Latvian cultural figures thought about the idea of ​​​​the superiority of the Russian people

“Black Swan” doesn’t hide for a single moment that the action takes place in 2024, and not in the middle of the 19th century. Although the eras are mixed. All the characters sit on simple, black office chairs, while on the wall the color of gore is a hyper-realistic portrait of a huge, half-naked and tattooed Dostoevsky generated by an artificial intelligence program. The writer Vladimir Sorokin entered the information into it to create works for his art exhibition “Blue Lard”, and the New Riga Theater acquired this image from him.”

“The production of “Black Swan” made a revolution in me,” writes H. Verhoustinska. – The collected works of Dostoevsky in Russian were already on my parents’ bookshelf in my childhood, and I fell in love with this writer early on. His residence contributed to his studies, in which a lot of time was devoted to Russian theater and literature. At that time, it seemed to me, as a child nurtured in culture, that everything expressed by Dostoevsky and the philosophers of the Silver Age regarding the chosenness of the Russian people, a special place among other peoples and a mission on a global scale – everything that Myshkin speaks regarding with painful enthusiasm in the NRT production – applies to his talents, perhaps even geniuses in music, literature, and fine arts.”

“Today, following Russia’s widespread and brutal invasion of Ukraine, an occupation war that has lasted for more than two years – and, in my opinion, the most terrible thing – following the support of a large part of the Russian people for this ruthless, destroying violence – it seems that this cherished The cultural idea of ​​the superiority of the Russian people has extremely destructive consequences. To what extent is the superiority of Russian artists related to the destruction that Russian soldiers are wreaking in Ukraine and are ready to wreak in other places as well? This is a difficult question that is difficult to answer, and it is also asked by the NRT.”

Meanwhile, director Hermanis himself explained the new interpretation of the main character of the novel “The Idiot”, on the basis of which the play was staged: “Dostoevsky wrote Myshkin in such a way that I personally associate him at times with Rasputin, at times with Khlestakov, sometimes with Sharikov, at times he is the devil knows what. He is absolutely such a Russian mythological chameleon.”

Superimposed on all this is a black and white display of the famous dance classics, reflected in the title of the performance. “Swan Lake” is not only a brilliant ballet by Pyotr Tchaikovsky with canonical choreography by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov and an immediately recognizable melody and movement… For those who grew up in the Soviet Union, it is also a symbol of the death of Soviet party and state leaders. At that time, “Swan Lake” was broadcast on radio and television all day long when another leader died and party leaders had to figure out how to notify citizens regarding this.”