In A Real Tragedy, It Is Not The Heroine Who Dies; It Is The Chorus
by Ksenia Ravvina
A docu-fictional, digital theatre performance has been created that is based on the political show trial surrounding the production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Kirill Serebrennikov, and the revolutionary movement in Belarus, in which women in particular are committed to visibility and solidarity. It explores discrimination, as well as the silencing and violent repression of artists.
“For in a real tragedy, it is not the hero who perishes; it is the chorus.”
– Joseph Brodsky, Nobel Lecture, 1987
Food arrangement by Mark Readhead for the video design of In A Real Tragedy
In A Real Tragedy… was created by Ksenia Ravvina in collaboration with performers Yang Ge and Leicy Valenzuela for the 2021 Radar Ost festival at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, which presented theatre works by artists from Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Bosnia under the theme ART[ISTS] AT RISK.
I created a video and subtitle design for the performance, which mainly involved creating a hologram of performer Yang Ge for her whole appearance in the show.
Clips from the performance documentation showing video design and integrated caption design
Yang Ge performed in Kirill Serebrennikov’s 2017 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Gogol Centre in Moscow. The theatre was later accused of embezzling millions of roubles of government funds – funds spent on the production– but the investigators concluded that the production did not exist. The show, which was performed several times, toured Europe and was nominated for awards, “didn’t exist” in the eyes of investigators, so the money spent on it was regarded as stolen. We used a hologram for Yang Ge, playing with this idea of non-existence.
The other performer in the piece, Leicy Valenzuela, makes a Belarusian Borscht soup and espouses narratives and rumours around protests in Belarus, interwoven with her own experiences. We also used hologram with Leicy, this time to multiply her, with her being a mouthpiece for numerous stories
Digital poster design for In A Real Tragedy… featuring Yang Ge
Written and Directed by Ksenia Ravvina
Featuring Yang Ge and Leicy Valenzuela
Dramaturg Tina Ebert
Video Design and Poster Design Daniel Hughes
Music and Sound Design Alexander Hadjiev
Lighting Design Iana Boitcova
Production Manager Federico Vöcks de Schwindt and Francesca Spisto
Assistants Rocio Rodriguez and Joanna Harries
Translation Lisa Homburger and Rachel Matthews
Food arrangement by Mark Readhead
Hologauze® fabric by Holotronica, projectors from Geier-Tronic Videotechnik. Thanks to Elena Malchevskaya, Mitosis Coworking, Nastassia Muryn-Mukha, Raman Padaliaka, Take Me Somewhere, Maxim Yosefi, Maria Danilovich and the technical staff at Deutsches Theater.
Funded by the Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media as part of NEUSTART KULTUR.
