The elderly father and mother take the basket filled with vegetables and visit their son at the front. Laughter, dances, festivity- all this is arranged in time of war, under the gun
firings.
The new production of the startling Spanish playwright and dramatist Fernando Arrabal’s “Le Grand Ceremonial” is on the stage of the Faculty of Culture in the Pedagogical University
Absurd atmosphere, actions, war- with the reflection of a false mirror everything reaches exaggeration in this performance presented in dramaturgic absurd genre.
“In the past, the wars used to be colorful- I say the Lord’s Prayers before killing an enemy, and you are the enemy from birth?”-each word uttered by the young actors of the students’ troop makes a person go deep into thought.
The young man, fighting on the other side of the barricades, accidentally finds himself next to the enemy. Due to the interference of the enemy’s careful parents, a few minutes after they make friends, he joins the party and tells them whatever occurs to his minds.
“I am preparing flowers of pieces of cloth in the entrenchments not to get bored. I used to send them to my girl-friend but
now I put a flower with each killed person,” says one of the heroes and then adds, “No matter how many I make, they will still be needed”.
“The General says that our enemies put stones in the prisoners’ shoes so that it hurt the feet while walking,” suddenly the soldier remembers. “Our General would also tell us the same”, the prisoner puts in.
In a short while they understand that they have been shamelessly cheated; the war was instigated by the higher
authorities, and they are unable to stay enemies as they are extremely similar.
“This performance is quite up-to-date; it teaches to love one another no matter what nationality or religion they have.
The play was first staged 10 years ago. And the new performance once again calls not to start wars and not to destroy one another. This is all about peace,” adds the lecturer of the Department of Direction and the Director of the performance Herbert Gasparyan.
Both the whole process and the ending were quite unexpected and sudden. “We may stop this war,” the heroes realize. But again the firing starts leaving the “dance of peace” unfinished.
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