Silhouettes on pointe shoes

At Taganka they danced and sang Griboyedov’s comedy

For the first time, Yuri Lyubimov's new play "Woe from Wit - Woe to Wit - Woe to Wit" was played two weeks ago, on the director's ninetieth birthday, longtime friends of the theater and officials were there. Last weekend, the general public was allowed to look at the new version of Griboyedov's comedy - and the packed hall (students stood on the balcony near the walls, some bossy lady, seated on the iron stairs, loudly complained that she was not given a place of honor) became the best a gift to the director. The audience looked at the stage attentively and listened sensitively, but Yuri Petrovich Lyubimov did not want to talk to the audience in this performance.

The word in his “Woe from Wit” has been removed from its pedestal, the phrase has ceased to be the main character. The text is greatly abbreviated; It is not clear, in fact, why everyone disliked Chatsky so much - the director did not allow him to utter even half of his stinging phrases. However, not only the speeches of the main character were shortened, everyone began to talk less - Famusov, Liza, and even the Gorichs were not allowed to exchange a few words, so it is not at all clear why the marriage of Chatsky’s old friend (Yuri Ardashev) to this charming lady (Maria Akimenkova).

The performance ends up lasting only an hour and a half. The drama has been pushed forward in its rights; its place was taken by shadow theatre, opera and ballet.

The white wings converge at an angle to the center of the backdrop, through which the silhouettes of the characters are periodically visible; in the light-bleached space they appear as gray translucent shadows. When Famusov (Felix Antipov) speaks, the light is set so that he looks like a black silhouette, a cut-out figure against a light background. Those who love Rustam Khamdamov will undoubtedly be pleased to see his influence on such decisions; in the program the artist is listed as the author of the costumes.

All the girls (including the maid) are in white ball gowns and on pointe shoes. Periodically, they stand on these pointe shoes and make several movements; a ballet critic may have a heart attack when he looks at how the ankles of the unfortunate people, unaccustomed to such exercises, are twisted; They risk serious injury every second. But the main thing is that the result is not worth such suffering: cruel ballet shoes do not add grace to the girls; on the contrary, they highlight all the shortcomings.

Men don't dance - but they sing. Throughout the entire performance the music does not stop (Griboyedov, Stravinsky, Chopin, Mahler, and Martynov) and the actors try to recite melodies - sometimes coinciding with the music, sometimes not. Sometimes the waltzes simply drown them out, but not only the monologues are turned into sung arias. There are also special musical inserts - for example, Skalozub (Ivan Ryzhikov) without a pause moves from Griboyedov’s text to romances with poems by Denis Davydov, and from them to “Moscow! The bells are ringing!

There are several moments in the performance that remind us that “Woe from Wit” is still not an operetta or a campy shadow theater, that the director’s flair, the sharpness of his mind and the feeling of today have not gone away. The best of them is when in the ballroom Chatsky (Timur Badalbeyli) waltzes with the old woman Khlestova's blackamoor slave - and after that, gossip about his madness spreads. But such moments still dissolve among the languid maidens, all trying to stand on their toes, and romances. His monologue addressed to Lisa, where the words “The habit of being together every day inseparably/ Tied us with childhood friendship; but then / He moved out, he seemed bored with us, and rarely visited our house,” Sofya (Elizaveta Levashova) sings in the center of the ballroom, as an example of home music playing. One gets the impression that Yuri Petrovich Lyubimov wanted to make a performance about how the word is devalued in our time of endless pop music and solemn gloss, about how any talk is meaningless and hopeless - and, like Chatsky, he exposed himself to the blow. But, of course, he has the right to this too.

Anna GORDEEVA