Audience salvo: the most colorful performances of 2024
It so happened that in the past year the theaters were marked by very successful staging of classic stories - "Tartuffe", "Lady with a Dog", "Rigoletto", "Heart of a Dog", "The Heirs", "Die Zokotukha", "Good and Bad", "Hamlet". Directors subtly, not for the sake of epatage, updated the language used by the characters of the plays, dressed the actors in modern costumes, transferred the action in today's day. "Izvestia" collected the most striking premieres of 2024 to understand what play is worth going to during the long January holidays.
"Hamlet" in "Lenkom" Mark Zakharov
Directed by Anton Yakovlev
Tickets for "Hamlet", which premiered on October 16, at Mark Zakharov's Lenkom, could probably only rival "The Nutcracker" of the GABT in terms of scarcity. And speculators were no less interested in them. Resellers even created a separate site-doubler, where inexperienced theatergoers could buy passes at a greatly inflated price. A sure sign of immense popularity.
Shakespeare's play has been staged millions of times - by the classics and in various interpretations. Anton Yakovlev has created a play-parable -- about love, hate, power, envy and sins.
As director Mark Warshaver said, the theater opened a new page of its biography with this production. At the same time, we can talk about the continuation of Zakharov's traditions, because the form of fantastic realism and parable was a favorite of Mark Anatolievich.
Hamlet was played with complete dedication by Anton Shagin - there was no second cast for this role. As the critics wrote, perhaps there has never been such a Prince of Denmark on the Moscow stage. Recognizable monologues in his performance sound different. Yakovlev had been waiting several years for the opportunity to work with Shagin and noted that if you don't have Hamlet, then putting on a performance is a bad idea. In the image of Gertrude appeared Anna Yakunina, Ophelia - Alla Yuganova, Maxim Averin became Claudius, and Ivan Agapov - Polonius.
"Dog Heart" at the MTYuZ
Director Anton Fedorov
In a matter of days after the premiere of "Heart of a Dog" all tickets for the performance were sold out and it was impossible to get to it. A fact that gave the production an almost cult status.
Anton Fedorov offered a new, very modern and timely reading of Mikhail Bulgakov's brilliant story. His production is absolutely different neither from Vladimir Bortko's adaptation nor from the 1987 Mtyuzovsky production of "Dog's Heart" directed by Henrietta Yanovskaya. Fyodorov does not focus on the theme of revolution and Bolsheviks, intellectuals and the people. Although these questions are touched upon, as well as the eternal reflections on the path of Russia, on who is to blame and what to do. But in general it is a parable about how difficult it is in an inhuman world to grow up as a human being (or to turn from a dog into a human being, and whether it is better to remain a cute dog than to become Sharikov), about the responsibility of parents for growing up and becoming their not always perfect children.
Preobrazhensky in the performance of Igor Gordin is not the same as the character of Evgeny Evstigneev. In the play he feels quite confident and comfortable in the historical context, he is afraid of Shvonder and no housing compactions he is not afraid. The Professor is busy thinking about Faust-level discoveries. He is not concerned with the question of the responsibility of intellectuals to the people, he does not think about whether to leave the country or stay, everything is fine with him personally.
And Sharikov, played by Andrei Maximov, whom the audience knows from his roles in "Fisher" and "The Patsan's Word", tries to be not just a man, but different people. That plays the blues on the electric guitar (not on the balalaika, as in Bulgakov), then ungodly drinks, then gets a job in the city service for "cleaning" of stray animals, then becomes an active citizen and builds denunciations. But loudly declares that he will not go to war alone.
"Bad Good" at the Pushkin Theater.
Directed by Evgeny Pisarev
In honor of the 110th anniversary of the founding of the Chamber Theatre, which has been named after Pushkin since 1950, artistic director Yevgeny Pisarev staged the play "Bad Goods" based on Oscar Wilde's comedy of manners "Lady Windermere's Fan" with Victoria Isakova as the high-society schemer Mrs. Erlin. The play, mocking the mores of high society, a landmark for the theater - it is the last unplayed performance of Alexander Tairov, the legendary founder of the Chamber Theater. But Pisarev has gotten a different reading of the play - he ordered a new translation and wove into the plot some passages from the playwright's other works - "An Ideal Husband", "How Important It Is to Be Serious" and even the fairy tale "The Ghost of Canterville".
