Premiere performance of the Kaliningrad Regional Drama Theater.
The play by Valery Belyakovich based on Jacinto Grau's tragedy "Senior Pygmalion".
Director and production designer - Vyacheslav Vittikh (Moscow).
The Kaliningrad audience has probably never received such a theatrical shock.
So that the spectacle (swift action, unexpected stunts, monologues and dialogues, individual plasticity and well-coordinated team play of actors, musical and lighting effects) electrify and inspire the audience to such an extent - we do not remember this since the victory of Russian footballers over Holland with a score of 3: 0 ...
Crowds of people had to go out and chant: "Our theater is the champion!"
Fortunately, theatrical performance - an exclusive thing, and not everyone can see it.
This is the only reason why the city survived.
Honestly, I never expected from the tired of last years theater of such energetic power.
The magician, the master just came, took out his wonderful and at the same time terrible dolls from the case - and they made a splash.
In principle, it was so. The director brought an accurate, tough, well-thought-out stage solution - and embodied it (with the help of a talented and skilled Kaliningrad troupe and artistic production part) into a spectacularly beautiful performance.
Not forgetting to do something elusive and most importantly: to breathe the mystery of life into your collective creation. More precisely - to breathe life and mystery ...
Well, how do you get Adam or Galatea from ordinary clay?
It is unlikely that we will understand this, and we will hardly be able to repeat it.
Pygmalions are now rare.
The performance amazes with the courage and simplicity of the solutions found.
The curtain opens and trapeze artists hover above us, like living puppets. The show lasts a few seconds - but the feeling of childish delight has already entered the soul and lifted the audience.
Now they will believe in any convention, because they have already found themselves in the world of theater, circus.
The stage is fenced in a circle, like an arena, by curtain-columns, but when they, miraculously illuminated (lighting designer - Lyudmila Voronina), rise, transparent boxes with dolls appear under them. Like crystal sarcophagus coffins. And who will come out of them? Is he dead or alive? Can he (or her) be trusted?
This question keeps the whole audience in suspense - and does not find an answer.
When the speaker's facial expressions do not coincide with the meaning of what has been said, it becomes somehow uncomfortable, and the viewer laughs nervously.
Artist Marina Yungans brilliantly achieves the necessary tragicomic effect, creating the image of a doll named Captain Momona by means of grotesque clown plastics.
A huge gun - although a props, but who knows, if the spring in the head comes off ... The mechanisms, although they look like people, do not know how to regret.
Other characters (a team of Spanish producers who look like matadors) on the stage are positioned in such a way as to take the place of these mysterious dolls at any time. The strict symmetrical arrangement of the group does not turn it into a crowd scene. On the contrary!
Each individual character - although everyone is dressed according to the principle of "red and black" - people, "white and red" - dolls, - is served individually, dressed beautifully, recognizable and unique.
You can't take your eyes off Nadezhda Ilyina and Lyudmila Zinovieva. The roles are not the main ones, but the visual load is one hundred percent.
Three honored artists - Nikolai Zakharov, Volemir Gruzets, Yuri Kharlambov - deserve to be photographed next to them for money.
Infernal Peter Mutin, perhaps, would overshadow the great tragic actors in Pygmalion's monologue.
The charismatic figure of Alexei Pereberin is at the center of any composition.
What the plastic and comically gifted Alexander Fedorenko and Anton Zakharov are doing is worthy of separate applause and an encore.
But the most amazing role went to Alena Kolesnik. To play such a role - and no Oscar is needed!
Of course, winning, dramatic music and insanely beautiful design help her, but the actress conveys the double and dark essence of her character, using her extraordinary data, her skill and talent.
What is written (drawn) on her face is literally the duplicity of beauty,
finds convincing confirmation at every moment of her existence on stage.
Deadly temptation comes from the image of Pompanina.
And we believe that even the Duke himself could not resist her destructive charm.
But we didn't say anything about other dolls! About funny and scary characters at the same time, very precisely, in the genre of a tragic show, played by wonderful young actors. Each of them is a person. And together - a powerful, well-coordinated ensemble.
The theater succeeded in the main thing - to emotionally convince the viewer that every character of this modern tragedy is capable of suffering, "flowing out cranberry juice", and that all this has to do with his own life.
No, those who have not seen this will still not understand.
As a person who wants to sleep will not understand the midnight enthusiasm of football fans.
Sleep well, a person who has not seen the Theater!
