ASMIK BAGOJAN
"ADEL" family chronicle based on Irina Buryachenko's play (Latvia), in Russian
Every family keeps its family history: faded black-and-white photographs, yellowed letters tied with string, objects whose meaning and significance fade with time. In Adele, one gets the impression that this archival box has fallen from the mezzanine and, like a genie from a
worn copper jug, materialised in the form of the crotchety, imperious old woman Adele (actress Asmik Bagojan). Her whole life will pass before the audience's eyes: from a clumsy orphan who has suffered life's injustices to a respected and feared matriarch of her family.
Irina Buryachenko, a well-known gallerist and producer in Riga, and an organiser of cultural events, makes her debut as a playwright of the play. Her family stories became the basis for the play and provided director Svetlana Bara with interesting material that was not weighed down by the burden of previous interpretations. The director used this material with unexpected courage and talent. Thanks to her original directorial decisions, the performance avoided slipping into a predictable stand-up performance and became more than a true mono-performance. Although Asmik Bagojan is the only one on stage for the entire hour, the audience's imagination fills in the contours of the acting, making the stage full of the many characters that Adele talks about.