The action centers around a secular married couple with a six-month-old son. Family idyll and beauty Arthur and Margaret Windermere many envy. But one day gossips whisper to Margaret that her husband is unfaithful to her, that there is a certain Mrs. Erlin, for whom he rented a house, bought a stroller. Not only that, but the mysterious lady is invited to Margaret's birthday party. Having listened to gossip, Miss Windermere begins to suspect her spouse of infidelity.
Bright characters in the play: Lord Edwin Darlington (Kirill Chernyshenko), whom the Duchess of Berwick (Irina Byakova) calls an elegant boor for his manner of compliments, Lady Berwig herself - confident, calculating every move, butler Patrick (Mark Kondratiev), who is also a tapper and a storyteller.
The performance is a purely aesthetic pleasure. The costumes are made in accordance with Wilde's era. The smallest details of the outfits are thought out with respect for the playwright, who himself was involved in fashion, even publishing a magazine in which he dictated trends.
The leitmotif of this production is the words of Lord Arthur Windermere (Dmitry Vlaskin) that there are no bad and good people, there are bad and good deeds.
"The Heirs" at the Tabakov Theater
Directed by Vladimir Mashkov
Art director Vladimir Mashkov not only directed the play based on Sergei Naydenov's play "Vanyushin's Children", but also performed the main role in it (without the second cast), which ensured a full house for the rest of the season.
Mashkov's character - a wealthy merchant Alexander Egorovich Vanyushin. All his life he worked for the benefit and increase of the family fortune and hoped that one of his six heirs will definitely continue his work. But it turned out that Vanyushin raised soulless egoists, who are waiting for his death to dispose of his father's capital.
As the theater director Oleg Antonov said, the secret of success of Naydenov's play is that in it the author impartially and in detail dismantled the mechanism of his own family's catastrophe.
But if the play ends with the death of Vanyushin Sr., the creators of the play came up with an alternative ending, saying that any family, even if conflicting, is better than its absence.
The play is created in the traditions of Russian psychological theater - behind the everyday scenes the audience sees the real drama. Oleg Antonov and Vladimir Mashkov have modernized the language of the work, removing all the archaics associated with merchants, everyday life and those things that may be incomprehensible to modern audiences.
The rapid pace of the production, the vivid characters of absolutely all the heroes performed by excellent actors keep the audience's attention all the time, and at some moments the audience sees themselves in the characters. This is the power of real theater.
The scenery is also impressive - a detailed reproduction of the rich family's dwelling. The production designer - People's Artist of Russia, sculptor Alexander Rukavishnikov was inspired by the estate of his great-grandfather - a merchant. His ancestor had his business in Nizhny Novgorod and everyone in the city knows this house on Verkhnevolzhskaya Embankment.
The roles are also occupied by Yana Sekste, Alena Lapteva, Alexei Usoltsev, Anastasia Bogatyreva, Sergei Ugryumov.
"Mukha-Tsokotukha" at the Puppet Theater named after S.V. Lapteva. S.V. Obraztsova
Directed by Vladimir Berkun
A jazz-style performance, where the characters of Kornei Chukovsky's fairy tale tap to the music of Alexander Tsfasman performed by the Big Jazz Orchestra under the direction of Pyotr Vostokov, sing and twist, transports the audience to the NEP era. The production was created in collaboration with Soyuzmultfilm, and the basis was the 1960 animated picture "Fly-Tsokotukha" by Vladimir Suteyev and Boris Dezhkin. All the bugs and cockroaches are exactly the same as in the Soviet cartoon, and the Fly herself - the same brunette barmaid with a bob and huge blue eyes.
Light, festive performance, full of humor and light nostalgia. The orchestra called The Tarakans alone is worth the price of admission. Black musicians in straw canotiers play Tsfasman's melody "Unsuccessful Date" known to everyone from the movie "Pokrovskie Vorota".
The production leaves indifferent neither adults nor small spectators.
"Tartuffe" at the Theater of Nations.
Directed by Evgeny Pisarev
One of the hits of the season - for all performances, starting with the premiere on December 18 tickets have long been sold out.