- International Conference:
- Dates of the conference: 3-5 December 2018
- Report date: December 3, 2018
- Presentation type: Invited
- Speaker: not specified
- Location: IMLI RAN, Russia
- Abstract of the report:
The report is devoted to the tragicomic farce "Senor Pygmalion" by the Spanish playwright of the XX century H. Grau. The premiere of the play took place outside Spain: the first production was staged in Paris in 1923 by C. Dyullen, in 1925 in the Czech Republic by K. Čapek, and a little later in Italy by L. Pirandello. The main characters of the work are automatic dolls, similar to people who rebelled against their creator and killed their hated owner in order to gain freedom. In three acts of the play, Grau shows the world of dolls and their relationship with their creator, hiding under the pseudonym Pygmalion - the only person among the main characters. Within the report, the novelty of the interpretation of the theme of the relationship between creator and creation proposed by Grau is revealed when comparing “Senor Pygmalion” with various works, developing this topic, up to the XX century. Another feature of the tragicomic farce of Grau is the intertextual richness of the images and plots of "Senora Pygmalion", which refer to various texts that in one way or another influenced the playwright: from Spanish folklore to the novels of G.D. Wells and G. Meyrink.
In Stanislavsky Dramatichesky again the premiere. Valery Belyakovich reworked the play by the Spanish playwright Jacinto Grau "Senor Pygmalion" into a brilliant tragifar - "Dolls".
In my opinion, it turned out to be something like a conglomerate of Asimov with Shakespeare and Neanthes from Cyzicus, a kind of wreath of monologues linked by the expression of talented extras, where, nevertheless, each actor leads his own clear role. And what periodically viewers heard from the stage Shakespeare's monologues is quite in the style of Belyakovich, remember at least Six Characters in Search of the Author.
By the way, I really liked the Hamlet monologue performed by the People's Artist of Russia Vlad Mikhalkov. The tunic and cloak of the color of blood were very suitable for his interpretation of the character.
Well, the plot of the play looks like this. A very peculiar troupe comes to Spain at the beginning of the twentieth century. It does not consist of people, but dolls. The troupe is commanded and owned by its creator, Pygmalion. Local entrepreneurs are amazed at this innovation, and their patron the Duke is both amazed and subdued, and so much so that he kidnaps the prima of this troupe, the troupe rushes in pursuit of the kidnapper, and the Duke's wife, entrepreneurs and Pygmalion himself rush after the troupe. That is, there are enough dynamics in the performance.
Separately, I would note the episode showing nightlife dolls, the episode is quite bold, but made without vulgarity, which is now quite strange for theaters, because it is in vogue. But here, thanks to Valery Belyakovich, who does not accept vulgarity in his work. I was not too lazy to read Grau's version and I must say that Belyakovich's alteration was beneficial to the play: after the new episodes and characters he introduced, the play became much deeper and brighter. At least the audience watched it in one breath.
As always, costume designers and artists flashed: the costumes of entrepreneurs, which are made with motives of medieval Spanish clothing from paintings by Velazquez, are very interestingly interpreted.
A very interesting solution with decorations: a number of transforming mirror cabinets added a certain sense of techno del art.
And the appearance of Belyakovich on the stage in the finale was very effective. A kind of Meyerhold monologue against the background of a pile of bodies of characters killed by the kidnapped Pomponina. Right in the process of shooting, Edith Piaf's song "Browning" sounded in the ears of deja vu.
The mountain of those killed on the stage reminded me of the premiere of Antigone in Paris, where, with a similar ending in the hall, a fight broke out between supporters of classicism and the new tetra. But the Moscow audience turned out to be more educated and more restrained than the French. And it was the audience who confirmed the success of the performance with a sold-out audience, and it was already the third month of the premiere.
Review of the play "Dolls", a tragedy based on the play "Senor Pygmalion" by H. Grau
Spain, Madrid, this is where the play takes place. The world-famous troupe of high-tech dolls of Senor Pygmalion comes here on tour. But the trouble is that no one really knows who Pygmalion is and what his creatures are doing. Someone calls him "a typical sadomasochist", someone a genius.
Representatives of the acting guild are seriously concerned about this event, they are afraid that the theater, in the era of humanoid dolls, will perish. Replacing a live theater with a more perfect one? Hoax? Or is the profession of an actor becoming irrelevant and must be replaced by a super marionette? It seems that only the Duke is happy with the arrival of the guest performers, but this joy is stingy, he thinks only about how to fill his pocket.
