DIRECTOR
AND ARTIST
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Photo: Gio Kardava
Maxim Didenko is a London-based, internationally acclaimed theatre and opera director working across the UK and Europe. His recent work spans major theatres and opera houses including Staatsschauspiel Dresden, Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, Theater Bonn, Nationaltheater Mannheim, Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, Theatre Royal Haymarket and Marylebone Theatre in London. He is known for visually powerful, music-driven productions that reimagine classical and contemporary texts through physical ensemble work, choreography, rigorous dramaturgy and large-scale visual composition. Recent directing credits include Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Snow Maiden at Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, Erich Maria Remarque’s The Night in Lisbon at Nationaltheater Mannheim, Kafka’s The Castle at Staatsschauspiel Dresden and Musik für die Lebenden at Theater Bonn. His UK production The White Factory, by Dmitry Glukhovsky, at Marylebone Theatre was nominated for seven Off West End Awards, including Best Director, and won three, including Best Production.
Born in Omsk, Didenko studied at the St Petersburg Theatre Arts Academy and began his career as a performer and dancer with Derevo Theatre in St Petersburg and Dresden. He later developed his directing career in Moscow and across Russia, becoming one of the most celebrated directors of his generation, with awards and nominations including the Golden Mask, the Russian National Theatre Award, the Golden Sofit, the Sergey Kuryokhin Award and the GQ Award. He has collaborated with Russian Engineering Theatre AKHE, the DAKH Centre of Contemporary Art in Kyiv and Farm in the Cave in Prague, and his work has appeared at numerous international festivals. His artistic research into political myth, memory, violence and Soviet totalitarian culture has led him to adapt and stage works by Boris Pasternak, Isaac Babel, Vladimir Sorokin, Franz Kafka, Mikhail Bulgakov, Kurt Vonnegut and others.
NEW PERFORMANCES
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ALL THEATRE PERFORMANCES
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MAXIM DIDENKO
Photo: Gio Kardava
Maxim is a theatrical director originally from St. Petersburg. His artistic research of Soviet totalitarian culture and society has led him to adapt for stage the works of Boris Pasternak, Isaac Babel and Vladimir Sorokin.
Maxim was one of the most celebrated directors in Russia and has received numerous awards including: Golden Mask, National Theatre Award, Golden Sophite, Sergey Kuryokin Award, GQ Award, Best Director for the Ballet The Overcoat at St. Petersburg Theatre Awards for Young Artists, Best Artist Breakthrough 2014, Made in Russia Award for Pasternak. My Sister - Life and Best Director I am here - inter-regional V festival contest.
After graduating from St. Petersburg Theatre Arts Academy, studying under G.M. Kozlov, from 2004-2009 he was an actor at Derevo Theatre (St. Petersburg - Dresden). Credits include: Ketzal, Execution of Pierrot, Dreams of Robert, DiaGnoze, La Divina Comedia, Islands, Once.
Since 2007 he has collaborated with the Russian Engineering Theatre KHE and the Centre of Contemporary Art DAKH in Kyiv. In 2010 he organized ‘The Drystone Pro-Theatre Union and celebrated several productions, performances and initiatives.
His directing credits include: Lefty, Wozzeck, Slaghterhouse 5, Through the Eyes of a Clown, Red Cavalry, Kharms. Myr, Earth, Young Guard, The Idiot, Chapaev and Pustota, The Trial, The Circus, Ten Days that Shook the World, Heart of a Dog, Run, Alice, Run, The Text, and many more.
After Russia began its war on Ukraine, Didenko, who publicly supported Ukraine’s resistance and made pro-peace statements, chose to leave Russia to preserve his artistic and personal freedom.
In February 2024 The white factory won three awards in Offies 2023 London
MULTIDISCIPLINARY: ACTIONISM / DIGITAL / STREET THEATRE / IMMERSIVE AND SITE SPECIFIC / LARGE SCALE EVENTS
During all his career Maxim is also working as a performer and activist artist, and created actions with other artists, among them Igor Tsvetkov, Vladimir Varnava, Vladimir Volkov, Oleg Zhukovskiy, Ilia Starikov and many others.
Their actions took place in museums, abandoned factories, augmented reality, old city squares and many other public places.
The main theme for Maxim's research is always a human as a most vulnerable and same time dangerous creature and his communication with totalitarian and society. Maxim's last work Rapture was presented in Galerie KUCHLING in Berlin, and grew into a big multidisciplinary project Dark times.
ACTION ACTION ACTION
Activism is a form of contemporary art experienced in the 1960s in Europe. The desire to blur the line between art and the reality of transmission to the search for new sensations of artistic expression, giving dynamics to the work, involving it in some kind of action (action).
Action (or artistic action) becomes common for artistic practices, in which the emphasis is reconsidered with the works themselves on the process of its creation. In Actionism, the artist tends to become the subject
Site-specific theatre is a theatrical production that is performed at a unique, specially adapted location other than a standard theatre. This unique site may have been built without any intention of serving theatrical purposes (for example, a hotel, courtyard, or converted building). It may also simply be an unconventional space for theatre (for example, a forest). Site-specific theatre seeks to use the properties of a unique site's landscape, rather than a typical theatre stage, to add depth to a theatrical production. Sites are selected based on their ability to amplify storytelling and form a more vivid backdrop for the actors in a theatrical production.
Immersive theatre differentiates itself from traditional theater by removing the stage and immersing audiences within the performance itself. Often, this is accomplished by using a specific location (like in site-specific), allowing audiences to converse with the actors and interact with their surroundings, thereby breaking the fourth wall.
