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mark.rifkin's avatar

absolutely brilliant and illuminating in so many ways! "it will please the three people in the audience who have studied ionesco, because they are not watching a play, they are recognizing a text, and recognition is its own small love." i appreciate what you do even more than i already do after reading this.

Igor Golyak's avatar

Thank you Mark. Can’t wait for you to see Delirium in NY.

Christina Kallas's avatar

Thank you, Igor, for your brilliance and for taking the time to share. I hope I get to see this and you in NY.

Igor Golyak's avatar

Thank you, Christina. Delirium is coming to New York. Come find me after the show.

Christina Kallas's avatar

When and where? I’m in Greece but I’ll be back next month.

Igor Golyak's avatar

Irondale, in Brooklyn. Previews begin September 8, and it runs through November 14. Come find me after, when you are back.

Kyle Secor's avatar

Such beautiful insights from beginning to end! "The words are not there to tell you what is happening. They are there to cover it." Simple and a great reminder. And how great to work with such full-on collaborators. Hope to see this.

Robert Thurer's avatar

Thank you Igor for this wonderful insight into your approach to directing. While different in so many ways, your treatment of The Dybbuk, Our Class, The Gaaga and others illustrate the many forms your direction can take.

Igor Golyak's avatar

Yes, that only comes from really investing in the poetics of the playwright

Diana's avatar

This is fantastic, thank you.

geo GELLER's avatar

Ah ha the fish, as a children’s story, and the fish tank and in the photo the actress is holding a picture frame as metaphor for I “we” are all spectators in our own lives too - the prisoner and the guard are both seeing each other through bars - the Fish is in its own play, playground looking out as we look in - a view of the world from many angles - and reminds me of a children’s story I wrote for my inner child called

“The fish in water looking for water!”

I especially like this poetic image

“Anything can be proven to be anything, and if anything is everything, then everything is nothing.”

This Substack post reminded me of something I wrote about years ago

“We are spectators in our own lives!”

The Peter Brook metaphor that he probably learned from a conversation he had been having with Shakespeare about the stage, is not a stage but a place to play, a playground!! Also expressed in Shakespeare’s view of and significance of “nothing”

“ Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.”

But on another note - I appreciate your thoughts on observing the audience response - I often find myself watching the people’s reactions, their response as they leave a play/film theater, venue, as part of the experience - as I also believe a work of art doesn’t begin until after you leave too

Food for thought

Thank you for this Igor