Dina Goder. Seven weeks of continuous theater

Seven weeks of continuous theater
Dina Goder

Publication date: February 6, 2004

T from the crazy month-and-a-half marathon of theater stars that the Golden Mask planned for its first anniversary looks like our answer to Chamberlain, where in the role of Ch. - the Chekhov Festival, which bombards Moscow with foreign masterpieces every two years for several months. The idea of ​​the anniversary weeks was this: from the beginning of February until the opening of the next “Mask” (the festival begins on March 27, the day of the theater), the best “mask” performances of the last ten years will be shown in Moscow. Along the way, some of what was originally planned was lost and unraveled: it was not possible to bring the Mariinsky Theater performances during the seven-week anniversary (it has a busy tour schedule), Dodin’s Chekhov trilogy was abandoned (MDT wanted to show its entire repertoire, and it had to be postponed until the summer ). The arrival from Germany of the huge, complex structure of the Sine Loco performance turned out to be too expensive, and the AXE group will instead show the compact “Wet Wedding”. Still, the festival promises to be very good. The wisest decision of the organizers was their reluctance to organize a parade of winners: everyone knows that issuing awards is a compromise process, and it happens that a year later no one can remember what the winning performance looked like. Not the most crowned, but the brightest, most expressive and beloved will come to Moscow. Now take a deep breath and sit back: I’ll tell you about everyone you’ll see.

The race will begin with three performances by the inventive and energetic Boris Eifman, which will be shown on the New Stage of the Bolshoi. One of the most famous Russian choreographers, the director of his own “Boris Eifman Ballet Theater” in St. Petersburg, was more than once ridiculed by criticism for bad taste, straightforward symbolism and craving for cheap effects. But perhaps for the same qualities that critics malign, Eifman is loved by the public - with the devotion and passion that only ballet fans are capable of. However, Eifman’s troupe is truly excellent. The Moscow tour will begin with a cheerful play "Who's Who" - to the music of Ellington, Rachmaninov and many others. This is a premiere that has not yet been seen in the capital - something catchy like “Only Girls in Jazz,” where instead of musicians there are emigrated Russian dancers. But then - watch out! - “Russian Hamlet” (about the unfortunate, suffering and misunderstood Paul I, whose depraved mother Ekaterina was danced by Volochkova in her time) and “Red Giselle” (about the Russian ballerina Spesivtseva, who emigrated, but was nevertheless driven to madness by the infernal security officers).

Next - also in February - a Shakespearean program by Eimuntas Nyakrosius. Three masterpieces - "Hamlet" , "Macbeth" and "Othello" - have already come to Moscow, but are nevertheless required for repeated viewing. These three performances by the brilliant Lithuanian metaphorist are worth telling separately, but for now I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the current “Mask” is all taking place under the flag of Nyakrosius: his first Moscow production, “The Cherry Orchard,” is participating in the competition (and has a great chance of winning) , and the festival ends with the Vilnius duology "The Seasons of Donelaitis", which, according to critics' polls, was recognized in Russia as the best foreign performance of the year.

In early March, on the stage of the Meyerhold Center they will show “Wet Wedding” by the Russian Engineering Theater AXE, a radical St. Petersburg team that recently became famous in theater circles, but has already received the “Golden Mask” in the “Innovation” category. “Achaeans” - artists Maxim Isaev and Pavel Semchenko - builders, alchemists, hooligans and philosophers - create on stage an extremely expressive, changeable and dangerous environment, where everything flows, burns, explodes, smokes, glitters and crumbles into pieces. There the artists themselves are Creators and Demiurges, and the other actors are experimental creatures who, as a result of tests, perhaps will become real people. Actually, “Wet Wedding” was shown at one of the Hermitage carnivals during the Theater Olympics, but the current performance is listed as a “Russian premiere” - which means that we will be shown some new version of it.

After AXE, another St. Petersburg (however, now German) team will arrive, considered radical and twice nominated for the Novation Prize - the Derevo theater. In St. Petersburg, from old memory, it is considered a cult, but in today's opinion there is little radicalism in “Tree”. The ideologist of the group, Anton Adasinsky, obviously grew out of the Poluninsky clownery, where the roots of almost all St. Petersburg avant-garde artists of the perestroika years come from. Only in “The Tree” all this clownery most often has a meaningful and gloomy-diabolical character, and is even crossed with the Western tradition of “physical theater”. The lean, impressively shaved-head four actors of “Tree” are indeed in excellent athletic shape, but it is impossible to take their performances seriously as plastic ones - they are too uninventive for that. You can see this at the play “Islands in the Ocean” - a cute set of sketches on marine themes - which came to the last “Mask”. In addition to “Islands,” “Tree” will bring three more non-new productions: "The Horseman" , "Red Zone" and a solo performance by one of the theater actresses, Tatyana Khabarova, "Reflection" .

The next item in the holiday set is Evgeniy Grishkovets Day. Within one day (March 13), the “new sentimentalist”, adored by the public and critics, will show all his performances, starting with the long-unplayed “How I Ate the Dog ,” with which the Moscow fame of the actor-playwright began several years ago. “Dog,” reminiscing about service in the navy, will be followed by the existentialist “Simultaneously,” then “Planet,” a play about love, performed together with Anna Dubrovskaya. Then - "Dreadnoughts" - a play for women about men, about heroism, glory, and most of all - about the fragility of life. And already at night, together with the group "Curlers", Grishkovets will organize a club concert "After Work" - a light and optional melodic declamation about careless idleness, which sometimes one really wants.

