Most likely any outsider unfamiliar with the theory of new-processual art considered his or her first encounter with LaboraTORiAH and Boris Yukhananov a provocation. Accustomed to clearly formatted types of interaction (rehearsal, seminar, training, conversation, etc.), the participants, perhaps for the first time ever, found themselves facing a project that lacked distinct form and perspective, as well as clearly established rules for behavior and “the playing of the game.” Rules in LaboraTORiAH, as in other projects developed by Boris Yukhananov, came into being gradually, underwent modification, and were the consequence and continuation of the artistic development of the project, its images and meanings.
Only the two aspects reflected in the name – LaboraTORiAH – remained unchanged. I.e., “the work of the Torah,” in which “work” was essentially understood to mean “theatre.” Participants freely selected excerpts from the Torah and prepared theatrical scenes based on these passages. Performances were held once a week and were accompanied by discussions that went beyond narrowly crafted or even purely theatrical analysis. Discussions at the meetings concerned a variety of topics related to the Torah, the Tanakh, Judaism and the places where ancient texts and ancient consciousness intersect with contemporary art, contemporary culture, and the life of the contemporary individual.
At the same time, one did not have to be a theatre-maker in order to participate in LaboraTORiAH. The project stood on what was called "three circles." Participants in the First Circle worked on theatrical passages and assumed certain obligations to develop the artistic part of the project. The Second Circle consisted of all those who regularly took part in LaboraTORiAH’s discussions and activities, attended the shows as a spectator, but did not prepare the activities. The Third Circle was a completely open space in which anyone could come in to watch the process. Belonging to one or another circle, however, did not presuppose any restrictions – anyone attending a meeting was considered a full participant.
This kind of freedom made LaboraTORiAH accessible to a very diverse group of people. Someone interested in Jewish philosophy, for example, might, through LaboraTORiAH, engage someone educated in the traditions of Russian theatre, or someone whose path of development lay in the territory of contemporary art. The Torah and other sacred Hebrew texts became a means of communication for individuals of the most diverse consciousnesses and approaches, and laid the groundwork for the birth of an artistic community.
In keeping with LaboraTORiAH’s mission, participants were required to immerse themselves in the world of Jewish philosophy, and in the analysis of Jewish sacred texts. As such, one aspect of the group's activities was the Philosophical Seminar, where rabbis and specialists in the field of academic Judaica took part at various stages. While still in the early stages of its development, LaboraTORiAH received the blessing of Rabbi Meir Schlesinger, who subsequently was a regular participant in the group’s philosophical discussions.
The starting point for the philosophical seminar was the question: "Why do Jews need theatre if they have the Torah?" A year before LaboraTORiAH began, Anatoly Vasilyev rhetorically asked this question of Grigory Zeltser. As a result, for Boris Yukhananov and other participants of LaboraTORiAH, this question became the topic of practical, philosophical and artistic research into a new type of theatre built on the Jewish tradition.
In the Jewish way of life, where nearly every moment of existence is subject to one of the 613 commandments of the Torah and thousands of their Talmudic interpretations, is not the existence of humankind a game, a piece of theatre? And who, then, is the spectator of this game? Who is the author and director? The Creator who creates its rules? According to Exodus, the Creator, through Moses, gave the Torah to the Jews - a book that simultaneously describes both the narrative of Jewish and world history, and the law by which Jews should live. Does this mean that the Creator is the absolute and only author in a theatre that can be considered Jewish?
