The St. Petersburg Times Friday, Dec 1,2000

"Creative Translators" Bridge the Culture Gap

by Natasha Shirokova

While Russian ballet, opera and symphonic music are well known all over the world, contemporary Russian drama and cinema are still terra incognita for most foreign audiences. The St. Petersburg theater studio "Russian Drama" thus consider it one of their tasks to present the variety of theater and cinema with simultaneous English translation for foreign viewers. "The attraction of this program," says local art critic Lev Gitelman, "is that they put stress on contemporary Russian theater, cinema and music. They want to find new ways of developing it."

The authors of the project Galina Perveyeva and Tatiana Balandina are beginners, but "enthusiastic, honest and full of energy" according to Lev Gitelman, who supports the new company. Both started their entrepreneurial careers at Alexander Mamontov's international film festival "Festival of Festivals," and later started their own business.

"They don't have a cast of their own or a film crew at the moment," explains Gitelman. "Their idea is to organize this process of cultural exchange, to promote noticeable theater and cinema phenomenon. There is still certain isolation in the field of theater art. As for contemporary cinema, the situation is nearly the same. Ideally in the future, there will be a cultural center, where you can watch the best shows in your native language."

The cinema part of the project is already in full swing, and the shows are held at Fish Fabrique on Fridays and Saturdays. The preference is given to "art house" and experimental films. Among them are Oleg Kovalev's "Sergey Eisenstein. Mexican Fantasy," which shows Eisenstein's work in Mexico in 1940's. The director restored what was left of Eisenstein's film about Mexico and included it into his own work, making a unique documentary film. The present repertoire of the "Russian Studio" includes a selection of Alexey Balabanov's movies, from the black and white "Of Freaks and Men," to his mainstream hits "Brat" and " Brat-2."

The translation at these shows is done by "creative" interpreters and can be heard over headsets.

The theater section of "Russian Drama" also seems promising. The recent "Golden Mask" festival, including a section which presented the best Russian productions to foreign audiences with simultaneous English translation, proved that there is great interest in contemporary theater, and gathered full houses every night.

At the present time performances will be presented at the theaters where the production were originally staged, like the upcoming "Wolves and Sheep" and "Uncle Vanya" by Mikhail Levshin at the "Komedianty" theater at 44 Ligovsky Prospect. The renowned "Priyut Komedianta" theater has also joined the project already.

The "Russian Drama" program will involve not only celebrated productions, but also the works of young actors and directors. Productions by students of director Grigory Kozlov have formed the repertoire of the newly formed state theater. With productions previously hidden away at the Academy of Theater Arts being shown at Fish Fabrique this month, the project promises to become an interesting event for both professional theater people and the general public.

For more information see the listings or call "Russian Drama" at 167-08-27.