newsmakers of recent times, Maxim Didenko, and the theater company Ecstàtic presented to Moscow the first immersive musical based on the unfinished novel by A.S. Pushkin "Dubrovsky". The space of Spiridonov’s ancient Moscow mansion turned into Troekurov’s house, which had its own ballroom, dining room, bedroom, bathhouse, office, barn and even a forest. At the beginning of the performance, all spectators are divided into three groups, which follow different routes for the heroes of the play, and are given appropriate masks - owls, deer and foxes.

According to the creators of the play, “Black Russian” is, first of all, a performance of sensations that affects the viewer at the level of all senses. So, in the barn there is the smell of freshly cut hay, in the kitchen there is the smell of pancakes and meat, in Masha Troekurova’s bedroom there is the smell of flowers. Spectators are treated to black dumplings, herbal infusions and other delicacies.

3. "Moscow-2048»

“MSK 2048” is a new large-scale reality game from the famous “Claustrophobia” quest network and the director of “Gogol Center” Alexander Sozonov. "MSK 2048" develops the concept of an immersive promenade theater that combines role-playing game, promenade theater and quest. The plot takes place in a world that has experienced a global catastrophe; all players are refugees who want to quickly move from the radioactive wasteland to Greater Moscow. To enter the city you need a visa, which can be obtained at the asylum checkpoint.

It's hard to come up with The best way feel like a video game hero “in real life”! "MSK 2048" completely erases the barriers between actors and spectators, stage and auditorium, game conventions and real life. The players become the boss actors own unique stories, performing the tasks of the actors - the outcome of the game depends on everyone.

4. "Russian tales»

“Russian Fairy Tales” - a promenade performance from Alexander Sozonov and Ilya Shagalov, staged in Russian folk tales from famous meeting Afanasyeva. “Fairy Tales” is showing at the Gogol Center. More than a year The artists went on an expedition around the country to see how Rus' lives and listen to the living folk language. The result is a live immersive promenade performance that combines different genres– sketches, observations, fantasies of the young acting generation on the theme of Russian fairy tales, philosophical parables, ballads, serenades, romances, bard songs, rock and rock and roll.

“Russian Fairy Tales” is shown throughout the theater simultaneously. Before the start of the performance, the audience chooses their path from three proposed ones - there are three groups of spectators, three verified paths and three different viewing experiences. In the finale everyone unites in big hall, the epilogue of “Russian Fairy Tales” is the same.

,
editor and journalist, the last romantic of planet Earth

Immersive performances are one of the recent trends. It's simple: immersive is a production during which the viewer is immersed in a theatrical performance. Actors interact with the audience, and the audience can influence what happens on stage. Premieres of immersive shows that allow you to take a fresh look not only at theater, but also at reality, appear constantly. Many of them take place in Moscow noble mansions, others take place on the theater stage. The immersive element is being implanted into musicals, quests, excursions and even restaurants. The most famous production in the immersive genre, which has already become a classic, is the New York performance Sleep No More, created by Punchdrunk. The show is based on Shakespeare's Macbeth and takes place in a fictional five-story hotel. They say Sleep No More is the best way to spend an evening in New York.

What interesting immersive productions are taking place in Moscow and St. Petersburg?

"The Returned"

Place: Moscow, Dashkov lane, 5

Mar 1, 2018 at 8:18 am PST

The immersive performance “The Returned” is based on the play “Ghosts” by Henrik Ibsen. The setting in the old mansion where the action takes place is thought out to the smallest detail. There is no scene here, and in order to follow the plot, you sometimes need to move quite quickly through the smoky floors, from room to room. However, you can stay put and follow the hero you like, gradually becoming more of an actor than a spectator. The production was carried out by choreographer Miguel, inspired by Sleep No More and trying as accurately as possible to comply with all the principles of immersion bequeathed by Punchdrunk.

To buy a ticket

"Faceless"

Place: St. Petersburg, Palace embankment, 20

Mar 4, 2018 at 1:54 PST

“The Faceless Ones” was originally created as a prequel to the play “The Returned” and, as planned, should have been more compact. But the site - a mansion on Palace Embankment - began to dictate its terms. Was it possible to do something modest in these luxurious interiors! Based on Ibsen’s “Ghost,” about 600 (!) scenes are played there.

