People and Puppets and Puppet-People in the Play Uncle’s Dream by the Irkutsk Puppet Theatre “Aistenok”

Abstract

The review examines the performance of the Irkutsk puppet theatre “Aistenok” Uncle’s Dream, staged on the occasion of the writer’s 200th anniversary. The author analyzes the expressive means that allowed the director and actors to examine in depth Dostoevsky’s idea, vividly and remarkably represent the characters, offer an original interpretation that does not destroy the author’s concept, leveraging the dramatic intentions implied in the novella, thanks to the synthesis of acting and puppet theatre. The puppet materializes and visualizes a person’s vices, masks, secret aspirations, and desires. The possibilities to express these elements that the puppet gives to the artist are indeed limitless. Therefore, the object of the stage performance is not the plot nor single characters, but Dostoevsky’s philosophy of life. The performance by the Irkutsk puppet theatre incorporates the experience of theatre during 20th and 21st centuries, modernist and postmodernist trends, transforming the puppet show into a truly theatrical action with deep philosophical content. This innovative reading became possible exclusively thanks to the synthetic actor-puppet nature of the performance.

Keywords

• fyodor dostoevsky
• uncle’s dream
• puppet theater
• synthetic performance