Why the nights of Venice turned white

The premiere of the Russian-Italian project “White Nights of Venice” took place in the theater hall of the Museum of Cosmonautics. The play is a stage dialogue between two literary works: Death in Venice by Thomas Mann and White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky, a dialogue between Russian and Italian cultures. Both works were once filmed by Luchino Visconti, the premiere of the performance was timed to coincide with the director’s birthday and is dedicated to him.

To combine two such different literary works into one performance was invented by the author of the project, producer, Honored Artist of Russia Vladislav Demchenko. Despite the seemingly complete opposition of the ideas laid down in the literary basis, these works have something in common – a lonely person acts in them, looking for love and in need of human warmth and understanding against the backdrop of the city. It was for this common thing that playwright Alina Gudareva “hooked”, creating, at the suggestion of the producer, the original play “White Nights of Venice”.

In the center of the story is a famous writer who is experiencing a creative crisis (the role of the Writer is played by the artist of the Vakhtangov Theater Vladislav Demchenko). The hero always wanted to visit Venice, he runs from his own problems to the city of dreams. But the fabulous Venice, in fact, turns out to be not as attractive as the Writer imagined in his own cool St. Petersburg. The hot wind of the African sirocco deserts, blowing at this time of the year, slowly drives the Writer crazy with sweltering heat. It would be possible to go back, but suddenly Venice changes her anger to mercy and presents a surprise in the form of a wonderful vision. The beautiful Venetian, the mysterious Stranger, appears as if by magic on one of the bridges, becoming for the Writer the quintessence of everything beautiful that is in Venice. And then the imagination of a creative person comes into force, the Writer falls in love, attributing to an unfamiliar woman, with whom he never exchanged a word, all conceivable and inconceivable virtues.

Simultaneously with these events, a very real meeting happens in his life: he meets the Dreamer – an Italian, translator (artist Marco Dinelli), who is a big fan of the Writer’s prose. In this meeting, or rather, in a series of their meetings, character traits appear. After all, the Dreamer is also in love with his Stranger.

Needless to say, the Stranger, whom both heroes rave about, is the same woman. The Italian actress Sidney Vichidomini, who plays the main female role, had a difficult task – to “draw” the image silently, solely due to her own expressive plastique and the change of spectacular costumes created by the artist Victoria Andreyanova, head of the President Service Model House.

The solution of this image by the director of the play, Leila Abu-al-Kishek, makes it possible for the Stranger to look in a new way every time, as if in front of the audience there are not one, but several completely different ladies with polar characters at once.

It is curious that the authors of the play transfer the conflict that arises between the characters from the plane of the external showdown of relations to the plane of the internal, spiritual.

Everyone develops a conflict primarily with himself, external circumstances are only a designation of this internal process. Everyone faces deep questions related to their own ability to love, hear, understand, forgive and sacrifice their own interests for the sake of their neighbor.

Vladislav Demchenko makes the Writer a man with a changeable, extremely uneven character. The writer is a typical representative of the creative bohemia of the metropolis. He arrogantly gives advice to an unfamiliar person, arrogating to himself this right only because he, admiring the books of the Writer, asked him for an autograph. Hero Demchenko is distinguished by arrogance and vanity. But at the same time, altruistic impulses are not alien to this creative nature, arrogance is replaced by gratitude, vanity – by a keen interest in the interlocutor, arrogance – by the disinterested ability to help an outsider realize a cherished dream. The image of the Writer is created with large strokes, the lack of details in this character only spurs the imagination of the viewers, completing the missing on the basis of their own experience of communicating with such people. The writer is cold and pragmatic, like St. Petersburg, from which he came, and at the same time he is impulsive and romantic, like Venice, the magical city of his dreams.

Charming Dreamer Marco Dinelli, on the contrary, is intelligent and refined. He has been living in Venice for a long time and has adapted to all its deceptive manifestations. Despite his dreamy nature, the hero is able to go straight to the goal. He managed not only to talk with his Stranger, but also to win her over by finding out the tragic circumstances of the girl’s life. The dreamer is able not only to dream, but also to instantly make fateful decisions. When the Writer gives the Dreamer his ticket to St. Petersburg, he, without a moment’s hesitation, sets off on an unknown new journey to fulfill his dream.

The names of Venice and St. Petersburg are woven into the fabric of the production for a reason. Thanks to the scenography of the artist Svetlana Konegen, the images of the two cities become full-fledged heroes of the play. The video sequence, based on numerous photographs taken by Svetlana, who has been living in Italy for the last ten years, gives the production a special charm and atmosphere. And the conversations of the two heroes, unfolding against the background of these views, are philosophical in nature, based on the eternal questions: “Who are we?” and “What is love?”.

The value of the performance, created by the international team of Italy and Russia, has already been highly noted by the ambassadors of Italy and the Vatican, who visited the premiere. In such a difficult geopolitical period, when Russian culture in Europe is being diligently destroyed, deleted, the project is another confirmation that the centuries-old cultural traditions of Italy and Russia have long become the pride and property of all mankind. And temporary difficulties are not able to cross out all the great things that unite the two peoples.

The White Nights of Venice project is supported by the Presidential Fund for Cultural Initiatives.

Elena Bulova.

Photos provided by the project producer Vladislav Demchenko