New Times is the second Saint Petersburg premier by Marat Gatsalov. Like in his first Alexandriysky Theatre performance Telluria based on the novel of Vladimir Sorokin, he again performs the double role of the director and scenic designer. New Times was created by the familiar Telluria production team – costume designer Lesha Lobanov and composer Vladimir Rannev. The play was specifically commissioned for the New Stage to a young Saint Petersburg playwright, scriptwriter and director Tatiana Rakhmanova. The complex choreography of the performance was created by Tatiana Gordeeva.
New Times joins together a team of Alexandrinsky Theatre stars and young actors, contemporary dance from choreographer Tatiana Gordeeva and an impressive stage installation made of several tons of metal.
Italy. Early sixteenth century. Astronomer Galileo Galilei makes a world-changing discovery. Heretofore the Earth was viewed as a rigid, solid platform. Galileo proves that nothing is rigid – everything moves. This is the era of new science, the time to review all the previous concepts and to conceive the new ones…
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Gatsalov based a cold performance on a cold text. He creates a distilling tank for cold blood. This is strangely modern. And – strange though it may seem – it’s full of political journalism dressed in historical costume and draped in heavy velvet mantle of neo academism. Hidden behind the thick hedge of trite thoughts, current interest unexpectedly rises.
Asya Voloshina, Clockwork Organism
www.colta.ru, December 18, 2015
As Marat Gatsalov bravely opens the gate into the New Times semantic space, he speaks of more than social laws, although they suffice to make us shudder. There’s another dimension to the performance. It unfolds in Vladimir Rannev’s music as the unpredictable troubled sounds of a piano being tuned accompanying the action. The world where people are not free is out of tune, full of discord and also, contrary to popular belief, is far from seeking harmony.
Roman Dolzhansky. New Times
Kommersant, December 2015