L'A x L]: Лeший (Leshi)

This proposal is part of the [L’A X L] programme, five days of shared programming between La Capsa and Teatre L’Artesà where proposals cross disciplines and formats. More information here. A four-act performance based on the reading of a theatre work by Anton Chekhov. The work is titled: Лeший. The work was written, it was performed and it was… it failed, from the Latin quassare, to break. The theatre work broke. The broken work was rejected by the author. The author said: “let it never be published or performed again”. The author wrote it one hundred and thirty-six years ago. He wrote it with words, without images, cinema did not yet exist. But yes, like us, if you still don't speak Russian, Лeший, is not a word, it is an image. And you, who do you see? Who? Yes, who. At Лeший (Leshi), ATRESBANDES delves into an unknown piece by Chekhov —a first version of The Uncle Vanya, which was translated as The Forest Witch— to reconstruct its fragments and imagine what it could have been. From object theatre and an abstract visual language, the company proposes a four-act stage reading, each with its own aesthetic and a different perspective on the text: from an object universe to an installation, a theatricalised conference and a piece approached from movement. The result is a free and playful exploration of the Chekhovian world, where a single performer summons the multiple characters and emotions that inhabit the original work. Лeший (Leshi) plays with the limits of theatre and with the imaginaries that accompany it —such as Leshi (Slavic mythology character), forest spirit, protector, contradictory and powerful— to bring to stage the mystery of what was lost and that, perhaps, still looks at us.