Postcard from Bishkek

When I was at school I got promoted – out of the Second Set for English into the Top Set.  I suppose I should have been proud … but it had it’s drawbacks.

Apart from having to get used to a different teacher, not a minor issue in the lead up to the all important O-Level examinations, (yes, I am that old … O-Levels, not GCSE), it also made a difference in the works of literature that I studies.  Whilst the friends I left behind in Set 2 got to grapple with the meaty topics in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, we in the Top set had to wrap our minds round his As you like it.

There’s a bit of a difference between the two and, to be honest, I think I would have preferred the shorter Macbeth, with its drama and action … even with the drawn out soliloquies.  The only things that really remain with me from As You Like It are: the debate over why the bard would have so many of his heroines dress up as men, (it was explained to us that this ruse was often employed because the roles were all played by “boys” – that is, young men – as there were no actresses treading the boards in those days); the strains of the lute music accompanying the songs – none of which would have made much of an impact on the Top 10 and certainly not on us teenagers who bought the records that did make one … and the brilliant All the World’s a stage speech by Jacques  describing the seven ages of man: infant, the schoolboy, lover, soldier, justice, the pantaloon – losing his firmness and assertiveness and shrinking in both stature and personality and becoming the butt of others’ jokes and finally in old age – facing imminent death – as senility sets in, becoming dependent once more on others:

All the world’s a stage, 
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

I know that I remember the Theater trip to watch a performance of “the Scottish play” far more vividly, (even after all these years and the fact that I knew nothing about the play as I too my place in the stalls), than the trip to see the “Men in Tights” gallivanting in the Forest of Arden.

 

It may well be that “all the world’s a stage” … and it’s also true that there’s a universal fascination with performing, play acting, exploring and expressing not just the “seven ages of man” but a whole gambit of experiences and emotions, attitudes and cultures.  At one level, performances can be seen simply as telling a story.  In other ways, however, it can be a catalyst, raising issues and ideas, set in situations which can be either everyday, familiar and mundane or perhaps new and unfamiliar – encouraging, challenging and provoking the exploration of alternatives ways of understanding the human condition.

For example, in his message for World Theater Day, the South African poet and playwright, Brett Bailey, addresses the issue of Diversity – and the role that Theater can play in clearing a space in people’s hearts and minds, to inspire them, enchant them, inform them and in doing so, help “to create a world of hope and openhearted collaboration”.

 

World Theater Day has been around since 1961, when the first such even was initiated by the International Theater Institute, (ITI), at their Helsinki Conference and is celebrated every year on 27th March.

ITI is a voluntary body, a non-governmental organization, and was established in 1948 to further the development of and cooperation in the performing arts, under an initiative of UNESCO – with whom it works on a number of projects.

Special events are organized throughout the world to commemorate the day and each year, a figure of “world stature” is invited to pen the International Message for the world community … well, almost every year – there was one year when the message was Anonymous, and three years when separate messages were issued by each member country.  Although they are meant to be people people of “world stature”, I have to admit that have only heard of a few of them, (such as Jean Cocteau who  wrote the first one in 1962, and Henry Miller then next year, Laurence Olivier and Richard Burton, Eugene Ionescu  and Peter Brook, Vaclav Havel and John Malkovich … that’s eight out of thirty nine).  

 

Here in Kyrgyzstan for example,

• In the Kyrgyz National Opera and Ballet Theatre named after A. Maldybaev there will be a performance of Ukrainian dance and Nightingale featuring soloists from company;
• The Kyrgyz Osh Regional Drama Theater named after S. Ibraimova present an excerpt from the play by B. Zhakieva, Zhorulochu zhoruk orrutpayt and a performance by the popular artist S.Karimovoy.
• The Kyrgyz State Puppet Theatre named after M. Zhangazieva will show scenes from various performances, with songs performed by F. Sultanovoy and a performance of Upchubek menen Bubutay.
• The Uchur Theater will present the play Kyyamat with Baktygulov Assanova.
• The Djalal-Abad Oblast Drama Theatre named after Barpy will show a performance of Menin suygonum bar and with a programme of performances by various entertainers.
• The Bishkek State Drama Theatre named after S.Umuralieva will present a new concert program called Club for whom … 
• The State National Russian Drama Theatre named after Aitmatov will offer a programme including an excerpt from the play King Lear.
• The Kyrgyz State Circus circus offer a programme, Archer, featuring Chynara Madikumkulova, a finalist of the Kyrgyzstan – my talents contest and a participant in the Minute of Fame in Kiev – and Playing with Komuz  performed by Kayran Tilek.
• The Osh Pegional Puppet Show will present performances and excerpts from various children’s books.
• The Issyk-Kul Regional Kyrgyz Music and Drama Theatre named after K. Zhantosheva will show an excerpt from the play by Sadykov Olup tirilgender.
• The Kyrgyz National Drama Theatre named after T. Abdumomunov will deliver a performance of Jean Azyk and Kaygyluu Kakei.
• The Kyrgyz State Theater of Young Spectators named after B. Kydykeevoy will host a performance of S. Ahmad’s  Kelinder kozgolonu.

According to AkiPress … admission to all these events is free.

 

For the record: Here is Brett Bailey’s Message taken from the official World Theater Day website:

Wherever there is human society, the irrepressible Spirit of Performance manifests.

Under trees in tiny villages, and on high tech stages in global metropolis; in school halls and in fields and in temples; in slums, in urban plazas, community centres and inner-city basements, people are drawn together to commune in the ephemeral theatrical worlds that we create to express our human complexity, our diversity, our vulnerability, in living flesh, and breath, and voice.

We gather to weep and to remember; to laugh and to contemplate; to learn and to affirm and to imagine. To wonder at technical dexterity, and to incarnate gods. To catch our collective breath at our capacity for beauty and compassion and monstrosity. We come to be energized, and to be empowered. To celebrate the wealth of our various cultures, and to dissolve the boundaries that divide us.

Wherever there is human society, the irrepressible Spirit of Performance manifests. Born of community, it wears the masks and the costumes of our varied traditions. It harnesses our languages and rhythms and gestures, and clears a space in our midst.

And we, the artists that work with this ancient spirit, feel compelled to channel it through our hearts, our ideas and our bodies to reveal our realities in all their mundanity and glittering mystery.

But, in this era in which so many millions are struggling to survive, are suffering under oppressive regimes and predatory capitalism, are fleeing conflict and hardship; in which our privacy is invaded by secret services and our words are censored by intrusive governments; in which forests are being annihilated, species exterminated, and oceans poisoned: what do we feel compelled to reveal?

In this world of unequal power, in which various hegemonic orders try to convince us that one nation, one race, one gender, one sexual preference, one religion, one ideology, one cultural framework is superior to all others, is it really defensible to insist that the arts should be unshackled from social agendas?

Are we, the artists of arenas and stages, conforming to the sanitized demands of the market, or seizing the power that we have: to clear a space in the hearts and minds of society, to gather people around us, to inspire, enchant and inform, and to create a world of hope and open-hearted collaboration?

 

 

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