TEATRALNAYA LABORATORIYA VADIMA MAKSIMOVA
(Theater Laboratory)

The Teatralnaya Laboratoriya Vadima Maksimova was found in Saint-Petersburg, Russia in 1984. The object of the Teatralnaya Laboratoriya’s activity is experimental research in the dramatic field: in particular, European Symbolism, Russian Futurism, Oriental synthetic theater, Antonin Artaud’s Theater of Cruelty. Since 1996 the Theater Laboratory has directly pursued and sought to develop Artaud’s dramatic theory.

Vadim Maksimov, with a doctorate in art, is a founder and the dramatic director of the Teatralnaya Laboratoriya. He is a professor at the St. Petersburg Academy of Dramatic Arts, an expert in French theater, especially Artaud, the French theoretician, philosopher and playwright of the 1920s and 1930s.

The Teatralnaya Laboratoriya’s actors undergo a specialized training which has been developed over the past 10 years. The training includes the Oriental practice of psychological self-regulation. This is based on Artaud’s idea of the human body’s “energy centers.” Each center contains a set of senses and can find expression in the form of plastic motion and voice. The training helps the actor escape from the masks imposed by everyday life.

The main principle of the Teatralnaya Laboratoriya’s performances is a rhythmic and psychoenergetic act of organization, an integration of voice, gesture and word into a unified impulse, which has a profound affect on the audience’s perceptions.

The Teatralnaya Laboratoriya’s performances do not in principle attempt to reproduce the attributes and recognizable details of everyday life; they are not psychological performances.

Numerous drama critics have pointed to the Teatralnaya Laboratoriya productions as unique artistic events.

To the present the Teatralnaya Laboratoriya has produced some twenty plays, including world classics (Sophocles’ Antigone, Oscar Wilde’s Salome, August Strindberg’s The Dream Play, Euripides’/I. Brodsky’s Medea), as well as modern European dramaturgical efforts (Fosse/Frostenson/Fragments, Milorad Pavich’s Party). Some of the pieces have never been performed in Russia before (Igor Terentev’s Iordano Bruno, Antonin Artaud’s Samurai or ..., Dzeami Motokie’s Kagekie, Jean Gene's Elle and William Butler Yeats’ The Only Jealousy of Emer).

The plays of Teatralnaya Laboratoriya have been played on different cities in Russia, as well as in other countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Czech, Iceland, Latvia, Romania, Ukraine.

The Teatralnaya Laboratoriya has often been a participant and a winner and laureate at national and international drama festivals:

• “Solncevorot” (International Festival of Avant-garde Arts, St. Petersburg, Russia – 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000)
• “Christmas Parade” (Festival of New Theaters, New Production, New Dramaturgy and Dramatic Initiatives, St. Petersburg, Russia – 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 )
• “Baltic House” (XII International Dramatic Festival, St. Petersburg, Russia – 2002)
• Festival of Exercises Plays of Russian Dramatic Schools (Yaroslavl, Russia – 2002)
• “Today’s Sweden Dramaturgy” (Festival-workshop, St. Petersburg, Russia – 2002)
• “Faun” (International Dramatic-Musical Festival, Czech – 2004, 2006, 2007)
• “Crimean Ark” (International Dramatic Festival of Duet Plays, Crimea, Ukraine – 2004)
• Festival of Parallel Dramatic Art (Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia – 2004, 2005)
• XII Sibiu International Theatre Festival (Sibiu, Romania – 2005)
• The 4th International Solo Performance Festival “Zvaigzne 2006” (Riga, Latvia – 2006)
• International Education Week 2007, University of Toronto (Toronto, Canada – 2007)
• International Theatre Festival “Act Alone” (Isafjordur, Iceland – 2008 )
• The 4th International Theater Festival “Lik-2008” (Pushkinskiye Gory, Russia – 2008 )
• X International Theater Festival “Kamerata” (Chelyabinsk, Russia – 2008 )
• “Teatarfest” (Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina - 2009)