Translated material
Don't wake up Psycho while it's quiet
Andriy Zholdak mastered another Moscow stage
If anyone still doesn’t know who Andriy Zholdak is, let him visit the “School of Modern Play” theater, where this director’s new play “Moscow. Psycho". Most likely, you won’t get any particular clarity, but at least you will understand what an avant-garde director is today: there is a lot of noise, drive, special effects, few words and no sense at all. It is impossible to make out what exactly is happening, the faint of heart cannot stand it and defiantly leave the hall after ten minutes of action, the more resilient wait until the intermission... By the end, the hall is half empty, the actors cheerfully, but anxiously peer into the stalls, where several particularly zealous fans are applauding passionately. Some old woman blows her whistle indignantly... Stop, this is already a quote from an old review of Meyerhold’s production of Blok’s play “Balaganchik”...I’m not making comparisons in any way, it’s just that the fate of an avant-garde artist in any era is not easy. And the avant-garde artist is ready for this. At a press conference before the premiere, Zholdak already accused the critics of being closed-minded, the public of being stagnant, and called a society that does not like modern theater doomed to dictatorship and backwardness.
The artistic director of the theater, Joseph Raikhelgauz, having allowed the avant-garde artist Zholdak to play pranks on his stage, is ready for an explosion of indignation from the theater’s regular fans, but hopes for “success, scandal, viewers.” At the press conference, he even encouraged Zholdak to be more daring and defiant. However, Zholdak did not respond to entreaties and looked quite satisfied with life, a sought-after professional who knew his worth, who did not express his thoughts quite coherently and logically, but who knew firmly what and how to do. The artists who took part in the experiment looked at him devotedly and lovingly. Which, by the way, is also a property that distinguishes avant-garde artists; they are born leaders who know how to inspire unconditional trust in themselves, since otherwise a miracle will not happen. And everyone really wants a miracle. Moreover, Zholdak so impressively reports that this performance is a response to another, staged by him at the famous Berlin Volksbühne theater, and so sweetly praises the Moscow theater, where he worked “no worse than in Switzerland” - all services strictly carried out his creative ideas.
Zholdak really works in Berlin, he is invited to performances by Western theaters, he has a lot of energy and imagination, so attention has been drawn to the new project of the “School of Contemporary Play”. But I have strong doubts that this story will end happily...
Nevertheless, the performance began. There are stylish decorations on the stage, contrasting with the tacky stucco of the auditorium and in no way related to it. To be honest, this confused me. If I were an avant-garde artist, would I really miss the opportunity to play with such a spectacular style? How the image is reflected on the big screen above the stage, in the richly framed mirrors of the stalls! This is some kind of holiday!
Moreover, the action takes place in the wealthy Moscow family of a certain entrepreneur Jason, whose wife Medea and two sons are about to be left by him for the daughter of a major authority and politician Creon, with whom Jason has a joint business.
The idea is rich - the myth of Medea takes on new shades if Medea, a woman with a rich past, a generally cool “woman with balls”, who is at odds with the law, harbors hatred for her offenders. It is not in vain that the experienced Creon, knowing who he has contacted, warns his daughter and future son-in-law that an abandoned wife is really dangerous. And it would be better to have her - that one. But Jason is still young and green and knows little about life. He is embarrassed by such radical measures, and he feels sorry for his wife... I liked the actor Ivan Mamonov, who played Jason (in another cast he is played by Albert Filozov, and this, of course, is a completely different story). Mamonovsky Jason is a weakling and a rag and such a recognizable type that this alone is enough for an entertaining story. But we are watching an avant-garde performance by a spontaneous Ukrainian artist. They, spontaneous Ukrainian artists, for some reason are certainly distinguished by their redundancy, visual generosity, and besides, they are not interested in everyday psychological dramas, and are much more comfortable working with symbols, metaphors and energies.
That's why they don't tell us the story, God forbid. We are shown an action in which points of emotional tension are extravagantly and vividly recorded. For example, the characters constantly and frighteningly passionately hit the glass walls of the scenery. The glass rings and sways. Since there are operators with video cameras on stage at all times, the image from which is transmitted to the screen, faces, facial expressions and details are clearly visible even in the back rows. It's nice. Sometimes, however, close-ups of actors are replaced on the screen by scenes from films. "Psycho" by Hitchcock. Or Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. Another one, about the Goebbels family, I didn’t recognize. Stills from films are needed to complete the associative series. It pushes the boundaries of the genre, connects what is happening on stage with the icons of modern culture, parodies it and gives rise to rich intertextuality. Got it, you're not stupid.
The main role in the play is played by Elena Koreneva (in another cast, Ekaterina Direktorenko). Koreneva was specially invited to this role after she successfully played in another play by Zholdak, “Carmen.” There the role was not the main one, but the way Koreneva pronounced the monologue about wolves, honestly, is unforgettable. She has nothing like that in this performance. The courageous actress with complete dedication gives all of herself for the benefit of the performance. She freezes with her mouth open, allows an open light to shine in her face, almost kisses a snake, screams, moans, dances around a pole, puts on black lingerie, lets out cries of despair and demonstrates the highest chic. She is merciless with herself and that makes her beautiful, but I just can’t understand what exactly is going on with her character. In general, what is the director actually interested in? Why did he plunge this particular story into these particular circumstances?
No, everything is fine. For example, the way dad Creon (Vladimir Shulga) makes speeches, copying the rhetoric of the top officials of the state in order to emphasize the price of this rhetoric. Or DJ Alexey Gnilitsky delivers uninterrupted text, imitating the indispensable blur of all radio presenters. But the performance lasts almost three hours. And all this time you are waiting for what this is all about. You hope that they will show you something that you have not seen before, and you will understand something that you did not know before. In vain. The plot moves slowly, with digressions, towards a denouement that never comes. And this makes it very boring. The further, the more. In Zholdak's previous performance, about Carmen, the plot was much less explicit, but, in my opinion, there was a strong emotional component. Here, alas, I don’t see anything other than formally shocking techniques, the radicality of which, frankly speaking, is also very doubtful. “Drive-party”, this is how the genre of the play is indicated on the poster. Imitation of drive will be more accurate. But the party is yes. They gathered, made some noise, and dispersed.