German première

»Sound disturbance« – Stillness, dust. The bitterness of war shows its faces in all of its facets. A woman fights for her home; she has nothing left but a machine gun. It belongs to her son, a soldier. Feelings of love, fear and loss – and then music bursts through the language. A young man remembers his grandfather telling him about the Second World War. The different levels begin to intermingle.

The highly dramatic play »я, пулеметчик« (»I am the machine gunner«) was written by Jury Klavdiev, born in 1974 in Moscow, a playwright and screenwriter. It received its world premiere in 2004 in St. Petersburg.

Vladimir Pankov, born in 1975 in Moscow, is one of the most important directors of the new generation of Russian theatre artists. He founded SounDrama Studio in 2003, thus uniting various artistic directions. Using modern stylistic devices, he created a complex, thrilling production of »я, пулеметчик« and found impressive time references. Pankov has acted in international productions and received numerous prizes. He also works as a composer for theatre and television. He was represented at euro-scene Leipzig in 2006 with Teatre.doc & SounDrama Studio and his piece »Dok.Tor«.

»Klavdiev wrote a deeply personal, highly compelling tale about two members of a family and the entirely different wars that history waged with them. Pankov exploded this into a grandiose commentary about the insidious, unspeakable effects of world politics on contemporary life« (John Freedmann, The Moscow Times, Moskau, 23.09.2010).