The mega-funny, ultramodern show performance “The Office” tells about the life of a typical office in a large business center of a big city.
According to the ratings of ticket sales - it was this production last year that gathered the audience more than all the other performances combined, becoming the most visited theater event in the capital.
What do critics say?
After the performance of the “Office” was held at the Taganka Theater, the audience’s reviews were mostly perplexed. Inveterate theatergoers and critics almost directly advised the artists of the ProJect team not to go on any stage other than the circus arena.
The ardor of criticism diminished, and then completely gave way to enthusiasm after the performance was appreciated by Oleg Menshikov, saying that it was funny and witty. Probably, in gratitude for the twist made in public opinion, the artist’s photo adorns the page of the play on Facebook, although Menshikov himself has nothing to do with Kontor.
The performance of the “Office” was later invited by the Taganka Theater more than once or twice. And each of the unique performances was held with the same full house. The project participants themselves about working on the legendary Tagan stage respond extremely positively and are always ready to cooperate.
What is this sight?
What exactly is happening on stage? How the participants position the production is a theatrical show, and as critics write, it is clowning. As the audience writes about the performance of “Kontora” in the reviews, “a new phenomenon that turns the attitude towards the theater”, “an amazing sight”, “acrobatic studies” and so on. The pages of the “Office” on social networks are full of similar characteristics, which boil down to the fact that performance is a know-how for theatrical art and it has no analogues. Project participants and administrators of Internet resources, of course, do not dispute such ratings from viewers.
However, nothing new is actually happening on stage. In Western Europe, plastic theaters have existed for more than a century, and on every major street in any of the capitals you can see performances of mimes.
The performance “The Office” is precisely a plastic production similar to any performance of absolutely every European pantomime theater. There are no new stage techniques in the performance, on the contrary, there is an absolutely classical presentation, which includes elementary elements of acrobatic studies, which are taught in the first courses of theater institutes, not only European, but also Russian.
However, for our scene, everything that happens in Kontor is really a breath of fresh air, and in fact there are no analogues to this original performance, in any case, known throughout the country. The production center, which presented the performance of “Kontora”, “Compass” a year ago, received the most flattering and somewhat envious reviews from fellow competitors, since the project began to bring real profits before the first season of its existence, and even without going outside the MKAD.
What is the difference
While critics are arguing about the artistic value of this production, the Kontora show performance already collects reviews from viewers, and the number of people wishing to see this performance is increasing every day.
The main difference from the usual theatrical performance is the complete absence of text. For an hour and a half, the artists did not utter a single word and did not utter a single sound. But this does not mean at all that dead silence reigns in the hall, on the contrary, the audience’s laughter often drowns out the musical accompaniment.
Is it worth watching?
When going to this performance, you need to understand that you have to watch a spectacle that is really fundamentally different from the usual classical theatrical performance. If you wait for the usual comedy, then inevitably disappointment.
Spectators visiting theaters for the sake of artists, and not for the sake of the performances themselves, that is, “going to the star”, should also not watch “The Office”, because there is not a single famous artist on the stage. Moreover, recruitment announcements to the troupe of this project periodically appear on the Internet, where the main requirements are acrobatic skills and flexibility.
Accordingly, in the absence of a conservative attitude to theatrical events, this performance is worth watching and laughing heartily, having received a lot of positive emotions and discovering a completely different genre of stage art that has nothing to do with the usual drama, opera, musical or ballet.
Who is the director?
The director of the “Office” is Sergey Vasilievich Filatov, whose personality is well known to the theater regulars of St. Petersburg. On his account many famous productions.
“Kontora” became for a successful artist and already recognized director not so much an opportunity to earn extra money as a chance to do something extravagant and new on the stage, express themselves and open to the audience a genre that is almost unknown in our country. As the director himself talks about his work - “good comedy and office clowning”. His words are the most accurate description of the performance of the “Office”. Reviews from grateful viewers confirm this.
Who is on stage?
The attention of the audience for one and a half hours is held by only five characters - the "boss" and employees. Although there are only five heroes, there are much more artists involved in the project, and the composition of those who go to the stage is constantly changing.
Since there are no stars on which the viewer is on the show, the change of participants remains invisible and does not affect the perception of the performance and its quality.
Among those employed in the production are Alexei Sarychev, Oleg Prusakov, Bagrat Melkumyan, Alexei Viktorov, Maxim Al-Names, Anton Filipenko, Andrey Korobov, Pavel Sibiryakov, Anton Lapenko and many others.
If for any reason it is important to know who exactly will be on the stage on a certain date, you can always find out by asking a question on the pages of the play on any of the social networks.
What is the performance about?
On the stage scenery depicting a typical office. The play "Office", whose actors portray employees who had not had time to finish work and remained in the office in the evening and their boss, tells not only about curious situations that can be laughed at.
In the course of the action, the characters notice in themselves and those around them the appearance of various superpowers, which they immediately begin to apply. The first to whom these new superpowers are directed is, of course, the boss.
As the employees of one of Moscow advertising agencies wrote about the content of the “Kontora” performance in reviews: “Who are we friends against, guys?”, Adding that what is happening on the stage is so typical and recognizable, despite the grotesque and lack of words, that you can literally feel yourself being not in the spectator chair, but at the desk.
In which genre?
This is a comedy, but not for easy viewing. Not only pantomime reigns on stage, accompanied by all the famous musical hits of the 80s and 90s, but also grotesque. The performance raises a serious philosophical theme, explaining to the audience that this whole world is one gigantic office in which a person is an insignificant cog. And if the “screw” forgets about how to dream, think, create, then it turns into a wastebasket or a printer.
The main idea of the performance was conveyed through the transformations and metamorphoses that are happening to the characters, shown by the artists unambiguously and clearly, in the best pantomime traditions. Therefore, questions about what happened on the stage in the audience do not arise.
Although the idea of the presentation is quite global and raises questions about the very serious performance of Kontora, the reviews of those who watched it invariably note that they laughed to tears. Therefore, speaking of its genre, we can safely say that this is a comedy based on pantomime techniques, with elements of acrobatics, farce and grotesque.
What do they say?
The responses of the audience to the "Office", of course, are contradictory. The conservative regulars of theatrical performances took the performance with difficulty, but people who rarely look into the centers of culture leave extremely enthusiastic reviews.
Among the well-known people who came to the premiere, the most concise and substantive assessment of the work of the Project team was the statement of Oleg Menshikov.
Such a moment is quite interesting and even paradoxical - the performance is completely devoid of text, but despite this, most viewers enthusiastically retell the action plot in their comments and reviews, often endowing characters with certain statements.
This feature in the perception of the production is confirmed not only by the fact that the performance was a success, but also by the fact that everything that happens on the stage is quite recognizable and vitally true, and not just funny.