In fact, unlike many other religious systems, Judaism lacks a single dogmatic system of interpreting a sacred text. The Talmud, second only to the Tanakh among sacred Jewish books, is an intertextual collection of often contradictory interpretations of the Torah and its laws. A distinguishing feature of classical European texts - both dramatic and philosophical - is that a composition aspires to a finale. In this finale we discover an answer of some kind, a conclusion that is connected with the theme of the work. Jewish texts are arranged in the opposite way. Their main technique is that of escape, of avoiding a single utterance. This makes the texts of the Talmud and Torah, written thousands of years ago, kit and kin to the postmodern literary and philosophical experiments of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
The thinking of an individual participating in a Talmudic discussion is very close to the playful thinking of a modern intellectual. The only difference is that the Talmudist, in his reflections, seeks to engage the Creator as a certain locus of truth, and the source of our existence. But the Creator is fundamentally unknowable and infinite. All we can know about Him is encrypted in His text - the Torah. Therefore, our attempts to know Him are expressed precisely in the constant generation of new interpretations of this text. Throughout the centuries, Jewish sages have allowed themselves to compose stories that, as it were, supplement the Torah and reveal "hitherto unknown" aspects of the events described in it. These stories were called "Midrash," and their meaning might be instructive, absurd or even obscene.
Discussion of these topics within the framework of the Philosophical Seminar allowed anyone to see participants’ artistic work for LaboraTORiAH as an extension of the age-old Jewish tradition of Midrash, in this case, using theatrical means.
"For, when we meditate with the help of a beth-midrash, when we respond to the Sacred text, we seek in this reflection, and in a real response, to embrace all of its properties, but we do not seek to devalue it. When we respond with commentary, even if it is a nuance, at this moment we create nuances in relation to the Sacred text, and we know that these are nuances. One cannot embrace the unembraceable, but one can meet, and aspire to a meeting with fullness; this is the whole paradox of the Creator, who then appears inside of us." (Fragment of the play, LaboraTORiAH. Golem).
The founders of LaboraTORiAH were not the only artists in history who sought to unite theatre and the semantic sources of Judaism. Alongside the LaboraTORiAH project, Grigory Zeltser worked on the Jewish Book Houses publishing project, and the Joint – Half a Century of Jewish Theatre distribution group. For this project, Boris Entin edited a collection of plays that had never been translated into Russian from Yiddish. It included H. Leivick’s Golem and S. Ansky’s Dybbuk.
Both of these plays were not only based on world-famous Jewish legends, but in their structure and meanings were related to the Torah, the Tanakh, and various themes relevant to Jewish consciousness. As such, along with the sacred texts, they were offered to LaboraTORiAH participants for the creation of theatrical works.
The Diasporic Symphony and Heavenly Jerusalem
Images and meanings connected with the concept of "Diaspora" were included in the work along with other new materials. From the very beginning, the Diaspora in the Jewish tradition has meant the dispersion of Jews around the world following the destruction of the Third Temple. One usually speaks in this context about the loss of the Shekhinah – the dwelling place of the Creator on earth. The Shepherd's house was once a Temple, but now there is no Temple; God's presence has dissolved into the world and dissipated among the people. Everything that is created by people from the moment of dispersion bears the imprint of dissolution in the world, the imprint of the Diaspora.
The concept of "Diaspora" acquired a wider metaphorical meaning in the work of LaboraTORiAH. You may experience the signs of the "diasporic" in the existence of any urban dweller, in the chaotic world of the beginning of the second millennium, in art in general and in theatre, especially. The "diasporic" is sensed as a loss, as isolation from the source and, at the same time, as an openness, a readiness to perceive a multitude of influences and to develop them, seeing a reflection of this very source in any manifestation of life. The "diasporic" began to be used as a characteristic of LaboraTORiAH’s artistic style, wherein the variety of forms and utterances was combined with the unity of the intentions of the participants.
The first public display of the LaboraTORiAH project took place in the summer of 2005 at the Jewish Cultural Center on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street in Moscow. Presented to a narrow circle of spectators, the work was called The Diasporic Symphony, and it consisted of scenes based on fragments of the Torah and the Tanakh, as well as on the plays Golem and Dybbuk. Each scene was a complete, "rehearsed" work, however The Diasporic Symphony as a whole came together only during the actual performance. Boris Yukhananov took on the role of a "conductor," who on the spot determined the order of the appearance of scenes on stage. Completely different passages were often performed simultaneously and were forced to enter into dialogue with each other without losing their own structure and form.
