Plastic Palace is part of the artists’ ongoing research into the history of the world’s first professional Deaf theatre, “Theatre of Mime and Gesture” (TMG) in Moscow, Russia. Established in the early 1960s, the TMG became an important space for expanding art and culture among Deaf people in Moscow. The film features Deaf actor, Mudaris Muzafarov, exploring the interior of the theatre where he worked for over four decades, and for whom its history is a lived experience. Traces of the theatre’s “golden age” are activated through a combination of archival footage and the memories and reenactments of the actor.

Muzafarov recalls his role in the silent performance “Enchanted Island,” directed by late hearing Russian writer Evgeny Kharitonov for the TMG in 1972. Few records of the performance remain, yet it was innovative for its experimental use of pantomime without the accompaniment of a speaking interpreter for hearing audiences, departing from the standard at the time. 

For this film, the artists worked closely with veteran actor Muzafarov as well as a group of Deaf researchers and theatre staff over a period of three years, exploring and reimagining the original pantomime from the performance based on the few available  photos, writings, and memories of its original Deaf actors. The film aims to frame this history within a Deaf space of knowledge, while exploring the role that dynamic performances of memory can play in the reconstitution of Deaf history and heritage.

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body.

Directed by Avni and Rebecca Dauti

Performer

Mudaris Muzafarov

Producer

Maxim Pechersky

Director of Photography

Pavel Filileev

Production Design

Darya Litvinova

Interpreter and Coordinator

Lyuda Luchkova

Research Consultant

Viktor Palenny