12th International Youth Theater Forum М@rt.contact

Once again mesmerizing theater spring has come to the Belarusian city of Mogilev! The 12th international forum M@art.kontakt has gathered 20 theaters from ten countries, including Belarus, Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Russia, Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine and – for the first time ever – Austria and the USA. No professional jury is available as always but the tradition of experimental performances lives on: this year’s program featured 22 performances of various genres and forms – dance performance, tragic confession, black comedy, farce and tragifarce, journey into foolery, hallucination…  

The fact that modern Belarusian drama art was widely represented – five performances by Belarusian directors – is another pleasant peculiarity of this year’s forum. The Mogilev Oblast Drama Theater staged a puppet play for adults Sinyaya-Sinyaya inspired by the short story written by the 20th century Belarusian classic Vladimir Korotkevich. Igor Kazakov, a laureate of the 2016 National Theater Award, who won the grand prix of the Mogilev forum by staging Hamlet in 2013. Nikolai Steshits, a laureate of the 2016 National Theater Award, starred in the new play.

Premiers, debuting actors, celebrity guests, discussions and certainly emotions of the M@rt.kontakt festival spectators are covered by the report from Mogilev…

On photo: Mikhail Heifetz's Saving Gentleman of the Bedchamber Pushkin by the St Petersburg State Theatre Subbota (Saturday)