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Brodsky Station
Site-specific performance for a swimming pool
Based on the poetry by Joseph Brodsky
Written and directed by Konstantin Kamenski
Brodsky Station is based on the Noble Prize winning, Soviet-American author Joseph Brodsky’s poetry. It combines the Russian School of Acting and Directing with a contemporary site-specific performance. It has been created using a swimming pool as the stage.
Enticements for an audience to spend a night by the pool include the innovative and daring directing style of Konstantin Kamenski, a London-based Russian director and a frequent guest lecturer at Goldsmith’s University London, as well as a stellar performance from the cast, which includes a leading role from a member of Belarus’ Free Theatre.
Brodsky Station is a watery, imaginative space where Joseph Brodsky's poetry helps characters to tell a story of the struggle against circumstance, finding one's place in the world and discovering the will to find freedom. This is the story of personal revision induced by the chaos of love and disappointment, and the dichotomy between ordinary physical existence and the high-octane essence of the human spirit.
The personal story of Joseph Brodsky is an elegant illustration of the ideas Harold Pinter was trying to deliver in Victoria Station and his Nobel Prize Lecture: the human soul is more capacious than we think; it possesses more passion and capacity for growth than anyone could plan or imagine; and humans are simultaneously strong and fragile. Brodsky Station’s key take-away is the sensation of time slipping away quickly and our inability, as humans, to spot the moment our lives come to an end. - Joseph Brodsky, only 55 years old, has died of a heart attack. His daughter was only 5 years old at the time. Life had just begun anew...
The relationship between the two main characters are the production’s focus; they are multi-layered and complex. They change and twist throughout performance: a Poet and a Judge; an anonymous power managing our lives and a human being in its prime; a lonely soul looking for someone to speak to and another soul that has found someone who has made him complete. They are in conflict and in constant competition, and the tension between them mounts during the performance.
'It was a very engaging immersive experience, loved the fact it was in a swimming pool. I enjoyed aspects of it very much' - Dr Lee Campbell, Lecturer in Fine Art, University of Lincoln
'It was a very interesting, unusual, poetic and beautifully done play. Well done to all team and <director> Kamenski!' - Yuldosh Juraboev, Founder and Artistic Director at ORZU ARTS Central Asian Theatre Company
'Сказать, что спектакль нетрадиционный, – не сказать ничего. < > Интерпретаций этого спектакля может быть великое множество, так как он в корне неоднозначен' - Ольга Золотарева, Pulse UK Newspaper, 7 July 2016
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Creative team /
Performers: Oleg Sidorchik and Alexey Averkin
Voiced by: Nicolas Bromley and Laurie Coldwell
Director & Video Design: Konstantin Kamenski
Set Design: Kosa Group
PR Support: Lidia Shafranova
Music by Alfred Schnitke, Igor Stravinsky and W.A. Mozart
Special thanks to Anna-Sophia Schulte Eistrup
'It's intriguing show, which fans of site-specific work will enjoy, as long as they're prepared for something verging more on a work of art than a piece of traditional theatre'.
Jane Bristow, Reviewer, Fringe Guru
Edinburgh
'It looks rather beautiful with its underwater LED lighting, glowing red orbs and floating lights, all backed by video projections taking us on a train journey through 20th century Russian history'
Mark Fisher, Reviewer, The Scotsman
Edinburgh
'Brodsky Station, a new play inspired by Nobel Prize-winner Joseph Brodsky’s poetry, will be staged – where else? – in a hotel swimming pool'.
Tristram Fane Saunders, Reviewer, The Telegraph
London