The walnut tree: how "Troy" connected Homer and Russia
The logical continuation of the performance is the events "I am Sergey Obraztsov", "Troy. Impression" is also a biographical play about a bright personality, where in the center is a living artist, and around him are mostly dolls. Even if you know the plot and characters of the Iliad well, the performance opens up a lot of new things. For example, that Schliemann was a subject of the Russian Empire, was married to a Russian, and even became a merchant of the first guild shortly before the historical moment when he discovered Troy to mankind. The play claims to be the centerpiece of the upcoming theater season, although it will cause a lot of criticism. Izvestia explains why.
Homer at the Obraztsov Theater
In recent years, the Homeric epic has constantly become the center of reflection of modern mass authors. Recent examples include Ralph Fiennes as Odysseus and Claire North's best—selling novels, and next year Christopher Nolan will release his Odyssey. Let's add to this the recent Netflix series "Percy Jackson", which is based on the ancient epic and has many references to Homer. All this, in general, is understandable, Homer's plots are completely relevant today, and the events of the Iliad just pour over us in the news and summaries, except that the names of the characters are different. But the passions are exactly the same, and many events cannot be explained except by the wrath of Athena or Apollo.
There is no better moment to release a play about Troy, as well as about Heinrich Schliemann, who discovered it. Because, for that matter, how many people know who Heinrich Schliemann was? Who even knows what he was doing, except that he was looking for Troy, buying land for excavations from the Turkish authorities? And who finally knows how much Schliemann's fate was connected with Russia?
The drama of the play is based on this mystery. This is not a retelling of "Troy", this is Schliemann's life, told through his ordeals, passions, dreams and dreams. His main passion since childhood has been Homer, so the director and author of the play Ekaterina Obraztsova immediately weaves parallels into the biography. Here is a boy from a poor family, Henry, who is hopelessly in love with a girl from a well—to-do family, but Paris covets someone else's wife, whom he never had the right to possess. The parallel is questionable, but Obraztsova makes sure that we see the connection not so much at the plot level as at the level of strength and intensity of passion.
The tragedy of Schliemann is that ancient characters commit reckless deeds and exploits, and he is always forced to look for compromises, workarounds — and only then, at the aftertaste level, you understand why Odysseus was not among the many characters in the play. Because Schliemann is Odysseus, wise, cunning, long—suffering, dreaming of his Penelope, but not denying himself the pleasures with other women.
The travels of an adult Schliemann, a sales agent, lead him to Russia, where he makes the most profitable deals, obtains citizenship, and marries. He has three Russian children out of four born in marriages. His relationship with his wife Ekaterina Lyzhina is tragically presented, but some documentary details give this image credibility. In a short one—act play, Russia occupies about a third - there is a lot there, including even Alexander II, who, it turns out, was also aware of Schliemann's activities. Perhaps it would be possible to tell in more detail how Schliemann made a fortune in the Crimean War, selling sulfur, gunpowder, lead and other important military products to the Russian government at an extremely profitable price, and thus link his biography even more strongly with the siege of Troy, but the author of the play is not so interested. But you can study all this yourself later, Schliemann's biography is filled with even less details.
How the play "Troy. The impression"
In many ways, "Troy" repeats the structure of the production "I am Sergei Obraztsov", which his granddaughter Ekaterina staged in 2021 and which has been among the most popular performances of Moscow theatrical life all this time. It is impossible to get tickets for it, although they cost more than the rest. There is only one live artist on stage, Evgeny Tsyganov, and dolls help him act out the plot. One-man show.
Troy is less strict in this regard. In addition to Alexander Gorodisky (Schliemann), other actors are constantly present on stage. Some of them play out scenes from the life of the main character, others work with dolls, often quite large, so you can see both the doll and the puppeteer, although you quickly accept this convention. Plus, there are also choreographic group performances, when the artists turn into waves, then into statues, then into sailors. Behind the stage is a screen where visual images enter into dialogue with the actors, it is not just a background, but a full—fledged hero of the story.
Finally, a rock band is placed next to the stage so that it is visible, which accompanies the performance not only with specially written music, but also with covers by Vysotsky. Perhaps, "The crazy girl keeps talking" sounds here a little more often than it really would be necessary, and wheezing under Vysotsky is generally a losing option, it would be better to just read these poems. But, fortunately, there is not a little poetry in the play, and Mandelstam's "I read the list of ships to the middle" is also there, of course. The performance is oversaturated with allusions and reminiscences, it is very dense, as if the authors first put a lot of material there, and then compressed the timing to one action so that the audience would not get tired.
There are a lot of really good finds. Priam's meeting with Achilles is beautifully staged, the Trojan horse is unexpectedly solved, but no attention is paid to Agamemnon, the spectacular anger of Apollo from the first chapter has disappeared, Odysseus' sortie with Diomedes is missing. The showdowns of the gods with each other and their relations with mortals are practically not represented. But, again, there is no attempt to retell the Iliad and part of the Odyssey, this is a conversation with those who have read everything for a long time and more than once and now want to enjoy the fantasy on the subject.
Although the play is formally designed for an audience of 12+, in fact it is, of course, a fairy tale for adults. Mostly with higher humanitarian education. If you don't remember at least approximately the names of the main characters from the Achaeans and Trojans and the key events of the epic, it will be difficult to watch. Only Cassandra, who is always hysterical, dolls in armor, and Schliemann, who finds no peace anywhere until he tears off Priam's treasure in his old age, will remain in memory. But if you're into the material, then "Troy. Impression" is really a gift, even if it's not as perfect as "I am Sergey Obraztsov" and it's too noisy somewhere, but still it contains a lot of thought, a lot of passion and a lot about today. It's very endearing.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