One can only imagine how many times this play by Moliere has been staged since the middle of the 17th century. And always, at all times it was relevant - Tartuffe has never been translated. But it is a very difficult task to read this comedy by the French playwright in one's own way, to set the accents differently. Evgeny Pisarev got a dark and very realistic "Tartuffe", where, for all the farcical nature of the play, everything is absolutely serious to such an extent that the viewer becomes frightened.
The director ordered a new translation of Moliere. Its author Sergei Samoilenko modernized the speech of the characters - as a result, they can call each other retard, pronounce words like "like", "no shit". The director moved the action to modern France. Monsieur Orgon's family lives in a fashionable two-story apartment with panoramic windows. Their communication and way of life is very reminiscent of the "unprincipled" on the Patricks.
In the play brilliant star cast: as Tartuffe - Sergei Volkov, Monsieur Orgon - Igor Gordin, his wife Elmira played by Anna Chipovskaya, Orgon's mother - Irina Kupchenko / Olga Naumenko.
"Damasobachka" at the Moscow Art Theatre.
Directed by Alexei Mizgirev
In this performance the director also played with the original and focused attention not on the main Chekhov characters, but on their spouses. In addition, the action was transferred to the present day - Gurov and Anna Sergeevna meet not on the seafront in Yalta, but in a psychotherapist's office. The audience will learn how the characters' lives would have turned out if they had been honest with themselves.
- In the play 90% of the text of Chekhov, my inclusions may be only ten percent - admits Mizgirev. - I allowed myself only a plot reversal. I wanted to make Chekhov as if through the eyes of Bergman.
Gurov's wife and Anna Sergeevna's husband were given the right to speak out and decide together with the doctor, whether it is possible to forgive the lovers who have gone astray, who was led astray by the unclean, who found a hobby on the side?
The play turned out to be dynamic - plus work with the movie director, who removed from the production, even changing clothes to speed up.
Alexei Mizgirev's legendary Chekhovian gun, which eventually fires, is a watermelon. At first everyone plays with it like Anna Sergeyevna's spitz, but then, in a fit of anger, Gurov drops it. From this moment unfolds the scene of the sinfulness of the heroes. Fragrant red pulp is eaten with their hands, lying in it, and the audience feels the sweet smell of the berry.
Gurov was played by Sergei Volkov, winner of the Golden Mask, Anna Sergeevna was played by Polina Romanova. In the role of Madame Gurova - Daria Yurskaya, and Kirill Vlasov became Von Dideritz. Rostislav Lavrentiev was reincarnated as a psychotherapist.
"Rigoletto" at the Bolshoi Theater
Directed by Giancarlo Del Monaco
Valery Gergiev, who acted as the musical director of the performance, gathered for the production of this opera by Giuseppe Verdi international team, which in our time of sanctions and cultural cancellations is incredible and surprising. The director was the son of the legendary tenor Mario Del Monaco, who shone on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater, singing with the legendary Irina Arkhipova.
Del Monaco moved the action from the XV century to modern Italy - everything that happened to the characters could really happen - anytime, anywhere and with anyone. It's a scary story about how the rich can buy anything they want and then do whatever they want with it. And the main thing is that it is almost impossible to resist it.
Rigoletto (Bolshoi Theater soloist Elchin Azizov) is an entrepreneur who caters to rich people. His only treasure is his 14-year-old beautiful and pious daughter Gilda. He hides his occupation from her because of shame, the girl does not even know the name of the parent, calls him simply "father".
The action is spun at the masquerade at the Duke of Mantua. The audience sees a blood-red stage and backdrop - as explained by the scenographer, this is the color of the orgy, unbridled debauchery. All the men here are in strict suits, and the women are in evening gowns with revealing slits and cleavage - they are shamelessly grabbed by their intimate parts, but they only laugh. In the midst of the ball, Count Monterone arrives and accuses the Duke of raping his daughter. But everyone, including Rigoletto, only mocks the sufferer. And he responds by cursing the lechers. And the curse works - the young Gilda is stolen by the Duke in order to abuse her in the same way.
Although Verdi did not write what happened to the Duke in the end, the director has no doubt that the lecherous nobleman will die of syphilis or AIDS.
Verdi's magnificent music, unusual sets and the strong voices of the GABT opera dancers ensured the performance's expected success. And Valery Gergiev promised that "Rigoletto" would remain on the Bolshoi Theater's playbill for a long time.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
