The "Berezіlsky" perіod of director І. O. Boris (1991–1996) Cover Image

"Березільський" період режисера І. О. Бориса (1991–1996)
The "Berezіlsky" perіod of director І. O. Boris (1991–1996)

Author(s): Vitaly Mizyak
Subject(s): Theatre, Dance, Performing Arts, Recent History (1900 till today)
Published by: Національна академія керівних кадрів культури і мистецтв
Keywords: the Ukrainian dramatic art; masters of Ukrainian direction; L. Kurbas, "Berezil"; Kharkov’s Shevchenko theatre; I. Boris;

Summary/Abstract: The main achievements and creative problems of director Igor Aleksandrovich Boris during his working period as the main director of Kharkiv State Academic Drama Theater of T. Shevchenko are considered in this article. This five-years period is associated with the development of the creation style of director who received a director education at the Kiev Theatre Institute of Karpenko-Kary, and his work in the ukrainian theaters and his stagement in the Moscow Theater of E. Vakhtangov. The persistent connection of Vakhtangov and Kurbas artistic traditions is defined during Kurbas working period in the theater "Berezil." In 1991, when I. Boris was appointed as a chief director of “shevchenkivtsiv” the theatrical business felt a real crisis that affected not only the quality of modern drama, but also to the lack of proper funding and attentive management of the theater as a public, social and ideological institutions. I. Boris planned (to the creative testament of Kurbas) and created an actor – director EKMAТEDOS laboratory (experimental studio theater studies). For five years in Kharkov Theatre I. Boris gave opportunities to experiment on large and small stages almost to ten colleagues, among them A. Babenko, S. Beregko, G. Vorotchenko, S. Pasichnyk and others. One of the most significant productions on the Berezil stage was a perfomance of Boris I. "King Lear" by W. Shakespeare. Boris determined the genre of performance as tragedy and grotesk. There is a man. And time as a philosophical category, for theatrical effect is not limited to a specific measurement and signs of epoc. In this play the Polyphonic is felt in good human relations. The director blamed everybody in the Lear tragedy. From the harlequin arrogance to acute pain and humiliation of their own awareness of belonging to the suffering of others humiliated – that was the way Lear was performed by L. Tarabarynov, the outstanding actor of "Berezil". An entirely different approach differed a play "Stolen Happiness" by I. Franko, Boris I. performed in 1992 it held until today in the repertoire of a Theatre T. Shevchenko. And although it has changed several generations of artists, the essence remains the theatrical spectacle, which it was designed by the director: a tragedy of the specific characters and Ukrainian people. For him and for the scene designer O. Semeniuk the fact was important that it is the motherland of the author, in Western Ukraine. That is the reason of almost a pagan character of his heroes, a guttural transfusion of trembitas, a Carpathian Molfar God, who, like an ominous shadow appears in front of the main events of the plot. The context events moved into the historical depth and updated sharpened the plot of I. Franko drama, removing some clichés of the previous interpretations actualized modern ethical context that had lost a lot in recent decades. Critics noticed that the director carefully avoids any comparisons of his version of "Stolen Happiness" with classic models and generally turn a piece of psychological drama (melodrama) in a ritual in mystery. For this he needed a literary version of the text. He used early Franko variations in dialect translations of Boyko to the Slobozhansky standard. The content thus rose from connotation to the words that were used between people. Causing a high stage in a repertory search, I. Borys managed to stage a successful interpretation of A. Chekhov's drama ("Three Sisters") on the small stage of "Berezil." The content situation had read and seen in the show by clear eye, calmly and slowly. The work is not designed for a mass audience. The director wanted to be understood by his intelligent audience, because a great intellectual struggle for their own "Me" always worried him. In addition, dramatic critics have noted Boris I. ability to find and build on the scene an exact physical action, highly ritualized or day to day, but one that grows to metaphor. The same applies to ensemble performance that was taken in its original sense and professional excellence. So the creative achievements of I. Boris and his organizational efforts as chief director of Academic Ukrainian Theater named by Shevchenko were designed to support and to develop the traditions embodied in 1920-30 years by the director of the theater "Berezil" L. Kurbas, namely: – the diversification and the improvement of methods of directing and acting schools that would encourage imaginative transformation and updating of dramatic material for the stage conditions. This contributed to the creation of a creative workshop where mainly the artistsexperimenters representing different vectors of directing modern trends and schools were involved; - the search for national identity, which was felt in the repertoire features of policy formulation of the directorial important task and the rejection of opportunistic and entertainment performances, typical for the unpretentious tastes of the public

  • Issue Year: 2015
  • Issue No: 35
  • Page Range: 233-240
  • Page Count: 8
  • Language: Ukrainian