Shell-shocked Macbeth at the Theater of Nations entered into a love affair with an old woman

All this recalled the unforgettable atmosphere of Nizhny Tagil, where almost any art object in the city’s infrastructure is a piece of metal that has found an unexpected use. The central streets of the city are filled with rails, pipes, machine tools, and iron castings, demonstrating the glorious history and power of metallurgical production.

The director of the play, Elizaveta Bondar, together with the composer Peter Aidu, visited several landfills and can now tell a lot of interesting things about what they saw there. Peter took a wooden hammer with him, tapped the found objects, and selected those that had their own unique voices. The experiment was worth it. The scrap metal score is the best thing about the show. Zombie-like characters hit sheets of iron with hammers, and the sound is like bullets flying and shells exploding. The percussion of iron rods, some pots and tins is magnificent.

Elizaveta Bondar studied musical theater directing in Dmitry Bertman’s workshop at GITIS, and staged at Helikon Opera, the Krasnoyarsk Opera and Ballet Theater, and the Novosibirsk Musical Comedy. So her ability to hear music even where there is none is obvious.

“Macbeth” is based on the play by Anna Lifirenko, based on Shakespeare’s tragedy. According to the director’s plan, the archetypal plot of how the Scottish military leader Macbeth and his cold-blooded wife killed the king to seize power, and what came of it, is passed through the prism of today. The authors of the play studied various translations of Shakespeare, tried to stick to the plot and composed an original play, putting the textbook tragedy into two hours and ten minutes without an intermission.

There are no three witches, but there is an old tramp whose face is covered with a papier-mâché mask. It is she who tempts and intoxicates Macbeth, predicting that he will be king. The tramp was played by the beautiful Sofya Evstigneeva, the granddaughter of Evgeny Evstigneev and actress of the Moscow Art Theater. Chekhov.

But it’s not all about hiding behind an ugly mask. She will also appear in the guise of an almost Scandinavian Mermaid, sitting on a stone with flowing white hair. But this is a completely different heroine – Lady Banquo, distantly caressing her little son, who may fall at the hands of the bloodthirsty Macbeth.

The climax will be the love affair between the tramp and Macbeth. But he is not himself, and for him sex with an old woman is equal to soulless mechanics. And his passion will experience a sweet moment.

As our directors like to say, each generation needs its own “Hamlet” and “Quiet Don,” thereby justifying the next reading and answering the eternal question: “Why did you stage this when there is already a famous film (or play)?”

An attempt to modernize a textbook text is understandable, and it’s good if it is not at the level of introducing modern slang. The authors of the new “Macbeth” do not particularly abuse it, but no, no, it will sound something like “Don’t be stupid!” This is a call to Macbeth.

Old wineskins will be filled with new meanings on the topic of the day. And now the mention of England, where one of the sons of the defeated Duncan went, will give rise to a monologue about England, where everyone is running, and where there are already plenty of their own.

Elizabeth Bondar has Macbeth shell-shocked in the war. There is absolute hell in his head. What we see on stage is the world through his eyes, that same dump where every thrown away thing has its own voice.

The role of Macbeth is played by Lenkom actor Dmitry Gizbrecht, known not only for his work in the theater, but also in cinema, who recently starred in the popular TV series “The Germans.” He is the embodiment of imaginary brutality. Stuck among the eras. More likely from the past, but not from the present.

Lady Macbeth was played by Maria Smolnikova. And since her husband does not, as Shakespeare says, have the habit of decisive actions, she provokes him. It seemed that Maria Smolnikova was capable of saving anything, even the most unviable action, with her talent and natural organics. But in Macbeth she is unable to cope with the artificiality of the image of her heroine.

Lady Macbeth constantly holds a strange metal bag in her hands. As it turns out, this is the cradle of a child who died in infancy. What is hinted at in Shakespeare is developed by the authors of the play. During the rehearsals, it was said that the Macbeth couple lost their child, and the world became hell for them. This is where we need to look for the origins of bloody acts. “The intoxication of the lust for power” finds fertile soil.

It feels like we all ended up on planet Plyuk from the movie “Kin-dza-dza!”, where there is no flora or fauna, only scorched earth. Scenographers Elizaveta Bondar and Valida Kozhdaeva came up with another last day on Earth.

Underfoot are wires, pieces of frozen lava. In the center is a tree made of metal rods, supporting the sky. As for the landfill, at one time there was already a one-man show by Peter Chmzmar from Slovakia, the action of which took place in its open spaces. All the props consisted of garbage. And several bags of paper and waste replaced the decorations. It’s hard to come up with something new. We haven’t seen any Macbeths, right down to the one drowning in a bathtub overflowing with blood.

The heroes can barely move their legs. The strength is only enough to hit a sheet of iron with a hammer. All of them are twisted by the ongoing war. Some people suffocate in an asthma attack, others can barely cope with tics and stuttering. Almost everyone articulates words for some reason, speaks with a strange Caucasian accent, and grimaces on purpose or out of helplessness. In the finale it will sound deadly: “Long live the King of Mudland!”