Funny scene: Khlestakov collected money from the audience at the Mossovet Theater
Against the background of concrete blocks and metal fences, in white helmets and under beer with crayfish, the Theater named after him. The Moscow City Council begins its 104th season. Its artistic director Evgeny Marcelli reinterpreted Gogol's immortal comedy "The Inspector General" and created a demonic phantasmagoria on a construction site instead of the usual satire. Izvestia was among the first to attend the pre-premiere screening and personally observed how Khlestakov collected money from Muscovites.
At the vice construction site
"I have invited you, gentlemen, in order to inform you of the most unpleasant news: the auditor is coming to us" — for 190 years, in hundreds of different theaters of the country, the story of the cunning Khlestakov, described by Nikolai Gogol, has begun with this phrase.
Directed by Evgeny Marcelli, under whose direction the Theater named after Mossoveta has been living for six years, he decided to turn the usual course of comedy around. But what if Khlestakov is not a "little devil" or "some kind of devil", but a real demon in the flesh? No less than Woland or Lucifer, under whose gaze ordinary people not only easily admit to vices, but also turn into natural slaves.
The action begins even before the lights go out in the hall. Five girls in white blouses and pencil skirts with aprons tied over them set up an improvised table. There is a construction site all around: embossed metal fence sheets, garlands of red warning lights, signposts and dangling wires. Ignoring the seated audience, men in blue suits, white shirts and ties appear on stage. They have helmets on their heads — after all, the gentlemen gathered at the construction site.
The nymph secretaries meet them in kokoshniks, wash their hands before a meal and seat them at a table made of concrete blocks. In another moment, the relaxed men are already savoring the crayfish claws, sipping frothy froth from glass glasses. During such a "meeting", the mayor, Anton Antonovich Dravnik-Dmukhanovsky (Andrey Mezhulis), informs his colleagues about the imminent arrival of the auditor from St. Petersburg. And, as befits, he gives out instructions: to put clean caps on the sick, close gambling and drinking establishments, show every respect to the auditor, whatever he asks, do it.
Without taking long to wait, Khlestakov (Dmitry Podadaev) rides out of the ground in front of the audience, under clouds of smoke with the servant Osip (Alexander Popelo). That's the director's first hint that this is not an ordinary crook who happened to be in the right place at the right time.
What was the intention of the set designer Natalia Avdonina regarding the scenery has remained a mystery. Perhaps Khlestakov caught the heroes just building the "New Russia", but he found the same picture: "everything changes in Russia in 10 years, and nothing in 200 years."
For money, yes
Only with the declared "Woland" will the audience never see the cold, attractive and dangerous demon. Khlestakov dangles between two states — from heart-rending screaming to simpering antics, but both seem unbearably long. Whether it's a scene in which Khlestakov mocks the surnames of Bobchinsky (Andrei Smirnov) and Dobchinsky (Ivan Rastorguev), as a result of which he simply writes an identifying "B" on the bald spot of the first, or the moment when he asks for a loan of money from officials.
Dmitry Podadaev
However, the audience was also tested for solvency. In the middle of the first act, and then before the beginning of the second, the fraudster goes straight to those who came to look at the fraudster.
— Gentlemen, I've been a little restless on the road. Would you have 200 rubles? Preferably in cash. Although we will set up translations later. Don't forget to tell us the three digits on the back of the card, your passport details and the code for access to Gosuslugi," Khlestakov addresses the audience.
Laughter with laughter, but the money still flowed through the ranks to the artists, not the declared 200 rubles, but the bills are much larger. Whether this means that Muscovites could not resist the magnetism of the false Woland is a mystery. It's more likely that they just enjoyed participating in the attraction.
There are several attractions in the play. Khlestakov constantly turns to the audience, lies about the writing of Chekhov's Kashtanka, Ibsen's Peer Gynt and Sophocles' Antigone. He is not just on intimate terms with Pushkin — he is even familiar with the Mossoviet actresses Ekaterina Guseva and Olga Kabo!
The paradox is that Gogol did not need any mysticism for Khlestakov's demonism — he lies because he lies; boasts because he can; appropriates someone else's fear because it is kindly given to him. In the new "The Inspector General," Khlestakov is persistently made an infernal figure and thus seems to explain to the viewer what works fine for Gogol without any explanation.
Dmitry Podadaev
But every idea, despite the laughter in the audience, does not work for the integrity of the performance. Against the background of the loud Khlestakov, the rest of the characters seem faded. Gogol's meaning is lost behind the form, and the actor's images remain in the tailor's pins.
The characters run, scream, fuss, and rearrange themselves, but the action itself periodically seems to sink into the concrete of its own set design. And it finally solidifies during a minute-and-a-half silent scene, when, at the direction of a voice behind the scene, the characters line up exactly according to Gogol's description.
If Evgeny Marcelli wanted to turn "The Inspector General" into a psychological drama about the slave nature of man, then in the end it turned out to be a comedy anyway. The classic asked: "What are you laughing at? You're laughing at yourself!" At the Theater named after The Moscow City Council's laughter remained for no reason.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
