Театральная компания ЗМ
by Ivan Vyrypaev

JULY

"Praktika" Theatre and "Oxygen" movement, Moscow

Ivan Vyrypaev has written a monologue by an elderly man, a sadistic murderer who stabbed his neighbour, beheaded a bum under a bridge, dismembered a priest who gave him refuge and then devoured a nurse in hospital, eating her in the name of love. But the show is performed by a woman – Polina Agureyeva. A text that can easily be mistaken for a shocking cry of despair is presented as a contemporary epic at Praktika Theatre. Sometimes they say that when an actress puts her life into a role, she lets the text pass through. Polina Agureyeva lets the text flow through her. Sometimes she literally gets blood out of a stone, slides smoothly through the space between words; sometimes she forces her way through the their thickness. Sometimes she revels in the air of literature, almost burning herself in its fervent flow. It is a rare example of modern prose (you cannot say that July is a play in the literal sense of the word) put onto the stage, when theatre, armed with spoken language, does not squeeze the plot out of it. Instead it reveals a flowing text, which is not progressing, but cyclic.




Vyrypayev talks to God and to humankind with absolutely no restraint. He deals directly with eternity, paying little attention to the here-and-now…
Turning words into rhythm, physiology into pure feeling, obscene language into poetry – this is what July is about. This is what Grenouille’s perfume might have smelled like.
Marina Davydova, Izvestiya




Polina Agureyeva allows the text to flow through her. Sometimes she literally gets blood out of a stone, slides smoothly through the space between words; sometimes she forces her way through the their thickness. Sometimes she revels in the air of literature almost burning herself in its fervent flow.
Roman Dolzhansky, Kommersant




Realizing the futility of the search for God, for good as an alternative for evil, Ivan Vyrypayev truly seeks for beauty that still can be found on earth. The beauty that knows nothing of good or evil, of moral or philosophy.

Beauty of the woman.

Beauty of the body.

Beauty of the text.

Beaty of the theatre.

July is beautiful.

Pavel Rudnev, Vzglyad




Vyrypayev created a text that explores the intricacies of one man's shattered psyche. He draws no conclusions and makes no value judgments.

The words tumble out of Agureyeva’s mouth at breakneck speed. Vyrypayev's text is poetic in form and spirit, in te sense that it skips over logical connections and explanations. It delivers emotional and imagistic bursts that affect us less by what they say than for how they sound and how they are said.
John Freedman, Moscow Times




TRAVELLING COMPANY
6


PERFORMANCE SPACE
5 m x 5 m

Height - 4 m

FOR AUDIENCE OF
100-350


FRIGHT
50 kg


GETTING IN
One day before the performance