Nikolai Kolyada tamed the iguana: a radical production of the play by Tennessee Williams

Theater tours from Yekaterinburg are accompanied by the offering of food gifts

For its Moscow tour, the Kolyada Theater brought from Yekaterinburg four performances based on plays by Tennessee Williams – “The Glass Menagerie”, “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”, “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “The Night of the Iguana”. One of the works of the American classic was transformed into a variety show with corn, birds, and a flickering iguana.

For its Moscow tour, the Kolyada Theater brought from Yekaterinburg four performances based on plays by Tennessee Williams – “The Glass Menagerie”, “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”, “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “The Night of the Iguana”. One of the works of the American classic was transformed into a variety show with corn, birds, and a flickering iguana.

In addition to the two acts of “Night of the Iguana,” there was also a third—spontaneous, at the end of the performance, when compassionate spectators, who had been waiting for their time for a long time, began to bring out gifts—marshmallows, candies, and their own cooking. They feel some kind of maternal feelings for Ekaterinburg artists, whom for some reason they feel sorry for, as if they were starving. The actors, led by Nikolai Kolyada, did not leave the stage for a long time, gratefully accepting the gifts. Why not the “Field of Miracles”, where people from all over the country sometimes come to present gifts to their favorite TV presenter. There is nothing like this in Yekaterinburg. This is the Moscow syndrome, although in the hall there are not only Muscovites, there is the whole country in miniature.

The Night of the Iguana premiered in November 2023, and this is a premiere for Moscow. The play was staged by Nikolai Kolyada. He himself came up with the scenography (together with the artist and theater actor Lev Nizami) and musical design. He did not deny himself anything. The riot of fantasy knows no bounds, balancing on the edge of outright kitsch.

The scene is framed by giant ears of corn, similar to Central Asian melons. Many of the heroes are wearing oriental robes, and all together it resembles a caravanserai. A whole population of dead birds of strange plumage has been planted above the corn. Then people take their level in the pyramid, and two angels wave their white and black wings above them. The white angel is played by Pavel Rykov, who is like two peas in a pod like Lenin, who plays Ilyich in “Woe from Wit” (where he rises from the grave). The crown of creation is the shimmering body of a green-lilac iguana, inflated like a swimming mattress. She is about to be cut into pieces, but for now you can jump on her iridescent back, like on a trampoline.

Everything is filled with a noisy crowd of colorfully dressed people. They dance and sing. The apotheosis of the noisy carnival is the fashion show to the popular song “Acapulco”, which was performed in the old days by Laima Vaikule. All Pedro, Julio, Pancho perform ablutions from huge shells. Why and why – God knows. In essence, the public doesn’t care about the suffering of Tennessee Williams’s characters, what’s more important is the fair of paint, a whirlwind of feathers and glitter.

Nikolai Kolyada constantly reminds viewers of the relationship between the dramaturgy of Williams and Chekhov, but what he does with him in “The Night of the Iguana” does not refer to the Russian classic, but is reminiscent of a variety show. As one of the viewers noted, apparently, as a child he was very fond of the Berlin Friedrichstadt Palace, like all Soviet television viewers. Even the stage looks like a miniature of him. Things aren’t going very well here with Chekhov’s halftones. Everything is drowning in a riot of colors. But Kolyada staged the play after all about the fatal loneliness of man.

Ex-priest Lawrence Shannon, demoted for molesting a young teacher (played by Evgeniy Korniliev, already familiar from his role as Tom in The Glass Menagerie), finds a new use for himself. He makes his living on tours around Mexico, which often end in scandals. And now a group of tourists find themselves in a run-of-the-mill Costa Verde hotel, where Shannon himself will meet true love. This is how it should be ideally. In Kolyada, everything takes on a comical tone.

Shannon is a real man, and we have to believe it. He boldly demonstrates his physical assets to the public. He is sympathized with both the women in the auditorium, and the sexy hotel owner – the young widow Maxine, played by Irina Plesnyaeva (she is good at the beginning of the performance, and then goes into some inexplicable element), and the underage young lady, ready for anything, played by Victoria Lemeshenko. But the artist Hanna (wonderful work by Vasilina Makovtseva) who happens to be at the hotel, accompanying her 97-year-old ailing grandfather (in Kolyada this is a man in the prime of his life, a clown played by Alexander Zamuraev), inspires Shannon spiritually. The range of his desires is wide – from a slut to a forty-year-old virgin. Kolyada will put them in front of the fan in the classic Marilyn Monroe pose, and it will become clear who is who.

The actors, being in a state of passion, do not calculate their strength, and a chair, clumsily thrown by their partner, will fly at the half-dead grandfather. It is unknown how strong the blow Alexander Zamuraev experienced, but he bravely continued to lie there as if nothing had happened. As befits a grandfather who will soon face eternity.