Moscoviáda

Moscow, early 90s. The Ukrainian poet Otto von F. wakes up with a hangover in the dormitory of the Gorky Literary Institute. There, in a cramped space, the poetic hopes of the Soviet provinces live on. The empire is crumbling, the mood is tense, vodka is in short supply. Fighting against his condition, Otto makes his way through the capital of the crumbling empire, ending up in a dive bar, his angry lover’s apartment and the “Children’s World” department store. Here he falls under the control of secret service agents who are breeding an army of rats in the catacombs beneath the Kremlin. In this “underworld”, the eminences of the Russian superpower reside, their fantasies take on a gruesome form and Ukraine is celebrated as primordial Russian territory.

“The empire flirted with the idea of freedom, revival and survival. But when the old whore of an empire shed her original skin, it turned out she had nothing else to wear.”
(Juri Andruchowytsch, Moscoviáda)

Juri Andruchowytsch is one of Ukraine’s most important contemporary writers, poets and essayists. In his famous and internationally successful novel “Moscoviáda” (1993), which has been translated into many languages, he sketches the dissolution of the Soviet empire in a carnivalesque tableau, but also how the pipe dream of an eternal Russian superpower lives on. In the current geopolitical and military situation, the text is both visionary and frightening. Director Dušan David Pařízek transformed the “horror novel” into a stage version that premiered in Prague in December 2022. The production was nominated for the Theatre Critics’ Prize, and actor Martin Pechlát won the Thalia Prize and the Divadelnínoviny Prize for his role.

The Divadlo X10 (Theatre X10) collective from Prague is an open platform for contemporary theatre, working not only with existing dramatic texts but also initiating the development of new plays. Director Dušan David Pařízek has received numerous awards for his work and has attracted attention beyond the borders of the Czech Republic with world and Czech premieres of plays by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Heiner Müller, Elfriede Jelinek, Peter Handke and Thomas Bernhard. He has also adapted works by Franz Kafka, Robert Musil and Jaroslav Hašek for the stage. Since 2002, Pařízek has regularly directed in German-speaking countries, including Schauspiel Köln, Deutsches Theater Berlin, Salzburg Festival, Schauspielhaus Zürich, Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, Vienna’s Burgtheater and Schauspielhaus Bochum. His productions have been invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen and have received numerous awards at home and abroad, including the Czech Theatre Critics’ Prize and the Nestroy for Best Performance and Best Director, as well as being voted one of the top productions in the “Theater heute” critics’ poll.

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The press says:

“Dušan D. Pařízek has transformed Andruchowicz’s novel ‘Moscoviáda’ into a minimalist, allegorical production that pays tribute to the great novel”. (advojka.cz)

“The suada of ‘Moscoviáda’ is as effortless as it is breathless: every joke is outdone in the next moment. This is the story of court jesters and fairground performers. With grotesque mockery of the empire, Andruchowicz keeps his grief over the indescribable state of his colonised homeland at bay”. (Deutschlandfunk Kultur)

“In a kind of shock collage, a moral portrait of a deeply brutalised, vulgarised society emerges. (republik.ch)

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