Borisov's Passions: what turned out to be the most discussed "Hamlet" of the season
Even before the premiere, the new "Hamlet" at the Moscow Art Theater named after Chekhov was overgrown with an almost mythical hype. The tickets disappeared in 40 minutes, five-hour queues formed at the ticket offices, and resellers asked for up to 200 thousand rubles for a seat in the stalls. The reason is simple: for the first time in many years, the main role in a Shakespearean tragedy was played by Yura Borisov, an actor who, after the success of Anora, turned from a favorite of the author's cinema into an almost cult figure. In Andrey Goncharov's production, he walks in foil, roller skates and wields a circular saw. Izvestia assessed what is behind such a radical form and whether the main theatrical project of the season is worth the money.
Rave, foil and cats
Even before the premiere, the new "Hamlet" generated a lot of expectations and rumors. The Moscow Theater was whispering about what the Prince of Denmark would look like in the performance of Yuri Borisov. No details of the rehearsals, no warming photos on the theater's social media, no promo interviews of the actors are complete mysteries. But it was enough that a month before the premiere, all tickets for several scheduled screenings instantly flew off official resources. And this is despite the fact that the prices at the Moscow Art Theater are by no means budget-friendly. For "Hamlet" — from 3 to 50 thousand rubles. At the same time, people stood in five-hour queues for precious tickets, and the prices of resellers soared to 200 thousand rubles per seat in the stalls.
A week before the show, the audience saw official photos — Yura Borisov and Anya Chipovskaya in foil clothing, Andrei Maksimov in a toy crown. At the same time, all the artists are sitting in a wooden box among the hay. There are even more questions.
Before the premiere, the journalists were invited to a special screening. However, they showed only the beginning — a 40-minute excerpt from the announced less than two hours.
According to the idea of the artist Konstantin Solovyov, the gigantic space of the Moscow Art Theater stage was left almost bare — dark steps at the back of the stage, tables, chairs, stools. There are two cats on each side, a red—haired and a Siamese. These are the totemic animals of Solovyov and the director of the play, Andrei Goncharov.
The play begins with the royal family playing table tennis with books instead of rackets. And he does it for an excruciatingly long time — almost ten minutes. Then the scene ends and the action shifts to another plane. So, in separate pieces, we go from the beginning through the murder of the king, the wedding of Gertrude and Claudius, and the exile of Hamlet. At some point, however, Gertrude suddenly performs an academic aria. A few minutes later, he shouts "rave", after which the scene turns into a techno party.
Andrey Goncharov chose a sketch method for the production, familiar to every graduate of the theater institute. During the rehearsals, the actors independently came up with scenes, which were then transformed depending on the director's ideas and found intonations. After the screening, Goncharov confessed to reporters: none of his plays reached the premiere in their original form — too much is born right in the process of work.
This is how a Soviet refrigerator with half-empty shelves, a banana with which Gertrude eats stress, and Hamlet on roller skates dissecting the Moscow Art Theater stage appeared in the play.
— It was a very scary and at the same time interesting experience, which I last experienced in my first year at the institute. At first, I was afraid to make a mistake, to do something wrong, but then I plunged deeper into the image," said Anya Chipovskaya.
At the same time, the actress admitted that she did not immediately accept the director's idea. Love at first sight for Gertrude did not happen: it took a long time to find human attractiveness in the heroine. Andrei Maksimov, who played Claudius, was also looking for an excuse for his character — and, apparently, he found it, although he did not disclose the details to journalists.
Shakespeare's tragedy is more than four hundred years old, and almost everyone knows its plot. But Goncharov is clearly not interested in a linear plot. He either encrypts the story, or intentionally dissolves it into images, turning the performance into a stream of anxiety. And the viewer will have to figure out this state on their own. Moreover, for those who have recently reread the tragedy, it will be easier to think about the motives and actions of the characters, and for those for whom "Hamlet" ended with the phrase "To be or not to be" and poor Yorick, it will be almost impossible to wade through the intricate images.
All that remains is to watch the beautiful set design and read the relevant jokes in the spirit of "Now is the time, we need to stay in the country," says Gertrude Laertu. "Okay, I'll come back another time," he replies.
Shakespeare is not for everyone
For Yura Borisov, this work was not only a full-fledged theatrical debut in the title role, but also a serious test of strength. His Hamlet is a man who has a panic attack generator running around the clock. It is no coincidence that madness becomes one of the main motives of the play.
Here, the Prince of Denmark suffers from Tourette's syndrome: Borisov's head twitches, and uncontrollable phrases come out of his mouth — "you're going to die," "I'm going to die." Instead of the classic black cloak, he is wrapped in foil, which at the same time looks like a knight's armor and the everyday protection of a person who is trying to hide from the world.
There is a lot of everyday stuff in the play. The characters are talking on a wired phone, Gertrude is stressed out again, and Hamlet is sawing stools with a circular saw in a fit of rage. At the same time, Borisov does not play a romantic intellectual, but a man who sees the structure of the world too clearly and therefore is physically unable to live in peace. Without heroic pose, without pathos. His Hamlet sometimes seems to dream of just disappearing from this story.
The play brought together a powerful cast: Artem Bystrov, Sofia Shidlovskaya, Kuzma Kotrelev, Nikolai Romanov. And it's clear that each of them has been looking for a long time for a way to make their character modern and lively.
For some, this "Hamlet" is the story of a lost generation that can only endlessly ask: why? For others, it's a conversation about fathers and children. For the third, it is a reflection on death, for the fourth— on revenge. But behind the complex and sometimes deliberately chaotic form, it is sometimes difficult for the viewer to discern the depth of the created images.
— We are still in the process of creating a play. Shakespeare wrote this play in 1601, and we wanted to bridge the gap of four hundred years and show how relevant this text is today," said Artem Bystrov.
Those who follow Shakespeare's text will be disappointed. There is very little of him in the play. Only sometimes do the characters weave famous lines of poetry or fragments of monologues into everyday dialogues.
The new "Hamlet" is clearly not for one viewing. I want to review it, sort it out by scene, reassemble the meanings scattered by the director. But that's exactly what turns out to be almost impossible. Due to the catastrophic demand and unaffordable prices, not everyone will be able to get to the production, and only a few will be able to watch it a second time. In addition, the tight schedule of the star cast is unlikely to allow the Moscow Art Theater to play Hamlet often.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
