NEPTUNE PROJECT:  Transforming Personal Narrative Into Political Statement in an Autobiographical Play

Vera Boitcova

This thesis explores the ways in which personal narratives in dramaturgy can be read as political statements on the example of creating and staging my autobiographical queer play Neptune over the course of two years (March 2021-March 2023). My research questions include: - What circumstances can evoke a creative desire to transform personal into political through art mediums? To what extent performance art can be effective as a tool to convey political messages? - How to convey political messages through personal narratives in dramaturgy\playwriting? What makes a narrative political and what can be defined as a political narrative? What does ‘being political’ mean specifically for a queer artist\dramaturge? - What methodology, aesthetical, directorial and acting choices can be made to further enhance and underline political message of a documentary narrative, specifically in queer context? These questions will be examined in a detailed account of writing my own autobiographical play Neptune in the year of war and strengthening of oppression in Russia, and subsequent staging of this play. My play had three distinct layers: meta-level (where the narrator talked about her recent political experiences in the year 2022), memory level (subjective memories of a lost love), and fictional level (different characters acting in thematically-relevant vignettes). Therefore, I want my thesis to be reflective of the same structure: it will have three main chapters - Meta, Memory, and Fiction – with the overall reflection at the end. Overall aim of this thesis is to trace the process of creating an autobiographical play from its creative conception (and reasons behind it) to turning it into a theatre production, and by doing so, to examine if it succeeded in its initial goal of conveying a certain political message, and if so, how this result was achieved.

Chapter 1. Meta

Neptune: Scene 1, MC and Sailor Scouts. Photo by Roosa Oksaharju.

I was supposed to write a play about love. My love. I will call her M. M will stand for ‘memory’. A distorted memory. My memory of M is: beautiful, sassy, competitive, stubborn, African-American, Southern Belle.

I just threw a bunch of words at you, but I cannot truly describe her, nor speak her language. Her language is not my language, her country is not my country, her upbringing is not my upbringing. Don’t look for real M in my words. I’m not sure anyone has ever known real M, least of all me. But the memory of M will be here tonight, and I hope it will haunt you the same way it still haunts me.

I had a year to write this play. It was oh so neatly organized in my mind. A year 2022. 12 months, 12 chapters, 12 episodes, one per month. But M is not here anymore, and neither am I. And more importantly, love is not here.

So, I failed. The End.

This is the opening of my autobiographical play Neptune that I have been planning to write since 2021. It was supposed to be a play about love (queer love at that), or, more precisely, the inability to love. It was supposed to be personal, just a collection of memories. However, over the course of two years, it has transformed into something completely different.

In this chapter, I will describe the reasons that led me to Neptune’s creation and the reasons why I failed to write it in the way it was initially planned - what political and personal circumstances led me to completely change the structure, and, more importantly, the overall message of the play. This chapter describes my journey as a political artist and activist in search for answers to such questions as: What circumstances can evoke a creative desire to transform personal into political through art mediums? And to what extent performance art can be effective as a tool to convey political messages?

By writing it, I hope to give account of some historical and political events of recent years in Russia that shaped cultural and artistic scene in the country, influenced me as a dramaturge, and led to the creation of Neptune, my first queer play.

1.1 There is no political art in modern Russia.

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Vera Boitcova - NEPTUNE PROJECT: Transforming Personal Narrative Into Political Statement in an Autobiographical Play - 2023