Moscow Art Theater Gorky showed his version of an old fairy tale

“Cinderella” with imperial scope

The plot of “Cinderella” haunts the artists of all continents, it seems, from the moment it came out from the pen of Charles Perot – 326 years ago. But, of course, her theatrical and film life began later. Be that as it may, a beautiful fairy tale about a meek and hardworking girl and a glass slipper remains the ideal of a fairy tale, the secret of success of which has not been fully unraveled. Moscow Art Theater Gorky created his own Cinderella, marking the main path of his further development with this family performance. With details – browser “MK”.

Interestingly, when did the earliest Cinderellas appear on the stage and on the screen? At the end of the 19th century, there was a production in Paris with which the pioneer of animation and special effects in cinema, Georges Méliès, created his six-minute film, and it became the most commercially successful project. Moreover, “Cinderella” was the first painting sold from Europe to the United States, where it was also painted for greater attractiveness – by hand every frame of the rental copy. Further, Cinderella only multiplied, embodied in different genres and proudly demonstrating the technical achievements of cinema, and the theater hurried after it with all its might. The literary mess in the cinema changed names and acquired other names, as in the American-English film of 2015, but the essence remained the same – a kind heart, patience, diligence, which will be rewarded sooner or later, and, of course, happiness. Let it be illusory, but beautiful, Christmas.

The Moscow Art Theater, which in recent years has not been successful in the field of children’s performances, this time performed unexpectedly brightly. For the production, Vladimir Kekhman called on a team that has been successfully and for a long time working in the opera – no less than the director Vyacheslav Starodubtsev, the stage designer Vyacheslav Okunev and the queen of theatrical costume Victoria Sevryukova. Their production is an homage (that is, a curtsey, a bow) to the side of both the brilliant Soviet black-and-white painting by Nadezhda Kosheverova of 1947, written by Evgeny Schwartz and starring the tiny blonde Yanina Zheymo (height 148 cm), and the imperial style, alas lost in the drama theatre. The script is a little cropped, but the storyline and shock quotes of the characters are completely preserved.

“It’s a pity the kingdom is not enough, I have nowhere to roam. It’s okay, I’ll quarrel with the neighbors, I can do it” (stepmother) or “I’m not a magician, I’m just learning” (page). “It’s terribly harmful not to go to balls when you deserve it” (fairy godmother), and Antonio Spadavecchia’s famous song about a cheerful beetle (“Stand up, children, stand in a circle, stand in a circle …”), with which the bride was successfully tested for Prince, with a red thread she sewed two acts out of three of the Moscow Art Theater Cinderella.

Powerful scenery in the form of huge clock mechanisms, supported by a video projection of celestial bodies, impresses with its size and shape. The flight over the stage of the main characters, of course, is not new in the modern theater, but against the backdrop of the scenery it looks impressive. Invented characters in the form of Fleeing time, dancing Clocks and Roses – the director did not restrain his imagination. And what are the costumes here! There are 135 of them in the performance, and they amaze with sophistication: candles grow out of ball gowns, dancing rose costumes, and watch costumes. At the same time, on the costumes, which look very expensive from the audience, there are no Swarovski stones, boas made of lush feathers, endless sparkles – in a word, everything that is included in the usual fabulous assortment of any artist. The vintage and imperial style of the Moscow Art Theater Cinderella is presented on Tverskoy Boulevard powerfully and in an adult way.

Imagine my surprise when, after the performance, I found out that all the ball gowns of court ladies, costumes of gentlemen and other fairy-tale characters, whose budget should go off scale, are not so expensive and are made of fairly simple fabrics – organza, taffeta. But the exquisite handiwork, the skilful imitation of luxury, revealed a miracle of theatrical deceit, for which, year after year, generations of grown-up children bring their own children to the theater.

The visuals a la Hollywood (by the way, the melodies of the golden age of Hollywood sound in the performance) are impeccable. What can not be said about acting work: the drawing of some roles is devoid of color and not so bright that they are remembered. And the ensemble as a whole clearly still lacks that powerful collective energy that captures the hall, especially the children’s hall, which is always open and grateful to her. However, such a luxurious decorative and costume frame will cover or brighten up any game. But the fact that the Doroninsky Moscow Art Theater set a different level for children’s and family performances is a fact.