Efim Shifrin made his debut in the puppet theater
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Alexei Frandetti staged Dickens’ A Christmas Carol at the Obraztsov Theatre.
It’s cool when something happens for the first time on New Year’s Eve – you really want surprises. The performance “Christmas Story”, staged in the main puppet theater of the country by Alexei Frandetti, is just such a surprise. For the first time in the Obraztsov Theatre, the genre of the musical appears in its purest form, for the first time director Frandetti releases a performance in a puppet theater, for the first time a wonderful artist Efim Shifrin enters the stage in an ensemble with puppets. In combination with the almost mythological, moderately sentimental, moderately moralizing plot of Charles Dickens, the performance turned out to be magical and very kind in a Christmas way.
Of course, you should start with dolls. The artist Viktor Plotnikov has created a fabulous London world inhabited by charming Englishmen in the most varied technical performance. Here, both tablet puppets and parquet puppets, there are costume puppets, into which the artist gets with his whole body – and then a self-propelled big drum with a sad face or a tall hurdy-gurdy with monkeys appears on the stage. It is impossible to perceive these dolls as something conditional or even more inanimate. This is how the psyche works: you immediately take a puppet character for a living and real one. Moreover, there are live artists next to the dolls. Not only puppeteers, but also completely independent characters. And the first among them is Yefim Shifrin as the terrible, soulless, greedy Ebenezer Scrooge.
Miracles and tricks begin from the very first scene. Here Scrooge appears in the form of a giant – Shifrin’s head rises above the suit-house, from the windows of which pitiful creditors protrude. Scrooge’s clerk Bob (played by Donat Gilmanshin) appears with his son Tim in his arms – and the fact that little Tim is a doll is somehow not even immediately clear.
When Scrooge is the ghost of the late Marley, who is trying to save the sinful soul of his companion, the soul of the viewer is relieved: Marley, although a ghost, is not at all scary – so white, wadded, fluffy. After all, small children are sitting in the hall, there is a danger that they will be frightened by gloomy Dickensian horror stories. But rejoice early, friends. Fear will surely follow. But not at once. First – a lovely flight of pretty spirits over the heads of the audience. Then – moving Scrooge into the past, where he sees himself from the outside as a lonely baby, and then a young man in love (all these transformations of the hero are, of course, dolls). And after Scrooge looks into the houses of his nephew and clerk, where he sees with amazement how joyfully and worthily the poor celebrate the holiday, the spirit of the future Christmas appears. It is designed to properly scare the stubborn Scrooge, who does not want to include human emotions in himself. And he succeeds. In the form of a spirit – a complete set of nightmares: a black cloak with a hood, a scythe, a nosy mask of a plague doctor and, finally, horror! – a small coffin … The underage part of the hall held its breath – and suddenly … “Oh, what a suitcase …” – a child’s voice said loudly. The tension subsided, and the spirit took out a violin from the “suitcase” – and music began to sound.
However, the music here sounds non-stop. A Christmas Carol is a real-life musical where spoken dialogue is kept to a minimum. The artists sing great. It is clear that the puppet theater is a multidisciplinary art, but the fact that the artists here have such remarkable vocal abilities is admirable. The performance even has a kind of “choir” (actually a quartet), which, like in a Greek tragedy, comments on the action. The artists sing in four voices so professionally that it would do credit to the musical theater.
The performance is accompanied by a live instrumental ensemble. Andrey Rubtsov’s music is melodic, very theatrical, elegantly stylizing “Celtic” motifs. I was fascinated by the dances in the Irish style – especially those that are danced with hands shod in ballet shoes.
Alexei Frandetti, a great lover and connoisseur of Dickens, came up with his own adaptation of the plot based on the classic work of the English writer, integrating it into an amazing multi-genre performance, the main advantage of which is humanity and kindness. And the most important role here belongs to Yefim Shifrin, who, in the role of Scrooge, succeeded in everything – drama, vocals, plasticity, and the movement of the image from indifference to sympathy. Shifrin plays this role not formally, not schematically – he lives it in the best traditions of the Russian psychological theater together with his partners – artists – and surprisingly touching puppets. “A Christmas Story” is a sincere story, without false pathos, there is humor here, but there is no banter, there is miracle and skill here. In short, everything you need to celebrate your favorite holiday.
Newspaper headline:
Efim Shifrin corrects Scrooge’s mistakes
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