“Singing pig” invites friends

The children’s stage of the Theater of Satire on Sportivnaya was enriched with another wonderful, kind, sparkling performance. Last weekend, the premiere of the fairy tale “The Singing Piglet” took place here. It is unlikely that anyone in the auditorium remained indifferent – the action on the stage was to the taste of everyone, young and old.

The musical performance is based on the play by the children’s writer Sergei Kozlov “The Singing Piglet”. The director of the production is Yaroslav Zhevnerov.

Sergei Kozlov is the author of the fairy tales “Hedgehog in the Fog”, “Shake! Hello!”, “Lion cub and turtle”. The writer has long won the rare status of a contemporary classic. The creator of fairy tales speaks to the youngest readers in an adult way, with respect, but in a language understandable to children, addressing them in a simple form of narration, and children appreciate and feel this.

The Singing Piglet is a story full of humor and light irony, where the vital issues of kindness, trust, moral values, the fragility of beauty and being, and, of course, the importance of true friendship are touched upon in a fairy-tale form. Recognizable images of the main characters are fascinating, interactive, live performance of funny songs will not let even adults get bored!

In the work of Sergei Kozlov there are no fictional creatures and magic spells. The main scene of the fairy tales is an ordinary forest of the middle zone, inhabited by animals: hedgehogs and hares, bears and wolves.

So in “The Singing Piglet” the action takes place in the forest, which was built on the stage, skillfully using its space, the artist, a graduate of GITIS Ekaterina Erdeni. Before the eyes of the audience, the forest easily transforms into a mise-en-scene necessary for the action.

Blooming meadows, hidden paths and even a hut appear literally out of nowhere. There are six characters in the performance, the artists created very vivid images of the Piglet (Moryana Anttonen-Shestakov), the Hare (Anastasia Terelya), the Wolf (Sergey Klimov / Artemy Sokolov-Savostyanov), the Crow (Inna Lyaskovets / Lana Krymova), the Babka Darya Ivanovna Shmeleva ( Nadezhda Filippova / Olga Chernova) and Uncle Vasya (Ivan Fedotov / Alexander Bagryantsev).

The fairy tale, according to director Yaroslav Zhevnerov, tells how you can learn to trust the world again. The piglet resembles a child who quarreled with his parents or got slapped on the back of the head and ran away from home.

“It immediately seems to him that the whole world is scary, closed, unsafe,” notes Yaroslav. – History shows that not everyone around is terrible, there are those who are ready to lend a helping hand. There are serious themes here, as in other prose by Sergei Kozlov – loneliness, friendship, the value of a person, and at the same time there is an uncomplicated simple plot that should grab the child’s attention.

And attention, indeed, is literally captured for the whole hour (the performance goes on without intermission), both in children and adults. The age recommendation is 6+, but in fact this fairy tale is for family viewing with no age limit. The performers themselves speak about it.

“This production was created absolutely for everyone,” says Anastasia Terelya. – You can watch it at the age of 20, at 6, at 10 and even at 50. And absolutely every viewer will find something interesting and important for themselves here. Kozlov is a very unusual author, and his tales are very philosophical, deep, and are revealed to everyone in their own way.

The main character of the fairy tale, Moryana Anttonen-Shestakova, says:

– There are a lot of moments in this story when even an adult can feel like a child. Here you can see yourself from the outside, sincerely worry about the characters and even cry.

A kind and open Piglet, happily living with his grandmother Darya Shmeleva, does not know sadness, travels a lot, and in the evenings pleases his family with cheerful songs. Piglet himself tells the audience about this at the very beginning of the performance. But one day, his grandmother suddenly decides to fry him, and without thinking twice, he runs away into a mysterious and unfamiliar forest. It is there that Piglet finds true and reliable friends. He meets the Bunny, gets acquainted with the amazing Wolf and other inhabitants of the forest. After going through many trials and adventures, Piglet manages to avoid a sad fate. Friends did not leave him in trouble, and therefore the tale has the most joyful ending.

Interactive mise-en-scenes, live performances of cheerful songs, original musical accompaniment, fabulous animals and movable glow-in-the-dark puppets make the production a fascinating sight.

“The fairy tale by Sergei Kozlov is written in the style of a philosophical parable,” notes Artemy Sokolov-Savostyanov. – In our performance there are many contemplative, beautiful moments that visually appeal to the viewer. There is a deep idea here. There is something for both children and adults to think about.

Little spectators not only look at the stage, but become accomplices in the events, they almost personally get acquainted with the kind characters that inhabit the magical forest, participate in fun interactive activities and help the singing Piglet in his adventures.

“This is a special event for us,” says Sergey Gazarov, artistic director of the Theater of Satire, about the premiere. – After all, the performance is different from the usual children’s productions. The child, thinking about the plot and its philosophy, begins to sympathize with the characters. A completely different world opens up to the child, where he thinks, composes, associates what he sees with his life baggage.

The performance was created in partnership with the GITIS Foundation.

The author of the music and lyrics (songs) is Elisabeth-Alexandra Damsker, the choreographer is Alexandra Kolosovskaya, the animation designer is David Sokratyan, the lighting designer is Yuri Kuramshin.

In April, The Singing Piglet will take place on Saturday the 22nd, in May the premiere shows can be seen on the 6th, 14th and 21st. Show starts at 12 noon.

Lydia Milovidova.

Author’s photo