“Rain” on the catwalk

Recently the Cherkasy Taras Shevchenko Academic Music and Drama Theater saw the premiere of Andrii Mai’s production of Rain in Neukoelln by Paul Brodowsky. The production was initiated and sponsored by Goethe-Institut Ukraine, and is the director’s own interpretation of contemporary German dramaturgy.

The action is set in Neukoelln, a Berlin borough. The actors wear gray clothes and green shoes. From time to time they strolled up and down an improvised catwalk, like fashion models. By the director’s design, the spectators’ seats are on the stage, whereas the catwalk is situated right above the empty audience. So before getting on the catwalk, the actors stand in the theater lobby. Through the glass door behind them you can see the traffic in the street.

There is virtually no scenery, with only a metal detector on the bare stage, through which all spectators pass before taking their seats. And when the performance is over, water starts pouring out of the gantry. Eventually, everyone passes through this “rainy metal detector” with raincoats on. Another important detail: above the detector a stuffed fox is hoisted. One of the characters is the Fox (Oleh Teliatnyk), who is always speaking adages and is afraid to be caught by the Scissors Grinder (Serhii Bobrov). The performance somehow brings to mind Woyzeck, produced at the Cherkasy Theater by enfant terrible Andrii Zholdak at a certain point in time – perhaps, due to the “fox theme.” Otherwise, there is very little in common between these two productions: Mai’s directing is rather minimalistic and more exquisite than Zholdak’s.

It should be mentioned that the actors from the Cherkasy company were very organic as their German characters. The family of Muslim immigrants, the Scissors Grinder, the Cabby, the Model, the Programmer, the Hippy Girl – all of them live their lives before the spectators, falling in love, crying, throwing tantrums, or begging, and in the meantime rushing among the rows of seats, trampling on people’s feet. By the way, the characters speak a very special kind of language. Almost in every dialog or monolog the actors play with sounds, replacing letters in words and repeating the same phrase in their scramblespeak. Interestingly, the Programmer was played by Oles Pavliutin, who has seldom appeared on stage of late. Yet he was brilliant in Rain in Neukoelln, where he also performed two striking dances.

After all, the artists managed to render the atmosphere of the imminent rain. Rain will not provide answer to the question “How to move on in life?” but at least it will wash away the fatigue and bitter memories.

The next performance is scheduled for the fall, when the new theater season opens.