Playback theater: return the viewer to his story

In this theater, each performance is born before our eyes and is no longer repeated. Any of those sitting in the hall can tell aloud about some event, and it will immediately come to life on the stage. It can be a fleeting impression or something that has stuck in the memory and has long haunted. The facilitator will question the speaker to clarify the point. And the actors — usually there are four of them — will not repeat the plot literally, but will play what they heard in it.

Each production evokes strong emotions in the actors and the audience. “The narrator, who sees his life on stage, feels that he is present in the world and that other people react to his story — they show on stage, empathize in the hall,” explains psychologist Zhanna Sergeeva. The one who talks about himself is ready to open up to strangers, because he feels safe — this is the basic principle of playback. But why does this spectacle captivate the audience?

“Watching how someone else’s story is revealed with the help of actors, like a flower, filled with additional meanings, gains depth, the viewer involuntarily thinks about the events of his life, about his own feelings, — continues Zhanna Sergeeva. “Both the narrator and the audience see that what seems insignificant actually deserves attention, every moment of life can be deeply felt.”

Interactive theater was invented about 40 years ago by the American Jonathan Fox, combining the theater of improvisation and psychodrama. Playback immediately became popular all over the world; in Russia, its heyday began in the XNUMXs, and since then interest has only grown. Why? What does playback theater provide? We addressed this question to the actors, deliberately not specifying, gives — to whom? And they received three different answers: about themselves, about the viewer and about the narrator.

«I’m safe on stage and I can be real»

Natalya Pavlyukova, 35, business coach, actress of the Sol playback theater

For me in the playback are especially valuable teamwork and absolute trust in each other. A sense of belonging to a group where you can take off the mask and be yourself. After all, at rehearsals we tell each other our stories and play them. On stage, I feel safe and I know that I will always be supported.

Playback is a way to develop emotional intelligence, the ability to understand your own and others’ emotional state. During the performance, the narrator can talk jokingly, and I feel how much pain lies behind his story, what tension there is inside. Everything is based on improvisation, although the viewer sometimes thinks that we are agreeing on something.

Sometimes I listen to a story, but nothing resonates in me. Well, I did not have such experience, I do not know how to play it! But suddenly the body reacts: the chin rises, the shoulders straighten or, on the contrary, you want to curl up into a ball — wow, the feeling of flow has gone! I turn off critical thinking, I’m just relaxed and enjoying the «here and now» moment.

When you immerse yourself in a role, you suddenly utter phrases that you will never say in life, you experience an emotion that is not characteristic of you. The actor takes someone else’s emotion and instead of chattering and rationally explaining it, he lives it to the end, to the very depth or peak … And then in the finale he can honestly look into the eyes of the narrator and convey the message: «I understand you. I feel you. I went part of the way with you. Thanks to».

“I was afraid of the audience: suddenly they will criticize us!”

Nadezhda Sokolova, 50 years old, head of the Theater of Audience Stories

It’s like a first love that never goes away… As a student, I became a member of the first Russian playback theater. Then he closed. A few years later, playback training was organized, and I was the only one from the previous team who went to study.

At one of the training performances where I was the host, a woman from the theater world approached me and said: “It’s all right. Just learn one thing: the viewer must be loved. I remembered her words, although I did not understand them at the time. I perceived my actors as native people, and the audience seemed like strangers, I was afraid of them: suddenly they would take us and criticize us!

Later, I began to understand: people come to us who are ready to reveal a piece of their life, to entrust us with their innermost things — how can one not feel gratitude for them, even love … We play for those who come to us. They spoke to pensioners and the disabled, far from new forms, but they were interested.

Worked in a boarding school with children with mental retardation. And it was one of the most incredible performances we felt. Such gratitude, warmth is rare. Children are so open! They needed it, and they frankly, without hiding, showed it.

Adults are more restrained, they are used to hiding emotions, but they also experience delight and interest in themselves, they are pleased that they were listened to and their lives are played on stage for them. For an hour and a half we are in a single field. We don’t seem to know each other, but we know each other well. We are no longer strangers.

«We show the narrator his inner world from the outside»

Yuri Zhurin, 45, actor of the New Jazz theater, coach of the playback school

I am a psychologist by profession, for many years I have been advising clients, leading groups, and running a psychological center. But for many years I have been doing only playback and business training.

Every adult, especially a resident of a big city, there must be an occupation that gives him energy. Someone jumps with a parachute, someone is engaged in wrestling, and I found myself such an “emotional fitness”.

When I was studying to be a psychologist, at one time I was simultaneously a student at a theater university, and, probably, playback is the fulfillment of a youthful dream to combine psychology and theater. Although this is not classical theater and not psychotherapy. Yes, like any work of art, playback can have a psychotherapeutic effect. But when we play, we don’t keep this task in our heads at all.

Our task is to show the narrator his «inner world outside» — without accusing, without teaching, without insisting on anything. Playback has a clear social vector — service to society. It is a bridge between the audience, the narrator and the actors. We do not just play, we help to open up, to speak the stories that are hidden inside us, and to look for new meanings, and therefore, to develop. Where else can you do it in a safe environment?

In Russia, it is not very common to go to psychologists or support groups, not everyone has close friends. This is especially true for men: they do not tend to express their feelings. And, say, an official comes to us and tells his deeply personal story. It is very cool!