At the Theater of Nations, Boris Godunov was locked in the gym
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At the Theater of Nations they staged dreams based on the drama “Boris Godunov” written two hundred years ago by Alexander Pushkin, which in turn tells about the events of the turn of the 16th–17th centuries. The main role of Boris, who has fallen asleep in an eternal sleep, was played by our Russian Brandauer – Igor Gordin, who is not always lucky with directors of a large caliber.
The director of the play, Pyotr Shereshevsky, is increasingly interested in the theme of power and tyranny. He considers it in his performances as a crystal, from all sides. And now another “unheard-of” has been born about the sleep of reason that has gripped the whole country. We did it in 2 hours 10 minutes without an intermission – we live in times of high speeds, and it is advisable to run into the theater energetically and for a short time.
Pyotr Shereshevsky also lives at speed: he was recently appointed chief director of the Moscow Youth Theater; he has just released “Masquerade with Eyes Closed” at the Moscow Art Theater. Chekhov based on the play of the same name by Lermontov and the story “Story of Dreams” by Arthur Schnitzler. It’s amazing how he even managed to stage “Boris Godunov.” I did it in my signature style. Shereshevsky always focuses on today, whether he turns to Schiller’s “Mary Stuart” or Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.” The classic text, translated into the language of the streets, or even the gateways, becomes an occasion to talk about the present.
“Boris Godunov” is based not only on a thoroughly rewritten textbook “Boris Godunov”, but also fragments of its first edition – “The Comedy about Tsar Boris and Grishka Otrepiev”, Pushkin’s diaries. Human nature is unchangeable. He is just as greedy, greedy for money and power as he was centuries ago, and therefore past passions are easily projected onto today. Sometimes the chosen techniques seem outdated, you are waiting for something completely new and alive, new wine that can fill old wineskins.
If Shereshevsky, expect a rewritten play, actors in tracksuits who will sing something from the 90s or Soviet times. Since Shereshevsky means there will be operators on stage. They are there and broadcast what is happening on stage on the big screen, and move the camera to the auditorium. The stage becomes a magnifying glass, a giant mirror, which there is nothing to blame… It’s as if we are participating in another reality show.
It’s a little annoying that the focus of attention is again not on the living actor, but on his replica on the screen. Unlike the Tyuzov artists, with whom Pyotr Shereshevsky mastered Shakespeare and Schiller and who are not so experienced in the field of cinema, in the Theater of Nations the main roles were played by experienced film artists with a good feel for the camera. They look much more organic on screen.
Pyotr Shereshevsky created “the image of the gym as a place of humiliation and individual hell,” and he came to him again in a dream. It says on the screen that this is a dream. The gym is positioned as a symbol of timelessness and a reminder either of our childhood time, or of today. It is clear that each of us has our own associations, which do not always coincide with the director’s vision. “This is a story about how one power is replaced by another, but neither the first nor the second has morality. Leaders and ideology may change, but the essence remains the same,” comments Pyotr Shereshevsky. I staged something about this at the Theatre. Mayakovsky’s “The Naked King”, seasoned with other works by Evgeniy Schwartz, Sergei Ursulyak. Change it, don’t change it – it’s all the same.
So, according to the plan, characters from literature and history textbooks are locked in the gym of an average Russian school. Reclining on the table as if on his deathbed is the newly deceased servant of God Boris Fedorovich Godunov, a modern man in a classic business suit. And his whole life flashes before him, and he is given a chance to rethink it and repent of what he has done and what he has not done, possessing enormous power.
The body of Boris – Igor Gordin – is decorated with red carnations and framed with mourning wreaths. Everyone has the same ending. Little girls in white dresses and boys in white shirts (pupils of the creative development studio “Generation Plumage”) swirl around the deceased like snowflakes. They are the personification of the future, which will triumph sooner or later.
Scenographer Anvar Gumarov recreated on stage the madness of the leader’s funeral, which has approximately the same effect as in the chronicle of farewell to Stalin and its artistic interpretations. Continuing the tradition of “Mary Stuart”, “Romeo + Juliet”, performances of the Malyshchitsky Theater, which Pyotr Shereshevsky has directed since 2015, heroes of royal blood, representatives of the aristocracy wear sportswear, and costume designer Maria Lucca dresses the physical education teacher training the children accordingly – Marina Mnishek of modern bottling, only her name is Marianna Yurievna Mnishek. Yulia Khlynina plays her brightly and seductively, feeling like Lady Macbeth. Life is at stake. In a red tracksuit, Mniszech pulses like blood.
They are a delightful couple with Grigory Otrepiev, played desperately by Danil Steklov. He appears in a luxurious full-length fur coat, which slightly covers his defiantly exposed torso. There is some kind of devilry in Steklov’s hero, something of Rogozhin’s prowess in Dostoevsky’s “The Idiot.” But no fur coat can save the gopnic essence. Marina and Grishka are children of the gateway, ready to rule the world.
Nikon, Varlaam, Nikolka – they are something whole, three in one. Someone is not on the list of characters, but the image remains, it hovers in the air, echoes with familiar phrases. This whole whirlpool of modern life is so crazy that it defies any logic, but a person somehow manages to live in it, love, believe in the best, which for some reason does not come.
Shereshevsky’s constant collaborator, the composer and creator of the creative association “Private Dance Orchestra” Vanechka, worked on the performance. In addition to his compositions, Soviet and post-Soviet hits like “When we leave the school yard…” and “Three pieces of sausage” are heard. They came during rehearsals, born from the desire to “believe harmony with algebra,” and Pushkin’s modernity. And this is already a style that can become a cliche. The main thing is not to cross the line.
Newspaper headline:
Boris Godunov was locked in the gym
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