An incredible immersive show, staged by choreographer Miguel with the support of Vyacheslav Dusmukhametov, returns to Moscow after more than a two-year break.
The Dashkov Mansion will open its doors to everyone who wants to immerse themselves in the atmosphere of a unique performance.
The history of the Alving family in the new version of the show "Returned: Another Reality" expanded, changed, was supplemented by new characters and became even more grotesque than the original production (and much more ambitious than the original play "Ghosts", written by Henrik Ibsen at the end of the year before century).
At the same time, the authors of the updated show did not touch the plot of the story and the lines of the main characters, expanding only the "range" of secondary characters and evenly distributing them throughout the premises of the mansion.
There is no need to worry that the extended view will tire you: the peculiarity of an immersive production is that the viewer is not tied to one place, but is free to move around the space of the mansion in any direction, study the changing environment, observe what is happening in each of the dozens of rooms, corridors, passages and stairs.
The lucky ones will even get a chance to interact with the artists: the format of the show implies this as well.
At the entrance to the Alving family mansion, spectators will be asked to turn off their phones, they will be given cards with a code word and masks.
The word on the card determines the order of entry into the living quarters - you can get into the intricate corridors only in small groups with a difference of about 15 minutes.
© Press service of the show "The Returned: Another Reality"
And the audience will also be strictly forbidden to talk to anyone around, including the heroes of the production, otherwise the figures in black masks and raincoats, silently watching what is happening, will take the offender away and it’s not at all a fact that they’ll just go out into the street ( the mansion keeps many secrets, and the number of skulls on some shelves leads to certain thoughts ...).
But at the same time, the servants and tenants themselves can turn their attention to the guests in white masks, and then they will already become, albeit not for long, part of the performance.
For example, the owner of the house can offer the viewer a drink, and the maid Regina will ask you to write a note under dictation.
Helen Alving will easily spin the guest in the dance, and some characters can simply scare, and it is possible that this will happen unintentionally.
Exploring the mansion is a treat in itself.
Creepy soundtrack, smoke winding through narrow corridors, changing lighting - all this creates a mysterious and mystical atmosphere and enhances the "immersion" in what is happening.
Interestingly, various events unfold simultaneously in almost all rooms, and the house changes along with the characters inhabiting it.
Where there was nothing interesting just five minutes ago, a new round of study may turn out to be a curious or shocking detail.
Or a character.
Or several characters interacting with each other and with the viewer, while one of them literally runs across the ceiling (special thanks to Miguel and his colleagues for the choreography - all the numbers look great, but some are especially impressive).
Admire and work with smells.
In the pantry, you can smell the aromas of seagulls and marinades, and in the master bathroom, adjacent to their bedroom, you can smell perfume and soap.
In the workshop of Oswald Alving, the smell of paints will dominate, while in the room of the confessional, the aromas of myrrh and incense resound.
In every element and detail of props, one can feel not just love, but the true obsession of the creators with their brainchild.
“What these guys have done here is fantastic.
This doesn't happen.
This has never happened - we put together a performance together with the house in a month, ”said Miguel.
© Press service of the show "The Returned: Another Reality"
If the viewer is not familiar with Ibsen's play or the plot of The Returned, at first his impressions of what is happening will most likely fit into the paradigm "nothing is clear, but very interesting."
An old mansion, dark corridors, creaking floorboards, a turn, and screaming Christina Asmus runs past, that is, of course, the maid Regina.
The viewer follows her, and in one of the rooms on his way, the son of the owner of the mansion, Oswald, goes crazy, desperately fighting his crazy other self.
And the mistress of the house herself turns out to be not without a surprise, however, like the rest of the central characters - there are no positive characters at all in The Returned, but there are also no frankly negative ones.
All of them are dramatic, full of experiences, passions, pain and contradictions.
And all in duplicate.
“The peculiarity of our performance is that the main characters are the mistress of the house Helena, her son Oswald, Regina is the main servant, pastor Manders ... They come out two people per show,” said Christina Asmus.
Thus, the dual nature of each hero is emphasized - on the one hand, that half of him that is visible to everyone around him, on the other hand, genuine emotions, feelings and desires, or madness, which, as it sometimes seems, has swallowed up all the residents of the mansion without exception.
He, in turn, is also often not what it seems at first glance.
And whether the viewer will reveal his secrets, whether he will find secret passages and details hidden from prying eyes depends only on him.
The premiere screenings of the updated immersive show Returned: Another Reality started in December 2022 at the Dashkov mansion.