Let's squat with our tails up: Gogol with hip-hop and Shakespeare with a lezginka
In the last month of autumn, the Moscow stages were full of alterations of eternal classics, including those prepared without much reverence for the original source. However, healthy laughter has always been in the traditions of Russian culture, as the critic Vlad Vasyukhn, who attended the most interesting premieres of the capital in November, was convinced by his own experience, especially for Izvestia.
"Idiots"
Chekhov Moscow Art Theater
Actor Sergei Volkov, one of the most talented in the generation of 30-year-olds, has now declared himself to the capital's theatergoers as a strong, intelligent director (his previous work in this capacity happened while still a student at the Lensovet Theater). A student of Yuri Butusov released a play based on the novel "The Idiot", inviting his colleagues in the Art Theater to enter into a dialogue with what he left from F.M. Dostoevsky.
The story of the love triangle and the murder of Nastasia Filippovna is told non-linearly, from the end. The scene is Rogozhin's tattered apartment, undergoing renovation, filled with jars of "Zhdanov liquid" — disinfection from the smell of corpses (artist Maria Meleshko). Danil Steklov, Anna Chipovskaya, Polina Romanova and the director himself tried on the masks of the unfortunate "idiots". And if Volkov plays only Prince Myshkin, then the rest got both male and female characters — as strange, passionate, nervous and special as the main character. The whole quartet works masterfully.
"The Inspector General: a comedy in verse"
Provincial Theatre
The team of Yuri Kvyatkovsky, and in this case it is necessary to note not only the skill of the director, showed this performance a vivid example of a boring classic. It would seem that, well, what new can be done with Gogol's comedy, which has been quoted and rearranged? But this time the "Inspector General" came to us with hip-hop! Rapper Lev Kiselyov and screenwriter Alexandra Lebedeva delicately, without strained modernization, reworked the author's text, and composer Sergey Azeev set it to music. And this is not all the tricks of the experimental setting.
No less impressive than the fresh-sounding text is the visual side of the spectacle — multimedia, which brought together live actors (very good ones!) and computer animation. Black and white graphics (by Anton Levdikov) are broadcast to the backdrop of the stage, instantly transferring from one location to another. The only complaint that can be made to the director is that the pace is too fast: the story rushes by in an hour and a quarter, and you just want to savor individual moments!
"The latest"
"Shalom"
With all the minimalism of the improvised means, director Oleg Lipovetsky, who is also the set designer of this performance, created a spectacle that was sharp both in form and content. Lipovetsky neglected to embody the author's detailed remarks about a cozy room with a fireplace, a piano and a large bookcase. Yes, the description of the scene flashes on the monitors, but all the characters in the family drama, written by Maxim Gorky in 1908, are on an empty turning circle, inside a outlined square. This is either an invisible house that has lost its foundation, or a cage, or a ring where fathers and children fight.
The large family of retired police chief Ivan Kolomiytsev (the brilliant work of Dmitry Tsursky, however, as well as the entire acting ensemble), losing ground, understands not only their own problems. The background for this particular drama is the fate of a large country that has just survived the Bloody Sunday of January 9, 1905. The actors only have Viennese chairs at their disposal, and even their costumes are modern, which only emphasizes the relevance and timelessness of the story. And the spectators sitting on four sides of the stands are observers, witnesses and judges.
"Macbeth"
Mossovet Theater
The audience's passions had not yet cooled off after watching the series "Chronicles of the Russian Revolution", as Andrei Konchalovsky gave a new reason for controversy — this time to the theater-goers. The 88-year-old director presented a surprisingly cheerful version of Shakespeare's Macbeth, though it raises many questions. It is compressed in time and at the same time large-scale in its implementation. The title role was played by Evgeny Tkachuk, who was specially invited and overshadowed by his charisma and charm of the regular actors of the troupe. His Macbeth is a strong and noble warrior, incapable of killing, but forced to commit them. Konchalovsky predictably gave the main female role — Lady Macbeth — to his long-term muse Yulia Vysotskaya, and the embodiment of this image is far from the textbook. Gentleness and grace combine in her character with a willingness to commit a crime, even if madness becomes the price for it.
The novelty of the director's concept is that the action of the tragedy was transferred from medieval Scotland to Transcaucasia. This is conveyed through costumes (artist Tamara Eshba), props, decorations, light, music, choreography and, of course, the temperament of the performers. The battle scenes are staged so dynamically that they make you worry about both the actors and the audience in the front rows.
"Overstocked barrels"
The space "Inside"
Satire, fiction, absurdity, dreams and exaggerations, as well as a multicolored language palette — this is the basis of Vasily Aksenov's novel written in 1968. This is a Soviet fairy tale for adults, where the realities of life during the thaw are presented ironically and grotesquely, for which the author was seriously accused of "distorting reality."
Debutant director Maria Carlson was born in a completely different era, but her performance — lively, light and funny — can be safely called authentic. The barrel barrel, which is being transported to the warehouse by the rowdy and philosopher Vasily Telescopov (Egor Kenzhametov), has brought together random passengers in his truck — from a specialist in the unknown country of Bengal (Denis Kotov) to the old man Mochenkin (Polina Shashura), who scribbles slanders for any reason. Despite all their differences, the main thing that they are all passionate about in their unpredictable journey is the search for a Good Person and dreams of a bright future.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
