Les Podervyansky
Encyclopedia
Les Podervianskyi is a Ukrainian painter, poet, playwright and performer. He is most famous (or infamous) for his absurd, highly satirical
, and at times politically incorrect and obscene short plays. Their average duration is five to fifteen minutes, with some exceptions.
Podervianskyi wrote most of his works in the Soviet Union in the mid to late 1980s, a time of stagnation in politics and social life—the of era of "zastoy" and the time of rapid changes in consciousness. He observed the people in that situation, their reactions and behaviour. And most thoroughly he watched the speech patterns of outsiders and commoners, people from the country. The author places common people in grotesque absurd situations and shows how they would act and speak much the same regardless of what happens.
Podervianskyi's works are highly regarded owing to his attention to detail. Many behavioural modes are easily recognizable, and people are able to recognize themselves in the plays. The general absurdity of the situation makes the characters' absurd actions more acceptable, and although certain phrases the author uses are politically incorrect, his humour is generally neutral.
Podervianskyi says he draws a lot of his inspiration from the years of his army service. There is also an opinion that his plays are in some way inspired by works of Samuel Beckett
.
and include much swearing and obscenities, which make them appear as if they were composed by an uneducated person. Often it seems that the only reason one would read the works is for their comic impact and to hear creative swearing. But this is not the case. The numerous citations from Shakespear, Nietzsche, Taoism and dzen buddhism philosophers give the idea of several intellectual layers in his works. Although a number of Podervianskyi's expressions have entered Ukrainian
slang
, he uses crude language to show the flaws and grotesqueness of his characters. Podervianskyi carefully matches up language with his characters. Thus a self-made intellectual spouts scientific-sounding nonsense, while more "straightforward" characters use simple words to express complex things.
Because Podervianskyi's works are known primarily in the form of audio recordings of the author's recitals, his voice adds extra dramatic effect to the text.
by William Shakespeare
, set in an imaginary Denmark that closely resembles the Soviet Union of the 1980s. A bored and indifferent hero doesn't care about religion, revenge, truth, or politics; all he wants is to get drunk. Eventually he kills everyone, including his father, and he is taken to an asylum
by a famous psychiatrist Sigmund Freud
.
n taiga
, where a group of members of the Soviet youth Pioneer Movement
is led by a Communist official in search of God in order to prove (by not finding God) that God does not exist. Things rapidly change when God's messenger Mykola Ostrovsky (a reference to Soviet writer Nikolai Ostrovsky
), is found in the process. The result of rapid change from atheism
to paganism
is minimal in terms of human behaviour. The name of the play refers to pioneer Pavlik Morozov
, a young Soviet communist "martyr".
A group of passive art-men live in a freight car, eat state-supplied noodles every day, and do absolutely nothing except pseudo-intellectual chat. They are completely happy inside because they are guaranteed their supply of noodles. They are too scared to leave the car for fear of losing their daily meal. On the contrary, local passers-by (non-art-men) are extremely intrigued by what is happening inside, and seek whatever ways to get into the community. In the end, car brakes are removed, it rolls and crashes offscene.
and discussing various things, events and nations with equal enmity. As train arrives to the destination in the last act, Ukrainians meet Russians and kick their asses.
As said at http://community.livejournal.com/l_poderviansky/14568.html, the train described was the suburban one heading from Vladislavovka back to Feodosiya. Katsaps were pictured being in Novyi Svit (everything of that is in Crimea
).
Katsapy (sing. Katsap) is a Ukrainian pejorative
name for ethnic Russians. The Russian counterpart is Khokhol
, Khokhly, as a pejorative name for ethnic Ukrainians.
. Its plot is a parody of a classical play by a Soviet writer Maksim Gorky, an idyllic myth of totalitarian Communist ideology. In Gorky's play a hero named Danko leads poor people to the light and happiness through hardships and darkness, burns his own heart to show them the way and dies after this self-sacrifice. Les Podervianskyi's Danko is a rather strange and pathetic fellow, he is also leading a mob of people somewhere but he does not know the way and as he is afraid that people would be angry with his poor directions he burns his heart first, then his liver and finally his kidneys. He dies without any sense and is forgotten by the mob at once.
