Les Idiots

Through improvisations and extrapolations, Kirill Serebrennikov and his actors of the Gogol Center offer an updated version of Lars von Trier's The Idiots, retaining its economy of means and its pared-down aesthetics. Set in the Moscow of today, it follows a group of youths who decide to upset decorum and modesty by letting their inner imbecile take over.While Lars von Trier's characters belonged to a Danish society known for its calm and tolerance, Kirill Serebrennikov's encounter a people whose standards aren't quite as flexible. Focusing on this contrast between very strict conventions and the rejection of the rules of propriety, the Russian director brings “idiots” and “non-idiots” face to face on the stage, in order to question the actual role absurdity plays in human and social relationships, not only in Moscow but also everywhere else. In a society where any perceived behavioural failing can lead to anger and violence, Lars von Trier's initially amusing and idealistic experiment takes a turn for the dangerous, acquiring an inevitably subversive significance.

Lars von Trier directed The Idiots in 1998, following the rules of Dogme 95. This movement, whose manifesto he wrote with Thomas Vinterberg, director of Festen, included two other Danish directors, Søren Kragh-Jacobsen and Kristian Levring, and rejected the technological and commercial tendencies of modern cinema to focus on the sobriety and economy of means they thought would help bring it back to its essence. Masquerading as a documentary, The Idiots is a fiction that follows the experiment of a group of Danish youths determined to do away with the stupidity that surrounds them by letting their “inner idiot” show.

Direction and costumes Kirill Serebrennikov
Text and Dramaturgy Valery Pecheikin 
Scenography Kirill Serebrennikov and Vera Martynova
Choréography Alevtina Rudina
Ligths Igor Kapustin
Translation for the surtitles Macha Zonina

With

Yulia Aug Madame
Filipp Avdeev/Aleksandr Gorchilin Pixel
Olga Dobrina Masha
Ruslana Doronina L'entraîneur à la piscine, La secrétaire au tribunal,
La chef de la secrétaire, Olga Woof, La juge
Oksana Fandera Karina
Sergey Galakhov L'officier de police au tribunal, Le serveur, L'agent, Le policier, Le frère de Masha, Un homme, Le gestionnaire, Le mari de Karina
Oleg Guchin L'avocat, L'acheteur, Le chef de Sergey, Kachan, Un homme, Le père de Karina
Ilya Kovrizhnykh Sergey
Olga Naumenko La juge, La femme au foyer, La tante d'Elisey, La mère de Karina
Aleksandra Revenko Katya
Ilya Romashko Elisey
Artem Shevchenko Kuba
Semen Shteinberg Doc
Anton Vasyliev Pasha
et la participation de Mathieu Beaufort, Laura Deleaz, Amandine Huynh, Nedjma Ortiz, Clément Paimpara

Production Gogol Center (Moscou)
With the support of French embassy in Russia, French Institut in Russia, Onda Office national de diffusion artistique, EN+ Group