“Mary Stuart” in MTYUZ reinforced with salted tomatoes

Schiller seasoned with online technology

The tragedy “Mary Stuart” by Friedrich Schiller at the MTYuZ staged by the St. Petersburg director Pyotr Shereshevsky is one of eleven large-scale performances from different cities of the country nominated for the Golden Mask award. It is curious that by the decision of the founders in the category “Director’s work” nominees are not nominated. This is connected only with the fact that in the column of some performances it says: “Director – Director.” The names of those who left the country are not known.

So Pyotr Shereshevsky, who has already been nominated for the Golden Mask six times, has been dismissed due to the circumstances. Actors are more fortunate. Among the nominees are the student of Anatoly Efros Victoria Verberg, who plays the Queen of England Elizabeth, and Ekaterina Slivina as the exile Mary Stuart. Sergei Pogosyan as Baron Burley and Ilya Shlyaga as Mortimer were put forward in supporting roles.

The subtitle defines the action as “The Story of a Murder”, and the director uses the techniques of online theater. The clash of two strong women, two queens and the nature of tyranny are explored with the help of modern artistic means. Little has changed in our world, if two centuries after Schiller’s departure to another world, we find parallels. Man is still defenseless in the face of power. Even if he himself is its personification, he is subject to self-destruction. Interestingly, Schiller and his intimate life, the love of two sisters, are dismantled in detail in the film “Beloved Sisters” by Dominik Graf. So no one is immune from annoying attention.

Pyotr Shershevsky, anticipating the performance, said that the killers are concerned about one thing: how to kill and save their reputation, to shift their blame onto others. Evil in Schiller triumphs and pretends to be mercy. “We look at our today through this terrible picture of the world. And we hope that someday this will seem like an unbelievable thing to us. That someday the world will seriously turn to the ideals of humanism, which are respect for freedom and the indispensable value of every human life,” says the director. The characters wear modern costumes.

Schiller’s textbook text is enriched with modern vocabulary. Young actors more accurately grasp the prison jargon and flavor, creating the feeling that the world is one big colony. The older generation has a different upbringing culture. There are no historical scenery and costumes corresponding to the era. On the proscenium are their replicas, flat figures for photography, in which you can insert your face. The characters wear modern costumes. The stage is filled with furniture, as if we were in a specialized store, divided into conditional sections. Set designer Nadezhda Lopardina designed the Queen’s bedroom like a hotel room with modern fixtures and a double bed. Nearby is a toilet room with good plumbing, where the mistress brushes her teeth with her lover, and the viewer watches the process, since a large screen is installed, which continuously broadcasts what is happening. In the center of the stage is an elongated conference table. In the background, in the right corner, is a solitary cell, in which a modern-looking girl in a tracksuit named Mary Stuart is imprisoned.

Everything’s under control. Everyone is being watched. Cameras go everywhere, creating the illusion of a reality show. We look at the screen, not at the live actors. But cinema is a different element, and although the director has little experience in it (he made the full-length film “Gingerbread”), this is not a panacea. They work as best they can. Two actors capture what is happening on camera. The reception is not new, fatigue has accumulated from it, as well as from microphones that amplify the voices of actors. Their faces, equipped with wires that can spoil any “movie”. Recently, at the Golden Mask, too, the great actors of the past are increasingly remembered, Oleg Borisov, who played Paul I in the vast space of the Army Theater, who took the hall so naturally, without shouting. Modern artists frown when they have to work without a microphone. What is outside the camera is invisible. Only the life of Elizabeth is on display.

Gorgeous Victoria Verberg plays the undivided mistress, who does what she wants without hesitation. Elizabeth is lustful, cruel, does not know what mercy is, she likes to arrange a theater as a deceit. She entangles young Mortimer in her net, eating sweet intimacy with salted tomatoes from a jar. Her new favorite is about to supplant the proven lover of the Earl of Leicester, a fighter shabby in intrigues performed by Igor Balalaev. For the time being, he is close to the royal body, brushing his teeth with Elizabeth, fooling around in her bed. He and the ex-lover of Mary, she appeals to him in vain. The Earl of Leicester periodically approaches the synthesizer, sometimes in a bathrobe, plays and sings. He is accompanied on drums by Mortimer in a bright women’s dress. The music is booming, songs from the repertoire of Led Zeppelin, Modern Talking, tas Namin are heard. In the final, the heroes will perform the Soviet hit “We wish you happiness” against the backdrop of a curtain of golden rain. And it will survive, and we will adapt to it. Part of the audience in shock, leaves during the intermission. They cannot accept such a free adaptation of the classic play, they call what they saw the apotheosis of debauchery. Those who remain enthusiastically read parallels with modernity.