Cast: students of the third course, workshop and K.M.Ginkas O.M.Topolyanski
Premiere: February 17, 2018
Age restrictions: 16+
Duration: 1 hour 15 minutes
Carnival portrait of the author based on his works and diaries. Masquerade of life, death and creation of Daniel Harms sweeps dance grotesque characters of the Soviet era. Everything will go away, but only art will live forever!
About Xarms:
A writer who defies categorization, Daniil Kharms has come to be regarded as an essential artist of the modernist avant-garde. His writing, which partakes of performance, narrative, poetry, and visual elements, was largely suppressed during his lifetime, which ended in a psychiatric ward where he starved to death during the siege of Leningrad. His work, which survived mostly in notebooks, can now be seen as one of the pillars of absurdist literature, most explicitly manifested in the 1920s and ’30s Soviet Union by the OBERIU group, which inherited the mantle of Russian futurism from such poets as Vladimir Mayakovsky and Velimir Khlebnikov.
Selected Poems:
A Horrible Death
Once a certain man, having felt hungry, sat at the table and was eating minced pork patties.
And his spouse was sitting near him and kept saying that the meat content in the patties is rather low.
However he kept, and kept, and kept, and kept, and kept eating,
until he felt deathly heaviness somewhere down in his stomach.
Then, having pushed away his treacherous meal, he started to tremble, and weep.
In his pocket his gold watch stopped ticking.
His hair lightened, his vision became crystal-clear,
His ears fell upon the floor, like yellow leaves fall off a poplar in autumn.
And then he suddenly expired.
IVAN IVANYCH SAMOVAR
Ivan Ivanych Samovar-
A pot-bellied samovar,
A three-bucket samovar.
There inside him boiled water,
Puffed with steam that boiling water,
In the fury boiling water
Into cups pour'd through the tap,
Through the hole, then the tap,
And to cups right through the tap.
Early in the morning came,
To the samovar he came,
Early Uncle Petya came.
Uncle Petya came and says,
"Give me some to drink", he says,
"I'll drink some tea!", he says.
To the samovar then came,
Our auntie Katya came,
With a glassy glass she came.
Auntie Katya came and says,
"I, of course," she came and says,
"Will have some to drink," she says.
Then along grandfather came,
Very very old he came,
In his slippers grandpa came.
He yawned widely and he says,
"I should drink perhaps..." he says,
"Drink perhaps some tea," he says.
Then along grandmother came,
Very very old she came,
Even with a cane she came.
After having thought she says,
"Well, a drink of tea...", she says,
"Well, perhaps some tea..." she says.
Suddenly, the girl ran up,
To the samovar ran up,
This granddaughter she ran up.
"Pour me, pour me" then she says,
"A full cup of tea," she says,
"For me, make it sweet," she says.
Then the dog Zhuchka she ran up,
With the cat Murka she ran up,
To the samovar ran up,
For to get some tea with milk,
Boiling water with some milk,
All that with some boiling milk.
Suddenly Seryozha came,
Sleepy and unwashed he came,
After everyone he came.
"Give me, give me" then he says,
"A large cup of tea," he says,
"Largest possible," he says.
And they pushed it, and they pulled it
And they twisted it about,
But in spite of all this effort
Only steam ever came out.
And they tipped it, tipped it, tipped it,
like commode with a spout,
Out of it only came
Little droplets dripping out.
Samovar Ivan Ivanych!
On the table 'Van Ivanych!
Golden shiny 'Van Ivanych
Boiling water he gives not,
To late-sleepers he gives not,
To them slackers he gives not.
The End
1928
Blue Notebook #10
Once there lived a red-haired man who lacked eyes and ears. Ha was also
lacking all hair, so he was called red-haired only with a large degree of
generalization.
He couldn't speak, as he was lacking a mouth. The same with his nose.
Even arms and legs, he just didn't have any. Nor stomach, nor backside, nor
spine. And no intestine. He didn't have anything! Therefore it is totally
unclear who is being discussed.
In fact, let's not talk about him anymore.
The Prayer before Sleep
"Oh Lord, amid the light of day
I've been overcome by sloth.
Permit me to lie down and sleep, oh Lord,
And, while I slumber, fill me oh Lord
with Thy might.
I desire great knowledge,
but no man and no book shall give me this.
Only Thou shalt enlighten me
by way of my verse.
Awake me strong- for the battle with meanings,
Quick- in directing the words,
and diligent- in Praise of thy Name
for centuries to come."