Wednesday 15 October 2008

MetastaZ - gay related theatre play in Vanadzor, Armenia (video)

UPDATE: (11 June 2009) WTF? A bizarre follow-up to my posts on gay-themed theatre play in Vanadzor, Armenia
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It’s my personal impression that theatre life in Armenia sees its kind of new revival. And it’s not only classical theatre but alternative one too. Experimental theatre has its regular scheduling at the NPAK or other venues. HighFest festival brings to Armenia cutting edge performances from within the country and abroad, e.g. by English playwright Mark Ravenhill.

But this mainly focuses in capital Yerevan. Therefore, it was even more encouraging to read on PINK Armenia about MetastaZ, theatre play in Vanadzor, Armenia’s 3rd city.
In the end of May the State Dramatic Theatre named after H. Abelyan of Vanadzor opened curtains for the premiere of the performance "MetastaZ (Metastasis)" under same play of Hovhannes Tekgyozyan "Metastasis". […]

From the very beginning it was planned as the audience would be a part of the play: there were 30 chairs black and white colored, like chessboard and they were on the stage. […]

A plead of talented actors was evolved in the play, such as Temur Atchinyan, Alla Darbinyan, Edgar Qocharyan, Hamlet Gyulzadyan and also one of the founders of PINK Armenia, Arthur Haroyan. The casting has been done very carefully. Also Hovsep Mesropyan and Vahe Shahverdyan were in all that action, the author of original sound tracks was the same Arthur Haroyan. […]

The most interesting fact is that a performance based on real facts of two homosexuals was played in the third city of Armenia and not Yerevan.The main goal of the director was not the elucidation of the theme of homosexuality and drugs in general, but the torture of the people, having a pain arisen by treachery. The same can overtake each of us like it happened to the heroes of performance "MetastaZ". […]

The most part of public has been shocked and admired from professional acting and director's work of performance, and some others experienced a shock, proceeding from basic reasons and traditional mentality: " How can it be possible, we are Armenians, not homos?" […]
For the first time, below you can see selected video clips from the MetastaZ. Many thanks to PINK Armenia for providing this material. (video clip No.4 was impossible to upload to the YouTube due to its duration – more than 10 mins – therefore, I uploaded it directly to the ‘Blogger’).

MetastaZ (clip No. 1)



MetastaZ (clip No. 2)



MetastaZ (clip No. 3)



MetastaZ (clip No. 4)

[This video removed upon personal request]

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bravo, Artmika. Nice job.

Unknown said...

Mika jan thank you so much. Finally Arthur also can watch them in Brazil

Unknown said...

Muinto obrigado por videos

Angela Harutyunyan said...

Hi, thanks for the videos.
While I think it is pretty radical for VAnadzor to stage something like that, I found the acting overloaded with an u unnecessary pathos. This, of course, follows the tradition of Armenian conventional theater, which itself borrows from Russian theatre.

artmika said...

Gay-themed play MetastaZ received theatrical awards in Armenia