Fourth International Theatre Festival ‘Theatre.UZ/2013’ kicks off

October 20, 2013

The opening ceremony of the Fourth International Theatre Festival ‘Theatre.UZ/2013’ took place at the Youth Theater of Uzbekistan. The stage of the theatre saw the premiere of a collaborative Israeli-Uzbek production ‘Happy End’, which was first unveiled in a form of a read-through with performance elements, during the ‘Theatre.UZ’ festival last year.

An hour before the opening ceremony, a well-lit and cozy hall of the Youth Theater welcomed the first international guests, festival participants and media representatives. A fascinating programme arranged by students of the theatre school of dramatic art under the Youth Theater of Uzbekistan, and actors of the theatre troupe, turned into an astonishing performance for everyone. As the anthem of ‘Theatre.UZ’ festival was performed, all the guests were invited into the audience hall.

The first day of the theatre festival kicked off with ‘Happy End’, a collaborative project by Uzbekistan and Israel based on a play Israeli playwright Iddo Netanyahu. The author himself attended the premiere and received lavish applause from the grateful audience side by side with Nabi Abdurakhmanov, a big-name director and the artistic director of the Youth Theatre of Uzbekistan.

Nabi Abdurakhmanov mentioned that theatre is the world full of normal “madmen” and the mixing of artistic “blood” is necessary here. ‘Happy End’ tells a story of a Jewish family in Germany in 1932. Anti-Semitism and people struggling with external affection are among the main issues of the play.
Moni Iosef, the director of Theatre Centre AKKO (Israel):
“The performance was incredible, and so was the the acting. I hope we will set up collaborative projects with the Youth Theater, and the connection between our two theatres will get more entrenched. I would like to establish a forum of theatre professionals similar to ‘Theatre.UZ’ festival in Israel”.
Latvian actors also shared their appreciation of the play: “The performance was very exciting itself, but as professionals, it was interesting for us to find the distinctions between theatre schools and understand that everything depends on the story and how the director sees it”.

Nina Masur, a German theater expert, remarked that there was a direction of a search, and also that Nabi Abdurakhamnow is in the middle of creating a “European theatre”. The right way for theater is integration, despite the fact that the East is the East, and the West is the West.

Jacob Rubin, the artistic director of the Chamber Drama Theater of Vologda, Russia:
“I think this story can be seen from two points of view: on the one hand it is not up to date at all, because too many years have passed and a lot has been said about it. On the other hand, if a saying still exists, someone still feels this pain, and it is good enough that it is expressed by means of art and lives on the stage, and not in the street.”
Iddo Netanyahu, the author of the play(Israel):
“The theatre has done a great job, and this is only a premiere, and the next performances will be only better. We know that the actors have been working very hard and it is obvious that they got a clear picture of what they were expected to do. But this is the best premiere I have ever seen, the actors are really good and I would be happy to work with them.”