Oh, these storytellers: how Kozlovsky played Chukovsky
September has given Moscow theatergoers several high-profile premieres, tickets for which have already been sold out before winter. The critic Vlad Vasyukhin visited them specifically for Izvestia.
The "Cabal of Saints"
Chekhov Moscow Art Theater
The recent production of Bulgakov's "Cabal of Saints" was recognized as a success even before the premiere — it was enough to look at the casting (in the role of Moliere — the artistic director of the theater Konstantin Khabensky, and in the rest — the current "pioneers" of the Art Theater: Alexandra Child, Ivan and Sergey Volkov, Pavel Vashchilin) and the team (costumes from fashion designer Igor Chapurin and the set design is by Nikolai Simonov, which has already guaranteed great style and "expensive-rich"). The interest of the public was fueled by the participation of Nikolai Tsiskaridze, who for the first time appeared on the dramatic stage and for some reason hid under the pseudonym Maxim Nikolaev, but did not hide his outstanding legs, which are mentioned in all reviews.
Andrey Kislitsyn as the Fool and Maxim Nikolaev (Nikolai Tsiskaridze) as King Louis the Great of France in the press screening of Yuri Kvyatkovsky's play "The Cabal of Saints"
The play was made by Yuri Kvyatkovsky based on the famous play. The playwright Mikhail Degtyarev introduced the author himself with his ordeals into the new stage version (the virtuoso work of the young Ilya Kozyrev), and quotes from the great ones — from Seneca to Leo Tolstoy, and memes on the anger of the day, and something else not quite obligatory. As a result, for all its showiness, layering and grandiosity, the performance became an easy and concise victim for critical arrows: what is this compote about, why, why? But one thing is indisputable: the actors, costumes and sets are good! And Konstantin Khabensky, after several passing roles, did a job that confirmed his status as a great master.
"Chukovsky"
Ermolova Theater
It was not so much the outstanding storyteller, translator and literary critic Korney Chukovsky, the main character of the play, as Danila Kozlovsky, who played him, who made this production a real event. The Honored Artist of Russia, who recently celebrated his 40th birthday, showed that he can play everything! In this not quite familiar biopic, Kozlovsky sings and dances with talent, recites the worn-out lines of Pasternak, Chukovsky's neighbor in Peredelkino ("The hum has subsided. I went on stage..."), convincingly wears a nosy mask and a gray wig, since we find his hero already at a very advanced age.
Danila Kozlovsky as Chukovsky in a scene from the play "Chukovsky"
The fairy tale for adults, composed and directed by Savva Savelyev, consists of two completely different parts. In the first, solved in the spirit of comedic social realism, Chukovsky celebrates his birthday in the hospital, where pastry chefs, chimney sweeps, firefighters and pioneers come to congratulate him. And in the second, under the influence of pills for insomnia, he finds himself in a strange, paradoxical, if not delusional space — the Limpopo garden association, where he communicates with the characters of his fairy tales under a withered miracle tree. Animals and insects are dressed in incredible costumes by Victoria Sevryukova, the most sought-after theatrical artist in the country. In this phantasmagoria, Chukovsky also meets friends of his youth — Mayakovsky, Akhmatova and Blok, as well as his wife and three children of his own — Mura, Nikolai and Boris, whom he outlived. His famous daughter Lydia is mentioned in passing — and this is far from the only "why" to the author of the play, which, however, does not spoil the general delight of the spectacle.
"Planida"
MuzArts Production Company
The brave and unexpected idea of translating Alexei Tolstoy's war story "Russian Character" (1944) into the language of dance was embodied by choreographer Pavel Glukhov and his team. This one-act, 45—minute ballet with the participation of Bolshoi Theater artists became the premiere part of the Planida project (the other two works, "Nerve" by Anna Shchekleina and "Francesca da Rimini" by Yuri Posokhov, are already well known to the public).
The libretto is based on the story of Egor Dremov, a simple guy from a Volga village who became a tankman in the Great Patriotic War, survived severe injuries that changed his appearance, and returned to his former life. The star of modern dance, Ildar Gainutdinov, familiar to many from the Ballet series, created a convincing image. He was helped in this by his stage partners, the most experienced Ekaterina Krysanova and Mikhail Lobukhin in the roles of Egor's parents and Margarita Schreiner, who danced Katya, his bride.
Mikhail Lobukhin as Egor Egorovich and Ekaterina Krysanova as Marya Polikarpovna in a scene from the one-act ballet "Russian Character"
Love, duty and compassion are convincingly conveyed through rich and complex choreography and vibrant music. Aidar Gainullin wrote expressive melodies for the "Russian Character" that evoke the memory of the Argentine genius Astor Piazzolla, and he himself played the accordion solo temperamentally (it seems that for the first time in history this instrument became the centerpiece of a ballet performance). The chamber choir, the youth chamber orchestra and the Euphoria ensemble were also involved in the musical part.
"The White Steamer"
RAMT
Viewers look at the unfair and yet amazing structure of the world through the eyes of a naive, nameless boy (Danila Golofast), whose only companion is a school bag. The story of a seven-year-old orphan living on Lake Issyk-Kul and dreaming of turning into a fish in order to swim to the fabulous white steamer, where, as it seems to him, his father, Chingiz Aitmatov, serves as a sailor, was published in 1970. Since then, this sad and even tragic parable about the struggle between good and evil has been repeatedly transferred to the stage and on the screen.
A scene from the play "The White Steamer"
Yuri Pechenezhsky's production, poignant and subtle, became the first premiere of the season at the Youth Theater, confirming that the philosophical prose of the Soviet classic is not only still relevant, but even acquires a new sound in modern realities. For example, the topic of abuse, to which Uncle Orozkul (Alexey Gladkov) is subjected, sounds sharply./Vitaly Timashkov) his wife Beka (Diana Morozova) due to the fact that they do not have children. And the plot about the Horned Mother deer (played by Olga Grishova), she also leads the story from the author, will make you think about the cruel attitude of man towards our younger brothers ...
"Protection of Luzhin"
Maly Theatre
The novel about the fate of a Russian chess player crushed by his genius was written by Vladimir Nabokov 95 years ago, in Germany, and he had never been presented on stage before. The director and author of the dramatization, Vladimir Danai, took up this complexly constructed, multifaceted, deep and gloomy text and set a high bar for the actors. And above all, in front of 24—year-old Mikhail Zubarev, who plays a big child immersed in chess combinations and not adapted to real life, a defenseless genius and a madman. Alexander Ivanovich Luzhin is gradually becoming a part of the chess combination and its victim. And even the love of the beauty he met, played by Elizaveta Dolbnikova, does not save Luzhin...
Mikhail Zubarev as Luzhin and Elizaveta Dolbnikova in a scene from the play "Protection of Luzhin"
The dynamic performance with a lightning-fast sequence of episodes breaks the stereotype of the Maly Theater as something mothballed and abandoned. And quite the "Protection of Luzhin" is likely to attract an audience that has never been to the Ostrovsky House.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
