Dancing with Death: Anton Khabarov played Don Juan in Moliere's comedy
The main role in the production of Moliere's comedy "Don Juan" was offered by director Maxim Melamedov to Anton Khabarov, who is also known for the image of Casanova from the TV series of the same name. A long-time seducer is partnering on stage with his wife. Elena Khabarova plays Don Juan's wife Elvira. Talking about a piquant topic, MGT dispensed with vulgarity and straightforwardness. Izvestia attended the premiere.
"Don Juan" at the Moscow Provincial Theater
To stage Moliere's Don Juan is a tempting story. And how many versions of the stage incarnation of the classics were seen by the audience. So they decided in Gubernia that it was their turn. Black-and-white posters with close-ups of an unshaven Anton Khabarov with unusually long hair set him up for something far from fun, philosophical and gloomy. The advertising banner promised a tilt into reflection and reflection, so the genre of the play is designated as a tragicomedy.
Anton Khabarov and Ekaterina Strizhenova
According to director Maxim Melamedov, the production is called "Don Juan. A new myth." The audience was waiting for her, tickets were sold out long before the premiere shows. Moreover, the launched TV series "Casanova" starring Anton Khabarov added to the excitement around "Don Juan".
"Our hero is not just a seducer of women, a cynic and a charming mind catcher,— says director Maxim Melamedov. — First of all, he is a broken man, a man who believes in nothing: neither in people, nor in love, nor in God, nor in the devil.
With this conviction, the director built the image of the hero. Don Juan is initially a cruel, immoral adventurer, rapist and murderer, over time he becomes an increasingly charming and popular seducer and philosopher in art. He is dangerous, cynical, but at the same time beautiful. And people tend to believe in beautiful people. He knows no brakes in his search for pleasure. The only one who tries to land him and reason with him is the servant Sganarelle (Mikhail Shilov). Devoted to Don Juan, he is like a voice of conscience trying to save him. But more often than not, it's the voice of one crying in the wilderness.
Set designer Philip Schein created one large set on the stage, resembling a temple, which is the center of the universe in any situation. Sganarelle comes to confession there. But he is not asking for himself, but for his master. He was disgusted by Don Juan's debauchery.
"My Lord Don Juan is the greatest villain the earth has ever known. It's a dog, a monster, a devil, a heretic. He's like a vile brute, a pig, a Sardanapal. He thinks that what we believe in is nonsense, Holy Father. He's willing to do anything for his passion. He uses marriage as a trap. He doesn't care who he marries. I can't work for him anymore, and I'd rather serve the devil myself," Sganarelle says emotionally.
While the servant is confessing, the master is watching him, and at some point he lures the Pastor (Yuri Kolganov) and takes his place. But jokes have no place in the temple, and this angers Sganarelle even more. And the non-Christian host is only interested in sports. He's ready to seduce even a nun on a bet. And he does it in front of the astonished Puritan. Meanwhile, at the most piquant moment, Elvira (Elena Khabarova) bursts into the temple. Don Juan's wife knows her lover's weakness for the female sex. She is unable to fight him, so she takes her soul away in a fight.
And Don Juan is sure that constancy is suitable only for cranks. Any beauty is free to charm, and the advantage of a first meeting should not take away from others the legitimate rights they have in their hearts. Like Alexander the Great, he wished that there were other worlds where he would be allowed to carry out his love victories. He records his adventures on wooden accounting accounts.
A dance with Death
It's amazing how the director managed to use metaphors and hints to tell us what's going on behind closed bedroom doors. The scene with Elvira is transferred under the skirt of the bell. This percussive musical instrument has such a detail, otherwise it is designated by the body. There's something erotic about it. With each stroke of the bell's tongue, the dust of centuries flies into the air. At the same time, what happens inside, the audience can only imagine to the best of their knowledge.
Dust flying up, powder, flour, lime — all this is an allegory of Don Juan's attraction. The only eroticism in the play is Anton Khabarov, who is exposing himself. As in the movie "9 ½ weeks," the actor takes off his shirt, then his pants... and remains in only his family underpants. This may be somewhat embarrassing for the artist, but not for his character. Don Juan is running around the stage in his underwear, and there's no time for Moliere. The ladies take out their phones to capture this moment.
"The rehearsals lasted two months, but we started preparing to work with the director a year ago, which gave us the opportunity to cut off the unnecessary interpretation of my character and work in advance," says Anton Khabarov.
Director Maxim Melamedov suggests seeing the ambiguous, complex image of Don Juan in the eternal conflict of good and evil, in a deadly game of seduction, in the dispute between two heroes — Sganarelle and his master.
—My Don Juan is a man doomed to lack of faith who suffers from it himself,— says Anton Khabarov. — In his vanity, he reaches permissiveness — it seems to him that since there is no justice, money rules the world, there is no God, no devil, then there is no punishment for anything. But this is his big mistake.
Sergey Bezrukov, artistic director of MGT, is confident that high comedy is always a challenge, a test of skill. It requires lightness, precision, and virtuosity from the director and actor combined with the seriousness of the play's theme.
— I really like this kind of directing, when comedy turns into confessional creativity, when it's a conversation about the soul, — says the artistic director. — And in this performance, we not only delight the audience, make them laugh, and bully them, but also make them think about eternal questions.
Moliere's farce turns into a real tragedy in the finale. In front of friends and family, Don Juan repents. Meeting with a priest in the forest makes a revolution in the soul. And now the Pastor is already rejoicing at the changes, and Sganarelle rejoices that his master has fallen in love with heaven. But that was not the case. It turned out that Don Juan was a fake. He hasn't changed at all. And his feelings are still the same. His family can't forgive him for playing this game. And to prove his former irresistibility, the sensualist chooses as his victim the one he has never been able to dance. All the women who met along the way prostrated themselves before him. The only thing he didn't try to seduce was death. It excites his mind. Evil spirits win in the battle of reason and ghosts. The forbidden fruit is sweet. And the dance with death becomes the last in his life.
Perhaps the role of death is the most sinister in the play. Few people can agree to wear a mask with empty eye sockets and bared jaws. But the director selected light and airy ballerinas for this role. There are several of them, as the schedule of dancing artists is as complex as that of playing artists, and it is not easy to combine them.
Sganarelle sobs over the lifeless body. And the parishioners of the temple forgive Don Juan for his sins and erect a monument to him. And every spring it is renewed with plaster and paint. But now he is safe, now Don Juan towers only over other people's tombstones.
The next premiere screenings will take place on April 2 and 3.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
