“Take your time. Relax!” says the voice in the headphones, and a group of 40 participants dip into a two-hour journey through Kyiv that may change how they see the world.
It’s reminiscent of the beginning of a psychological experiment. In fact, this is the foreword to Remote Kyiv, a modern immersive performance where the city streets become the set and the spectators are the actors who give meaning to the show’s plotline.
The performance is the project of German documentary theater company Rimini Protokoll and Ukrainian team U!Zahvati, which both create theatrical performances outside the theater.
Rimini Protokoll have been staging Remote X, an immersive performance, since 2013. It started in Berlin and has been staged in nearly 50 cities since then. Now, they brought the show to Kyiv. It premiered on June 23.
“We wanted to gather a group of 40–50 people and give them a collective experience with flashmob elements and small tasks on the way,” director Joerg Karrenbauer told the Kyiv Post. “They get a mixture of feelings, being both spectators and actors.”
Innovative show
Participants in Remote Kyiv perform unusual tasks such as dancing on the street or trying to catch a glance or smile from an unfamiliar person on the subway. The narrator’s synthetic voice tells them to think about personal identity while walking through crowded and noisy streets.
The performance reveals people’s addiction to using modern gadgets. According to the director, it makes people think about why they trust the voices of gadgets like Alexa, Siri, or GPS navigators.
“It’s a kind of reflection on the relationship between us as human beings and smart devices with their voices talking to us,” Karrenbauer said.
Polina Baranychenko, director of the Ukrainian theatrical team U!Zahvati, says that preparations for the performance took nearly three years. They first approached Rimini Protokoll with a suggestion to do Remote X in Kyiv in 2016, but initially got a refusal. Only next year they managed to agree on the date, scheduling it for 2019.
Baranychenko says that the route is the “heart” of the project. The performance starts at Zvirynetske Cemetery and moves across the city.
“In this case, the environment is not just the location, but the co-author,” says Baranychenko.
But by operating in a living city environment, Remote Kyiv has also run into some challenges.
“I wanted to finish the performance on the roof of Kyiv Conservatory,” Baranychenko says. “This place offers a great panoramic view of Independence Square. However, the administration refused to let us do it. It’s a pity.”
Karrenbauer and Baranychenko ran into a different challenge. During any Remote X performance, there is usually a stop at a Catholic church, where the participants sit down and rest. They couldn’t find such a church in Kyiv, so the House of the Architect, a Soviet-era site with a lot of space, became the resting point instead.
Positive response
Since it started in June, Remote Kyiv has attracted around 1,500 people.
Organizers say they noticed that a Ukrainian spectator tends to distrust anything new. And they need more time to immerse in the process.
“Ukrainians are used to perceiving art remotely,” says Baranychenko.
After Kyiv, U!Zahvati also plans to stage immersive performances in Odesa, Kharkiv, Lviv and Dnipro.
Alina Glazova, one of the people who participated in the performance, says that Remote Kyiv is a great opportunity to immerse into oneself and ask uncomfortable questions. She thought it could be especially interesting to people from IT and creative industries.
Another participant, Haska Shyyan, took part in Remote Kyiv with her husband and their 6-year-old daughter.
“We did not know what to expect from it,” she says. “Visiting unexpected non-tourist sites would be interesting for both Kyivans and guests, who want to feel the rhythm and vibrations of the city.”
