the soft side of “Plasticine” inside a shell of rawness
Vassily Sigarev’s “Plasticine” was performed by the Theatrodini theatre group, a team of 26 amateur-student actors, in two cities and on three totally different stages, for each of which it had to be adapted accordingly: an Italian-type classical stage, a studio theatre and a non-theatre building with a small black-box, in which the performance was transcribed into a promenade one.
Sigarev, guides us, through Maxim’s eyes, into the depths of the hero’s psyche and, at the same time, through the deepest and darkest social structures.
An abandoned 14-year-old boy who lives with his grandmother, roams the streets of an “Allegory-Town”, where he grows up surrounded by violence, depravity and estrangement. But, as this is all he ever knew, to him it seems like a one-way street.
The work is set in Russia, right after the fall of the Soviet Union and amidst a severe economic crisis. It is based on non-fictional, biographical circumstances. This allegorical town, where people live below the poverty line and are falling apart, turns into a living hell for Maxim. Every character of the play falls below the lowest threshold of the human condition. And Maxim finds himself in conflict with every single one of them during his roaming; conflicts that shape him again and again: the environment’s oppression breaks out on Maxim. Slowly, his idealistic views collapse and are taken over by fantasies of a different life that suffocate him. In the end, Maxim sinks, consumed and devoured.
In such a liquid society, where cruelty, circumstances and demands are so powerfully violent, is it possible for one to mould themselves, or are they, inevitably, moulded by their environment?
“Plasticine” is a deeply humane play, heart-rending but compassionate and tender, qualities one cannot see if one looks only at the cruelty. The rawness of this play, as it is experienced by the audience, is the same that is experienced by Maxim, the one that drives him to smother his own needs and desires and, in the end, his own identity.
The play and its characters, shape and indirectly define and differentiate themselves through conditions, circumstances, contexts but, most of all, through other people. Thus, highlighting
the duality of cruelty and tenderness becomes the main directing objective. The feeling of suffocating inside Maxim’s soul which is the core of the play, is violated, oppressed and raped. The actors need to reach the lowest level of humanity acting through their characters but also on something else that is familiar to them: the cancellation of their innocence. Despite the cruelty of the action and the roughness of both text and speech, there is poetry hidden inside the play: the cherished but concealed thoughts and feelings of Maxim find their rightful place into Sigarev’s poetically written instructions. The narration of those instructions is what illuminates Maxim’s psyche and touches the most sensitive side of “Plasticine”.
CREATIVES
Directed and Choreographed by Andreas G. Pallis
Scenic Space Designer: Eleni Patroni / Andreas G. Pallis
Costumes: Zoe Driva
Lighting Designers: Semina Papalexandropoulou / Andreas G. Pallis
Original Score / Sound Design: Vasilis Angelogiannos
Make-Up Artist I Special Effects: Helena Pitsari
Director’s Assistants: Alexandros Michalis Bokolas, Anastasia Sidira, Giannis Karanikolas
Scenic Designer’s Assistants: George Theodorou, Melina Lagou, Alexandros Michalis Bokolas
Original Texts written by: Andreas G. Pallis
Text Editing: Anastasia Vasilopoulou, Marcella Zorba, Spyros Karphitsas, Melina Lagou, Yorgos Florou
Plasticine LOGO, Poster and Play-Bill Designed by: Eleni Patroni, George Theodorou
Production Coordination by: Spyros Karphitsas
PERFORMED by the twenty-six members of the “THEATRODINI” Theatre Group
Syros Island Crew/ “APOLLON” Theatre
Elisavet Vakondiou, Magda P., Petros Pridezis, Renia Mila
Athens Crew/ “EMBROS” Theatre and “Kostis Palamas” Building
Giannis Bakalis, Dionysis Bendour, Dimitra Gkika, Nasia Staekoura, Panagiotis Basdekis, Efthimis Basdekis, Vangelis Maroulis.
Produced by: “THEATRODINI” THEATRE GROUP – POFPA / UOA
Translated from: English by Athina Paraponiari / Russian by Katerina Evangelatos
CAST
“THEATRODINI” Theatre Group (alphabetically)
Vasilis Athanasopoulos (“Small-bodied Man with Large Jacket” – “Second boy with Red Jacket” – “Queue” member)
Anastasia Anagnostopoulou (“Ludmila Ivanovna”)
Natalia Anastouli (“First Woman at the Funeral / Spira’s Grandmother” – “Lady in The Queue”)
Alexandra Vagianeli (“Tanya’s Mother”)
Anastasia Vasilopoulou (Girl at the Funeral – Queue member)
Anastasia Galerou (First Old Woman at the Funeral – Lady with a Bag in the Queue )
Minas Dioletis (Spira)
Marcella Zorba (Second Woman at the Funeral / Spira’s Mother)
George Theodorou (Groom – Boy at the Stadium – Large Bodied Boy with Beard on his Cheen)
Photini Karakosta (Girl at the Funeral – Daughter of the “Lady with a Bag in the Queue”)
Yannis Karanikolas (Cadet– Boy in School Yard)
Mariada Kodenidi (Maxim’s Grandmother)
Alexandros Kromidas (Half-Naked guy / “The Grey” – Boy in School Yard)
Garyfalia Marini (Lady in a Black Scarf – Maxim’s Mother – Queue member)
Ivoni Melissa (Woman in the Stadium)
Elisabet Botsaki (“Her” / Tanya)
Nikoletta Pavlopoulou (Second Old Lady at the Funeral – daughter of the “Lady in the Queue”)
Evdokia Pouloudi (Natasha)
Anastasia Sidira (the Bride – Lyoha’s Mother)
Yorgos Florou (School Principle – Boy at the Funeral – Salesman)
“Maxim” performed by: Aris Kalavros – Manolis Georgopoulos
“Lyoha” performed by: Alexandros Michalis Bokolas – Stathis Souferis
“Narrator”: Melina Lagou