To buy a ticket

"Candidate"

Place: Moscow, Tsvetnoy shopping center

Nov 3, 2017 at 9:00 am PDT

The show was made by the famous impresario Fyodor Elyutin, who previously invited us to the exciting Moscow adventure Remote Moscow. “The Candidate” is a play about choice. Several candidates, five rounds, in the final of which the viewer must make a choice in favor of one or another candidate for an elected position. Each viewer will have to understand how susceptible he is to the opinion of the majority, how controlled he is or, conversely, prone to nonconformism.

To buy a ticket

Performance-dinner “The Mirror of Carlos Santos”

Place: Moscow, st. Bolshaya Dmitrovka, 32

Mar 5, 2018 at 11:45 PST

The dinner with wine and meat is preceded by an immersive theatrical show, scripted by Maxim Kurochkin and directed by Talgat Batalov. Responsible for the food is chef Ruslan Zakirov. Gastronomic performance, restaurant in three acts, last supper- whatever they call this mysterious dinner! As always with immersive shows, it's best to know as little as possible in advance. A total of twelve people take part in the Spanish-inspired dinner. They have to go through an exciting quest and then have a snack.

To buy a ticket

Opera promenade “The Queen of Spades”

Place: Moscow, st. Yauzskaya, 1/15, building 1

Mar 6, 2018 at 7:30 PST

Play " Queen of Spades"Directed by Alexander Legchakov, in the role of Herman - Pyotr Nalich. Words by Pushkin, music by Tchaikovsky. Each performance has exactly 54 spectators, like a deck of cards that drove poor Herman crazy. The scene is the ancient Goncharov-Filippov estate, which, symbolically, Natalya Goncharova’s grandfather lost at cards.

To buy a ticket

"Not that kind of quest"

Nearest date: different quests happen every day

Place: Saint Petersburg; Each quest has its own address. For example, “White Cross” goes to Zhukovsky, 20

Jan 1, 2018 at 5:12 PST

The St. Petersburg team “Netakoyquest” makes unique quests in which stories are more important than riddles, or rather answers. There are no props in these quests, and the plot is better thought out than many TV series. Many participants say that they were not just interested, they were literally reborn. It’s worth going here not to show your wits, but for the atmosphere and the opportunity to suddenly find yourself inside a story about Lilya Brik and Vladimir Mayakovsky, for example.

To buy a ticket

DESPITE THE fact that THEATER IN ITS CLASSICAL UNDERSTANDING remains a popular art, in recent months we have only heard enthusiastic (or not so) reviews about performances of a different kind - where the viewer does not sit in the hall, but is in contact with the actors and scenery. By the end of the year, it became clear that immersive theater was being discussed by everyone. What is it, is it worth watching and where to do it - in our material.

"Black Russian"

"The Drowned Man" by Punchdrunk

Attractions and social experiments

Immersive theater can be playful or non-fictional. The first option is more traditional: a play production is unthinkable without actors acting under the guise of characters, and the site adapted for it is presented as some fictitious place, often as the characters’ home (for example, ancient Moscow mansions rented for “The Returned” and “Black Russian”, are presented to the public as the Alving family estate and the Troekurov estate, respectively). The canon of immersive gaming performance was laid down by the same English collective Punchdrunk: masks for spectators to avoid confusion between “guests” and “locals”, freedom of movement inspired by video games and several storylines to choose from.

Another, non-fiction direction completely breaks out of the usual boundaries of the theater: not every viewer will agree to consider the productions of Rimini Protokoll, Ontroerend Goed or Magic Garden as performances. In response, you can present various elegant counterarguments, any of which one way or another leads to the following truth: if an artist positions his creation as theater, he is right by default. In theatrical non-fiction there may not be actors, but if they do exist, it is more correct to call them something else - guides, moderators, presenters. If in game projects the interactive component serves, by and large, as an interesting addition to the usual drama theater(not always, but as a rule), then its role increases here: the main plot of a non-fiction production is the behavior of the viewer.