By means of this structure, a second image appeared in the performance, along with the metaphor of the "Diaspora" – that of Heavenly Jerusalem. This was an image of the coming world, in which various creatures, phenomena, concepts, artistic styles and personalities would coexist peacefully according to the laws of the Torah. The space of theatre emerged as a territory in which anyone from the Diaspora could enter into a relationship with Heavenly Jerusalem and feel its presence in dialogue and coexistence on stage. How does the Diaspora see Heavenly Jerusalem? Does it reveal to us its beauty, or does our consciousness perceive it as something horrible, frightening, and disgusting that brings ruin upon the familiar "diasporic" order of things?
International Seminars and the LaboraTORiAH Movement
The mission of LaboraTORiAH always presupposed a dialogue with the Jewish world and Jewish culture. One of the consequences of the project was the development of approaches to theatre, which, on one hand, were rooted in sacred Jewish texts, and on the other, were not connected with the usual cultural traditions, i.e., were directed toward the future. LaboraTORiAH decided to expand its circle of participants in 2004 and invited Jewish theatres from all over the world to join in dialogue. Thus arose the International LaboraTORiAH Movement. Between 2004 and 2006, two international seminars were held in Moscow. Theatres and theatre makers from Israel, Austria, Poland, Great Britain and the U.S., as well as Rabbis Meir Schlesinger, Mordechai Vardi, Seymour Epstein, Menachem Froman, and Adin Steinsaltz, took part in the festival. The first seminar was devoted to the question "Why do Jews have theatre if they have the Torah?" The topic of the second was a very important one for Jewish consciousness, “The Mystery of the Brain and the Mystery of the Heart," which led to a dialogue about the rational tradition and mystical practices of Judaism. The third seminar was devoted to the theme "Faith and Art."
A quote from Rabbi Meir Schlesinger: “Is art an alternative to faith? Or does it feed faith? Or does it enrich the world of faith? Or are all our assumptions wrong, and do faith and art have neither a common source, nor a common goal? Are faith and art moving in one direction or in opposite directions? Or is their movement not connected in any way? Art serves the expression of the depths of the soul of humankind, while religion concerns the essence of each individual person. If so, then religion is still the main source of art, and sacred texts pave the way for its development. Perhaps with the help of art that grows out of faith, faith itself will find the opportunity for deeper and holistic self-expression.”
The seminars emerged from the LaboraTORiAH format, with rehearsals and theatre performances tying into philosophical discussions involving the participation of rabbis. For foreign participants of the movement, the seminars were the first experience of interacting with representatives of "official" Judaism in the territory of theatre. One of the results was the blurring of the line between philosophical discussion and performance, between spectator and participant, and even between prayer and performance.
LaboraTORiAH at the School of Dramatic Art on Povarskaya Street
LaboraTORiAH began its transition into an actual theatre project in the autumn of 2006. Boris Yukhananov is a former student of Anatoly Vasiliev. His method of a "new-mysterial theatre" had always existed in dialogue with the Vasilyev theatre school. In October 2005, the LaboraTORiAH project continued to unfold at Vasilyev’s School of Dramatic Art, in the Studio on Povarskaya Street. Within the walls of the Studio, the group began working on a future performance by means of intensive rehearsals. Moreover, the principle of the Three Circles survived, so that, aside from those who were engaged in rehearsals, individuals with interests in other aspects of the project were involved as well. Some filmed or photographed the process, some merely observed the experiment in the theatre space, while still others might engage in dialogue with rabbis on the themes of art and creativity.
The activities of the project participants at this time took place on three levels – the creative level, which involved rehearsals and work on the play; the process of creative exploration, which involved organizing the processes necessary for the development of the project; and the process of execution where participants applied the meanings and images associated with the project’s theme to their own lives. By the beginning of 2005, most participants were drawing these meanings from H. Leivick’s play, Golem.