Pygmalion with his troupe came to the city, but as befits a man of world fame, he decided to play the inhabitants of Madrid. He did it with the help of his dolls, substituting one of them for himself. But the rally was soon revealed, which made a big impression on the skeptical representatives of the acting guild. They all went over to the side of Pygmalion.
There are ten dolls in the troupe of Senor Pygmalion, each of which has its own character, each of them has its own task.
- Brandahlist is the manager, he watches over all the dolls;
- Pomponina - imagined, considers herself the queen of the theater;
- Marilonda is a singer, her voice is not very good;
- Dondinella is a ballerina, dances are as close to human ones as possible;
- Pedro-Cain is a bully, a robber;
- Cherub is the most loving of them;
- Balabol - loves to chat around;
- Krokhobor is stingy, evaluates everything only in monetary terms;
- Juan-Bolvan - except for the word "KU" knows nothing else;
- Captain Mamon is a captain, apparently after a shell shock.
At first glance, Pygmalion is an insane person, obsessed with the idea of \u200b\u200bcreating an ideal likeness of a person. He can talk endlessly about his dolls and is seriously thinking about making new dolls, self-sufficient, universal, contact, these will be the next generation dolls. Pygmalion wants to deceive the mechanics of nature, but he is unlikely to succeed. This is a man, like God, who created his own world and governs it. Pygmalion associates himself with the Creator.
A genius entangled in his own passions
Several times during the performance I was "punching" to the point of shivers. The first time it was when Senor Pygmalion talked about his life, about how he created his dolls from childhood. He worked on prototyping for over 27 years. I really liked the fact that the play draws a parallel with the mythological Pygmalion. Senor Pygmalion also fell in love with his creation - the beautiful Pomponina.
It soon becomes clear that the duke, a madman, with a weak character and greedy for women, is not indifferent to Pomponina. His wife suffered many infidelities with her mistresses. She even knew where he was taking them from her. That's where true love comes from!
The relationship between people and dolls is one of the many connecting threads of the performance
An important moment in the play is the night episode. The dolls are confused about whether they are human or not. They constantly argue and quarrel with each other, each of them considers himself better than the others, considers himself human. Dolls have human desires and needs. Brandahlist goes to great lengths to put the dolls back in place. He shouts: "You are dolls!" But no one listens to him for a long time, everyone is passionate about playing with Pomponina.
Brownian movement begins on the stage, chaos begins. At this moment, you realize that maybe they are actually people, and we, sitting in the hall, are dolls?
The performance is based on the play "Senor Pygmalion" by the Spanish playwright Jacinto Grau (1877 - 1958). Written in 1921, it was first staged in Paris, and then triumphantly bypassed many European theatrical scenes - the plot about mechanical puppets in the era of constructivism was very relevant
The play draws many interesting parallels, each spectator finds his own. An incredibly relevant play, it can be compared with modern realities. The main parallel in the play, I identified myself, is the political regime. Imitating people, dolls create their own self-government bodies: “You will be the parliament, and you will be the people who are oppressed by everyone. And I will stay with Pygmalion and will spy in your favor ... ".
In this case, dolls that are tired of the owner and want freedom can be associated with the tired people of any (our) country, and Pygmalion, the creator of spiritual braces that unites all dolls, can be represented as some (our) president ... Or, for example, draw a parallel with Ukraine, when the dolls, tired of the usurpatory power of Pygmalion, decided to run away from him and build a new, independent life. As in life, the ending of the play is predetermined in advance.
Each revolution must have one leader. Pomponina, for me became Zhanna D'Arc on stage. She kills Pygmalion with multiple shots from her pistol and continues to pull the trigger automatically. A terrible moment, goosebumps. It becomes clear that this is not only murder, this is the suicide of the dolls, because they are helpless without their creator. They lie around him. Agree, there is something in common with our policy?
The main refrain of the performance: "These are dolls!" sounds every time in a new way, with a new intonation. At one point, I actually thought that the dolls on stage
Life on stage freezes for a short moment and the real Pygmalion comes out to the audience. Nobody expected such a plot denouement. That is, three Pygmalions are involved in the performance: the real one, and two: the false Pygmalion (Brandahlist doll) and Pygmalion-2. It seems to me, in this way, Jacinto Grau decided to show the readers a chain of characteristics, from the creator to his creation. How different they can be and at the same time the same.
The real Pygmalion delivers the final monologue and gives the floor to the actors, who simultaneously read the opening stanzas of their monologues from Shakespeare's plays (this is where the performance began).
