MEDIATHEK

Yevgeny Grishkovets, born 1967, in Khemerovo in Siberia, studied at the philological faculty of Khemerovo State University. However, after his first year he was sent on three years military service in the Pacific Navy. After returning home, in 1991, he founded the studio theatre "The Loge" which staged ten productions originating in collective improvisations during its seven years of existence. After leaving "The Loge", Grishkovets moved on to his own origninal work: he embodied his experience from the navy in the text of the monodrama "How I Wolfed Down a Dog" which caused a sensation among Russian theater-goers in his powerful performance as both author and actor. In Moscow, he staged this work first on the occasion of the first N. E. T. (New European Theatre) Festival 1998. In the prestigious all-Russian Gold Mask theatre competition in 2000, Grishkovets's contribution to Russian theatre was recognised twice over as he received an award in the Inovation category and also the Critics Award. Meanwhile, he moved with his family to Kaliningrad. He wrote a play Gorod (The Town) that won the national "Triumph" award in 2000 and he has also produced the monodrama OdnovrEmEnno (ConCurrentLy). In This work, the Narrator draws the attention of the audience to his thoughts on the problematic nature of subjective reflection on the present moment, on the relativity of his (and ours) conceptions and on a peculiar concurrence of events, feelings, attitudes and opinions. His reflections began with the discovery that engine drivers of trains tackling thousands of kilometres through Russia, do not drive the whole journey with one set of carriages but change "back" in the nearest key station, and so in fact they shuttle back and forth on the same unchanging and relatively short section. The result is that everything is in some different way. And also, everything has its own order, and it may be better not to know about it. Then came the monodrama Drednouty, and the latest Grishkovets play is again an author monodrama, although this time with a "mute" female pratner: Planeta (The Planet). Last year Grishkovets accepted offers from other theatres to apply his author's method of ad-libs to their productions. As "initiator and editor" he has undersigned the production of the play Pjesa, kotoroj nět (The Play Which Does Not Exist), staged at the Baltic House theatre in Sankt Petersburg. With the Latvian company of the New Riga Theatre he prepared his own adaptation of short stories by E. A. Poe, called Po Po (After the Fashion of Poe). Yevgeny Grishkovets has given guest performances at the foremost theatre festivals in Europe. He visited the Czech Republic for the first time in April 2002, when on the occasion of the Russian Theatre Festival he has performed his monodrama "How I Wolfed Down a Dog". The texts of both plays performed by Grishkovets at the THEATRE 2002 festival have been published in Czech translations by Vlasta Smoláková by the Theatre Institute, Contemporary Drama publishers. (Source: 10th International Festival Theatre Pilsen Booklet (Printed Edition))