Without context

In June, the prime minister is usually not enough. Of course: they rehearsed -rehearsed, hemond was invited (although in the summer hemondes - all on vacations), even the reviews came out, and by the beginning of the next season everyone had already forgotten what it was about. Theaters are now trying to show new performances prepared by the end of the season, to show a couple of times quietly, without journalists and high guests, and to save a magnificent premiere by September.

June is the time of festivals, tour and spectacular disposable open -air projects. So the current theater summer in Moscow begins quite traditionally.

Two main June events for theateraries - Tours MDT , who brought almost all of his repertoire from St. Petersburg to Moscow, and the festival of performances of the Declan Donnellan . Of course, the arrival of the seven productions of Dodin to the capital (these tour are submitted as the continuation of the anniversary festival for the 10th anniversary of the Golden Mask) - the event is especially pathos. It was widely announced and advertised, tickets for the famous performances were sold out, the halls are full, at the same time there is no noticeable discussion of these tour. It is not surprising - all the performances brought, starting from almost 20 -year -old “brothers and sisters” to the last premiere - “Uncle Vanya” - have already been in Moscow. Their current show in Moscow is similar to a large personal exhibition of a recognized and well -known artist, like Kustodiev, who is now shown in the Tretyakov Gallery. What they had - demonstrated. In the absence of a new context, no new turns, skeletons in the closet, depths and omissions are not visible. There is no dialogue - and seven large -scale performances lie with a dead block, like a mausoleum, to which they bring to worship beginners who recognize MDT in the form of "our all", who does not tolerate live discussions and comparisons.

In essence, there was nothing to talk about. Yes, they missed Sergey Bekhterev, who left MDT, they said that the “Chevengur” without him is notolo, and the “brothers and sisters” without a white -eyed authorized Ganichev seem worse, and for “demons” the absence of his scary Peter Verkhovensky is a huge loss. They did not agree on the Abramov epic: someone believed that the performance was as much and alive, as before, others said that the age of the actors who have grown up for 20 years makes themselves felt, especially in young roles. But all these conversations were, as it were, "in the fields" of the tour. There were no productive clashes - and at the huge “demons” I did not want to recall the last two Moscow productions on this novel, and “Uncle Vanya” passed by the Chekhovsky gunboat “Cherry Forest”, except that excerpts of radical texts from the old “Claustrophobia” reminded of today's interest in Sorokin and the new shocking authors. Still, the fact that the tour of the small dramatic was taken out of the anniversary bouquet and served in a separate vase, it seems to me that it was very harmful to them. Rather, it did not help.

The Festival of performances of Donnellan, who organized the Confederation of Theater Unions, remained the only possibility of a co -branded dialogue with Dodin (especially since it was in MDT Donnellan who put his first “Russian” performance, which did not come to these tour “Winter Tale”). Next to the somewhat heavyweight power and the complexity of the most famous Russian theater in the world, the performances of the Englishman seemed flying and unsophisticated. And next to the laconic performances of Donnellan, it became especially noticeable that the best and most importantly in the productions of Dodin, which once seemed to be his antipode, is the same artist on a naked scene.

The Donnellan festival consisted of only three performances - "Twelfth Night" and "Boris Godunov", set with Russian actors, and the latest London premiere of the Cheek by Jowl Theater - "Othello". It was the last performance that informed the small festival intrigue and the possibility for comparisons, at least in the context of the performances of Donnellan himself.

The Boris Godunov acted four years ago with the national team of the Boris Godunov team is still considered many Russian performance by Donnellan. The variable and swivel plebeians of Otrepyev, played by Evgeny Mironov, and the smart, sophisticated in intrigues, the ruler of Godunov - Alexander Feklistov - since the first elections of the current president have demonstrated how to manipulate popular opinions, and this was a expressive lesson. Last year, the charming "Twelfth Night", to which most actors from Godunov passed (all the roles in it were performed by men), was accepted by criticism very coolly, but now it has turned into a real hit that has a collapsible success with our audience and abroad. Clear business, Moscow theaterars, who used to see a lot of English performances of Donnellan, and in recent years accustomed to his Russian productions, were waiting for the Othello, which he revived his long -in -law Theater Cheek by Jowl. In essence, the current festival was perceived as a competition, demonstrating whose actors are better: famous English or ours. The outcome of the competition was supposed to solve a lot, because now they say that the real glory of domestic artists remained far in the days of Stanislavsky, and what we were proud of was a product of Soviet mythology next to missiles and ballet. So, in the days of the inglorious Russian performance at the European Football Championship, theater fans rushed shouting: "Hurray! Our won!"

"Othello" disappointed everyone. Critics who visited the premiere wrote about the dryness and rationality of the English performance, about its predictability, and that, as Roman Dolzhansky wrote in Kommersant, “sincerity and trepidation not to replace clashes with damned truths,” that is, “these qualities are not enough to put the Shakespearean tragedy.” And Marina Davydova from Izvestia even suggested that “to put a clean, like a tear, the tragedy of love, apparently is no longer possible. No matter how hard it will be, it will still resemble soapy (in this case - very stylish) opera with the heroes as passionate and as abstract as passionate and abstract types of television series.” Critics wrote that - absolutely incredible for the performances of Donnellan - the audience went in the intermission, and during the strangulation scene there were laughs.