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
, and at times politically incorrect and obscene short plays. Their average duration is five to fifteen minutes, with some exceptions.
Cultural background
Podervianskyi's works are highly regarded owing to his attention to detail. Many behavioural modes are easily recognizable, and people are able to recognize themselves in the plays. The general absurdity of the situation makes the characters' absurd actions more acceptable, and although certain phrases the author uses are politically incorrect, his humour is generally neutral.
Podervianskyi says he draws a lot of his inspiration from the years of his army service. There is also an opinion that his plays are in some way inspired by works of Samuel Beckett
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
.
Language
Podervianskyi's works have often been criticized because of his use of vulgar unprintable language. They are written mostly in SurzhykSurzhyk
Surzhyk refers to a range of russified sociolects of Ukrainian used in certain regions of Ukraine and adjacent lands. It does not possess any unifying set of characteristics; the term is used for "norm-breaking, non-obedience to or nonawareness of the rules of the Ukrainian and Russian standard...
and include much swearing and obscenities, which make them appear as if they were composed by an uneducated person. Often it seems that the only reason one would read the works is for their comic impact and to hear creative swearing. But this is not the case. The numerous citations from Shakespear, Nietzsche, Taoism and dzen buddhism philosophers give the idea of several intellectual layers in his works. Although a number of Podervianskyi's expressions have entered Ukrainian
Ukrainian language
Ukrainian is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet....
slang
Slang
Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...
, he uses crude language to show the flaws and grotesqueness of his characters. Podervianskyi carefully matches up language with his characters. Thus a self-made intellectual spouts scientific-sounding nonsense, while more "straightforward" characters use simple words to express complex things.
Because Podervianskyi's works are known primarily in the form of audio recordings of the author's recitals, his voice adds extra dramatic effect to the text.
Works of Les Podervianskyi
- Hamlet — Гамлєт, або феномен датського кацапізму
- Pavlik Morozov — Павлік Порозов
- Pizdets — Піздєц
- Katsapy — Кацапи
- Danko — Данко
- Tsikavi Doslidy — Цікаві досліди
- Patsavata Istoriya — Пацавата історія
- Heroy Nashoho Chasu — Герой нашого часу
- Vasilisa Yegorovna i Muzhychki — Васіліса Єґоровна і мужичкі
- Mesto vstrechi izmenit nizzya, blyad — Місце встрєчі ізмєніть ніззя, блядь
- Ostanovis' mgnovenie — Остановісь мґновєніє
- Utopiya — Утопія
- Snoby — Сноби
- Khvoroba Ivasyka — Хвороба Івасика
- Korol Litr — Король Літр
- Nirvana, or Also Shprekh Zoroaster- Нірвана, або Альзо Шпрех Заратустра
- Yohy — Йоги
- Svoboda — Свобода
- Kazka pro repku — Казка про репку
- Vostok — Восток
- Do khuya masla — До хуя масла
- Pyat' Khvylyn Na Rozdumy — П'ять хвилин на роздуми
- Yoko ta Samurai — Йоко та самураї
- Dynamo — Динамо
- Jean Marais ta yoho druzi — Жан Маре та його друзі
- Dokhtory — Дохтори
- Kamyanyi Dovboyob — Кам'яний довбойоб
- Irzhyk — Іржик
- Den' kolhospnyka — День колгоспника
- Mnozhennya v umi, abo plynnist chasu — Множення в умі, або плинність часу
- Triasovyi Period — Тріасовий період
- Diana — Діана
- Blesk i nishcheta pidarasiv — Блєск і ніщєта підарасів
Hamlet
Podervianskyi's Hamlet is a short, satiric retelling of HamletHamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
by William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
, set in an imaginary Denmark that closely resembles the Soviet Union of the 1980s. A bored and indifferent hero doesn't care about religion, revenge, truth, or politics; all he wants is to get drunk. Eventually he kills everyone, including his father, and he is taken to an asylum
Psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...
by a famous psychiatrist Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
.
Pavlik Morozov
A longer (one-hour) play set in the SiberiaSiberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
n taiga
Taiga
Taiga , also known as the boreal forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests.Taiga is the world's largest terrestrial biome. In North America it covers most of inland Canada and Alaska as well as parts of the extreme northern continental United States and is known as the Northwoods...
