“Tabakerka” opened the season with “Deadly number”
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“Snuff Box” started the season with “Deadly Number”. The legendary performance of 1994, staged by the then young director Vladimir Mashkov and first performed on the New Stage of the Art Theater, will now be shown in his theater on Sukharevskaya. From the premiere show – MK columnist.
Vladimir Lvovich in a dark blue suit easily runs out of the hall onto the stage. This is what he always does before the premiere. Mr. Charm himself addresses the audience.
— Oleg Pavlovich really wanted this performance to return to our stage. Have fun and rejoice with us.
He just as easily jumps off and disappears behind the door. Yes, that “Deadly Number” – 1994 was truly legendary. Moscow received a burn from him, a strong emotional blow, the strength of which was added by time and events in the country. There was a lot of pain, tears, losses for some, ups, unexpected wealth for others, confusion about the future… And the parable about circus clowns, written by playwright Oleg Antonov, miraculously hit the viewer.
XXI century – other demands, meanings. And clowns… They are like a constant of life, art and what happens between people, wherever they are. The red-haired clown is preparing for a deadly act: a saxophone around his neck, a thickly painted mouth from ear to ear. He climbs up the trapeze, falls off and breaks. But his clown soul is immortal and materializes in four clown masks – Red, White, Black, Long. Hello op! And here they are – for now everyone is in black.
The same production team worked on “Deadly Number”-2 as on the first one. The artist Alexander Borovsky has changed little in the decoration – the 13-meter arena was sawn into 6 parts. Its red fragments stand along the backdrop, forming passages between themselves where you can quickly dive. There are holds on the stage where you can hide the body, and also hide, to soon appear in the passage between the red plywood parts of the arena. But the artist’s costumes are all different.
Four new artists in the role of clowns – Vladislav Miller (Red), Sevastyan Smyshnikov (Black), Arthur Kasimov (White) and Vladislav Naumov (Long). This is a new generation of Mashkov actors who entered the legendary performance.
The first act – they are all in black, playing a black comedy. They rush around with a corpse like a sack. But essentially this is an overture to what is the essence of their existence: “Honorable audience! Today in the arena! And then – humiliation, cheap hotels, torn sheets in the rooms… Endless squabbles among themselves for the right to be the first and best actor. Petty affairs, dwarf passions.
But they don’t need to play the plot, they need to play the state of what it consists of – no, not even their life, but the subtext of this life. Something that is difficult to explain in words and that loses its meaning if put into words. Try playing this. They’re playing!
Everyone who saw the previous performance, just like me, felt the fear of possible disappointment that happens when a legend is destroyed. After all, you can’t step into the same water twice? At Tabakerka, you can. It is possible because Vladimir Mashkov read the play taking into account both the memory of that performance and the memory of the artists and clowns with whom he spent his life. And most importantly, taking into account the changed realities around.
From a technical point of view, “Deadly Number” 2023 is more complicated, more equipped; over 30 years, many pyrotechnic gadgets have appeared on the market, and they effectively decorate the performance. Fire flares up in the clowns’ hands every now and then, their hats light up, and a flash of fire flies by. Behind the scenes, almost twenty people work for the four carpet workers. Everyone then comes out to bow.
The second act is a ceremonial, costume act. Here everyone has their own number and competes with others. Cherny, this comical Mr. Thriller who frightens everyone, has an almost new number. Bely’s number has been significantly changed with a sculpture of Venus, and Red’s has been significantly modified with fishing, which Vlad Miller charmingly makes interactive. And if the first act requires more dramatic play from the actors, then the second requires exclusively clownery. And this is difficult; it’s easy to fall into pretense or ridiculous imitation. Fortunately, the new clown four practically avoided such mistakes.
True, they shouted a little out of excitement, but each of the artists had a well-formed image, the design of the role was iron-clad, the ability to work at speed and in an ensemble—it was all there. But most importantly, they managed to convey those old clown acts that in our memory are associated with the names of Nikulin, Karandash, Popov, Engibarov…
Remember Oleg Popov’s sunbeams? Here, in the finale, video projections will scatter bunnies around the hall, forming a downright cosmic labyrinth. And that poignant note will appear that will accompany the appearance of portraits of great clowns. Not deliberately, but in the depths of the stage on the left, these portraits sway unevenly. And Red, White, Black and Long stand frozen in a sculptural group, with their arms outstretched and their painted mouths stretched to their ears.
Newspaper headline:
Mashkov’s second fatal number
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