Winner of the Meyerhold Theatre Center’s Blackbox Residency 2018/2019
Locker Room Talk is:
a) vulgar conversations not intended for prying ears; usually occur between same sex buddies and contain: vulgar jokes, profanity, homophobic and racist remarks, rhetoric of male dominance, body appreciation and dehumanization of women.
b) a play by Scottish playwright Gary McNair, who spoke on the record with men about the phenomenon of Locker Room Talk in offices, universities, gyms, and cabs and assembled a documentary catalog of sexist language in 14 chapters.
c) a theatre performance by the winners of the Meyerhold Theatre Center’s 2018 Blackbox residency, which connects the play’s male text to women’s* bodies, spurs the political imagination, and offers a space for feminist utopia. *We call women those who identify their gender as feminine and those whose bodies identify as female.
Collaborative work of Ada Mukhína (direction), Dasha Iuriichuk (choreography), Olga Tarakanova (dramaturgy) with the participation of Alisa Kibin (sound design)
Performers: Ada Mukhína/Ekaterina Abramova, Kolya Neukolln, Anastasia Kovalchuk, Alisa Kibin, Olga Tarakanova, Daria Iuriichik, Alexandra Dolgova/Viktoria Bryzgalova Based on the play by: Gary McNair Translation: Anna Zhovtis Editing: Alisa Kibin, Ada Mukhína Stage design: Sofa Skidan Costume design: Anastasia Kizilova (author’s Hexagone collection) Media design: Sofa Skidan, Olga Tarakanova Lighting: Elena Perelman
Premiered in June 4, 2019 at the NoName Festival in Moscow and presented in the repertoire of the Meyerhold Theatre Center till 2021. Winner of the Black Box Residency 2018. Long-listed among best production of the season 2018-2019 by Golden Mask Russian National Theatre Award. Invited to the special Golden Mask Plus Festival Program 2021. Invited to the Radar Ost Digital Festival 2020 at the Deutsches Theater Berlin as part of the performative lecture by Ada Mukhína and Olga Shilyaeva about feminist theatre in Russia.
Publications:
Russian Theatre in the Age of High Putinism: Politics and Aesthetics (ENG). Doctor dissertation by Alexander James Thomas, University of Oxford, 2021 (chapter on Document-Based Performance: ‘New Documentarism’).
Interview with Ada Mukhína, Olga Tarakanova and Daria Iuriichuk (RUS). Maskbook of the Russian National Theatre Festival Golden Mask. March 2020.
Locker Room Talk at the Meyerhold theatre centre. Gender issues in their best (RUS). Written by Maria Krasheninnikova-Khayt. Teatr-To-Go. November 2019.
What does it mean to be a man: Locker Room Talk at the Meyerhold theatre centre (RUS). Written by Kristina Matvienko. Teatr Journal. July 2019.