Russian playwright and director Ivan Vyrypaev’s premiere of ‘Mahamaya Electronic Devices’ at VOICES 2024 in Berlin models the curse of humankind’s consciousness in our highly digitised contemporary world. Maya means illusion in Sanskrit, referring to ancient Buddhist texts which define all perceptible reality as an illusion.

‘Maha’ means big or great in Sanskrit, and Mahamaya translates as ‘the great illusion.’ It is open to individual interpretation whether this refers to the Buddhist concept of human existence as a play of illusions that blur our perception of true reality (which only a dedicated apprentice might overcome by breaking the eternal wheel of reincarnation) or whether it refers instead to Norman Angell’s influential book, ‘The Great Illusion’ about why contemporary capitalism can not afford the costs of war. Or perhaps it refers to the classic war drama by Jean Renoir, or the assertion by Albert Einstein that the greatest illusion in the world is that of humanity’s separation and independence because our vision is ultimately always influenced and distorted by a myriad of different conditions which exist in the world.

‘Mahamaya’ is the first project Warsaw-based, Russian-born director Ivan Vyrypaev (b. 1974) created after the start of the Russian invasion in Ukraine in 2022 when he launched the ‘Teal House Foundation’ in Warsaw to help Ukrainian, Russian and Belarussian actors and artists who were forced to move abroad to collaborate on various dramatic projects. The actors in ‘Mahamaya Electronic Devices’ come from all over the world, from countries affected by war and it was first staged in Russian, Romanian and Ukrainian, before being translated into other languages.

- What would you like to abolish?

- All but three.

- Name those.

- Violence of any kind should be banned by the state. Though many states employ violence. If a state wants to ban another state, that means war. War is violence. Violence should be banned.

There are four actors in ‘Mahamaya’, yet throughout the play it is not clear who they are for there are no parts and no characters. They are simply random voices who ask and answer questions, or as it turns out, are not able to answer them. They fire questions out in a fast pace, male and female actors, standing in front of a huge screen. Questions about sex, abortion, money, drugs, war, race, taxes, politics. Does God exist? What is the meaning of life?

The website describes the show as a blend of Tarantino aesthetics with the spirituality of Andrey Tarkovsky. Vyrypaev, a visionary director transforms his actors into futuristic AI avatars drawing inspiration from the heart of Silicon Valley, where he is currently crafting a fresh vision of the future.

The script is disruptive, jagged, and the music and computer graphics do not bring any more harmony, in fact together they act to irritate the audience. The digital screen in the backround plays a central role – it is from this that the play takes its name ‘Electronic Devices’. It is a world devoid of the human touch, and even the electronic music is subservient to robotics and digital devices and Vyrypaev attempts to recreate our contemporary world with its ubiquetous rapid question-response, question-response refrains. This itself is further subverted by a hidden human agent: the four actors are meant to be making only robotic exchanges but somehow they manage to create rising emotional tension.

It gradually becomes clear that you are facing not just random voices on stage asking questions without answers, but ultimately the consciousness of humanity which exists through the incessant questioning of every decision we make, both small and large, from what to eat for breakfast today, to what is the meaning of life. It is this endless brain work that makes humanity more human.

Yet, with Vyrypaev, you are always conscious that there is a counteragent or a blackmailer. The director seems to want to connect his own post-nihilist sense of being with his actors who ask the audience these cursed questions, rather than posing them amongst themselves on stage. In the end it feels like we have become free from the huge burden of our times, but does it really mean we are innocent?

- What is I?

- That's an illusion.

- But I can choose.

- That's an illusion.