LaboraTORiAH. Golem
H. Leivick’s play Golem was chosen as the central text for the participants of LaboraTORiAH because its topic was closely connected to the processes unfolding in the artistic commune. The play is based on the well-known legend of a clay creature created by a famous Jewish rabbi and Kabbalist to protect his community from enemies. Different versions of the legend put forth different names for the creator of the Golem, but Leivick’s posits the main hero as the Prague Rabbi Maharal. Jewish tradition knows two main interpretations of the legend of the Golem. One explores the idea of how the creation turned against its creator - in the finale of that legend Maharal is forced to destroy the Golem, returning it to its former lifeless state. However, it was another aspect of the legend that was most relevant for LaboraTORiAH:
"There is another strategy for working with legends – that is, raising it to the level of myth... With its Golem project, LaboraTORiAH took precisely this path. If you try immediately, under duress... to pinpoint this approach’s thematic stream, then one may resort as an initial outline to the following formulation: ‘true creativity as man’s creation of himself in collaboration with the Creator, in an attempt to assimilate the Creator.’ In this case, the Golem as blank, unformed material (this is the meaning of the original Hebrew word), is simultaneously a person in his embryonic state from the perspective of creative maturity, and (if we take into account theatre’s collective nature) the emerging community is a kind of creative organism, with the result of the creative act being the performance itself." (Uri Gershovich, from his article “The Seven Days of Creating Golem, or, the Torah of LaboraTORiAH").
The relationship between the Creator and Creation occupies a significant place in H. Leivick’s play. It is filled with the modernist anticipation of the regeneration of the world (the action takes place ostensibly in Prague), and of such characters as the Mashiah-Messiah, whose arrival in the Jewish tradition means the end of the world and the advent of Heavenly Jerusalem. In his play, Leivick equates the story of the creation of the Golem to the story of the relationship between the Supreme Being and the Universe. For LaboraTORiAH, the Golem text was the ideal material for researching such topics. The territory of the study emerged as the relationship between the Creator and Creation in a theatre space
LaboraTORiAH. Golem. The Vienna Rehearsal
In the spring of 2007, Warren Rosenzweig, a participant of the International LaboraTORiAH movement, hosted the Tikkun Olam festival of Jewish theatres in Vienna. The Moscow LaboraTORiAH was invited to take part. On March 18 and 19 performances of a piece called LaboraTORiAH. Golem. Open Process were held at one of the festival venues.
The basis for the performance was the work that participants in the Moscow LaboraTORiAH were doing with the Torah, the Tanakh and H. Leivick’s Golem. In this work various participants alternately played the role of Golem, his creator Maharal and other of the play’s protagonists. The performance assumed a structure open to improvisation and acquired its final form only in the process of performance in Vienna.
The central aspect of the performance were the improvisational "interventions" of a new character – the Megamaharal - whose role was assumed by Boris Yukhananov. Heuristic in nature, and resembling stand-up comedy in form, these interventions covered a broad thematic field. At the same time, the focal point of the action was the very act of creativity, the coming-into-being, the desperate attempt to be like the Creator while remaining free within the territory of theatre, an art form which, in the 20th century, had gained the reputation of being nearly the most totalitarian of all. It is in connection with this topic that one of the key metaphors in the "interventions" was the Exodus, a story told in the Torah about the movement of Jews from a slavish state in Egypt to a free state in a desert that was devoid of reference points.
Megamagaral: Where am I? I occupy territory in that world-wide dictatorship called directing. I am, in essence, a Pharaoh. I am Paro. It matters not whether I say something intelligent or stupid, for I am the figure of the maker of this spectacle, this one and only ruler of the soul, this ruler of artistic life in the theatre, this totalitarian ruler of our dreams... The boss, the pharaoh, the conductor, the trainer, the driver, the pilot, the coach – all of these totalitarian professions have multiplied all over the world. Meanwhile we keep thinking that we’re dealing with social or political matters... It seems a Pharaoh can arise even in the technology of performance. Pharaoh. A little Pharoah. Clip-snip. Clip-snip. So as not to curdle, Jews must do this little clip-snip according to the commandments. (Grabs himself by the trousers in the necessary place.) (Fragment of the play LaboraTORiAH. Golem).
