On 2 June 2016 the Hermitage Theatre was the venue for a performance of the inclusive dramatic piece The Touchables with People’s Artist of the USSR Alisa Freindlich participating. In this unique stage work deaf-blind actors preform alongside ones who can see and hear.
The Touchables (Prikasaemye) is the first major social theatre project in Russia, created by the So-edinenie foundation for the support of the deaf-blind and the State Theatre of Nations. The concept originally occurred to People’s Artist of Russia Yevgeny Mironov. From that time on he has actively supported the project along with its producer Ingeborga Dapkūnaitė and the actors Chulpan Khamatova, Yegor Beroyev, Yevgeny Tsyganov, Tatyana Arntgolts, Anatoly Bely, Yelena Morozova and Anna Kovalchuk. The piece has been nominated for the Golden Mask national theatre award for 2106 in the Experiment category.
How can someone listen to music, read, write, draw, dance, learn, work, travel, communicate, love – in short, how can they live, if they can’t see or hear? The piece is based upon the real-life stories of people with impairment of both vision and hearing, The Touchables is an attempt to establish contact between two worlds. On the stage both the seeing-hearing and deaf-blind characters overcome their own fears, doubts and difficulties of mutual understanding.
Not only the stories create a special atmosphere, but the theatrical space as well. The characters move around the stage guided by tactile sensations, smells and vibrations. The performance takes place in an intimate format with members of the audience on stage next to the actors.
The funds raised from ticket sales were allotted to the So-edinenie foundation for the advancement of the Touchables project in St Petersburg and the creation of a new drama with the participation of deaf-blind Petersburgers.
Concept: Yevgeny Mironov
Producer: Ingeborga Dapkūnaitė
Director: Ruslan Malikov
Movement Director: Yevgeny Kulagin
Production Designer: Yekaterina Dzhagarova
Dramaturge: Marina Krapivina
Deaf-Blind Actors: Irina Povolotskaya, Alena Kapustyan, Alexei Gorelov, Vera Lyzhenkova, Alexander Silyanov, Vadim Plevako, Svetlana Shchukina.
Seeing-Hearing Actors: Alisa Freindlich, Olga Lapshina, Kirill Byrkin, Oleg Savtsov, Rustam Akhmadeyev, Ilona Gaishun, Yekaterina Sakhno, Mikhail Vidiakin, Yulia Khamitova, Alexei Ovsiannikov, Konstantin Kozhevnikov, Masha Lapshina, Roman Yevdokimov.
