The Theory of X
theatre performance
2019
The starting point of inspiration for this performance is Chaos Theory with its major concepts: unpredictability of fully deterministic systems, butterfly effects, points of bifurcations and strange attractors.
Four performers play a game of Jenga, taking pieces of wood from the jenga tower before it collapses. Each piece of wood is one independent performance and a completely different way of performative reflection on the possibility to understand life with theories of any kind, to approach it with rules that are supposed to ease the pressure that future burdens on us, and on the chance to predict that future. The first part of this performance ends when the jenga tower collapses and is then followed by the monologue based on the text by Gertrude Stein that makes the audience get into a state of trance to eventually reflect on how this very event might change the course their life.
Besides, the performance is combined with the concurrently screened film based on the rehearsals that led to the performance in its current shape. The audience has a choice - either to watch the performance, or to observe which and how the events happened during rehearsals (theatrical experiments, discussions, other life events like the sudden departure of actors) made the performance what it became.
Four performers play a game of Jenga, taking pieces of wood from the jenga tower before it collapses. Each piece of wood is one independent performance and a completely different way of performative reflection on the possibility to understand life with theories of any kind, to approach it with rules that are supposed to ease the pressure that future burdens on us, and on the chance to predict that future. The first part of this performance ends when the jenga tower collapses and is then followed by the monologue based on the text by Gertrude Stein that makes the audience get into a state of trance to eventually reflect on how this very event might change the course their life.
Besides, the performance is combined with the concurrently screened film based on the rehearsals that led to the performance in its current shape. The audience has a choice - either to watch the performance, or to observe which and how the events happened during rehearsals (theatrical experiments, discussions, other life events like the sudden departure of actors) made the performance what it became.
Texts used for performance and inspiration:
What Are Masterpieces? by Gertrude Stein
What Is Philosophy? by Deleuze and Guattari
Science et méthode by Jules Henri Poincaré
Order out of Chaos: Man's new dialogue with nature by Ilya Prigogine and Isabelle Stengers
Letters to the future from soviet and american children (from time capsules)
The list of 1000 theories from Wikipedia
A Throw of the Dice will Never Abolish Chance by Stéphane Mallarméthe
rules of successful life from some self-help devoted web-site
Interviews of people of Kazan (Tatarstan) on the topic of life changing experiences
What Are Masterpieces? by Gertrude Stein
What Is Philosophy? by Deleuze and Guattari
Science et méthode by Jules Henri Poincaré
Order out of Chaos: Man's new dialogue with nature by Ilya Prigogine and Isabelle Stengers
Letters to the future from soviet and american children (from time capsules)
The list of 1000 theories from Wikipedia
A Throw of the Dice will Never Abolish Chance by Stéphane Mallarméthe
rules of successful life from some self-help devoted web-site
Interviews of people of Kazan (Tatarstan) on the topic of life changing experiences
Made in collaboration with actors and producers of "Ugol" (Kazan's independent theater project)