Not Muses anymore.

"All Roads Lead to The Kurski Station"
East Village Playhouse, Manhattan, NYC, May 10 - June 24 2018
Elliott Morse, Mia Vallet, Rivers Duggan - actors
Emil Varda - director

Photos by Ewa Kowalska, 2018


Suppose you are a creator expecting that one-day Muses or friendly Goddesses will come to help you create a masterpiece. Now suppose that something terrible happens, and instead of Muses inspiring your mind and soul, demons arrive – Erinyes.

Muses are from Olympus, from Heaven, while Erinyes are from underworld, from Hades. Erinyes are female deities of vengeance. They want to take revenge on you just because you want to be a creator, poet, writer, musician, director or an actor. 
That is what happened to Emil Varda. Thirty years ago, he was an actor playing a character named Vienya on stage, who was funny and tragic embodiment of the Russian drunk from the poetical prose poem by V. Yerofieyev. At that time Muses were around Varda constantly, but then they disappeared. 

After three decades, Goddesses returned to Varda and offered him a resh inspiration. He realized that they are not Muses anymore, but Erinyes bringing pain, difficulties, parody (often of himself), and sad memories. It is very possible they want to turn him into a comedian – in revenge. All the same, he agreed and took a risk to create a theatre with this kind of help. He wants to discover – and show to viewers – who Vienya really is at present time. 
Is he still a young Russian drunkard? Perhaps he is an American, or even a citizen of the world? 
Today this character is not Yerofieyev’s anymore, he belongs to Varda. Vienya knows contemporary Russia and contemporary America. 

But something remained unchanged – he still wants to be a poet, still wants to travel from the Kurski Station to his mistress in Moscow’s suburb Petushki. This is obvious that he cannot do this now – he is in New York for good or ill. The Kremlin and the Kurski Station are illusions, his love is an illusion, and his existence as well. Is the theater possible if nothing exists? Oh yes, because Erinyes create it. Plus – three young actors from New York (Elliott, Rivers and Mia) make this theater tragic and funny, beautiful and frightening, modern and alternative. 

One question remains – is it really a risk that the artist draws inspiration from everywhere and from anyone?

* * *
Thanks to  Mia Vallet  for friendly help with the correction of the text
Bronek Kowalski