…Just a human being, the voice and space; no background music, no special effects. The performer who has just recently played in the GITIS student productions, languidly purrs Block’s iambic pentameters smoothly transiting from the intonations of Beth Gibbons to howling in the manner of rustic mourners. The barefoot actress shifts from one foot to another on the high-mounted scaffolding - either dancing or obeying a mysterious ritual. There are high mirrors everywhere reflecting symmetrical, constantly changing corridors of the scattered light. According to the logic of the play not lacking in eschatological notes these mirrors are something like windows that light up the scene with the sunset or the dawn glow, that can symbolize our country. The deliberate intimacy, with which Ksenia Orlova sings one verse after another, dropping the phrases and rolling up her eyes, attracts the audience’s attention like a magnet; and not so much to herself as to the text, the word, the rhythm, to the very Logos.
It seems that in this way the history of our motherland from the middle of the XIX century to the October Revolution, its fateful turn, is rolled out. There once was a promising poet, looking like Byron, the hero of the coming changes. While the ladies discuss his demonic nature and the gentlemen look at him with distrust, the poet turns into Kharms miracle worker who has not committed a single miracle. Meanwhile, the full of hope Russia puts on a wedding dress to meet dear-devil “Van’kas” with rifles. But still, of course, nothing is as simple as that.
Block’s «Retaliation 12» is “Dehumanization of Art" by Ortega y Gasset but in a verse form. Considering the structure and logic, it gives the same verdict to the epoch as "Razin" by Khlebnikov, or rather, it represents its symmetrical reflection. If Khlebnikov’s verdict took the form of an avant-garde ode, a "curse" of the new era in which the palindrome enters into dialogue with the arithmetic situation where gods, animals, birds and people are mixed up, Block’s verdict is in the pentameter’s totalitarianism, the size of the mechanical strength and confidence, illustrating the death of the mankind. Klim changes places of Bloсk’s prologue and epilogue and finishes the play with the poem “The Twelve” which was written immediately after the October Revolution (where, in fact, the abovementioned Van’kas come from) sung in the thieves’ slang manner. The pentameter bursts into Gypsy orgiastic couplets showing the twelve men on the beat sedately stepping forward where "in a white crown of roses - ahead is Jesus Christ." At that very moment the actress being in an almost trance-like condition wraps the giant overcoat around her.
“Afisha. Air”
Klim’s «Retaliation» is an impressive sample of ministry to theatre and at the same time a great theatre work, and in the case of the performer Ksenia Orlova even a sample of theatrical feat.
The actress recites Block’s poems during almost 5 hours in a row — on the empty stage, without any musical or stage effects support, alone with Alexander Blok’s text. The word “recite” in this case may be misleading but at least matches the mesmerizing melodic recitals in which Blok s poetry exists first as indivisible substance, being born out of nowhere – either from the depths of the actor’s subconsciousness, or, to cite another Russian poet, from the heights of "supramundane wool".
It is neither singing, nor shamanistic ritual, nor rejoicing. Ksenia Orlova masterly dematerializes words, then embodies them, then dematerializes again ...
«Colta.ru»
Klim’s «Retaliation 12» based on Block’s poems is played by Ksenia Orlova. The performance is given in the deserted, as if frozen Theatre on Begovaya and it takes as long as four and a half hours. It is that sort of performance before which it is difficult to wish “enjoy the show”. Viewing will be exhausting and uncomfortable. During the first two hours the actress tames the sound, humanizes the space, «puts heat» in the empty box with reverberation amplified by microphones and reflections enhanced with the system of mirrors.
Set to one musical phrase, the long poem “Retaliation” sounds monotonously, almost in one register. At the moment when the time disappears and you no longer care about how long the performance will last, the poem “The Twelve” crashes into the action and the actress reveals all her potential for which “Retaliation” was only the preparation.
The body and mind merge; the verse finds its music, the source of which, so to speak, is the whole body of the actress. The rhythmic disordance of the Block’s verse performed by Ksenia Orlova acquires a strange harmony as if all lives and voices were put into one body that can hear the music of revolution. The actress reaches the highest level of concentration and luminescence, her voice gains the bell power that makes one seriously feel that the embodiment of the person leading “The Twelve” will happen soon. It is not a performance that sounds Christian, it is the performance of the Christian purity. And in the interpretation given by Klim and Orlova Jesus Christ is not Vergil of revolution, but the guardian angel of the whole history of mankind. This history surely contains retaliation and war, separation and division which are a natural part of the discontinuous nature of man. But Block’s lyrics sounds minimalist and rarely varies, so the main question is whether you can hear the musical logic, the logic of historical waves and the rhythm of life that is not dependent either on me or on you.
Everything is all right; the world is watched over, or "there's an Ocean" as Block said once. I think the performance is about this. It is charmingly beautiful from the moment when you are able to win time in you. I do not know who else is capable of such magic in the theater today. The rhythmic disordance of the Block’s verse performed by Ksenia Orlova acquires a strange harmony as if all lives and voices were put into one body that can hear the music of revolution. The actress reaches the highest level of concentration and luminescence, her voice gains the bell power that no joke makes one feel that the embodiment of the person leading “The Twelve” will happen soon. It is not a performance that sounds Christian, it is the performance of the Christian purity. And in the interpretation given by Klim and Orlova Jesus Christ is not Vergil of revolution, but the guardian angel of the whole history of mankind. This history surely contains retaliation and war, separation and division which are a natural part of the discontinuous nature of man. However, Block’s lyrics sounds minimalist and rarely varies, then the main question is whether you can hear the musical logic, the logic of historical waves and the rhythm of life that is not dependent either on me or on you.
Everything is all right; the world is watched over, or "there's an Ocean" as once Block said. I think the performance is about this. It is charmingly beautiful from the moment when you are able to fight time in you. I do not know who else is capable of such magic in the theatre today.
Pavel Rudnev
