WHITE CABIN

By Maxim Isaev, Pavel Semchenko
Music by Nick Sudnic
kSound by Andrey Sizintsev
Lighting by Vadim Gololobov
Cast: Maxim Isaev, Pavel Semchenko, Barbara Seifert, Yana Toumina
“Its theatrical boldness, comic invention and painterly beauty make it truly remarkable.” – The Irish Times
Cult icons in Moscow and St. Petersburg’s independent arts scenes, the work of Russia’s Akhe group owes as much to the visual arts and cinema as to any kind of theatre. Like all its shows, the surreal and darkly comic White Cabin is filled with countless absurd, inspired, bizarre and often touching ‘events’, using Russian icons, silent movies, shadow theatre, and object and avantgarde art as reference. The result is dream theatre of chaos, a crazy variety show of fantastic images and endlessly changing stage pictures.
White Cabin creates an atmosphere that mixes opposing feelings and perceptions, involving spectators in a bizarre, comic and tragic ambience. The climate of solitude that prevails throughout the play is shared by a silent and stunning confrontation between the sexes. Everyday activities are taken over by an explicit and poetic feeling of alienation, exposing the audience to the absurdities of life in a simultaneously melancholic and high-spirited performance.
Can a spectator influence what is happening on stage simply by his or her presence? Can the action onstage influence the very will of the spectator and the desire for self enrichment? Is it possible to project the action onstage directly into the mind and soul of the spectator? The female protagonist of this multimedia piece faces all of these questions and many more. Her coperformers provoke her, creating magical situations where the simplest reactions are projected into a metaphorical, decidedly absurd realm.
Winner of Russia’s Golden Mask Award, and now in demand at festivals all over Europe, Akhe has also collaborated on projects with well-known fellow Russian artists, Slava Polunin and Derevo.
“This is a real cat’s cradle of a show… Dizzying, dark and immensely satisfying”
The Guardian
“There is theatrical magic in this beguiling display of visual imagination”
The Independent
“Hysterically funny and increasingly disquieting”
Sunday Herald
By Maxim Isaev, Pavel Semchenko
AHKE
Music by Nick Sudnic
k Sound by Andrey Sizintsev
Lighting by Vadim Gololobov
Cast: Maxim Isaev, Pavel Semchenko, Barbara Seifert, Yana Toumina
Dublin Theatre Festival