However, all this talked about the first performance. I was on the last - fourth - and I was already completely different. That is, "our victory" was still obvious, I agree that this production is not the best for Donnellan, and, I admit, in the first act, where the main character was a boring and predictable intrigue of Yaga, I missed. But in the second act, suddenly something became clear about the main characters - Othello and Desdemona - and everything has changed.

Donnellan, as always, put the heroes in modern costumes - men in strict ties of troika, military uniforms and soldier forms, women - in frivolous dresses, trousers and T -shirts with a bare stomach. And the whole story has developed. About a categorical high -ranking father, accustomed to the subordination of others and not only to forgive, but also to talk with the disobedience to him, and before his daughter (and he will not forget to humiliation before her colleagues). About the girl - a small, inconspicuous, with a snub -haired rude face - and her boyfriend - a huge, awkward and very ugly black fat man. The story is that without each other, Othello with Desdemona had no chance - no one would be flattered for any of them, but they found each other and became for each other.

In fact, in their pair there is no inequality, on which they usually build this tragedy. No social (Dademon’s dad, of course, is an important person, so Othello has already made a career, and there are few nobility of birth today.) No racial (of course, it is always said about this, but the difference of the skin color Donnellan was always indifferent - he always put black actors like the main roles, while their parents, brothers and sisters could not play. Take a sense of which is amazing here. There is not even age inequality, on which, for example, he built his “Othello” nyakroshus . The twenty -five -year -old student of Donnellan, black as Vax Nonso Anoi, is not just young - he is direct, naive, gullible and impetus like a child. The actor who, in rehearsal photographs seems to be free, charming and graceful, is dressed in a stupid uniform who looks like a close school uniform on a thick boy, he puts his feet with an ix, absurdly turns his ass and all the time feels a freak that takes up too much space. A huge ridiculous round -eyed navel next to an ugly inch. This notorious young Othello feels good only next to Desdemona, and it is clear that when they are two, they want only one thing - immediately, grabbing hands, run away somewhere behind the scenes to kiss there. Even when Desdemona is important and depicts an independent woman. Even when Othello says that he has other, more urgent matters. In essence, the alignment in this story is not like in the traditional “Othello”, but as in Romeo and Juliet: they loved each other and wanted only one thing - to be together. And they were not allowed.

Iago played on the youth complexes of Moor: "Maybe it is true, I, such a freak, cannot be loved?" Cassio is really handsome. A piercing feeling that, dying with jealousy, Othello loves Desdemon more and more. And exhausted by the fact that it is necessary to show cruelty. He strangled her in several tricks, almost crying: he first held her neck above her head while she burst into a breath, and then a pillow. And he stood next to the body bewildered, not understanding what one would do. I awkwardly hid a sword next to her under her blanket. And having crashed, he fell, and rather grabbed her, like a child by his mother, so as not to drag it out. No one laughed.

And now, after the story about the festival and tours of the masters, two more words about the last name in the June list are a special summer project that also took place this year. This time we were treated to the spectacular and ambitious "e'fhedra" - dashing compote from all kinds of "Fedr" in the production of Monville, not so long ago, who graduated from Rati. The ideological part (and she was), if you may, I will omit. I’ll only list that there was an extensive plant of Ephedra, and, accordingly, Ephedrine, who brought with me some drug addicts, and “I will not see the famous“ Fedra ”, and Euripides, and Senec, and Rasin, and Tsvetaeva, and some of the radical Sarah Kane. And football on a green lawn, where Ippolit was shared by his considerations and video and video On three large screens, where art, documentary records and cool credits alternated with a direct broadcast of action. Chocolate sweets), and the club atmosphere where the bar does not stop working, and you can walk, lie on pillows, smoke and speak by phone. This is in some way a psychological study by the authors of the project of everyday life of people, the collective unconscious through the a priori constructions of the behavior of the heroes of ancient myths in the modern performance ... "And so on. Well, I promised that I would not be about ideology.

All this happened on the Schukin scene of the Hermitage Garden - there is a hundred not completed theater from the restaurant "Paris Life" on the Paris Life restaurant, for which a subcutian struggle has been going on all the time. The space there is grandiose. A very large height - as in the real theater, but small square - the whole building the size of the stage. So, if you do not particularly join in the simultaneous diverse perception of reality , and twist your head more, it turns out that there is really a lot of productive and interesting for this space. Spectators lie on the amphitheater very cool upward, where pillows are laid out in comfortable mattresses (the decision of the amphitheater is Andrei Alvarez, Andrei Ginev). Behind the spectators, the grid is stretched so that they do not fall out, but they could look back where the bar is glowed, the actors rest and some scenes go, which are immediately shot on video and broadcast on the screens hanging from the other side, in the depths of the stage. The scene is a square lawn with real grass, and on the sides are different -story forests ("icing of architects" and Ilya Voznesensky). The artists also jump along them and, in the course of the performance, are led with a tour of the audience. The most boring in this performance is acting screams on the theme of "Fedra", although all participants are peppy, young, fearlessly climb the top and probably could have played something well if there was a need. It is known about some of the actors that they are good and even in the last performance that Monvilite - “Parasites” - played interestingly. But on the other hand, we will not be too demanding. For example, the English “Othello” in St. Petersburg was played at all without any scenography - she was detained at customs. Controlled than they would have to. And in E'fedra played mainly the situation. Not bad too.