MANUAL
Take a load off your feet. Your feet are loaded with the truth like nothing else. It’s like they say in a theater: watch your feet, dude, your feet are giving you away. You are yelling your lines like there’s no tomorrow, but your feet are too limp, way too relaxed. Your feet are telling what you are trying to hide: ah, screw this rehearsal, we’ll take you out of this theater and carry you to the next diner. Your feet are the snitches. It’s the third day of my administrative detention after the anti-war picket. I am teaching girls in my cell how to stand in front of the officers of the special detention center. You can’t just stand there straight and upright, like at attention; you have to shift your body weight on one foot, slightly tilt your head left or right, and one shoulder should be higher than the other one. The most difficult part is to decide what to do with your hands. They just keep locking themselves behind your back, prisoner-like. So you can fold them over your chest or just leave them hanging, that’s okay too. Your words can lie, your body cannot. The point is to break the symmetry. Symmetry is the mother of order. Of law and order. You can say whatever, but your feet will spill all your secrets. Or not. You’ll definitely feel the difference. Just try to do it right now. Stand straight, your feet hip-width apart, your hands behind your back, your chin slightly down. Look straight up and say your full name and your date of birth. And then just stand at ease and introduce yourself once again. Even better, say your given name before your surname, not vice versa. Ivanov Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov are two different people. One is symmetric and meek; the other, crooked and free-spirited.
Zhenya Berkovich, theater director, March 18, 2022 Translated by Aysat Anis-El