Dickensian story at the Obraztsov Theater

The New Year holidays have died down with fireworks, Christmas time has ended – the most unusual, “gift” time of the year, and in the Obraztsov Theater magic continues to rule the ball. Here, with a full house, there is a premiere of the fantastic musical “A Christmas Carol”, based on the Christmas story of Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol in Prose”.

For the first time, the actor Yefim Shifrin played the leading role in the theatre. The honored artist of the Russian Federation, the brilliant Konstantin Dubichev, works in line with him.

Laureate of the Russian National Theater Award “Golden Mask” Alexei Frandetti told the audience the story of the Christmas transformation of the miser and grumbler Scrooge, who hates Christmas and everyone’s fun. He, so rich and influential, is not loved by the whole city. But on Christmas Eve, the spirit of his deceased friend Marley flies to the hero, groaning and wrapped in chains. The ghost suffers terribly: after all, where he ended up, nothing can be corrected. And Scrooge can still make it. And Marley warns Scrooge not to waste time and think about his life, and sends him three mysterious Christmas spirits to help him. Thanks to them, Scrooge finds himself first in his childhood, seeing what caused his loneliness. He also recalls how in his youth he betrayed his beloved, preferring money to her, which caused his anger and stinginess. He also sees his gloomy future: he will be swallowed up by the earth, not a single living soul will come to his grave, and the accumulated wealth will go to someone who knows. Only the old housekeeper will sell his expensive shirts, trying to increase the number of coins in his skinny purse.

This story takes place in the winter London of the 19th century on the eve of the Christmas holiday. The aroma and entourage of Christmas is created for us by the wonderful artist Viktor Plotnikov, the author of the set design for the Snow Show by Slava Polunin. The beautiful houses of old London glow from within. Beautiful snow-covered patterns on the windows of these houses delight our eyes.

And the puppets in the production are unusually diverse. Their author is also Viktor Plotnikov. There are tablet and glove, cane and puppet puppets, masks and installations. There are, for example, huge four-meter high ones, there are also pretty lungs, a ghostly flock rushing over the hall on special cables.

The appearance at the beginning of the performance of two giant life-size puppets in the form of an organ grinder and a drummer, inside which the artists work, is impressive.

Yes, and Scrooge himself is at first a giant to us – the upper part of his body rises above a huge costume house with a lot of windows, from which small creditors protrude every now and then. The hero looks down on them, because he “is looking everywhere for profit, where to hit the jackpot.”

Scrooge pays little attention to people, they are akin to garbage for him. He is so exalted in his pride that he even arrogates to himself the right to decide who lives and who dies.

And he absolutely does not understand his clerk Bob (Donat Gilmanshin), who is carried in his arms with his sick son Tim. Bob is a man, Tim is a doll, which does not become clear immediately, the artist works so masterfully. Tim is terminally ill, he needs money for treatment, but Scrooge does not want to know anything about it.

What is Christmas without the light of candles and lights! The night ghost of the late Marley – a huge human-sized snow-white doll made of cotton, soars horizontally in the air and glows coldly from the inside. On the contrary, another doll shines with a completely joyful light – the Spirit of Christmas Past. He appears before us in the form of a beautiful fiery Fairy, whose image has become the hallmark of the performance.

Thanks to the Spirit of Christmas Past, we see Scrooge in the past – a little puppet boy in a puppet window with the doors thrown open, like in an old fairy tale. He often stays alone at home, he loves fairy tales so much!

The imaginations of the directors of the performance seem to have no limits: for example, Jin has a spinning beard on a flying carpet, with which the little dreamer boy Scrooge flies away. Well, complete delight!

He sees Scrooge and his immediate future. Very impressive is the giant puppet Death with a scythe, which spreads its wings over the hero. And the dead Scrooge lying on the ground looks absolutely incredible, along which this doll rides with its giant, long-lasting train, on which black houses, sheds, and churches are visible. As if Mother Earth swallowed up the hero with giblets, and nothing was left of him. Adults in this scene become creepy, children perceive the appearance of a small coffin on stage quite calmly. They do not know the concept of sin, which, in fact, the performance tells about, but they are perfectly oriented in the concepts of Good and Evil.

Scrooge, fortunately, does not agree that there will be nothing left of him. With this saving thought, the transformation of the hero begins. And now he is ready to accept an invitation to visit his nephew, where they celebrate Christmas so joyfully and are always ready to warm a confused uncle with warmth. Scrooge is now ready to help with money and little sick Tim. Ready to raise his father’s salary. I am ready to donate an indecently large amount to the needy people of the city.

The music changes from tragic to joyful.

By the way, she is a full-fledged hero of the play. Everyone here sings great. This is all the more surprising since puppet theater artists are not supposed to be such great singers. But it is! And on the stage they work like super-professional dramatic actors, giving a hundred points ahead to those of their colleagues whose monotonous reactions we – the audience – see on the screen from series to series.

“A Christmas Story” is a real full-fledged musical staged at the Theater. Exemplary for the first time. Composer Andrey Rubtsov did his best. The compositions are performed by the actors, the choir and the live orchestra on the stage.

Some may think that this is a children’s story. Which is not true at all. At the time of the first publication of Dickens’s book, the work was called the “new gospel”. And the theater, offering the audience a premiere performance, strives in every possible way to meet such a high assessment.

Elena Bulova.

Photos provided by the Obraztsov Theatre.