Spectators looked on as the relationship unfolded between Megamagaral and the LaboraTORiAH participants, for whom his interventions into the action were something of a terrorist attack on the work they were doing . These experiences - living, and real - were also an artistic expression of the relationship between the Creator and the Creation.
The performance ended in an open discussion involving the audience. Most were amazed by the form of the spectacle that they had seen, and by its theme, the very mission of LaboraTORiAH. During the discussion, Boris Yukhananov continued to develop his character – Megamaharala – constantly transporting what was transpiring into the territory of artful performance, and constantly engaging all participants in dialogue.
LaboraTORiAH. Golem – The Play
The so-called "Viennese rehearsal" could have remained a one-off performance, but the artistic strategy of LaboraTORiAH dictated another outcome. After returning from Vienna, the participants set to work deciphering the video recordings of The Vienna Rehearsal. By the end of June 2007, they had at hand a new play called LaboraTORiAH. Golem.
The play was the full text of the transcription of events that took place in Vienna, including excerpts of dramatic works; the "intervention" of Megamaharal; commentary from spectators; and even occasional, tossed-off phrases. This method of creating the play text was an expression of an entirely innovative approach to the dramaturgical process. Unlike experiments with verbatim, which presuppose the recording and transcription of events from real life, and then their transformation into dramaturgical material, this was a matter of consciously producing a dramatic text in the very course of an onstage performance – that is, a "performance that writes the play for itself".
This method of creating dramatic material grew directly out of the central theme of the LaboraTORiAH project. The primary sacred text of the Jewish tradition - the Torah – also describes a certain story – the history of the Jewish people. At the same time, from the standpoint of Judaism, the text itself is more important than the history, and history itself is only required in order to bring forth the Torah. LaboraTORiAH managed to recreate and explore similar relationships between reality and text.
Moreover, the method of creating the play reflected themes involving the relationship between the Creator and Creation. Each participant of the performance and each of its spectators became a creator of the play text; that is, became a Creator. At the same time, the play did not have a single author, it was based on real events. Therefore, in a sense, it could be said that its true author was the Creator in the direct, biblical sense of the word.
LaboraTORiAH. Golem – The Theatre Serial
In the spring of 2007, LaboraTORiAH’s work continued on the premises of the School of Dramatic Art on Sretenka Street. The artistic group began rehearsing a performance based on the play LaboraTORiAH. Golem
The first three parts of the play were drawn from events that took place in Vienna. However, having been transformed into the text of a play, these events, in a sense, were liberated from their true source. The distribution of roles in the performance did not always coincide with the actual situation in Vienna. The role of Megamaharal, played by Boris Yukhananov during the performance in Vienna, was turned over to the young director and actor Nikolai Karakash. The simultaneous English translation of all that transpired on stage was also included in the performance. In Vienna, the translation was a technical necessity, but in the performance it was a part of the overall conception. It reflected a plurality of meanings and the impossibility of direct communication. The participants's performance remained improvisational, but by the time of the premiere, two days of the play had acquired several forms, including acrobatic rock'n'roll, which on stage was a physical reference to playful dialogue.
As such, the real events of Vienna were transformed into fictional dramatic material while remaining a reality for the participants in the process. For each of them, participation in the performance was not merely an artistic, but also a personal experience of translating one's own life into an artistic zone.
"Therefore, I say again, proceeding from those truths that overtook me in that very smoking room where I began, that is, in that part of my soul that I call a smoking room ... I say, proceeding from these truths, we are a community that resolved to make a special kind of offering to contemporary art - a special kind of performance drawn from one's own life. But this is by no means our life, it is the performance of our project. We have a project that comprises a new-mysterial process. It has been under development for over seven years, and just today I realized that we are now applying performance to it. We are seeking to make an installation of it in the form of a special kind of ‘processual’ performance.” (Fragment of LaboraTORiAH. Golem.)
