Theatre 705 is virtually the only theatre in Kyrgyzstan that raises relevant social issues. Authors of performances ask questions to themselves and spectators and try to find answers.
Are relations between the girl from a feminist community and a participant of an ultra-patriotic group possible in today’s Kyrgyzstan? If they happen, how will they be? The female participants of the performance “It’s like this in my world” tried to find answers to these questions. The performance was delivered in theatre 705 in Bishkek.
The performance is based on the artistic combination of elements of the documentary genre and the dramatic theatrical form. The four female protagonists of the performance, feminist friends, narrate the story of a young man Ramis and girl Zhanyl based on the story of Romeo and Juliette. While they search for answers, it becomes clear that every female protagonist is in her own questionable reality, but nevertheless they all live through similar issues of women’s life in Kyrgyzstan.
According to the performer of Biykech (Saikal Zhumalieva), female participants have wanted to deliver the performance and play in it for a long time.
“We didn’t have any idea. The only thing we knew is that it will be a feminist performance. Then, we had an idea of taking Shakespeare’s story of Romeo and Juliette and adapt it to our reality. This is how the main idea of the performance was created,” Zhumalieva said.
First, the girls were writing strictly about the love story and about two conflicting parties – feminists and ultra-patriots.
“Then we understood that it was a gridlock and came to theatre 705,” Biykech said. “Their director, Chagaldak Zamirbekov, gave a task to us to write texts on various topics, and this is how the performance was created – based on our documentary stories and the story of Romeo and Juliette.”
The performance is not for everyone. To buy a ticket, you should first register. Then, authors select the requests carefully, call the spectators and only then, you can buy a ticket. Singer and performer Zere Asylbek in her interview to CABAR.asia emphasised that this is done for safety reasons. According to her, they tell many personal stories in the performance, and the participants don’t want to make them available to anyone beyond the performance.
In general, the performance received positive feedback of the audience. According to Zere, spectators said they didn’t see anything like this before and this was an interesting and new format. Girls of the younger generation come to see the performance, generally. The female performers get much feedback from them as they say they could relate to many monologues.
“It is very pleasant to hear when the men who come to watch the performance say that they hear about such topics as they have never thought about before and they start to think about their own behaviour and principles,” the artist said.
However, there are negative comments, too. According to Biykech, there were opinions that the performance was somewhat one-dimensional.
“We were told, “You showed only one side of the problem, but didn’t disclose the problems of men,” Biykech said. “We know it very well, but how can we know about men’s problems if we are not men? We speak about our feelings and our own experiences.”
Hard but low paid work
The performance “It’s like this in my world” is not the first performance of theatre 705. It has delivered more than ten performances that are focused on the analysis, reflection on daily problems. Its founders – Bishkek-based artists Malika Umarova, Darina Kaparova and Marat Raiymkulov – see the theatre as the way to understand the socio-political processes taking place in Central Asia and to express one’s attitude towards them.
Previously, it was a creative group 705, which emerged in 2005. Back at that period, Bishkek was undergoing its post-revolutionary period, and there were many derelict buildings and structures in it. Taking advantage of the situation, they delivered performances there and right on the street. Over time, the group broke up and theatre 705 has been a platform for directors, contemporary artists, amateur and professional actors for the last several years, while it has retained its theatrical history.
Theatre 705 is virtually the only theatre in Kyrgyzstan that raises relevant social issues. According to artist and theatre producer Darina Kaparova, the main goal of the authors is not to dictate something to people, but to reflect and think.
“Our theatre never tell you how to live properly, we don’t want to teach anyone, we don’t want to promote any ethic or moral values,” she said. “We ask questions: how to live and what are various interpretations of one problem. And of course, we are also searching for answers to these questions.”
According to Kaparova, many directors, with whom they have collaborated, either work in state theatres or are independent.
“State theatres have much censorship and designate the repertoire for a long time,” Darina said. “Therefore, many authors sometimes need to have a space where they can realise their ideas without waiting for approval for years.”
According to her, after the lockdown in spring 2020 and the revolution that occurred in the same year, people seemed to become more active in terms of their civic-mindedness.
“The theatre is a place where one can speak out and express oneself. The spectator, the actor and the artist have such an opportunity here,” she said.
The audience hall in the theatre contains 20-30 seats and it never lies empty. However, they still have financial problems.
“The price of one ticket is fixed, 500 som (5.28 dollars),” Darina said. “But the money we earn is enough only to pay current expenditures such as water, soap, toilet paper, utility bills. We have announced crowd funding recently and people started to donate so that we could pay for the rent of the premises and at least salary to one person in our team.”
According to Kaparova, one performance sometimes involves 15 people. These are actors, sound producers, producers, artists. What the spectator sees in the performance is not even the tip of the iceberg, but only one snowman on its top. Before actors can come on the stage, huge work is done by artists, production directors, and other specialists. Not to mention everyday rehearsals.
“And now imagine that one performance is shown to the audience 1-2 times a month. Sometimes, participants earn 1 thousand som (10.55 dollars) at most for it,” Darina said. “And I am very grateful to my colleagues because we do it with pure enthusiasm.”
Women’s issues in arts and ways forward
Another performance of theatre 705 is “War doesn’t have a woman’s face” based on the same name book by Svetlana Aleksievich. Its director Chagaldak Zamirbekov said to CABAR.asia that it was chosen for a variety of reason.
“A war is great losses and a big trial for the humanity, and we also know that it is the result of men’s efforts,” Zamirbekov said. “Many films have been made about war, many performances have been delivered, but there is little information about how women lived in the war period, how they survived it. Therefore, we have chosen this topic as it tells true stories of women who lived and participated in military actions.”
This is one of few performances, where all roles are women’s. In general, the representation of women in arts is very low and limited, said singer Zere Asylbek.
“If we take cinematograph, for example, we’ll see that our block busters that are made in the rejoicing style show women in a very limited way,” the artist said to CABAR.asia.
According to her, once there’s a woman in a film, it is either a good girl, or a decent wife, or a mother-in-law.
“I want to see more women who make serious decisions, who inspire and represent some changes in the society,” the singer said.
According to Chagaldak Zamirbekov, the arts help well to raise the theme of struggle for women’s rights.
“As we can see, now the struggle in this regard is very active, but unfortunately it doesn’t work out,” he said. “Therefore, we try to show and speak about women’s rights via arts and performances.”
Girls are still kidnapped for marriage in Kyrgyzstan, the rate of domestic violence is very high, and the situation of women in the country is generally not good, said Zere Asylbek. And the arts is one of the ways to speak about these issues.
“Even a small seed that is reflected in the media or activism as a thought will bear fruit sooner or later,” the singer said. “Therefore, it is important to speak and create dialogues on the topics that are of concern to us.”