A wonderful example of a non-fiction immersive performance was shown last fall theater festival“Territory” - we are talking about the project of the German company Rimini Protokoll “Away. Europe". Directors Daniel Wetzel, Stefan Kägi and Helgard Haug invited viewers to learn in practice what the European Union is: the players gathered in an unfamiliar apartment, got acquainted, taking turns answering personal questions, and then divided into teams of two and fought for the biggest piece of the pie - in literally, not figuratively. In pursuit of championship, teams formed alliances with each other or, conversely, deprived their opponents of points. Instructions for spectators were typed by a typewriter like cash register, passed around the circle - the leading actor intervened very rarely when it was necessary to clarify some issue. Any spontaneous event brought into the game new meaning: Let's say, the participants of the very first Moscow show, bypassing the rules, divided the pie equally - the winners did not claim hegemony, making a choice in favor of a utopian equal community. So, in short, a gaming immersive theater is more of an attraction, a non-fiction one is more like a social experiment.

What to watch besides “The Returned” and “Black Russian”

"MSK 2048"

The first hybrid in Russia theatrical production and the quest in reality was created by director Alexander Sozonov, commissioned by “Claustrophobia”, the flagship of the young quest industry. The project’s artists turned an industrial building on the territory of the Moscow Kristall plant into a picturesque setting for the post-apocalypse.

Players are transported to the harsh Moscow of the future, or more precisely, to a filtration camp near the city border. Their formal goal is to gain a reputation among the local authorities as dutiful and law-abiding citizens and to obtain a pass to the capital, which is safe from mutants and radiation (priorities may change during the game). The project has a political background: exciting entertainment inevitably pushes the player to think about freedom and responsibility.

"Lecture about something"

A kind of practical course in art ethics. Most Advanced Director younger generation Dmitry Volkostrelov invites the viewer to try himself in the role of an artist, shifting responsibility for his neighbor in the row onto him.

Participants in the performance sit down in groups of three and put on headphones; each group of three has their own TV with an audio system. The remote control goes to the one on the far left; he has three channels at his disposal: a lecture by avant-garde composer John Cage, instrumental piece his collaborator Morton Feldman and various arrangements of Cage's famous "silent" piece "4′33″", made around the world using the application of the same name. The one on the far right receives the TV remote control; he chooses between a counter that measures the time until the end of the performance, the interface of the mentioned application, and a simple relaxing screensaver.

Ideally, by the end of the show, you will learn to guess the desires of your comrades and coordinate your actions with them. The production is staged in St. Petersburg in the repertoire of the independent “post theater”.

"Remote Petersburg" and "Remote Moscow"

Endowed with a unique personality, a computer voice leads fifty people along the street, helping them understand how the metropolis is organized. The group explores the city on several levels: walking through the cemetery and testing public transport, visiting a store and church, going underground and climbing to the roof. Among the ethereal guide's tasks are the following: looking into the eyes of a stranger, performing a ballet position on an escalator, pretending to be a participant in a political demonstration.

The amazing Swiss Stefan Kägi of the theater revolutionary team Rimini Protokoll conceived this production for Berlin four years ago and has since recreated it in more than 30 cities around the world. The thoughtful “Remote Petersburg” is included in the repertoire of the Bolshoi Drama Theater named after. Tovstonogov, and a private person, impresario Fyodor Elyutin, is responsible for the lively Moscow version. Of course, in Russia “Remote” is purely summer entertainment.

"Your game"

After the success of “Remote Moscow”, Fyodor Elyutin embarked on a new international collaboration - this time with the Belgian director Alexander Devrindt and his Ontroerend Goed team. The Moscow edition of the play “Your Game” is located on the fourth floor of the Tsvetnoy department store. You have to go through the labyrinth in the company of a partner-actor: you cannot play in a group - all sessions are individual. The performance has a transparent therapeutic goal - to help the player accept and love himself; in fact, “your_game” is a series psychological exercises in a clever theatrical package. Shows take place daily, but after December 11 the project will go on indefinite hiatus - you should hurry.

"Questioning / WHO ARE YOU?"

A hall with chairs, a presenter, paper, a printer and a shredder - that's all you need to show this performance. Director Corinne Mayer from the Swiss theater company Magic Garden achieved maximum results with minimum costs: "Questioning" gives you something that no big-budget opera can give you - an unusual communicative experience from which you can take away new knowledge about yourself. You'll mostly be filling out forms - it sounds dull, but it's actually fun. The production was recently acquired by the Moscow Gogol Center.