A miracle turned into a requiem for a dream

“An Ordinary Miracle” by Gennady Gladkov and Yuli Kim, based on the play by Evgeny Schwartz, was staged at the Bryantsev Youth Theater in St. Petersburg. The production was staged by a stellar Moscow creative team led by director Alexei Frandetti: artists Vyacheslav Okunev (scenography), Victoria Sevryukova (costumes), Ivan Vinogradov (lighting), choreographer Svetlana Khoruzina.

Another Muscovite, Nonna Grishaeva, played the court lady Emilia, and the role of the Magician was played by the inimitable Ivan Ozhogin, who, to the delight of his many fans, constantly shuttles between the stages of Moscow and St. Petersburg. The performance turned out to be sharp, passionate, very spectacular and very sad.

An unusual semi-circular curtain slowly opens, and to the sounds of the famous tense chromatic theme from Mark Zakharov’s cult film “An Ordinary Miracle”, performed by a live orchestra under the baton of St. Petersburg conductor Alexandra Chopik, the Magician Ivan Ozhogin, the superstar of this enchanting show, appears on a huge luminous staircase of a magnificent variety show. Handkerchiefs, flowers, steel blades, canes appear and disappear in his hands (stunts were staged by Valentin Sokolov).

There is no resemblance to the image created by Oleg Yankovsky – a tired magician in a dressing gown who has retired. The magician Ozhogin does not even dream of peace – his long coat is not associated with a dressing gown, but rather with the famous Vasnetsov overcoat with flaps. The way the Wizard manipulates the feelings and destinies of mortals – just as easily and ruthlessly as props – leads to suspicion of his belonging to the infernal regions of the universe. Well, the way the artist sings, captivating the audience with the beauty and richness of his unique voice, the magic is even stronger than the sleight of hand.

The costumes of Victoria Sevryukova, which are both beautiful, lush, bright, and at the same time strange, frightening, reminiscent of the style of the guests of the Woland ball, also do not allow immersing themselves in the atmosphere of good-natured comfort that was created in the 1978 film beloved by Soviet viewers.

Other times. Another reality. Other miracles.

The musical “An Ordinary Miracle” was created by Gladkov and Kim 12 years ago. The authors added a large number of numbers (in the film, as you know, there are only 5 songs). Alexey Frandetti and Alexandra Chopik treated the author’s material with care, making only minor changes and cuts, agreed with Yuly Kim. The result was a concise, dynamic story that combined cabaret presentation of musical material with allusions to the style of Zakharov himself. No wonder Alexei Frandetti, who this year became the chief director of Lenkom, dedicated the performance to Mark Anatolyevich, the founder of Russian musical directing.

Zakharov has always been characterized by a combination of trick and acute sadness. It is the same here: here is a small engine going along the rails in the forefront, and then it passes in the form of a projection on the back. And nothing seems to have happened, but why is it so sad?

Nonna Grishaeva as Emilia is charming and not so belligerent. Her organic femininity cannot be interrupted by cries of “Thunder strike me!” and “Beat the drums, blow the trumpets!”.

The King (Aleksey Titkov) and his entire retinue came from somewhere in the Looking Glass. Or from the comedy of masks. As is typical for the dramaturgy of Yevgeny Schwartz, they stand in sharp contrast to the lyrical characters. Schwartz’s trademark conflict between naturalness and play, between the real and the fake is a technique that has been succeeded, if not fully disclosed, then hinted at.

Radik Galiullin in the role of the Minister-Administrator does not duplicate the masterpiece image created by Andrei Mironov. He rather resembles another Schwartz character – Shadow: sleek hair, gloves, writhing plastic. In this performance, quotes are generally very subtly embedded, including from Zakharov’s film, which will inevitably rise before your eyes anyway. The mustache and bowler hat of the First Minister (Viktor Korotichov), the boater of the Innkeeper (Vladimir Chernyshov), the glasses of the Hostess (Anna Slynko) … not return.

Young heroes – Ivan Koryakovsky (Bear) and Ksenia Lazarevich (Princess) – are sincere, very natural, and also sing beautifully. For them, fortunately, a lot of new wonderful music has been written – arias, duets. The dying aria of the Princess – an awkward, completely everyday girl in big glasses – literally brings tears.

Brings tears and an ending. Here it is, the long-awaited kiss, and … No, we will not see a miracle – it will remain, like a dream, somewhere outside the boundaries of the human comedy, which the Wizard rules only to “talk about love with his wife.” The wife will also disappear right in front of the astonished eyes of the audience – only her cloak will remain in the hands of the Wizard. And so the final song with its desperately sad lyrics takes on the meaning of a requiem for a dream: “Let’s do it quietly, let’s do it in an undertone, let’s say goodbye brightly … A week, another, and we will calm down, what happened, it happened – passed. Let’s not cheat and talk about fate, by God, it’s not worth the trouble, yes, yes, gentlemen, maybe not someday, but never again … “