platonov from Anton Tschechow

Choroegraphic work: Jean Laurent Sasportes, as well as acting in the role of Osip (please see  acting Platonov)
Stage Direction: Burkhard C. Kosminski (please visit !)
for the Duesseldorfer Schauspielhaus - Duesseldorf (Germany)
Germany First: June 5th, 2003

The next work with Burkhard has been « Platonov » from Tchekhov in June 2003.  Here too, Burkhard proposed me to realise the choreography and also proposed me to take the role of Osip in the play, so this was my second appearance as an actor and this time a more serious one.

It has been a pleasure and big lesson to watch the work of such experimented actors as Ester Hausmann, Andreas Grothtar, Mathias Leja, Wolfgang Reinbacher. The bigger difficulty for me was the right pronunciation of the German language. In fact, the Russian text that I had to say at the beginning of the play felt easier to me, then the German text; I can speak German fluently and do not know a word of Russian, interesting.
The directing from Burkhard was very open, each actor had the time to experiment and get peu á peu into his role. It took me a couple of weeks to understand this new way of working and watching each single rehearsals helped me a lot. I understood that the "written text" is a very neutral thing, neutral in quality and neutral in time and space. It is up to the actors and the director to give it the life that they desire.

In this work, I was working as well as choreographer but I did not find difficult to jump from one position to the other; it was only difficult to dance the choreographed scene and watch them at the same time.
The choreographic work was based on realising the transitions visual moments between the scenes. Many actors were also part of the cast that I collaborated with for the two first works and I was slowly feeling always more and more at home with Burkhard and with his actors ensemble.
Platonov has been a very interesting work which gave me a great pleasure. It became also a big success which remained two seasons in the programm of the theatre.
As usual, the actors were excellent and I was feeling very proud and very lucky to share the stage with them. I even had to learn some text in Russian!.
The dancing transitions scene were choreographed as fast lines danced by all the actors crossing the stage on a beautiful recorded music. It brought a very alive rhythm all-through the evening.
(if you want to read more about «Platonov»)

pressReviews

Reinische Post, 7. Juni 2003
In der Russendisko
While the wonderfull rocky choreography from Jean-Laurent Sasportes leads the play all along the three first acts before the intermission, the directing of the last two acts is more based on the strength of the dialogs.
von BERTRAM MUELLER

Westdeutsche Zeitung, 7. Juni 2003
Love against Distraught
...The creasy dancing parts feets brillantly to the warmth of the Russian Music. The choreograph Jean-Laurent Sasportes, formal dancer of the Pina Bausch Company, makes the characters swirl all around the stage; he manages to create good alive tragic comical pictures of a distraught life.
von MARION TROJA

Bildzeitung, 7. Juni
A great Theatre
...A clever casting, with wonderfull characters which gives one the desir to look at them... Is it possible to interpretate Tchekov this way? It is. An exciting evening.
von REGINA GOLDLUECKE

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