“Тихий шорох уходящих шагов” (The Quiet Rustle of Departing Footsteps) of Dmytry Bogoslavsky’s in Belarusian and Ukrainian Theatres

Abstract

The 2010s were marked by the appearance in literature and theatre of playwrights whose works allowed the „New Belarusian Drama” to fully form as a phenomenon of post-Soviet theatre art. Dmytry Bogoslavsky (born in 1985) is recognized as one of the most popular and in-demanded representatives of this trend. A special place in his work is given to the play Тихий шорох уходящих шагов (The Quiet Rustle of Departing Footsteps). The purpose of this article is to analyze the interpretation of this text by post-Soviet directors of the „millennial” generation. The main research method is the analysis of the performance from the point of view of theatre studies. The performances of directors Ekaterina Averkova, Shamil Dyikanbaev, Stas Zhirkov, Denis Fedorov in theatres in Belarus and Ukraine are presented. The author concludes that the interpretations Bogoslavsky's drama raise the key problems of contemporary culture: the search for national identity, the analysis of national and (post-)Soviet mentality; relations between fathers and children, the preservation of traditions and family values as a reflection on collective memory and history; recording the context of a specific historical moment.