Better with a choir: Gogol's "Marriage" was staged at the Mossovet Theater
To "Marry" as a holiday. It was with this mood that Gogol's admirers went to the Mossovet Theater for the premiere. Artistic director Evgeny Marcelli presented his reading of Nikolai Vasilyevich's eternal comedy to the audience. People's Artist of Russia Olga Ostroumova played a matchmaker. And Alexander Yatsko, Valery Yaremenko and Sergey Vinogradov fought for the hand of Niki Zdorik, known for her role in the new "Midshipmen". Izvestia visited the premiere and was surprised by how the choir of brides sang the main characters.
A running vacuum cleaner and a depressed gentleman
While waiting for the performance, the audience looked at the stage, where a high-tech lounge chair was located, and a robot vacuum cleaner was polishing around it. The austere design set us up to rethink the classics. Gogol called his comedy "Marriage. An absolutely incredible event in two acts." Director Evgeny Marcelli decided to get to the truth through this improbability.
His performance does not look like a joke. The director presents a serious human drama, while being told easily and at ease. And recognizable characters are devoid of caricature. Today, the story invented by Gogol almost 200 years ago still looks modern. This is also noticeable in the costumes. Artist Anastasia Bugaeva suggested modernizing the outfits of the characters. This dress could be worn in the 19th century, and at some reception in the 21st century.
The main character, Ivan Kuzmich Podkolesin, has a midlife crisis. He is played by Honored Artist of Russia Alexander Yatsko. Besides, he was clearly depressed. The life of Gogol's hero is very ascetic. But there is enough money for servants. Stepan (Alexander Popelo) squeezes juice from oranges for his master, listens to all sorts of nonsense and agrees in time. And the master, lying on the couch in a house suit and shoes on his bare feet, looks at the ceiling and thinks about whether he should get married. An elderly court counselor, like Emelya, dreams that life will change at the behest of a pike.
Fekla Ivanovna, the matchmaker, helps the potential groom. Her director offered Olga Ostroumova, a People's Artist of Russia, to play her. A violet-colored satin dress on a crinoline, proud posture, styling, and calm make-up make a matchmaker not a comical old woman, as directors usually present Fekla Ivanovna with a sharp tongue, but a dignified, experienced aunt. She has a good eye, she sees who offended whom, and she knows who has something to answer for. So she came to Podkolesin with good news: the merchant's daughter Agafya Tikhonovna is ready to get married. Ivan Kuzmich is a suitable match. Only a friend Ilya Fomich Kochkarev (Honored Artist of Russia Valery Yaremenko) suddenly appeared. This matchmaking seems to be a done deal. And a matchmaker is superfluous here. He undertakes to marry a bachelor himself.
Naturalism helps us.
Marcelli is an experienced master, but he's playing Gogol for the first time. As the director admits, Nikolai Vasilyevich can be considered not only as a cartoonist, satirist, mystic, but also as a realist. Chernyshevsky and Belinsky considered him such. The classics claimed that it was Gogol who was the main catalyst for the development of the "natural school" of writing.
The director decided to clarify. He caught something in the characters that didn't catch his eye when he first read them. As a psychologist, he dissected the personalities of the characters and found the root cause of their actions. Take Kochkarev: although he is married, he is clearly unhappy in his marriage. The director saw the reason in the absence of children. Kochkarev describes Podkolesin's family life with its charms, with a beautiful wife and children who look like their father, and immediately wipes away tears. After all, this option is missing in his marriage. While. Kochkarev is sure that a much brighter prospect awaits his friend. That's why she wants to marry him to a beauty with a fortune.
Agafya Tikhonovna is the best match for Podkolesin. Although she lived to be 27, she still hadn't grown out of her teenage dreams. The girl is guessing at her betrothed, fantasizing about who she will get. While she sees a brave young man in her dreams, the matchmaker has prepared five "best grooms" for her. Everything is as it should be. Only the selection seems to be based on the residual principle. Ivan Pavlovich is an omelet who strives not to lose money with his bride and grow rich. Retired infantry officer Nikanor Ivanovich Anuchkin is naked as a falcon. Retired sailor Baltazar Baltazarovich Zhevakin also made no money. And then there is the stuttering merchant Alexei Dmitrievich Starikov, who does not seek to circumscribe himself. There is no queue for such suitors. But if you look closely, each one has its own advantages. It's them that the matchmaker paints to Agafya Tikhonovna.
Eugene Marcelli wrote his own text of the play. He exaggerated the images of the suitors, highlighting their flaws in each: greed, avarice, callousness, stupidity, cowardice.
The artist dressed the entire family of the potential bride in white clothes. It's symbolic. They're ready for the wedding today. However, for the first time Agafya Tikhonovna appears in front of the audience in her underwear. Also white. This is Nika Zdorik's first major role. She plays a flighty, naive girl who dreams of getting married. A rich bride may dream of a husband, but sometimes it seems that she lacks her daddy's belt, she is so stupid. And even though she is surrounded by babysitters, and she rushes around the house like a child, and reacts beyond her age to offers to accept matchmakers, deep down she and the grooms are single people. And they're unhappy about it. Podkolesin became the first man to whom she opened her heart. And it seemed, here it is, luck, grab each other, live happily. But Gogol decided otherwise.
To hear better
All artists play with a tune, it has become the norm in modern theater. And only Olga Ostroumova does not need the help of microphones. Her teachers taught her to make her lines so that the artist could be heard in the last row of the gallery.
The bride's choir is the decoration of the performance. Beauties of every kind in Russian kokoshniks, sundresses, soulguards are located on the front stage in the right and left wings.
It turned out to be the personification of Russian traditions. The girls perform Old Believer chants, and chant sufferings, and merry carols, and ritual lamentations. You can even get married just to listen to singing. But the main thing is that it gives a rather everyday, simple story of matchmaking a completely different, more ambitious sound. As in ancient Greek tragedies, where there is a choir. Besides, Russian folk music perfectly formed this story.
In the finale, Agafya Tikhonova, who finds herself in an idiotic situation, cannot believe her eyes that her fiance Podkolesin jumped out of the window, just not to go to church, and stands in front of the hall in tears. But from the depths of the stalls he receives solace and support in despair. The spotlight catches the figure of the choir soloist in the aisle. Her singing calms and uplifts a girl abandoned by a coward and a fool. And now, in front of the audience, not the heroes of a comedy, but the participants in a life drama.
The next premiere of the play "Marriage" is already on May 10 on the main stage of the Mossovet Theater.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
