Battle of Stalingrad

The battle itself

The portrayal of violence and war in theater is always a difficult and complicated task. How realistically is it done? How much is implied? How much representational? How much can the audience take? How long will it be believable? Where is the line between dramatic and silly? Rezo Gabriadze's Battle of Stalingrad takes on one of the bloodiest battles of the last hundred years and pulls it off in a wonderful and unexpected, though equally risky way (Bullock p.14).

The Russian-language production focuses in on the lives of people, horses, and ants all through puppets. Looking at the subject matter, the production takes everything that could be difficult about a performance, and then doubles it, like a tightrope walker deciding to perform during a hurricane. It is no longer just the question of whether the violence in the show will be dramatic or silly, should be realistic or representational, it grows to include whether puppets (and animals) can be taken seriously. Can the puppets become real enough that they can produce an emotional effect? Can animal characters produce the same level of sympathy as human characters? And along with this, the challenges of representing armies and battles, having believable and effective violence on stage are made infinitely more complicated (Fest p.15).

Rather surprisingly, all of the problems one might foresee for the production of such subject matter seem miniscule after viewing the ease and exactness with which the company pulls it off. Puppets, both human and animal, draw immense empathy from the audience; their plight is completely believable and there seems nothing silly about them; and the battles are creatively and effectively represented. One important element that helps to make the puppets real and sympathetic to their audience is the decision to focus in very specifically on certain characters, following them from before the battle through to the end (John p.10).

We know what they have to lose, we know their real desires; we know what it is that's interrupted by the battle, what they would be doing otherwise. We know that Lacha has lost his only love while away; we know that Aliocha and Natasha (both horses) are never going to end up back together, that there will be no more opportunities for redemption from previous fickleness; and we learn that the ant's child will never see sugar like they've always dreamed. Another main ingredient to the successful animation and “humanization” of these puppets is in the immense skill and involvement of the puppeteers (Shirer p.15).

Throughout the performance, the puppeteers are occasionally made visible, both through direct interaction with the puppets on stage and additional lighting. It's in the way they interact with the puppets that brings more life and empathy to them. The puppeteers treat them like real people, their own hands occasionally entering the stage, their facial expressions visible and expressing sympathy and feeling toward the characters. With each character that dies, the puppet is buried in sand by the hand of the ...