Imagine that you are sitting in an auditorium and watching a play about your own life. Is it incredible? But no - now there is such an opportunity …
This small basement in the center of Moscow least of all resembles a theater - there are no crystal chandeliers, no curtains, no decorations, no tickets (spectators usually put money for the pleasure in their hats - whoever cares). There are no posters either, and it cannot be, because the actors do not know in advance what they will play today. The main "playwrights" here are the audience themselves - each of them can tell their own story, and the artists will immediately transfer it to the stage. I also came here to tell about what happened to me a month ago.
In English, "playback" means "playback". Playback is at the intersection of theater and psychology. This story began in 1975 with the light hand of Jonathan Fox, who decided to "heal" people with the help of theatrical art. Not professional actors play on the stage. As a rule, these are psychologists with special training. But, in principle, any person can get into the playback troupe if he feels such a potential in himself.
Miracles of improvisation
Fantasy: you are the main character of the play! A performance based on your own life. You also choose the actors for the role: you appoint someone with whom you felt something in common. Someone - their husband, mother, sister, friend, foe, work colleague, mysterious stranger …
And then a few people - the playback of the actors - without saying a word, without any rehearsals, begin to create a little miracle for you. They play your story in a way you haven't seen it before. They show her from a side from which you never even thought to look at her. They open up a new meaning of what happened to you. And the audience, holding their breath, look at the stage and empathize with you with all their soul …
Spectator stories are different: long and short, funny and sad … People share what is happening to them now, remember situations from childhood, some funny episodes and even tell dreams. Someone decides to tell the sore ones, someone wants to get an answer to a long-tormented question, and someone just wants to laugh in good company.
Promotional video:
At first, the audience is a little shy - not everyone is ready to bring their problems to the public, to bare their souls. And therefore, they start with everyday, everyday stories.
Story 1: "How I Was Disappointed in People"
The young guy pulls his hand first. He says that he recently forgot a bag with documents and a small amount of money on the tram. He was found by a woman - a conductor and returned the loss. But if all the documents were in place, then there was no money in the wallet. “Yes, there was only one thousand … You must understand, I don’t mind the money, it’s not the point. It's just unpleasant. I would have returned everything as it is, I would have thanked her anyway …”- the young man laments. “In general, I am disappointed in people” - he sums up and looks inquiringly at the stage.
An overcrowded tram immediately appears before the eyes of the amazed spectators. At the stop, a young man enters it and immediately goes to the fussy "conductor". He puts his arms around the woman's waist and in an insinuating voice asks:
- Dear, remember, you saved a child a year ago?
- Yes … and what?
- And the fact that the boy was wearing a cap. Do you know where she is?
Here, distributing an explosion of laughter, the guy, disappointed in people, laughs along with the others. The atmosphere relaxes, the audience relaxes and becomes more outspoken.
Story 2: "Take the reins into your own hands …"
A woman of about forty rises next. “After my husband left me, I constantly have the same dream,” she says excitedly, “there is a horse-drawn carriage at the crossroads. And for some reason the coachman is not in it - only I am sitting in the passenger seat. Suddenly the horses break free and rush along the crowded street wherever they look - passers-by only have time to dodge. It seems a little more, and trouble will happen. And I am so scared that I close my eyes and … I immediately wake up …"
A few seconds later, the actors take us to a noisy street along which an uncontrollable cart with a woman on board is racing. The "passenger", anticipating a catastrophe, wringing her hands in panic and closing her eyes in horror. And then one of the horses (actor Pasha) suddenly speaks to her in a human voice: "It's good to panic, take the reins in your hands!"
The miniature is completed, everyone turns to the main character of the mini-performance. The woman is crying. “It’s so,” she says, mastering her emotions. “After my husband left, I feel completely disoriented. He used to decide everything, he ruled my life. And now it's time to learn to live on your own. Correctly the horse said, we must "take the reins into our own hands." And come what may!"
Story 3: "Sorry, Dad …"
Having emboldened, I finally decide to tell about myself. “This summer I saw my father for the first time,” I begin in a trembling voice. - Mom told me almost nothing about him, she said only his name and surname. And I took it and found it on social networks. It turned out that he lives in the Czech Republic, he has a family, two children. We started to correspond. And then he invited me to visit, to Prague. I flew there as if on wings! And when I arrived, I looked at their family … Perhaps all these people are wonderful, but … completely alien to me. And they didn't seem to do anything bad to me, but I felt absolutely superfluous in this house. It seems like everyone is smiling at me, but I want to run away from there without looking back. Once I even ran away. She said that I would go for a walk for half an hour, and she herself wandered around the city all night, just returned in the morning. Everyone, of course, was in a panic - they did not sleep, they were worried … In general,I gave them a rustle. I think when I flew to Moscow, everyone breathed a sigh of relief."
And again, magicians - the actors create a small masterpiece. Very strong emotions boil on the stage. I, offended by my father, and at the same time to the whole world, wandering lonely through a strange night city - they are mine. The man rushing about in search of his newly-born daughter has others. At his wife, perplexedly looking into the darkness of the window and asking herself only one question: "What did I do wrong?" - the third. Two boys, who, of course, do not sleep either and wonder where this Moscow guest, their sister, has gone? - the fourth. And all are good people, all are right in their own way, everyone can be understood. "Everyone can be understood …" - I suddenly say out loud.
And from the hall already stretches a whole forest of hands. There was no trace of the audience's initial uncertainty. Immersed in the magical atmosphere of a playback, everyone wants their story to become a work of art. A performance, looking at which someone will laugh, someone will cry. And the main character himself, looking at himself from the side, will understand something very, very important about himself.
PS Having come home, I wrote a letter to my father and asked for forgiveness.
Elena Grigorieva, student