They won't call it marriage: they were looking for family values on Moscow stages
At the Art Theater, Hamlet roller-skated and sawed a stool, at the Ermolova Theater, Americans searched for Faberge eggs, and the "provincial" Count Almaviva was carried onto the stage in a raincoat with a giant train. The theatrical premieres of May surprised and excited Muscovites. Details can be found in the traditional Izvestia review.
"Hamlet"
Moscow Art Theater named after A.P. Chekhov
So much has been written and said about the most high-profile performance of this season that it is already possible to compile a thick "Book of complaints and suggestions." The play is blamed, as Joseph Brodsky would say, "for everything except the weather." And the best review would be the advice: to see Andrei Goncharov's production with your own eyes, but this will sound like a sophisticated mockery, since there have been no tickets for the upcoming screenings for a long time and not everyone can afford them. The participation in the project of the movie star, Oscar nominee Yura Borisov, who has modest stage experience, turned in fact just another, albeit ambiguous, premiere into a mega—event - not so much art as near-theatrical life.
Yura Borisov as Hamlet and Anya Chipovskaya as Gertrude in a scene from the play Hamlet
Borisov is an excellent actor, which he demonstrated in the coveted role of the Prince of Denmark for many artists. And his partners are also super professional: Anna Chipovskaya (Gertrude), Artyom Bystrov (Hamlet's Father), Andrey Maksimov (Claudius), Kuzma Kotrelev (Laertes)... If you approach the play as an experiment, comic book, attraction or exercise "based on motives", if you do not wait for a diligent schoolboy illustration of Shakespeare's tragedy (and this is almost nowhere else today), then many "whys" and "whys" (and this is the main question of this production) will be removed. And you can get off with a phrase: what a time, Hamlet is like that — broken, impulsive, confused and with Tourette's syndrome. Until recently, the play "The Star of Our Period" was performed on the stage of the Art Theater, and now here is Hamlet of our period.
"Tour to Leningrad"
Ermolova Theater
New plays are a rare bird on the big metropolitan stages, and the very fact of their production deserves attention. Besides, "Tours to Leningrad" was created in the genre of a documentary musical, but how many such spectacles have we seen?! The performance turned out to be daring, multi-layered, modern and, let's not be afraid of this word, exclusive. Rinat Tashimov wrote a play specially for the Ermolov troupe about the tour of the American Negro troupe Everyman Opera to the city on the Neva River in December 1955 with J. Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess.
A scene from the play "Tour to Leningrad" during the pre-premiere screening at the M. N. Ermolova Theater
But the main characters of this story were not singing artists (director Talgat Batalov wisely dispensed with black makeup), but a young, ironically cynical and already quite popular writer Truman Capote (Evgeny Schwartz) and a fictional Soviet translator, Sasha, the child of the blockade (played by Savely Sumchenko, the eldest son), who joined their delegation as a reporter. the famous Olesya Zheleznyak, who proved that nature did not rest on him). Each of the two main characters has their own values, stereotypes, and understanding of freedom and happiness. Another notable participant in the performance is Anton Kolesnikov, who confirmed that "there are no small roles": the artist has several here, and each of his appearances is accompanied by applause and laughter. Mikhail Gerber's spectacular set design: the artist wittily reproduced on stage not only the train on which the Americans traveled to Leningrad from Berlin, but also the pride of the Hermitage — the gold-plated Peacock watch.
"Don Juan Superstar"
MTUSE
In his new play, Pyotr Shereshevsky, the most prolific director of the two capitals, remains true to himself: it is based on a classic plot transferred to our days and rewritten in the banal language of television series, above the stage there are screens with close—ups of the characters, and the timing of this "song of akyn" is already the usual four hours. This time it's a story about male loneliness and childhood traumas of the main character's women.
A scene from the play "Don Juan Superstar"
Kind, generous, and tired of life businessman Ivan (34-year-old Ilya Smirnov is already playing his third major role in Shereshevsky's plays) has the finances and courage even to stage a rock opera for his birthday, where he himself would play Don Juan. But he has no love — this is his third marriage that has failed, and there is no happiness that no amount of money can buy. Despite the fact that in many ways this curious spectacle is a typical and predictable Shereshevsky performance, which is rather not a compliment, but a reproach for the conveyor method of work, it is impossible not to mention the strong acting work, in particular, of Sergei Volkov, Sofia Slivina and Alla Onofer.
"Ghosts"
Theater of Nations
If you, like the author of these lines, found Denis Azarov's previous work unbearably boring ("School for Fools" at the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater), then he confirmed his high class by staging Ibsen's psychological drama "Ghosts" (the director preferred to call his version a synonym — "Ghosts"). A scandalous, anti—bourgeois and anti-clerical play that touches on hot topics ranging from incest to euthanasia, which was banned at the time, including in pre-revolutionary Russia, has not lost its relevance.
A scene from the play "Ghosts"
Together with set designer Nikolai Simonov, Azarov recreated the atmosphere of the complex world of a disintegrating bourgeois family with minimalistic visual means on the Small Stage of the Theater of Nations. The black-and-white solution of the play is reminiscent of Scandinavian films. Mrs. Alving's widow wants to open an orphanage in memory of her husband and erect a monument to him, but suddenly details of his far from sinless life come to light. Sati Spivakova did an excellent job with one of the main female roles in the world repertoire. The undisputed success of the play is the most experienced Alexander Yatsko in the role of a pastor and the young Ravil Batyrov, who played Oswald, the son of Mrs. Alving, an artist, a nervous seeker of the sun.
"The Marriage of Figaro"
Moscow Provincial Theatre
The dominant reason to go to Kuzminki is Sergey Bezrukov in the role of Count Almaviva. And although the artistic director of the Provincial Theater called his hero a vile character, the image of a dissolute husband turned out to be not only imposing, vain, moody and mannered, but still charming. Bezrukov, who is rightly considered one of the country's leading artists, has not appeared on stage in new roles for five years, and this fact alone makes the premiere a landmark. At the same time, MGT has a strong troupe, so there are no weak links in the casting.
Sergey Bezrukov as Count Almaviva in a scene from the play "The Marriage of Figaro"
But the choice of Stepan Kulikov for the role of Figaro may seem quite unexpected to some. The count's servant here is not at all a "frisky, curly-haired, in love boy" like the hilarious Cherubino (Kirill Novyshev), but a man who has managed to lose some of his hair. Alla Reshetnikova's performance can be described as bright and grotesque due to the large—scale decorations and rich costumes (artist Andrey Klimov). However, the director does not seek to captivate the audience with a sitcom, but places special emphasis on the topic of class inequality in society and the struggle for justice, which is so important for Beaumarchais.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
