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Octavia. Trepanation is a scenically operative work by the young Soviet director Boris Yukhananov, with a libretto by Dmitri Kourliandski. It debuted at the Holland Festival in 2017 and was later adapted by the Stanislavsky Electrotheatre company in Moscow for the stunning and intimate architecture of the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza.
Kourliandski’s dramaturgical operation, created as part of the centenary celebrations of the October Revolution, juxtaposes, under the themes of violence and tyranny, Seneca’s Octavia with the thoughts of Lev Trotsky on Vladimir Lenin: on one side, Nero’s Rome, bloodied by tyranny and executions; on the other, yesterday’s Russia, a contemporary history of violence and idealism, still stained with blood.
Yukhananov’s direction, working within the complex textual layering—made even more challenging for the Italian audience by the Russian language—immerses spectators in an experience halfway between opera and video installation, distorting the space with stroboscopic lights and electronic music composed by Oleg Makarov.