«Cabaret Maiakovsky»

About the Performance

«Cabaret Maiakovsky» is a participant of Off Avignon 2025. The performance is inspired not only by the poetry of pre-revolutionary Mayakovsky, but by the personality of the poet himself - his intensity, charisma, and inner fire. The action unfolds in a cabaret of the early 20th century - a historical analogue of today’s stand-up clubs, where the guiding principle was: news in the morning, verses in the evening. Extreme humor, eccentric acts, musical interludes - and, of course, the headliner: Mayakovsky himself. Here, he is not merely a character but the master of the stage - an improviser, performer, singer, dancer, and interpreter of everything happening around him. Everything that occurs in the cabaret instantly becomes poetry: the spirit of the time, urban events, everyday observations, men and women - all are immediately transformed into rhyme and rhythm. The musical accompaniment is performed by the band «Children of Mayakovsky» - a post-ironic parody of progressive pop culture and a tribute to punk as a symbol of freedom and counterculture.

Galina Pyanova, director of «Cabaret Maiakovsky»:
«Mayakovsky is trending again. Across the world, there is a renewed fascination with the avant-garde aesthetics of the early 20th century. This naturally leads back to the Russian avant-garde - Mayakovsky, Rodchenko, Eisenstein. Avant-garde artists and experimenters become especially important during times of global crisis. Humanity seems once again drawn into an apocalyptic state - and this likely explains the renewed attention to experimental art today.

Experimenters are needed by audiences once more. They help us register time and ourselves within it. They restore the feeling that you are truly living, not merely waiting for ‘the moment’ when everything finally settles. Cabaret allows this experience to be lighter, more ironic. It merges clowning and political satire into a single form.

This led us to the idea of translating parts of the poem into a musical score. We didn’t want to copy pop music - we wanted to ask: how would Mayakovsky sing today? What would his voice sound like? Which genre would he choose? Which instruments would he use now? That’s how ‘punk cabaret’ was born - avant-garde sound, radical presentation, free interaction with the audience, a certain anarchic spirit, and at the same time absolute poetic tenderness. A tenderness that always contains protest. That is our Mayakovsky.»

(Vlast Internet Magazine, August 2025)

About the Author: Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893–1930) was one of the most influential Russian poets of the 20th century and a leading figure of Futurism. In 1915, he wrote his most significant pre-revolutionary poem, «A Cloud in Trousers.» Declaring himself the voice of the streets, Mayakovsky burned with love for a woman named Maria, rejected traditional art, and boldly challenged even God himself - with a passion and linguistic daring previously unseen in Russian poetry. The work is famous for its rebellious manifesto: «Down with your love! Down with your art! Down with your system! Down with your religion!»