Perspepective, polyglossia and parataxis in Serebrennikov’s El Monje Negro

Abstract

Kirill Serebrennikov (Rostov-on-Don, Russia, 1969) gets in touch with film and theatre when he moves to Moscow in 1998, where Putin’s government appoints him as the director of the Winzavod Contemporary Art Centre (2011) and the municipality of the Gogol Theatre (2012). He carries out his artistic activity in both centers, until 2018, when disagreements concerning freedom of speech begin to emerge. Jailed and charged with corrupt practices, in the West he visits the Avignon Festival on several occasions, as well as other venues in Paris and Berlin. This controversial profile has given him notoriety, however, his contribution to contemporary theatre is more significant for his work experimenting with cinematographic procedures in theatre. During the last Avignon Festival (2022) he presented The Black Monk, an adaptation of a Chekhov tale, where he performs a multi-perspective reading of the story in its translation to the stage, as well as relying on polyglossia, parataxis and the coexistence between performing for a live audience and for the camera.