Creative combustion is divine; it cannot be extinguished. The spirit of creativity, living, true creativity, which shows beauty to the world, is salutary
The performance is unusually beautiful, as there were no decorations on the stage, only glass boxes in which the dolls are stored. The beauty of the action was given by the ideal play of light, for which special thanks to the lighting designer.
The musical accompaniment of the performance is worth mentioning separately. It's almost perfect. Carefully selected music complements the already peculiar atmosphere of the performance. Pumping or relaxing music starts playing exactly when needed. The only drawback that we could not fail to note is that at the very beginning of the performance, loud music drowned out the voice of the actor. We sat in the front rows, but we never heard anything.
The performance uses amazing plastic, which carries a deep meaning. The movements of the dolls, combining the plasticity of puppets and living, human plasticity, amaze every conceivable and inconceivable facet.
But be that as it may, the theater was created for people, "of flesh and blood", for the theater is a living organism
"Dolls" very accurately fit the definition of the play, which was announced on the posters. This is a real tragedy (a dramatic work that combines tragic and comic elements - ed.). These elements are conveyed by the puppets, because they are the main characters of the play. This performance can be easily disassembled into quotes, in each dialogue of the actors there are unusually expressive thoughts. The audience gave a standing ovation!
This performance, by the theater in the South-West, evokes a storm of enthusiasm, emotions and public praise.http://teatr-uz.ru/
Indeed. A well-organized group of men in shorts and boots - this destabilizes the psyche of many. There are also few objections against homo-eroticism (black color, latex or leather, a lot of cosmetics, cutouts where interesting).
Spectacular, quite stylish, within the framework of a cheap public style, a bit ashamed.
And that's nothing. All this does not negate the content. Somewhere deep, somewhere superficial.
Yes, the actors seem to be cowards and generally revealing outfits, but excellent texts go to the flickering of bodies under short T-shirts, and they do not forget to pronounce them, and not even to pronounce, articulate, with temperament, almost preaching.
The introductory part was terribly interesting to me. All these jokes and classic theatrical monologues are a super warm-up. The actors who play the producers are brilliant and charming. So. warm-up of the living before meeting with the mechanisms and their manager - the puppeteer Karabas-Barabas. It seems that the Duke-Buratino is ready to give the last shirt in advance. Is he,
(Collapse)
and touchingly mentions the love of the theater. Besides, these dolls are a real miracle and all that. They are beautiful, perfect, better than live actors, because they do not get tired (during the play, this is immediately refuted by the phrase - "Oh, you are tired! .." and tram-pam-pam), do not complain, and so on.
Their main desire is freedom, or rather, will (and peace? It will be for sure). Interesting though. It's still interesting.
Vai, vai, bambino,
Vai vedrai, vai;
Vai, vai, piccino,
Vai vedrai, vai,
Vedrai.
Go, go baby
Go and you will see, go;
Go, go little
Go and you will see, go
You'll see.
Further, the duke acts according to the usual scheme - chases after the most attractive doll, steals it, not being particularly interested in the consent of not only the owner, but also the victim itself. Pimpinona is against, she needs a company of dolls. But the Duke seems to be in the grip of sleep and passionate love. (to the theater? yes, of course) She wishes her, an excellent quality doll, to have her own. And the question immediately arises - what about maintenance? Before stealing, it was necessary to attend to familiarity with the manual, instructions for the user. But no. If only to steal the best. Oh, the aristocracy is the same everywhere, and incorrigible. Mine, and that's it. So why, then, a lady with the magical name Aurelia loves such an uncomplicated man, even a duke? For beauty, I guess. Love is a miracle, cannot be explained.
Dove manca la fortuna
Non si va più con il cuore
Ma coi piedi sulla luna,
Oh, mio \u200b\u200bfanciullo
Vedrai, vai vedrai che un sorriso
Nasconde spesso un gran dolore,
Vai vedrai follia dell "uomo.
Madness,
Go and see what's behind the smile
Often a lot of pain lurks
Go and you will see human madness.
In the place of the Puppeteer, the Duke should be taken into his team. To pupate somehow, and that's all. Cut off the leather pants by themselves ... and forward to the stage. But the play has its own logic and ending. Plain. Everybody died. Those who seduced the living with all sorts of nonsense. There was a dream, a haze and memories of the future. In complete awesomeness from what they saw, shuffling with felt boots in the snow, and thinking about something incomprehensible, they left the theater.
Well, wow, performances happen in our city.
Pomponina-aaa, I want to go to the circus! This is madness?
