DUMB CUCKOO. To 7 October.

London.

DUMB CUCKOO
by Zulfat Khakim.

Riverside Studios (Studio 2) To 7 October 2006.
Runs 2hr 50min One interval.
Review: Timothy Ramsden 7 October.

Brief visit by a national treasure.
Three shows in under a week at Riverside from the Tatarstan Republic’s Galiasgar Kamal State Academic Theatre. A muslim land within the former Soviet Empire, the country’s first professional theatre company opened in 1906, taking the name of Galiasgar Kamal, the first dramatist to write in Tatar, in 1939. It survived the Stalin era by cloaking its Tatar language and identity.

Both are vital today, certainly in Zulfat Khakim’s play’s. It’s central, intensely moving scene shows 2 soldiers, Zarif and Ziatdin, meeting on opposite sides in World War II. Ziatdin, “a Tatar living in Finland” has Soviet army Zarif at riflepoint in the forest, but the other man’s singing a Tatar folksong and, slowly, tensely, music breaks the barriers between the enemies as both reach towards their Tatar identity. The scene, with scorching, slow-fused intensity, gives immediacy to the men’s relationship, played with quiet authority and superb singing by Oleg Fazyldjan and Ramil Tukhvatoullin.

It’s key to what follows, and to the modern-day opening, where a young policeman calls on indifferent, serially-burgled old Zarif in his forest log-cabin, something eventually relating to the main story. Designer Sergei Skomorokhov creates a sense of home in this skeletal cabin, which is pulled apart as young Zarif leaves his sweetheart to join the army. (Her present of a knife is another motif recurring at key points.)

At each reappearance old Zarif becomes more human, less from his actions than the context and history that build around him. Young Zarif’s not idealised and can be moody, but his awareness of national identity steadily grows, refracting across the years.

This company’s playing is uniformly excellent (though listening via a half-audible translation pumped into an earpiece is hardly the best way of judging). Farit Bikchantaev’s production matches quiet stillness (how unassuming the changes between old and young Zarif seem) with a theatricality recalling the Maly’s Lev Dodin: unashamed use of poundingly emotional music and soldiers sliding down a suddenly-snow-covered slope into action.

It’s easy to believe this lived-in story has spent 2 years in the repertoire. Its few days in London is all too brief.

Galiasgar Kamal Theatre’s Riverside season ends with the folkloric Iron Pea, filled with dance and song, at 3pm on Sunday 8 October.

Zarif Zainoullin: Azgar Shakir.
Young Zarif: Oleg Fazyldjan.
Fedor Zimin: Nail Dounaev.
Young Zimin/Zimin’s Grandson: Iskandar Khairoullin.
Ziatdin/Khamit: Ramil Tukhvatoullin.
Kashifa/Nasima: Guzel Shakirova.
Anatoly Lebedev: Airat Arslan.
Ivan Shatalov: Nikolay Yukachev.
Aslan Rassoukhanov: Radik Bariev.
Mikhail Sevrougin: Ildous Gabdrakhman.
Sergei Yakhno: Ramil Vadjiev.
Correspondent: Mariam Yusupova.
Cameraman: Gazinour Timergaliev.

Director: Farit Bikchanyaev.
Designer: Sergei Skomorokhov.
Lighting: Sofia Gracheva.
Music: Rim Khasanov.
Vocal tutor: Marat Yakhyaev.
Costume assistant: Vladislav Kouranov.

2006-10-08 12:05:31