Spesivtsev Jr. staged “The Snow Maiden” for Ostrovsky’s 200th anniversary

“Ice in Relationships” was melted on the stage of the youth theater

On September 16, the Moscow Youth Theater opened its 36th season with a performance based on Ostrovsky’s spring fairy tale “The Snow Maiden,” and the director was the son of the theater’s founder, Vyacheslav Spesivtsev. In a conversation with a MK correspondent the day after the premiere, Semyon Spesivtsev revealed all his cards, answering questions about the key message and artistic features of the new interpretation of the great classic.

— Semyon Vyacheslavovich, what was the first reaction of the audience to the performance?

— Our audience was mixed. For us, the traditional audience is among young people, as follows from our name: schoolchildren, students, guys who are over twenty, maximum thirty years old come to us (although we are visited by older theatergoers). So, everyone gathered at the premiere: from children to masters, artists, Russian directors. The Saturday audience was mostly friends of our theater. And we received the most sincere, most generous applause. This reflected the definition of the production from Vyacheslav Semenovich: “a performance-fest.”

— What was your task as a production director? What did you bring to the great tale of the classic hero of the day?

— The director’s job is to give his interpretation. In my case, the idea for the production was born because Ostrovsky is two hundred years old. Probably all the theaters in Moscow staged something about this. In our repertoire, this is not the first reading of Alexander Nikolaevich’s texts: we have “The Thunderstorm”, which I also staged once, “Dowry” – and now “The Snow Maiden”.

Why did they take her? For our youth, this is the most convenient form – a fairy tale, but we designated it on the poster as “a fairy tale for any age.” And it was completely justified. Why is everyone interested in watching? And here I can talk about the director’s personal reading. For me, this is a fairy tale about love, and not a tragic one. In Ostrovsky’s finale, the Snow Maiden says: “I love and melt, I melt from the sweet words of love.” In our case, the emphasis is on “I love” and not on “I melt.”

So it is no coincidence that throughout the entire performance we have quotes from the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians concerning love: that love endures for a long time, is merciful, does not envy, does not boast, and endures everything. This edification accompanies Ostrovsky and always accompanies the heroine, whose task is to fall in love. She tries to learn love throughout the entire production. But there is no one to teach, and then it turns out that love is a gift. Ostrovsky himself, through the “hands” of Vesna-Krasny, gives the heroine the ability to love.

— In the Greek language, love for God at the level of words was different from the attraction of a man to a woman (and a woman to a man). Is your Snow Maiden looking for and finding love in the sense of “agape” or “eros”?

– Only after receiving Love does the Snow Maiden begin to look at the world differently, life begins to play with rainbow colors. She now sees her suitors in a different light and falls in love. In our interpretation, this is not modern “surrogate” love, in which everything is mixed in, but a standard understanding of love. This is something more than love between people, but something divine.

— On the poster there is one of the genre designations: “folk rock.” How does this affect the sound background of the performance, its polyphonic atmosphere?

— Why folk is a simple explanation: we have elements of ethnography, and we, of course, did not specify geographically the location of the fabulous Berendey tribe. We have them not in the Vologda region or in the Krasnodar region, but somewhere in the current expanses of our homeland. Ethnography manifests itself in elements of costume, props, props, including music.

We have not only folk rock, but also a variable sound design: folk jazz. The birds from Vesna’s retinue are formed into a separate quartet a la a jazz band; they seem to be playing music on stage, filling what is happening with melodies. Someone plays the violin, someone plays the harp, and they play not hard rock, but melodic rock. Regular guests of MMT know that this approach is typical for us: “Aria”, Tsoi constantly sounds within our walls… This is modern and it helps to find a common language with young people.

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 29117 dated September 19, 2023

Newspaper headline:
“Ice in Relationships” was melted on the stage of the youth theater