Brodsky/Baryshnikov
Opening Night: March 9, 2016
Closing: March 19, 2016
Theater: Baryshnikov Arts Center, Howard Gilman Performance Space
“Brodsky / Baryshnikov” is a one-man show based on the poems of Nobel laureate Joseph Brodsky, performed by Mikhail Baryshnikov. Conceived and directed by Alvis Hermanis, noted Latvian director of The New Riga Theatre, Brodsky / Baryshnikov is an emotional journey deep into the poet’s visceral and complex compositions. Performed in Russian, Brodsky’s mother tongue, Baryshnikov recites a selection of his long-time friend’s poignant and eloquent works. His subtle physicality transports the audience into Hermanis’ reverent imagining of Brodsky’s interior world.
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March 11, 2016
I have never felt a particular desire to learn Russian, wonderful though it would be to read, say, Chekhov in the original language. But I’m sure it would have enhanced my enjoyment of “Brodsky/Baryshnikov,” a theater piece that, as the title makes clear, features the former ballet star Mikhail Baryshnikov reciting, in Russian, selections from the poetry of Joseph Brodsky. Brodsky, who was forcibly exiled from the Soviet Union in 1972, and never returned, was a friend of Mr. Baryshnikov, and “Brodsky/Baryshnikov” is Mr. Baryshnikov’s elegiac tribute to the work of his friend, who died in 1996 at 55. The emphasis is very much on language: Dance lovers should know that there’s nothing really resembling choreography involved in the show, which is being presented at the Baryshnikov Arts Center. (Not included in the selections from Brodsky’s oeuvre, incidentally, is the poem he dedicated to Mr. Baryshnikov that begins, “The classical ballet, let’s say, is beauty’s keep.”)
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