Slave wives in search of love

A. N. Ostrovsky’s comedy “Slaves” was presented at the Moscow Academic Theater of Satire. The premiere in the grotesque genre was directed by Mikhail Mokeev.

Seven actors are constantly present on the stage, comically reacting to what is happening. Characters come to the fore with loud remarks. All dialogues are pronounced in a loud voice, in raised tones. With the exception, perhaps, of the main character – an elderly husband (a. Russia Andrey Ankudinov) a young wife (Lyubov Koziy). The woman is bored and looking for love. Under the hot hand comes across a young employee in the office of the spouse (Artem Minin). A cheerful friend (Inna Lyaskovets), who has become adept at cheating on her husband (Igor Lagutin, from Russia), gives parting words to the couple. Servants are watching and eavesdropping on all this (Z.A. of Russia Marina Ilyina, Z.A. of Russia Alexander Mokhov).

Ostrovsky wrote “Slaves” already in his declining years. Perhaps that is why the ending turned out to be so philosophical and worldly and wise.

“The play is built on the opposition of male and female. Love turns out to be a whim and a desire to possess, devotion turns into speculation. Every minute it all becomes more and more absurd and farcical,” explains the artistic director of the theater Sergey Gazarov.

“This incredibly interesting work is very modern,” says director Mikhail Mokeev. “I saw his embodiment in the key of dell’arte, with all the contrast and phantasmagorism of this genre.”

It is not for nothing that the great Russian playwright Ostrovsky is considered eternally relevant; his plays have been staged on theater stages for almost two hundred years. Many of them have been filmed. In his works there is something that is consonant with both the time and our Russian spirit. The audience saw many classic productions. The theater of satire offers a modern reading of the Slaves, unexpected and quite satirical.

Galina SNOPOVA.

Photo from the theater website