The Voronezh Chamber Theater staged “The Child” based on the play by the Norwegian Jun Fosse
[ad_1]
At the festival “Golden Mask” was presented the play “Child” by the Voronezh Chamber Theater based on the play by the modern Norwegian playwright Jun Fosse, who is not unreasonably compared with Ibsen. He is a really powerful author. The production was staged by Anton Fedorov, whose play “Ivan’s Childhood” at the Kazan Youth Theater a year ago also participated in the competition.
Anton Fedorov has cinematic thinking. He thinks frame by frame. His “Ivan’s Childhood” mise-en-scene accurately reproduced scenes from Tarkovsky’s films “Ivan’s Childhood” and “Mirror”. It did not always look convincing, but it remained in the memory. Anton is a student of Yuri Pogrebnichko, and this is especially felt in The Child. He is not only a director, but also a stage designer, and was personally nominated for the Golden Mask precisely as a production designer.
It seems that an illusion of real life is created when water drips from the roof of a bus stop, installed right in front of the audience, imitating rain. But at the same time, everything is so bright and saturated in a theatrical way that not every viewer is ready to accept this convention. Even on a small stage, actors use microphones, destroying the illusion of life, but working towards the idea of a show that we are present at.
Before the start of the performance, a man in a coat and a knitted hat wanders around the foyer. For some reason he does not undress. We do not accept this, but it is quite acceptable in the theaters of America and Europe. The stranger dissolves among the audience, among which, as always, there are many actors and directors who come to the performances of Anton Fedorov. And now the director and producer Dzhanik Fayziev, the actors Evgenia Simonova, Svetlana Ivanova, Alexander Gorchilin have arrived … A strange man is looking for a place for himself, sits down on the stairs right next to the stage, abruptly enters the cube installed on it, which will turn out to be a bus stop. This is actor Andrey Novikov. His hero is a man with a handsome and intelligent face who collects empty bottles and then peeps into the life of a young couple who met before his eyes. He is always with them, and they constantly feel his presence.
He and she are vagrants. Red-haired Agnes is very good. Actress Yana Kuzina seems to be able to perform impossible tasks. She is very flexible and expressive. Fredrik Mikhail Gosteva is at first glance an unremarkable person. He has a red nose like a clown. But at first it seems that it is blood. And Agnes has a black eye, or traces of spread mascara under her eye. Then her face will appear in full screen – Venus, and nothing more. Hair fluttering, as on the famous painting by Botticelli “The Birth of Venus”. When they choose their own housing and the realtor speaks with interjections, the only word “here-here”, she, like a clown, will pick it up and react with an endless repetition of “aha-aha”. They are the ones who have no one. But now they are together, and soon she will have a belly. He, like a balloon, grows before our eyes. And now they are expecting a baby. And no longer vagrants, but future parents.
Behind the stop, which becomes transparent, you can see a small platform, a screen. The booth turns into a church, and he and she will timidly enter there. The space from everyday life becomes cosmic, and it is created by St. Petersburg lighting designer Igor Fomin and video artist and cameraman Alexei Bychkov, who studied at the studio of Vadim Yusov at VGIK.
“Here-here,” the realtor repeats, showing the young couple an apartment. “Here, there,” the doctors say, looking at the X-ray of Agnes, who looks more like a giant. Doctors have their own bird language. They are indifferent. Many heroes use interjections. While Agnes lies in the hospital and the fate of her child is being decided, the lost Fredrik is talking to a nurse (Natalya Shevchenko), who has at least a drop of tenderness and participation. This is one of the most subtle moments of the performance in terms of the fragility of states. Surprisingly, some Voronezh viewers, judging by the feedback left, wanted to throw eggs or tomatoes at the artists.
The scene breaks into pieces, resembling ice floes. You can jump from one to the other. Into this cracked world comes the girl’s mother. Her name is Evelyn (a magnificent, crazy and tragic work by Tamara Tsyganova). She brings large paper bags full of junk, including a homemade candlestick made from blue bottles.
The ending would have been quite sad if it were not for the scene that removes the drama, turning everything into a game. It is like a dance show (choreographed by Victoria Archa), a musical, where mass childbirth begins, when everyone gives birth – women and one man. This is a tragedy for Agnes and life has lost its meaning. In others, baby dolls pop out one after another. Life is being reproduced, the conveyor is running…
Newspaper headline:
Baby dolls from Voronezh
[ad_2]
Source link
