Doc.Theatre is a documentary company, strongly rooted in a certain sociological reality. Its experimental character is
comparable with that of MCHAT, however it is not fully justified to put side by side these two phenomena of the Russian theatre scene. Vladimir Paknov, an initiator of a new theatrical method aspires after the synthesis his predecessors dreamed about a hundred years ago, but he is aware that what can be called a synthesis of man does not exist. Dok+Tor is a performance based on a monologue, written down by Helena Isaieva, of an Astrakhan surgeon who in his youth worked in country hospitals where electricity stopped working during operations and the only medicine was diluted iodine. He was a mediator between life and death, confronted with a question if it was worth to save the life of man who killed his wife a year later. In the performance this monologue was adapted for several voices and new characters were introduced who, during this ‘mystery of life and death’, are occupied with weird activities – pouring vodka into glasses, drinking, watching a film about stomach resection through somebody’s back etc.
Although Doc.Theatre breaks a moratorium for funny, loud, theatrical lie, authenticity and terrible truth do not disappear.