The anniversary marathon continues with real ballet - the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater will bring Delibes ' "Coppelia" , and not the version that is now danced everywhere, but a meticulously restored ancient production of Petipa at the Mariinsky Theater - a very nice and stylish spectacle.

Behind it again is the “big” theater - the Sakha Theater. P. Oyunsky from Yakutsk will bring three performances: “King Lear” , “My Desired Blue Coast” and “Olonkho” staged by long-time GITIS graduate Andrei Borisov, the head of the theater and part-time Yakut Minister of Culture. “My Desired Blue Coast” based on Chingiz Aitmatov’s story “Piebald Dog Running by the Edge of the Sea” is Borisov’s most famous production, which he released 25 years ago as his graduation performance, received the State Prize for it and recognition throughout the world. Ascetic and full of poetry, "The Blue Coast" about a boy who almost died in the fog was made like an ancient northern parable - cruel and poignant. However, I can’t imagine what such an old performance looks like now. Strange, dark, shamanic "King Lear" also sent somewhere far even from the Middle Ages, to the dark archaic, to myth. And the recent “Olonkho” is a massive and ponderous Yakut heroic epic about the heroic goddess Kyys, played by the majestic Stepanida Borisova, an actress and singer who tours extensively around the world and masters the technique of throat singing. It must be said that when this performance came to the Mask, there seemed to be something excessively, demonstratively exotic in it, similar to an oriental theater for tourists or a performance at the Soviet Month of Friendship of Peoples. And yet, there were also strong, impressive moments, especially for the grandiose Borisova.

Representing “modern dance” at the anniversary festival is the most famous modern dance choreographer in Russia, Tatyana Baganova. Or rather, her theater "Provincial Dances" from Yekaterinburg. It shows two one-act plays - "The Wedding" and "The Maple Garden" . Stravinsky's "Le Noces" looks unexpectedly chamber, without the usual ecstasy and ironic twist. She does not lean towards ethnography or ritual, as is often the case, but preserves the homely atmosphere of a wedding in the house, touching with unclouded and very theatrical primitivism. "Maple Garden", made four years ago at the request of an American dance festival, which at the time received the "Mask" and aroused universal admiration, is an exquisitely meditative spectacle, full of humor and poetic absurdity. In essence, this is a fairy tale where forest spirits, birds, autumn leaves mix in a languid and erotic atmosphere, and men tie women by the hair to tree branches so that they do not fly away.

In the last anniversary week, "Golden Mask" demonstrates its latest project - the favorite brainchild of festival director Eduard Boyakov - "New Drama". Productions that have had the greatest success at recent “new drama” festivals will be brought to Moscow from four Russian cities. Firstly, from St. Petersburg - two performances with Alexander Lykov, both based on plays by the theater experimenter Klim. “The Active Side of Infinity” (according to Castaneda) is a duet with Dmitry Podnozov. And the monoplay “I... She... Not I and I ,” written especially for Lykov, is essentially a psychotherapeutic work for an artist in crisis. At the time of the release of these performances, Lykov was famous only as having left the “Cop” series Casanova, and few could imagine what he was like in the theater. It turned out to be absolutely stunning. Full of passion, madness and, at the same time, subtle insight, the monologues that Lykov shouts at breakneck speed and unprecedented intensity can bring a susceptible viewer to a heart attack.

The Kemerovo Theater "Lodge", once created by Grishkovets, and then abandoned by its director and nevertheless surviving, will show two charmingly spontaneous performances "Coal Pool" and "Planet of the Unknown Forces of Good" , captivating with Grishkovets' win-win combination of innocence and slyness. It must be said that “Coal Pool” is positioned as a performance made in the now fashionable “documentary drama” technique, that is, based on real interviews with miners. But the situations in the play are so bizarrely absurd that it is completely impossible to believe that it is documentary. Which, however, does not spoil the impression at all.

And two more theaters will demonstrate the opening of the latest festival “New Drama” - the playwright brothers from Togliatti Durnenkov. Their ironically absurd and fantastic plays, with their language games, sudden stylistic clashes and the chaos that creeps into reality, are a little reminiscent of Vladimir Sorokin, although they look less sophisticated and shocking. The play “Cultural Layer” will be brought by the same Togliatti Theater Center Golosov-20, which opened the Durnenkovs (the youngest of the brothers, Mikhail, will play in the play). And the Chamber Theater from Voronezh will show “Two Little Plays” staged by Mikhail Bychkov , one of which is “In the Black-Black City” by Vyacheslav Durnenkov - a “village play” swollen with a scary mystical tumor. In addition, the Chamber Theater will also bring a production of Grishkovets's play "Winter", but this is already part of this year's competition program - it will be shown on the opening day of the festival, March 27.

That seems to be all. Did anything impress you? Then I advise you not to put off going for tickets - there is a great demand for them these days. And for those who don’t go, I promise to tell you in more detail about the most interesting things along the way. It will be enough.