Volksbuhne Brings Ivanov to Los Angeles

As the Artistic Director of UCLA Live, the most significant part of my job is to travel the globe seeing theatre, dance and performances with a view to inclusion in the season in Los Angeles. For every hundred shows I see there will be one that will be unequivocally fabulous (which means I get to sit through a lot of stuff so that my audience doesn't have to) -- but when it happens it's the highlight of the job. One of the most outstanding demonstration of this Blinding Light of the Instant Booking finally arrives on these shores next week when Berlin's extraordinary Volksbuhne Theatre bring Ivanov to Los Angeles.

This is a show that is virtually impossible to describe -- it is Chekhov's first play? Well, yes, after a fashion. Do they tell the same story? Yes, they do and in point of fact it is performed to an exceptionally high standard by a stellar cast. But any similarity to any other performance by Chekhov (or for that matter anyone else) ends there. In this (quite literally) transcendental production, all conventional staging is completely abandoned and replaced with... smoke. Smoke that moves, thickens, parts, drifts; smoke that at times almost takes on the characteristics of an extra actor and ultimatel, smoke which creates an other-worldly, ethereal atmosphere within which the story of the blighted Ivanov unfolds and exists.

Impossible to describe; impossible to forget and (almost) impossible to stage (A battery of machinery has to be brought in to replace the theatres pre-existing air conditioning system and that's just for starters).

It has been three years since I first saw the show in Germany and on Tuesday I will finally have the satisfaction of presenting it as a highlight of our Seventh International Theatre Festival -- where it will play until Sunday , December 7th.

It has taken a Herculean effort on behalf of the staff of UCLA Live and the generous support of the Goethe Institute and board of Royce Center Circle.

And this will be your only chance to see it, probably ever, in the United States.

Really, can you afford not to go?