Oriented on making people closer

The first week of July became a true theater marathon in the cultural life of Ashgabat. The festival of scenic art attracted the attention of both the true theatergoers, and those who have just joined the ranks of spectators in the premiere performances. Such a lively interest, especially among young people, was stimulated by the topic of the festival – the Great Silk Road.

The heritage of this way is now being moderated in a new format and in several dimensions – in diplomacy, economics, culture and art. Not only historians, but also political scientists, sociologists, writers and artists are rediscovering the phenomenon of this legendary route, the revival of which is now in demand by the time itself.

So much the better was to plunge into the atmosphere of the era when, along the lands of modern Turkmenistan, along the rough barkhans of the Karakum Desert and the rich trading towns with luxurious caravan-saray and fairy palaces, the small villages of craftsmen and farmers and the generous valleys, the path followed by long chains of merchant caravans from afar is laid.

They merchandised valuable goods from East to West and back. At the same time, they delivered valuable knowledge, skills, thoughts and ideas, philosophical and ethical views, engineering and scientific discoveries, creative concepts that, perhaps, more valuable than commodities themself...

Along the Great Silk Road, there was an active interchange on the material and spiritual level between representatives of different peoples, religions and cultures. Probably, it can be compared to the first analogue of the Internet connection on the continent, although the data speed were, of course, incommensurably different, but in terms of the influence that it had on the development of states and civilizations, the human worldview and the way of life of whole communities is a quite comparable.

The playwrights, in their own way, tried to reveal different aspects of the life of that period, and the troupes of the capital’s and velayat’s theaters expressively embodied these stories on the stage, where the lines from the ancient chronicles are intertwined with artistic fiction, and the romantic legends with the breath of today.