Rehearsals raised a number of new questions for the LaboraTORiAH participants. The methodology of work on the project always reflected the project’s ideology. Therefore, the artistic strategy of the project could not be expected to bring about a traditional "production" based on a single dramatic analysis made by the authoritarian figure of the director. Although several members of the LaboraTORiAH artistic community were theatre artists of one kind or another, Golem was always a research project of a larger community. Most participants had no acting or directing experience. Rehearsals of the play were conducted with a conscious refusal to apply a single theatrical method to the material. Thus, the very need to conduct a collective dialogue in order to create a performance became a method in itself.
As such, the work of LaboraTORiAH also became an investigation of theatre’s timeless nature, liberated from modern methodological formats.
In the fall of 2007, LaboraTORiAH. Golem premiered in the Tau Hall of the School of Dramatic Art. The onstage performance, as well as the group that played it, emerged in some ways as a "golem" – a creation unknown to itself, yet experiencing the process of its own formation. This allowed for entirely new ways of doing research on the topic at hand.
The Theatre Serial and the “Studio of Play Transcription”
Performances of LaboraTORiAH. Golem ran in the repertoire of the School of Dramatic Art on Sretenka Street from 2007 to 2009. In the first months, this performance, based on notes made during the Vienna events, consisted of three acts and was performed over a two-day period. However, even during the open performances in the summer of 2007, the action on stage once again passed from the mere performance of an existing text to the realm of heuristic improvisational action. Boris Yukhananov again began applying one of his "intervention-implantations," while the performers, who were well accustomed to this kind of work, responded to him with their own improvisations, based on their own instincts, reacting to new dialogue in a real-time mode. Spectators were also often involved in the dialogue, which balanced on the verge of real and artistic.
Slava
Do you mind if I go? I kind of have…
A very strange sensation…Will no one be offended if I…
…if I leave.
…
Megamaharal
Okay, okay. What’s the deal? Are you not feeling well?
Slava
No, I’m fine! Everything’s great…
…
Megamaharal
Yeah. Umm… So, are you going to go?
Slava
Yeah, I’m ready. My stuff’s in my backpack. I packed it all. I’m going.
…
Slava
You know? a sensation, as if…
There’s some sort of d-i-s-t-a-n-c-e.
Megamaharal
…Yeah, yeah, yeah! …I’ll repeat that for the camera now. See, at that very moment I very clearly sensed, I’d even say, understood, that Slava and I… uh, to a certain extent, sensed that together. Because we suddenly took up that conversation. It was precisely through that that we sensed it together…
Tanya
…a voice of some kind… precisely like the voice of an angel…
Stepanishchev
Uh… yeah, yeah, yeah…
Tanya
…arose above us…
Megamaharal
Yes, yes. Then, whatever I was going to say after that, I already said it with this…
(STEPANISHCHEV and TANYA speak at the same time.)
Stepanishchev and Tanya
…angelic voice.
Megamaharal
Right. That is… You know, uh, Slava… precisely that sensation was experienced…
(TANYA very calmly finishes the phrase.)
Tanya
By Stanislavsky.
Stepanishchev
Yes! Stanislavsky had that very same sensation.
(Fragment from the play LaboraTORiAH. Golem)
Everything that happened was recorded on film and transcribed. As such, in two years, four more parts of the play were written, and they, in turn, became the four-day performance, each segment of which was called Transition Act, Ghost Act, Sukkot and Finale. LaboraTORiAH. Golem ceased to be a mere traditional performance and became a seven-day theatre serial. All of its parts were performed on the Tau Zal stage.
The plots of the new parts emerged from the documentation of the rehearsals. And each new part was devoted to the rehearsal of text that came into being in the previous parts. As such, the seven-day performance allowed any spectator to witness a living rehearsal process and the transformation of the performance under the influence of analysis, composition, the emergence of new meanings, and the flow of time and changes in the lives of the participants. In different parts the roles of the laboratory participants, including Yukhananov, were performed by different people. The series as a whole, in seven evenings" time, allowed one to witness the development of a project that, in reality, took several years.
In this way the series of performances became a statement about theatre and the people participating in the theatrical process. Nevertheless, the content of Yukhananov"s on-the-spot improvisations and his dialogues with the characters, as well as the impression made by the seven-day composition, concerned topics that went beyond a pure installation of the theatrical process.
