Who are you kidding: Bezrukov Theater now has hip-hop "Revizor"
Noir comics in a hard rhythm, bleached faces, hip-hop flow, visual projections and, of course, the immortal text of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol - this is how director Yuri Kvyatkovsky presented "The Inspector General" on the Small Stage of the Moscow Provincial Theater. What ghouls and ghouls in official uniforms turned out to be, how the almost 200-year-old rap—style text sounds, and what artistic director Sergey Bezrukov thinks about such a genre experiment is in the Izvestia material.
The "Auditors" are coming to us
The capital's scene has been experiencing a real "audit boom" over the past six months. First, Vladimir Pankov staged a signature soundrama in Nikita Mikhalkov's Workshop "12" with a clear rhythm and real opera arias, then Gleb Matveychuk staged a Balkan musical at the Russian Army Theater. Now it's up to Yuri Kvyatkovsky, whose recent "Cabal of Saints" at the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater became the most difficult and expensive performance of the season (ticket prices for speculators exceeded 100,000 rubles per seat in the stalls).
Director Yuri Kvyatkovsky after the performance "The Inspector General: a Comedy in verse" based on the play by Nikolai Gogol at the Moscow Provincial Theater
His directorial biography is full of diverse projects, from chamber experiments to large—scale productions. Now he presented a rap version of Gogol's comedy on the Small Stage of the Provincial Theater. It is noteworthy that it was Kvyatkovsky who directed the acclaimed "Cops on Fire" 17 years ago.
To some viewers, hip-hop and theater may seem like antonyms. However, the Rap Theater has been successfully operating in the capital for several years, which first declared itself a "Crime and Punishment" and then an "Idiot" based on Dostoevsky's novels.
One of the creators of the Rap Theater, the famous freestyler Lev Kiselyov, aka RE-pac, put Gogol's text of The Inspector General, which turned 190 this year, on a clear beat. The script was written by Alexandra Lebedeva, who had already worked with Kvyatkovsky on one of his hip-hop songs, and the musical basis was prepared by a long—time associate of Kvyatkovsky, actor, director and composer Sergey Azeev.
Tell me what you're reading, and I'll tell you.…
The curtain is still closed, but the performance has already begun: a video projection is going on right on the fabric. On the screen, Gogol and Pushkin are sitting in the auditorium, waiting for the production. At one point, Nikolai Vasilyevich casually asks a friend if he has a funny - or at least characteristic — Russian joke. He tells him the story of a crook who managed to impersonate a metropolitan official in a provincial town. Zhukovsky constantly intervenes in this light conversation, calling Gogol on his smartphone: the scene jokingly reminds the audience to turn their phones into silent mode.
There is a white five—meter transformer wall on the stage. This is not just a decoration, but the main visual tool of the performance. The living room with a set table, the facade of a two-story house with an arched balcony, and a boxing ring are alternately projected onto it. But the video artist Alexander Plakhin placed the characters not in real interiors, but in a flat black-and-white world, stylized as a neo-noir and Gothic comic book. That's why the characters have acquired a deliberately grotesque appearance.
Thick white on their faces, black eyebrows, eyes and mouths — such unified makeup makes the characters either mimes or the living dead. According to the artist Anton Levdikov, the grotesque emphasizes the "wrong side" of Gogol's characters, among whom there is not a single positive image. The creators were inspired by the visual aesthetics of the London Studio Theatre in 1927, but adapted it to the Russian context.
The authors of the play tried to preserve not only the language, but also the plot. There is a commotion in the county town of N: officials are in a panic, the auditor is coming to them. "How is the auditor? From where? From St. Petersburg? Incognito? This is some kind of curse!" they clearly beat back to a cheerful beat.
Everyone starts covering their tracks: some are bribes, some are ruined farms. In the midst of hysteria, they mistake a random passerby for the inspector — a small, poor, but impudent Khlestakov. He quickly realizes what kind of trouble he has got into, and takes advantage of the situation: he takes money "on loan", accepts worship, dinners and promises.
— This piece was easily combined with the hip-hop format. We were looking for a balance so that both those who come to Gogol and those who love hip-hop would find something of their own. We tried to knock the textbook dust off the piece, rediscover the melody and beauty of the words," says Kwiatkowski.
It may seem that the performance attracts the viewer only by its form. But it would be impossible to keep it solely on verses and a straight barrel.
The creators set the most difficult task for the artists, depriving them of the right to make mistakes. The production is based on impeccable timing. Stumbled — the scene is ruined, lost the rhythm — the viewer will notice, delayed — the projection will not coincide with the mise-en-scene.
And if Evgeny Syrkin (Khlestakov) and Andrey Isaenkov (Osip) definitely felt comfortable in this organic environment, then for Sergei Vershinin, who played the mayor, Evgeny Gomonoy, who played the role of Khlopov's adviser, Oleg Kurlov, who became Lyapkin-Tyapkin, and Alexander Frolov, who embodied Strawberry on the stage of the court counselor, the task clearly turned out to be difficult. an asterisk.
Actors Sergey Vershinin as the mayor and Alexander Frolov as Strawberry in the play "The Inspector General: a comedy in verse"
It's not enough to just talk at the right pace and follow the rhythmic pattern. It is necessary to hear the "music" of the text, keep the hip-hop flow and at the same time not sacrifice diction.
— It's a mix of hip-hop culture, gothic comics, neo-noir and great Russian classics. It was important to make this production modern. Yuri Kvyatkovsky succeeded. In spirit, in meaning, it really is Gogol, and his text is well recognizable. The director does not change the time of the action, but here we have modern intonations and rhythms. And because of this, the story about blood-sucking ghouls, embezzlers and bribe takers, which the author described in this work, sounds eerily relevant," Sergei Bezrukov believes.
The artistic director himself is happy to experiment with the form — in the same project "The Godfather", where Bezrukov is happy to play with the aesthetics of rock music, black leather suits and other brutal colors. And now hip-hop, like rock, is gradually fading in Russia and is in great need of energy. Why not Gogol, after all.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
