A scene with the devil: Evgeny Knyazev played Faust
A giant pendulum wheel, severed heads, wooden coffins and witches dancing on Walpurgisnacht - such a backdrop was created by director Andrei Timoshenko for the first production of Goethe's Faust on the stage of the Vakhtangov Theater. Izvestia was among the first to attend the rehearsal of the play and saw how the most complex text of the classic turns into a stage attraction, and Evgeny Knyazev tries to answer the main question of the work: why does a person who has made so many mistakes deserve to be saved?
The temptation of the stage
Faust appeared for the first time at the Evgeny Vakhtangov Theater. One of the most difficult-to-translate texts by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, which Alexander Pushkin called "the greatest creation of the poetic spirit," was not originally intended for the theater. The author himself defined it as a poem for reading. Nevertheless, for centuries, directors around the world have been trying to bring the tragedy of Faust to the stage. It is enough to recall the opera of the same name by Charles Gounod, which has not lost popularity among fans of musical theater for more than a century and a half.
At the same time, Vakhtangovsky already had his own "Faust", albeit not a stage one. In 1969, Evgeny Simonov made a TV play with the participation of the stars of the troupe. Anatoly Katsynsky played Faust, Yuri Yakovlev played Mephistopheles, and Lyudmila Maksakova played Margarita. Simonov himself played the role of a Poet. However, today, for the first time, Goethe's main literary creation has become a full-fledged stage statement.
Andrey Timoshenko, the chief director of the Arkhangelsk Drama Theater named after M.V. Lomonosov, who was invited to the Vakhtangov Theater specifically for this production, knows perfectly well that in drama the word either suppresses the action or becomes its driving force. He chooses the second path and builds the performance on the constant tension between thought and acting.
— The story of Goethe's Faust has always inspired, fascinated and frightened me at the same time. I wanted to do this production in a drama theater because it's a challenge to myself," admits the director. — I was wondering if it was possible to stage "Faust" in a drama theater, and how to make the modern audience understand the whole story not as literature, not as beautiful poems that are beautifully recited, but as a story about a person. I wondered why Goethe saves Faust at the end, why the latter does not go to hell, despite the fact that he has sinned so seriously, and this thought spurred me on even more.
To fulfill the idea, he gave People's Artist Evgeny Knyazev the role of Faust, and Vladimir Logvinov the role of Mephistopheles. The rehearsals were exhausting — from morning until late at night, with a complicated schedule tailored to the employment of all participants. Evgeny Knyazev admits that during this time he did not notice how spring had come. He had to not only learn a huge amount of text — which, according to him, is the easiest thing — but also get to the inner essence of the work. And this is in parallel with the busy acting schedule and the work of the rector of the Shchukin Institute.
Coffin, sand and the wheel of fate
The play begins with an almost empty stage. In the center there is a table where the troupe of the conditional theater gathers. The director (Dmitry Mulyar) talks about the need to entertain the audience and asks the Poet (Knyazev) to compose a light work. But he brings "Faust", a story about the death of the human soul. And where the theme of sin arises, the devil inevitably appears.
With the release of Mephistopheles, space begins to live according to different laws. Each time he comes, he triggers a giant pendulum wheel, a mechanism that seems to spin time itself. Themistocles Atmadzas' scenography is built as a system of signs, where each element has a meaning.
Golden sand is being showered on Faust — wealth devoid of value. Severed heads are falling, too literally to remain a symbol. Mephistopheles ends up in a coffin, turning death into a part of the game. Water pours from buckets, spreads in basins, splashes under the actors' feet, creating a feeling of fluidity and instability of the world.
Knyazev does not play an abstract thinker, but a man whose ground is slipping from under his feet. His character constantly hesitates: he believes and doubts, seeks support and does not find it. He feels rather than knows, and therefore arouses sympathy. The viewer goes with him from intellectual despair to emotional collapse.
This inner nerve coincides with the actor's own thoughts: the loss of faith makes the world tougher and more aggressive.
— When faith disappears, the world becomes more and more evil. Look at what's going on around you! It's like the devil is standing over us," the actor confessed to reporters after the performance.
One of the most powerful scenes is the one in which the hero lies down in a coffin. Even fake props in the theatrical environment are surrounded by superstitions, and actors try to avoid such episodes. There is a belief in the theater: you can not lie down in a coffin, this can attract misfortune, illness and early death. Therefore, actors often refuse to fulfill such a director's idea, or take a bottle of vodka or a cross with them to the coffin. Knyazev admitted that he had specifically consulted with the priest before.
Young actor Vladimir Logvinov performs next to Evgeny Knyazev, a recognized master of the stage. His Mephistopheles is ironic, mobile, attractive. He easily offers Faust the whole world — and just as easily asks for a soul in return.
The vivid images were created by other performers – Evgenia Ivashova (Lizhen, Caring), Olga Borovskaya (Marta, Need, Elena), Vitaly Ivanov (Wagner, Raven, Valentin), Artyom Parkhomenko (Homunculus), Sergey Vasiliev (Friedrich) and Alexandra Streltsina (Witch, Vice).
By the end, it becomes clear: Timoshenko is not trying to explain Goethe — he offers to live it. Making this complex text is not an intellectual exercise, but a human experience.
There is irony and fear, lightness and mystical density. But the main thing is that "Faust" continues to ask questions to which there are no definitive answers. Can a person comprehend the essence of the universe? What is the price of knowledge? And is there any chance of salvation after the fall?
There is no response. But there is an attempt to find it. And perhaps this is the reason why this almost unbearable text still comes on stage — and remains on it.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
