All familiar faces

Boris Eifman made another of his ballets from “The Seagull”

When a couple of months ago there was a rumor that Boris Eifman was staging a ballet based on Chekhov's play, the news seemed intriguing. “The Seagull” is not the most popular subject for choreographers; Until recently, only the performance of Maya Plisetskaya (1980) was widely known - in fact, a benefit performance of the great ballerina, to which everyone went exactly for her - the dancer, and not to see how she - the choreographer would transform the play into dance . But four years ago, “The Seagull” was made in Hamburg by John Neumeier, and in the summer of 2003 the play was brought on tour to St. Petersburg. And now, in the same St. Petersburg, Eifman is staging a ballet on the same plot... Of course, it was curious how much one of the best performances of the Hamburg master would influence his colleague.

It turned out that it had no effect at all.

Well, yes, the action is also transferred to the ballet environment: Arkadina is a ballerina of the imperial theaters, Nina Zarechnaya begins her career as a dancer, Trigorin is a recognized choreographer, Treplev is a dance experimenter. But this is an obvious move; it is much more difficult to portray a writer on the ballet stage than a dance composer. In all other respects, Eifman remained so true to himself that it would have been better if he had borrowed something from Neumeier.

Because the brand new “The Seagull” has become a copy of the quite old “Russian Hamlet” - and behind “Hamlet” there are a dozen more performances similar to each other. From year to year, from production to production, Eifman squeezes the same scenario out of any plot. A brutal man (in “Russian Hamlet” - Favorite, in other incarnations - Chekist, Rogozhin, etc.), a bitchy and domineering woman seeking carnal pleasures (Arkadina; Catherine the Great), a weak man (Treplev, Pavel I ), a young girl, in principle not malicious, but readily responding to the calls of depraved “elders” and therefore betraying a weak man (Nina Zarechnaya, Pavel’s wife, etc.). This quartet sorts out the relationships between themselves in the play, and that there are no other characters, and at a December press conference, the choreographer said that he took into account the “controversial experience” of John Neumeier, who overpopulated the stage with characters, and therefore, according to Eifman, the audience was it is not clear who is who.

No, you can't go wrong at this performance. In the prologue, a young man struggles and bends in a large wire cube - this is the young creator Treplev (Oleg Gabyshev) who is confined to the limits of classical art. Under such pressure, the cube changes its shape and looks as if it had been crushed by a truck. Here is a young man denying this very art, trying to compose something of his own - and the corps de ballet then crawls onto the stage in a giant white bag, thoughtfully swaying inside it (no people are visible at all, only the fabric rises here and there - and this happens for quite a long time ), then suddenly falls out in a crowd of hip-hoppers (admittedly, such careful hip-hoppers, spinning and falling very slightly, any street fan will dance better, however, this is not a reproach, ballet dancers have the right to take care of their limbs). But the decisive, self-satisfied, victorious Trigorin (Oleg Markov) - not to the music, but only to the clicking rhythm, leading the corps de ballet practicing jumping and knocking Treplev off his feet with one click. This is not a concept; It’s just that Eifman’s strong man is always cruel. Who said that Trigorin must be strong? No, I already said - this is not Trigorin, this is one of the parts of Eifman’s eternal alignment.

Everything that is expected from Eifman is present in this performance - and the “secular mob” (the surrounding world, always stupidly aggressive and equipped with mechanical vocabulary, wild smiles and a manner of applauding with the tips of the fingers - this is how Arkadina and Trigorin are greeted at a certain ball), and duets, which would be better sold packed in plastic and in specially equipped places. It turned out a little difficult with male duets - Eifman likes to arrange sort of fights on stage, in which there is a strong sexual connotation, but what can be squeezed out of this plot? Therefore, the half-hug fight is still added, but it falls out even from the existing tattered rhythm and works as an insert number. And of the things that have not been seen before, perhaps the only “new thing” is “hunting a seagull” - Nina Zarechnaya, having become an actress, clearly performs in some nightclub and it looks like this. A small pedestal, highlighted by a green glowing line, with a red fluorescent light on top, and on the pedestal is a girl in short feathers. The girl bends over, trying to be seductive; lies on his back, opening his legs wide and moving his butt; feathers flutter. A group of men watches her exercise; then a transparent target is lowered from the grate, separating the artist from these spectators, and the men begin to throw darts at the target...

As before, Eifman was unable to find a piece of music that fully met his needs, and assembled a score from small pieces of eleven works by Rachmaninov, plus a little crumbling of Scriabin. But the performance already looks like a series of quotes collected from the theater’s long-standing repertoire, so this doesn’t even interfere. Eifman chose his path a long time ago, he carries it out cheerfully, and no one - neither Rachmaninov nor Chekhov - is able to stop him.

If anyone is interested in how this painful plot can actually be poured, melted, engraved in dance, rehearsals are currently underway at the Moscow Musical Theater, John Neumeier is moving his performance here. Premiere in March.

Anna GORDEEVA, St. Petersburg - Moscow