Vasilii Sigarev and the Presniakov Brothers

Vasilii Sigarev and the Presniakov Brothers also found a spirit of opposition in their Urals upbringing, noting the importance of not being from Moscow, while rejoicing in the regional character of ‘unpolished energy [and] brazen impudence’. Like Sigarev, the Presniakovs cultivated oppositionality towards the Moscow establishment as well as the dominant culture of psychological realism in their oeuvre. In 2001, a Moscow ‘fringe’ production of Sigarev’s most stylistically daring play, Plasticine, at the Centre for Playwriting and Dramaturgy (founded in 1998) came to be seen by many theatre-makers as a watershed moment in Russian playwriting. The critic Pavel Rudnev characterised it as ‘one of the manifestos’ of a new Russian dramaturgy because of its experimental approach to realism as a genre, as well as its smashing of socio-cultural taboos. There was significant resistance to Plasticine, even among theatre-makers. In contrast to British naturalism, a widespread director-led practice in continental Europe tended to manifest itself in gestural performative languages.