, where a group of members of the Soviet youth Pioneer Movement
Pioneer movement
A pioneer movement is an organization for children operated by a communist party. Typically children enter into the organization in elementary school and continue until adolescence. The adolescents then typically joined the Young Communist League...
is led by a Communist official in search of God in order to prove (by not finding God) that God does not exist. Things rapidly change when God's messenger Mykola Ostrovsky (a reference to Soviet writer Nikolai Ostrovsky
Nikolai Ostrovsky
Nikolai Alexeevich Ostrovsky was a Soviet socialist realist writer, who published his works during the Stalin era...
), is found in the process. The result of rapid change from atheism
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
to paganism
Paganism
Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....
is minimal in terms of human behaviour. The name of the play refers to pioneer Pavlik Morozov
Pavlik Morozov
Pavel Trofimovich Morozov , better known by the diminutive Pavlik, was a Soviet youth praised by the Soviet press as a martyr. His story, dated to 1932, is that of a 13-year old boy who denounced his father to the authorities and was in turn killed by his family. His story was a subject of reading,...
, a young Soviet communist "martyr".
Pizdets
(Devoted to artists unions)A group of passive art-men live in a freight car, eat state-supplied noodles every day, and do absolutely nothing except pseudo-intellectual chat. They are completely happy inside because they are guaranteed their supply of noodles. They are too scared to leave the car for fear of losing their daily meal. On the contrary, local passers-by (non-art-men) are extremely intrigued by what is happening inside, and seek whatever ways to get into the community. In the end, car brakes are removed, it rolls and crashes offscene.
Katsapy
Four Russian tourists enjoy the seaside in mid-level resort city (arguably, Feodosiya), speaking with heavy Moscovite pronunciation (known as akanye). Four Ukrainian natives are approaching the city by train, speaking in SurzhykSurzhyk
Surzhyk refers to a range of russified sociolects of Ukrainian used in certain regions of Ukraine and adjacent lands. It does not possess any unifying set of characteristics; the term is used for "norm-breaking, non-obedience to or nonawareness of the rules of the Ukrainian and Russian standard...
and discussing various things, events and nations with equal enmity. As train arrives to the destination in the last act, Ukrainians meet Russians and kick their asses.
As said at http://community.livejournal.com/l_poderviansky/14568.html, the train described was the suburban one heading from Vladislavovka back to Feodosiya. Katsaps were pictured being in Novyi Svit (everything of that is in Crimea
Crimea
Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...
).
Katsapy (sing. Katsap) is a Ukrainian pejorative
Pejorative
Pejoratives , including name slurs, are words or grammatical forms that connote negativity and express contempt or distaste. A term can be regarded as pejorative in some social groups but not in others, e.g., hacker is a term used for computer criminals as well as quick and clever computer experts...
name for ethnic Russians. The Russian counterpart is Khokhol
Khokhol
Khokhol is a term used to describe the typical Ukrainian cossack style of haircut that features a lock of hair sprouting from the top or the front of an otherwise closely shaven head...
, Khokhly, as a pejorative name for ethnic Ukrainians.
Danko
This play is one of the shortest and at the same time one of the most often referred to and cited in unofficial communication and in public critical literature and media discourseDiscourse
Discourse generally refers to "written or spoken communication". The following are three more specific definitions:...
. Its plot is a parody of a classical play by a Soviet writer Maksim Gorky, an idyllic myth of totalitarian Communist ideology. In Gorky's play a hero named Danko leads poor people to the light and happiness through hardships and darkness, burns his own heart to show them the way and dies after this self-sacrifice. Les Podervianskyi's Danko is a rather strange and pathetic fellow, he is also leading a mob of people somewhere but he does not know the way and as he is afraid that people would be angry with his poor directions he burns his heart first, then his liver and finally his kidneys. He dies without any sense and is forgotten by the mob at once.
External links
- Paintings of Les Podervianskyi
- Fan-club in livejournal community, recent photos, links, facts and events
- Official site including texts and audio plays
- Les Podervyansky at artofukraine.com
- Tsikavi Doslidy. Unofficial web site (Ukrainian language)