What if they went to Moscow?

What if they went to Moscow? Starts from the text As três irmãs [The three sisters], by Anton Tchekhov, and is about an infinite loop of three women, Olga, Irina and Macha, who live in hesitation and afraid of big decisions, still stuck to the past, but always on the verge of making a big leap into the future. A future in which they are the protagonists of their own story, and in which “Moscow”, the place idealized by them, is no longer a utopia, but real.

Created in 2014, the play continues Jatahy’s research on the relationship between theater and cinema, through the transposition of classics to contemporaneity. The result is a mirroring effect between the two arts, which happen simultaneously in two distinct spaces: while the show is being performed, images are captured by three cameras integrated into the scene. The composition of the film is made live and sent into another space, a cinema room. Theater and cinema happen at the same time, but are watched in distinct spaces.

Each camera accompanies one of the sisters. Irina carries it, in a more documental style of shooting. Olga is accompanied by a camera moved on a tripod, which reveals the scenery and introduces the house. While Macha has a romantic relationship with her camera, creating two different perspectives: to the theater audience, her relation is with the cameraman, but to the movie spectators, the relationship is directly with them.

In the end, the challenge in this play is constructing two works that exist fully in their spaces, but complement each other when seen by the same spectator as a single work.
The book What if they went to Moscow? is a bilingual edition, in Portuguese and French, of this Christiane Jatahy play, performed in more than ten countries, having won multiple awards, amongst them the Shell and the APTR of best direction for Christiane Jatahy and the Shell of Best Actress for Stella Rabello.
About the author
Director, playwright and filmmaker, Christiane Jatahy develops a unique work in the inter-weaving of theater, cinema and performance. Her work questions, profoundly and sensibly, the separations between reality and fiction, actor and character, the intimate and the political ¬— opening up space for reflections about the other and the foreigner. With a strong documental dimension and innovative scenic devices, she constructs a singular language, in which the mediums mix together and tense up against each other. Her repertoire brings together works that are in conversation with classics of global dramaturgy, but always through contemporary and urgent perspectives. Internationally known, in 2022 she received the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for her complete theatrical work. The next year, she was awarded with the medal Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, for her contribution to culture and arts in the international stage.
About the collection
The Dramaturgy Collection publishes, since 2012, works from Brazilian and international playwrights. The books incite the debate and the development of a collective theatrical memory of our time, marking a new register in contemporary dramaturgy. In 2015, Cobogó launched the Spanish Dramaturgy Collection, later on, the French Dramaturgy Collection (2019) and the Dutch Dramaturgy Collection (2022). The Dramaturgy Collection has more than 100 published titles, multiple award-winning plays, from more than 70 major playwrights.

Specifications
Title E se elas fossem para Moscou? [What if they went to Moscow?]
Author Christiane Jatahy
Collection Dramaturgy
Complementary writing Christophe Triau and Sílvia Fernandes
Jacket copy, synopsis and short bio Chris Jatahy
Language Portuguese and French
Page count 248
Publisher Cobogó
ISBN 978-65-5691-187-8
Cover Cubículo
Format Softcover
Size 13x19 cm
Year 2025
Price R$ 84,00