DRAGON — Gamayun Theatre

THE PROJECT

A timely and powerful Russian classic translated and reimagined for the audiences in modern Britain with movement and dance pieces.

Devised and performed by an international ensemble, cross-cultural bridge building is at the heart of this project. DRAGON offers a rare opportunity to engage theatre-goers who are as-yet unfamiliar with Russian culture and literature, as well as those from Eastern European cultures who rarely see their stories brought to life.

This project, regardless of its origins and time, delivers a story, relevant to all.

Using a blend of folk cultures of Eastern and Western Europe, DRAGON creates a powerful fairy-tale atmosphere, both nostalgic and fascinating, through its costume design, movement and dance pieces to reflect the universality of our story.

Our production is aimed at a broad range of audiences, who enjoy traditional theatre, satire, contemporary dance and movement, and creative storytelling. We expect to attract audiences interested in political theatre, Eastern European culture, Russian-speaking diaspora.

We recommend age guidance to be 12 years and older.

WHAT OUR AUDIENCE SAYS:

«...Great story and unbelievably well acted»

«Absolutely fantastic play in intomart setting»

«...Sometimes it felt as if you were in the middle of political satire cartoon»

THE PLAY

Dragon was written in 1942-1944 by Eugene Shwartz, a Soviet playwright, after evacuation from Leningrad into Tashkent. It tells a story of Lancelot, a travelling hero, who comes across a small town, tyrannised by a dragon. He offers the townsfolk to kill the dragon for them, but to his surprise, the people demand that he mind his own business and leave them alone, for they’re quite happy with the arrangements they have with their dragon, in fact, they say, the only way to protect yourself from a dragon is to have one yourself. Nevertheless, Lancelot engages in a battle with the dragon and eventually kills him at a great cost to himself. However, a year passes, and the town has a new dragon on the throne, calling himself “President of the free people”, and nothing at all has changed.

Written in a time of great hardship, not only due to the Second World War, but also the terrifying reality of Soviet oppression, this play is surprisingly full of love towards humanity. The story poses tough questions, confronts the worst qualities of people, yet it ends with hope that eventually all dragons inside men will be slain.

First staged in 1944, the play was censored immediately after the first performance, until it was revived in 1962 only to be censored again a month into its run. It was not allowed further until 1988, when finally, it was permitted a full run in Soviet Russia.

THE AUTHOR

Eugene Shwartz (1896-1958) was a Soviet writer and playwright, known for his unique, fairy-tale style of writing, retelling of western folklore plots, including Hans Christian Andersen’s Snow Queen and The Emperor’s New Clothes, and his incredible use of allegory for telling stories relevant to the modern world. His works include 25 plays, and screenplays for 3 films. He is most known for his satirical play Dragon, and his romantic and philosophical parable play on love The Ordinary Miracle.

THEMES

Echoing the questions of the 20th century on how humanity can allow murderous tyrants to take control, this story goes beyond mere comparison of the Dragon to Stalin or Hitler, but instead sets up a more fundamental theme: is it possible, upon seeing the worst ugliest sides of humanity, to keep on believing it is worth saving.

Another important theme in the show is the importance of love. Many believe they are saving humanity, but not all of them are doing it out of love. The Dragon detests humans, and although he does some questionable good deeds for them, he only tries to keep them docile and subservient. The Burgomaster, who pretends to be mentally insane most of the time, hates everyone but himself, and fears the whole town which he governs, even his own son. Neither of these men can change the world for the better.

Our Cast

Lancelot - Adam Trussell

Dragon - Christopher Birks

Elsa - Josefin Tonnessen

Charlemagne - Leslie Davidoff

Burgomaster - Lucas Sokolowski

Heinrich - Joseph Emms

Cat/Holy Fool - Cameron Chalmers

Gardener/Luthier - Nina Atesh

Mueller/Weaver - Sarah Parkins

Friedrichsen/Hatter - Stephanie Wickmere

CREATIVE TEAM

Asya Sosis – director and producer of DRAGON. Her previous works include Cockroaches (2016-2018), an adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov’s play “Flight”, about the hardships of finding your true home in a war-torn country; and The Crucible directed in English for Kyiv National Academic Young Theatre (Molodyy Theatre) (2018-ongoing).

Maria Miasnikova – choreographer.

Maria Miasnikova studied various dancing styles (modern, classical, folk) in the national modern dance ensemble, she also finished a "Directing of the classical and modern ballet" course (Rubina A.) at the Kyiv National I.K. Karpenko-Kary Theatre, Cinema and Television University, and is currently an understudy choreographer on that course. Since 2017 she has worked as a movement director in the Kyiv Modern Art Centre DAH, and in 2018 become the chief choreographer of "14Orlov" theatre.

Maria is a performance artist, works as a movement director with actors and coaches contemporary dance.

Olesya Stefanyk – sound designer.
Olesya works as a sound designer in Kyiv National Academic Young Theatre, based in Kyiv since 2017, and has worked as a sound engineer, and head of the radio bureau of sound software there since 2012. Since 2017, Olesya has designed sound and music programmes for more than 40 performances. She has worked with Asya on The Crucible, as well as some other Young Theatre’s productions in 2018-2019 including Salome, and Welcome to Hell, which have both been great successes and highly popular among Kyiv audiences.

Nadezhda Pylypenko - concept designer
Nadezhda is a freelance fine art, graphics and digital art professional. She has studied graphic design in Mikhail Boychuk National Academy of decorative and fine art and design in Kyiv, Ukraine and received a Masters degree in 2013. Between 2010 and 2018 worked in graphic and digital design. In 2018 she worked as an assistant Artistic director and graphic designer in Kyiv National Academic Young Theatre (Molodyy Theatre), and helped realise such fantastic theatre projects as The Island of Love, The Crucible and The Trap. From 2019 works freelance for such theatres as Actor Theatre and Golden Gates Theatre in Kyiv.

PREMIERE

DRAGON premiered at The Cockpit theatre on 13-14 December 2019, where it was met with positive audience reviews.

Still, we are working to improve the show and have plans on further rehearsals and concept re-design.