The main aspects of the composition of the seven-volume play were the Exodus from Egypt and the onset of Heavenly Jerusalem. In the Jewish tradition, all of history is seen as a movement between these two points - from the end of slavery and the power of the Pharaoh, to the complete triumph of the infinite plan of Almighty God on earth. Many interpretations of Genesis, the seven days of creation, contain references to this progression.
The seven days and the parts of the play represent just such progression in the life of an artistic community and in the development of the performance itself. Given that the same texts are often the subject of rehearsals on different days, the viewer and reader of the play see how with the developing composition acquires new resonance as the play is constantly reborn on the way to the new language of Heavenly Jerusalem.
Megamaharal
There! Progression shall take place in mankind"s future!
In this sense the Heavenly Jerusalem has drawn quite close. In place of the Sun and Clouds that rose over the desert, the Heavenly Jerusalem rises up like that city did in Swift. As an image. There, in that sense it is drawing closer... it"s as if suddenly it were to appear here right now and to begin… shining. And in that sense the performance goes there, into the sphere of… a story. As though it progresses just a little bit from the past and the present into the future. This is a key moment. All of those parts we played out up until this moment in our little Heavenly Theatre – how do I say it here – all of these parts prepare it, they prepare it. They prepare it. They play with it. But in feelings and in atmosphere, it truly does draw near. Doing so in a new way in each scene. You get that? Right here that"s what"s happening.
Now. Here he goes: ...*uck, ...*uck, ...*uck, ...*uck – he heads down the road that must be traversed! How I fucked everybody! (dances) There!
It gets down to business. There"s a break here. See? According to the composition of the performance. Naturally, what did I just do? That"s precisely how we"ll begin. I"ll record that right now... I trust you understand that I"ve been recording this through the whole rehearsal! (Fragment from the play LaboraTORiAH. Golem).
The motor of this progression is the dialogue of the Creator and his Creation. This is present in all layers of the text – in the dialogues of the Prague Maharal with the clay Golem; in the director's dialogues with the theatrical collective; in the actors" dialogues with the spectators; and in the exchanges of the LaboraTORiAH participants among themselves. Internally conflicting, and both artificial and real at the same time, this is a dialogue in which positions change constantly, and everyone, including Yukhananov, is both the object and subject of creation. Each of them shapes what is happening, and is formed by the Creator.
[Translator's note: the following fragment contains word and sound play that does not work in English. It revolves around the words music (muzyka), language (yazyk), and prisoner (zek).]
Nika
Muuuu.
Grisha (To NIKA)
Sic..
Messenger
What about me??? Sic.
Nika
Sic.
Messenger
Music.
Nika
Muu.
Messenger
Language. Prisoner aaaaaa. Prisoner aaaaaa. I"m a prisoner aaaaaa. I"m a prisoner aaaaaa. Mu prisoner aaaaaaa.
Megamaharal
What Solomon felt when he built his Cathedral…
(NIKA jumps up, fakes grabbing the texts. GRISHA drops his text).
Messenger
Nika, do that again, please, sweetheart! Who are you? Who in the fuck are you?
Nika
Muuuuu.
Messenger
Sic.
Nika
Aaaaaaaaaa.
Messenger
And who am I?
Nika
Siiii.
Messenger
Ааааааааааа. Again!
Megamaharal
What Solomon felt when he built his Cathedral… Let"s try this…
(NIKA jumps up, grabs sheet music, holds hers before GRISHA.)
Megamaharal
Let"s try this…
Messenger
Nika! Sweetheart.
Nika
Over there…
Messenger
Toss the text first, then hold it!
Nika
Muuuu.
Messenger and Grisha
Sic.
Messenger
And I?
Grisha
Sic.
(Fragment from the play LaboraTORiAH. Golem).
