"Spanish madness" in Lenkom

In 1945, "Dancing Teachers" - the Renaissance comedy of the great Spanish playwright Lope de Vega - was set up in the Red Army Theater. The director was Vladimir Chancellus, the choreographer was Vladimir Burmeister. Music was written by Alexander Crane. Lyudmila Kasatkina played Florel, Felician - Dobrzhanskaya Love. From 1946 to 1971 (when the Red Army Theater was already called theater of the Soviet Army), the role of Aldmaro belonged to Vladimir Zeldin. Then she was played by Fedor Chekhankov - he was a good artist and a wonderful person. The performance was removed from the repertoire more recently (when the theater was no longer red and not Soviet, but simply - it is not known whose army), replacing it with a new production "Dancing with the Teacher." She was made by Julius Gusman and Isaac Friedberg specifically for Vladimir Zeldin, and the premiere was timed to coincide with the 95th anniversary of the actor beloved by all.

Now the Lenkom turned to the "Dancing Teacher". Director Igor Konyaev (the head of the Riga Russian Theater named after Mikhail Chekhov) believes that in its pure form the romantic story of the “cloak and swords” is impossible today. He refers to the "new guide to the composition of the comedies" Lope de Vega: "And I glorified myself to the whole country by writing comedies without rules."

“Following the Testament of the great Spaniard,” says Igor Konyaev , “we did not deny and composed this performance outside established traditions and ideas.” I think Lope de Vega will not be much offended by us, because he himself was an excellent “bully” and convinced everyone: “Sometimes it is especially that there is any fact that the laws violates rudely.”

“Roughly violating the laws”, the play “Lenkom” was called not a “dance teacher”, but “Spanish madness”. Vaudevile intrigue, comedy of the provisions - everything, as it was, but the ease, appropriate for the Renaissance comedy, has gone. Ivan Fedotov made to the old spectacle of the scenery - it was a panorama of the city of Tudel, there was a lot of light and air. The authors of the scenography and costumes in Lenkom - artists from Latvia Martins Wilkarsis and Ilze Vitolin - proposed a different decision. The scene is dark, the design is conditional: the metal team design, the Spanish motives are “heard” in it, and in costumes, and of course, in the music that composer Sergei Rudnitsky wrote (it is performed live, as is customary in Lenkom).

Olesya Zheleznyak (Felicyana), Sergey Stepanchenko (Alberigo), Maxim Amelchenko (Vandalino) are employed in the play. In the lead roles - Svetlana Ilyukhina and Anton Shagin. Anton Shagin is very famous, first of all, thanks to the film "Dudes", and he is a happy actor, because he is busy in roles of various properties: in dramatic, comic, and in tragic ones. Anton Shagin agrees:

- This is so because I try to choose the roles. But, in connection with the "dance teacher", I must tell you that I have my own internal conflict with the genre. It is very difficult for me to go out and amuse the audience. Therefore, I deliberately not mix anyone in this performance. And I will never go about the viewer. Standing on stage, I see a black hole in front of me. And I myself also seem to myself in a black hole (laughs. - RS). To go beyond the space of the stage and the theater, we need to connect. To do this, the viewer should also work, and not just wait for him to be entertained, they are mixed with a vulgar or half -pushed joke.

When asked what exactly takes the play by Lope de Vega outside the theater, Anton Shagin answered

- Now it is customary to comment on what you are doing on stage, but I do not want to tell anything. I looked, liked it - I didn’t like it, goodbye. But I will tell you that for the role of Aldmaro, director Igor Konyaev and choreographer Maria Kableeva, I came up with that the hero is moving in profile, like on an Egyptian fresco, on a Greek vase, like a faun in ballet. The viewer must understand why Aldemaro does so why he suddenly takes such a pose. In this pause, Aldemaro should think about what happened before and what will happen after that. We all invented together - movements, dances. They came up with something of their own. It's more interesting than dancing classic Galardy ...

Anton Shagina - both in the theater and in the cinema - make a lot to move, use his unique plastic abilities. When asked if difficult plastic decisions are convenient for him, Anton Shagin answered:

- This is just completely inconvenient. But what do we have? Only text, voice and body. If you do not use the body, it turns out that we are robbing ourselves.