The play
On thin ice
(Unhappy)
The performance "On thin ice" is a story about addiction and struggle, about destruction and creation, about us and to us.
The play has two canvases. One is real – stories from life of young people who fall in love, betray, cheat, quarrel with their parents, try to defend their position in their lives; the other is phantasmagoric, where characters suffer from addictions and are drowned in them.
The interplay between reality and addiction – their delicate and complicated relationship – is explored by the production's author. Where is the edge of reality and where does the intoxicating world of fantasy, reverie, debauchery and pleasure begin? Which of the characters can see that line? And does it need to be crossed? Is it possible to keep reality when the other world takes over? Which bowl of the scale will be heavier?
Reviews and critiques:
Director Victoria Klipova's story Unhappy turns human pain into contemporary theatre art. Victoria Klipova, the play's author and director, is an extraordinary creative person. Without courage, creativity and the ability to understand people you can't make the audience shudder and think. Victoria has combined these features in herself and with a thoughtful jerk she has exposed the people' destinies in her creation.
People flood the wormholes of their hearts with alcohol, devalue any relationships, freak out and get lost, but 'Unhappy' still leaves space for a final ray of light – which makes it a great storyline, compared to other philosophically depressing stories from our contemporaries.
I'd like to say that I went to the performance with a sceptical feeling, the topic is very serious and the task for the actors is not easy. I had thought that if there's falsehood on stage and not the truth, I'll leave after the first act. But this didn't happen. The stunning performance of young and beautiful actors, structured direction, plastique and choreography and well-chosen music carried me away from the first minutes and I followed the development of the story with interest and anxiety.
During such plastic performances, reflecting the addiction's 'room', as if by steps, you come to the conclusion: this line can't appear by itself. If you want to get out of it, you have to draw the line between yourself and others with similar addictions, in order not to succumb to the temptation of turning your existence into a permanent doping. "Addicted - it means you are weak. Addicted - it means you are a slave", thus adulthood is a time of constant work on your weaknesses that plunge you into an abyss of fear, pain and insecurity. In childhood you are helped by a tasty ice-cream, but as you grow up you have to widen your horizons and look for a new life jacket of a proper size.
The performance is interesting with its non-trivial, surreal world, choreographic scenes and interaction with the audience. The small stage, on which the action took place, makes a warm atmosphere.
Emotionally open play of the actors fascinates and almost instantly evokes empathy. The plot is uncomplicated and not overburdened with semantic overtones.
"Unhappy" is a quite poignant speech focusing on the heroic struggle of young contemporaries with ruinous addictions. In two and a half hours, a chronology of acquiring, living with, recognising and eradicating painful and deadly manias and phobias sweeps through the viewers.