The premiere of Kirill Serebrennikov’s performance will take place in Hamburg

In Hamburg on January 22, the premiere of Kirill Serebrennikov’s performance “The Black Monk” based on the story of the same name by Anton Chekhov is expected.

The day before, a dress rehearsal was held at the Thalia Theater with the audience and the press, and they were able to join the work of the Russian director. Hamburg became the first city where the director was allowed to work after a four and a half year break.

Vladimir Papkov, a specialist in intercultural competence, the head of the public organization North German Coordinating Council of Russian-Speaking Fellow Citizens, shared his impressions of the performance with a Rosbalt correspondent.

“Did Chekhov in Serebrennikov’s production come to the Hamburg audience? We felt sorry for Chekhov, and we felt sorry for the audience as well: three hours of a dense flow of the author’s intense multi-genre fantasy in more than three languages. In my opinion, Serebrennikov dealt ruthlessly with Chekhov, just like a god with a turtle. This performance seemed to me an interesting experiment, although Chekhov was not enough, ”said Papkov.

Most of all, the audience was struck by the abundance of the Russian language without translation for the Germans. “Russian-speakers felt like a privileged caste: Chekhov, Serebrennikov, and even bathe in the Russian language… We were even treated to a Russian obscenity,” Papkov said.

Recall that in June 2020, after a long process, a court in Moscow sentenced Serebrennikov to three years of suspended imprisonment and a fine of 800 thousand rubles on charges of embezzlement of state funds in the preparation of performances. The director was forbidden to change his place of residence.