ContArt Production Center
RUSSIA
A performance by Yana Tumina, based on Sergei Golyshev’s book “Moy syn – daun” (“My Son Has Down's”). Created for children and grownups alike, this performance is a tale about a journey, the sky, pastries, reindeer, felt-tip pens, snow, parents, kindness, happiness, and Varya.
The performance evolves around a poem by six-year-old Kolya, in which he speaks about his journey to a girl called Varya. She appears in his short stories and poems, and he refers to her as his best friend from kindergarten. It is not until later that Kolya's father finds out there was no such girl in Kolya's kindergarten. But it won't stop him from traveling to her by a suburban train “which never gets tired,” through rains, sceneries and shadows; nothing will stop this heart from yearning for love, and nothing will stop the train from taking us all to the magic planet “where the girl called Varya lives” at the end of the performance.
Director Yana Tumina: “A special child is a special world. We are scared of this world, because we know so little of it. “Kolya's Composition” is a meditation on how poetry is born, how inspiration finds its ways into a human soul, and how love is born in one's imagination, to become the essence of this person's life.
My reasons for making this performance, apart from being inspired by the texts... My third child was born with the same diagnosis as Kolya. I know that these children's world slumbers in some kind of a magic locked house. Thanks to his poetic gift, Kolya keeps this house open. It is important for me to help people explore the world of special children and make some discoveries. It is simple and beautiful. Unconventional and paradoxical. I am not a withdrawn observer. Rather, I am a participant of this magic world.”