The interchange of the two main elements, the Creator and Creation, is emphasized in the performance and the play by the presence of a series of characters, whose roles Yukhananov took upon himself during various rehearsal periods. Each of these characters – Megamaharal, Messenger, Driver, Mystagogue, and Editor – corresponds to the same character of the previous edition as does Creator with Creation. Each transforms the Creator or Maharal of the previous phase into Creation or Golem. In dealing with later redactions of the play, the reader encounters increasingly more temporal layers in the text, and encounters a larger number of characters on stage who represent the "Creator" on various levels.
Megamaharal
I say, “village”...
Messenger
Don"t be shy, you"re talking to people. Igor, you"re a good worker, a decent engineer. Talk to people. There"s a reason why we"re sitting here, feeding you karmically.
Megamaharal
Then it"s “village.” I"ll listen to who I want to.
Messenger
It"s okay, it"s okay.
Megamaharal
I"ll look wherever I want to.
Messenger
Only don"t withdraw into yourself. Publicly, do it publicly. Be public.
Megamaharal
There"s incompatibility here. But together – together something nice might happen.
Messenger
Wow, you are so shy.
Megamaharal
It"s in the text. But let"s get back to the scene.
Messenger
Let"s, let"s...
(Fragment from the play LaboraTORiAH. Golem).
In action, this creates an image of infinitely unfolding levels of heavenly gates that shed new light on those levels that have already been revealed. Ultimately, they all end up simultaneously in new territory – in the timeless world of Heavenly Jerusalem.
"Even if we repeat this in October, even if this is all written down and translated into the documentary mode of reflections, in which we exist, we cannot capture the "here and now" of real-life moments, the "here and now" of what is transpiring. This endeavor, this hunt for the "here and now"... No matter what, the "here and now" will still slip out from under the experienced, clinging hand of the hunter. It will still slip away: it is "here and now."
It will return, because it's "here and now"...
This elusive bird, a firebird, will return only when it is elevated to the level of a very high-quality text. Then a miracle can happen, and again, this "here and now" will return to the persistent hunter"s hand.
We will all sense together the trembling of the heartfelt presence of the golden yolk. Right here in my hand. Although I do not reflect a thing.
Because with you the "here and now" will begin to be created anew, and life will arise, the life of the human spirit merged with its own imagery."
Educational and Publishing projects of LaboraTORiAH
Despite intensive work within the territory of theatre, LaboraTORiAH remained an interdisciplinary project. The Philosophical Seminar continued to develop in rehearsals and parallel to them, ever delving into new layers of the Jewish tradition – from an existential understanding of the Creator as the Other in the works of Martin Buber, to the mystical foundations of the universe as described in the writings of Jewish Kabbalists. After 2007, the "Ptikh-Art" studies arose within the framework of the laboratory. This exploration led by Uri Gershovich, a specialist in academic Judaism, considered the Talmudic tradition as a performative experiment that influenced Jewish art and the development of other territories. This study made it possible to establish links between the rehearsal method of LaboraTORiAH and the way dialogues are structured in the Talmud.
From 2007 to 2009, the Melamedia Center of the Institute for the Study of Judaism and LaboraTORiAH conducted a joint project called “Community Directing as a Tool of Informal Jewish Education.” This was a two-year program in which graduates received thorough training in the study of Jewish sacred texts; mastered the basics of directing; and gained experience in auteur work in the field of a contemporary theatre grounded in the Jewish tradition.
The Laboratory in 2009 put together Book of Reflections, a collection of all the audience and critical reaction to performances of LaboraTORiAH. Golem that were published in traditional and social media in the year following the premiere. The book includes all texts, regardless of how their authors evaluated the performance. It was yet another way of presenting the endless dialogue of interpretations of theatre and the perception of a theatrical project.
In May 2017 the Stanislavsky Electrotheatre hosted a presentation of the seven-volume LaboraTORiAH. Golem, an edition containing the final versions of the seven parts of the play created during the project. The presentation was accompanied by an exhibition of designer Yury Kharikov"s costumes for LaboraTORiAH. Golem, as well as a screening of documentary films about the project by Alexander Belousov, Yevgeny Pokhis and Marina Maximik.
Text by Yelena Lyubarskaya
