"SHAKESPIERHAMLET" at the Moscow City Council Theatre: fresh, sparkling, sharp

"SHAKESPIERHAMLET" at the Moscow City Council Theatre: fresh, sparkling, sharp


Premiere at the Moscow City Council Theatre. The artistic director of the theater Evgeny Marchelli presented to the public his stage version of William Shakespeare's play "Hamlet" under the intriguing title "SHAKESPEERHAMLET". In one word, all letters are capital.

The new performance does not hold any intrigue: it frankly falls out of the classical framework. "SHAKESPEERHAMLET" is one of those rare smart productions that, due to its unusual form, are either accepted by the viewer wholeheartedly, completely, or rejected "in the bud". The prevailing black and white color scheme, in which the artist Anastasia Bugayeva chose costumes and scenery, only emphasizes this polarity of perception.

Yevgeny Marchelli is well aware that Moscow has seen a variety of Hamlets. And it will be extremely difficult for him to open the tightly closed door into the depths of the viewer's subconscious. In order to achieve the goal, the director decides to expose some new essence of familiar things and concepts, descending into the very inside of a well-known plot.

This production has everything - both thought, and a fair amount of humor, and philosophical depth with its topical questions, the answers to which everyone gives himself. There is a paradoxical direction here and clearly marked fiducial points of the play, which have become the framework of a new reading. There is a way out of the usual framework for the perception of the characters themselves and amazing acting work. There is beauty and some kind of light horror, secular salonism and historical conventionality, a direct reference to the political situation outside the windows. In short, a little of everything that makes up a strong performance.

Wonderful are thy works, Elsinore! Claudius (Sovremennik artist Sergey Yushkevich), hugging Gertrude (Evgenia Kryukova), “squeezing” at every corner, tries in vain to make a speech befitting the occasion about the King who left the world untimely. But it is felt that the cooing couple is not up to speeches: it is not easy for Claudius to gather his thoughts in the arms of Gertrude.

The Prince of Denmark (bright work by Kirill Byrkin), having met face to face with the ghost of his father (Alexander Filippenko), is tormented by the question of whether the devil took on his father's native appearance in order to finally bring him, the prince, to the grave. (The words about the devil, apparently, arose after the translation of the play by Mikhail Morozov.)

Ophelia (infinitely talented Anna Galinova) is a girl of unimaginable size, buxom and buxom, considers herself the first beauty of the kingdom. And he hurries to help the prince understand the question of “to be or not to be”, that is, to live or not to live, to kill or not to kill.

The famous Shakespearean question itself is heard at first from the audience from somewhere because of the colonnade of snow-white voluminous scarves hanging from the ceiling to the floor. These same scarves will then turn into a tall mountain of "snow", striving upwards, under the grates of the theater, and the faces of the participants in the play will appear from it.

Polonius (powerful work by Valery Yaremenko), concerned about the fate of his beloved daughter, tries to protect her from falling, unsuccessfully drumming in the wisdom that each generation comprehends solely by stuffing its own bumps.

Laertes (Mitya Fedorov), stylish and strict, in a long black cloak and glasses, giving him the appearance of a determined and intelligent person, finally loses the ability to think and recognize Claudius's manipulations, because he is trying to avenge his murdered father and dead sister at any cost.

The visiting artists, restrained and minimalist to the limit, act as a wonderful contrast to Hamlet raging on the stage, eager to portray the deceit of the now living monarch.

A crowd of fifty crazy girls in black evening dresses, with bare shoulders, like a swarm of wild bees, rushes around the castle, after the half-naked prince, hoping to get him, and at the same time the throne and power. Moreover, the less clothes remain on the prince, the larger the swarm of contenders becomes.

So, “everything is mixed up in the house…” Although no, director Marchelli weaves a completely different phrase into the fabric of Shakespeare’s text, no less famous, and causing laughter in the hall: “Carriage for me, carriage!”

Frank laughter generally breaks out quite often during the performance, the duration of which is only 1 hour and 50 minutes. Just like in the famous Juno and Avos. The comparison is not accidental - in the premiere Moscow Soviet production there is also a lot of music, live drumming and some other unthinkable, unusual musical instruments. Marchelli, before the start of the first show, even jokingly called this drama "almost a musical." To a full-fledged musical "SHAKESPEERHAMLET", of course, does not reach, and does not set such a goal. But the musical accompaniment is a full-fledged active element here - the noise screen creates either a unique atmosphere of the sea coast, or opens the door to the afterlife, or emphasizes the fuss of disco frenzy, in which the excited courtiers of Elsinore constantly stay.

Director's finds in the performance would be enough for several performances. What is worth the mere appearance of the artists on the stage at the very beginning, when a third of the stalls are empty and the neighbors to the right and left of you, rushing to the stage, are lost in the bowels of the backstage. As if emphasizing thereby the close connection of today's us with Shakespeare's characters.

In the finale, the Ghost of Hamlet's father appears in the opening of the luminous window. To Marchelli's credit, the director did not stage the final duel between Laertes and Hamlet on poisoned rapiers, which the viewer has already seen dozens of times in all stage versions.

The ending is well known. For us, the main thing is that the masks have been torn off, the questions are posed point-blank, the accents are placed in a new way, which means that there is ground for another portion of reflection. Hamlet Marchelli is a man who tried on the role of God, a merciless judge, a man who decided to lynch. In order to investigate this story, he had to pretend to be insane. But the line between talented acting and real madness is so thin that at some point the audience becomes scared for the raging prince. Not even an hour in this tricky game, he will "go crazy" for real. And his growing ruthlessness towards those around him and separate tough statements at some point make the tragic denouement of history quite organic.

The goal of acting, as Shakespeare bequeathed to us, is “to hold, as it were, a mirror in front of nature, showing its likeness and imprint to every time.” The unexpected form of Yevgeny Marchelli's production works quite organically for this purpose.

Elena Bulova.

Photo by Elena Lapina

Message "SHAKESPIERHAMLET" at the Moscow City Council Theatre: fresh, sparkling, sharp first appeared on Moscow truth.



Source link