Память (pamiat’): Memory, Noun, Feminine, Singular: Documentary Theater of Anastasia Patlay

• In Event: Trauma, Memory, and Resistance in Theatre and Film II

Abstract

My presentation considers two documentary theater productions, Anastasia Patlay’s Tango Morgen (2021) and Memoria (2022), through the lens of gender studies and trauma theory. In these productions, Patlay, one of the most significant directors in contemporary Russian documentary theater, explores themes of collective trauma and individual experience of traumatic historical events. By focusing on singular narratives and female bodies on stage, Patlay’s documentary theater enacts resistance to state-sponsored discourse on collective memory and shared history.

Author

• Natalia Plagmann, Dartmouth College