{"id":1044,"date":"2019-01-03T15:20:21","date_gmt":"2019-01-03T15:20:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/18\/?p=1044"},"modified":"2022-02-06T20:51:29","modified_gmt":"2022-02-06T20:51:29","slug":"putin-on-the-ritz-in-st-petersburg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/18\/putin-on-the-ritz-in-st-petersburg\/","title":{"rendered":"Putin on the Ritz in St. Petersburg"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Barry Gaines<\/strong>*<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

European Theatre Prize, 17th edition, St Petersburg, Russia,
13-17 November 2018<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 17th Europe Theatre Prize (ETP) with accompanying ceremonies and festivities has returned to Saint Petersburg, Russia, at a time of reflection and concern about political and cultural forces. The President of the Europe Theatre Prize, Jack Lang, wrote in the official program, \u201cToday, more than ever, we need that art that reveals us to ourselves. \u2026 More and more, we need meetings and confrontations, shared moments in a theatre that knows how to awaken our consciences, to bring us back to life and drag us out of the torpor and insecurity of our lost European days.\u201d Many of the ETP performances attempted to focus on contemporary events despite (or because of) the historic setting of the scripts chosen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Left to right: Ma\u0142gorzata Zawadzka (Miss Stockmann), Micha\u0142 Majnicz (Editor Hovstad) and Juliusz Chrz\u0105stowski (Doctor Tomas Stockmann), in An Enemy of the People<\/em>. Photo: Stary Theatr<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

A\nclear example is The Helena Modrzejewska National Stary Theatre of Cracow,\nPoland, production of Henrik Ibsen\u2019s An\nEnemy of the People<\/em>, directed by Jan Klata. The plot of this work is familiar.\nDoctor Tomas Stockmann (Juliusz Chrz\u0105stowski) finds proof that the water in\nthe newly opened town spa is contaminated and plans to publish an article in\nHovstad\u2019s (Micha\u0142 Majnicz) newspaper. Tomas\u2019s brother Peter (Radoslaw Krzy\u017cowski)\u2014the\nlocal mayor\u2014warns him that such exposure means ruin to the town. Various\ncharacters debate the issue, and the doctor\u2019s righteous arguments for truth and\nprogress are rejected by the townspeople who turn on him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ibsen\nmust have wished to criticize the hypocrisy of Victorian morality through his play,\nbut director Klata is not satisfied with Ibsen\u2019s themes. While the Ibsen plot\nis acted on stage, there are interruptions of cacophony and choreography.\nInstead of a neat Norwegian village, the stage is cluttered with junk that is\ncasually thrown around. And the actor portraying Dr. Stockmann drops his\ncharacter identity and harangues the audience with a tirade about current\nPolish problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Dimitry Vorobiev (The Governor). Photo: Franko Bonfiglio<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

A\nsubtler approach to political commentary was Andrey Moguchy\u2019s staging of The Governor<\/em>. Moguchy is artistic\ndirector of the Tovstonogov\nBolshoi Drama Theatre in St. Petersburg since 2013 and was awarded the\n12th Europe Prize New Theatrical Realities. The\nGovernor<\/em> is based on short stories by Leonid Andreev written at the turn of\nthe twentieth century; the play begins with the bloody assassination of the\nGovernor (powerful Dimitry Vorobiev), who then looks back at the situations and\nactions that led to his violent end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nGovernor remains downstage talking directly to the audience while the events he\nprecipitated are performed upstage behind him. The scenic design by Alexander\nShishkin and costumes by Sergei Illarionov are spectacular on a grand scale.\nFor example, stacks of dead striking workers shot at the Governor\u2019s command\nprovide a harrowing demonstration of casual violence. Natalya Krymskaya\u2019s\nmakeup transforms faces into grey, ghostly masks. Videos of the desolate\ncountryside and its doomed inhabitants are projected upstage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Against\nthis alarming backdrop, the Governor reconsiders his life and recognizes that\nhis violent end is deserved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Tony Servillo (Jouvet) and Petra Valentini (Claudia) in Elvira (Elvira Jouvet 40)<\/em>. Photo: Fabio Esposito<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In St. Petersburg\u2019s magnificent Maly Drama Theatre, Italian maestro Tony Servillo provided a masterclass in directing and acting with Elvira<\/em> (Elvire Jouvet 40<\/em>). The play (translated into Italian by Giuseppe Montesano) is based on Brigitte Jacques\u2019s transcription of lessons given by French actor Louis Jouvet in Nazi-occupied Paris, in 1940. Jouvet was rehearsing a scene from Moliere\u2019s play about Don Juan, where Elvira, Don Juan\u2019s wife whom he seduced from a convent, tries to convince the philanderer to repent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Servillo\ndirects and portrays Jouvet, while Petra Valentini is Claudia, the apprentice\nactress facing the challenge of playing Elvira. Servillo is marvellous as\nJouvet, his hands in constant motion and his face conveying as much as his\nwords. Jouvet interrupts Claudia\u2019s attempts at the scene with both simple and\ncomplex observations on the nature of acting and the relationship between actor\nand character. As meaningful as these directions are, however, it is difficult\nto see their effects in Claudia\u2019s acting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Director\nServillo thinks the setting of Nazi occupation to be important, perhaps because\nthe original Claudia could not actually perform the role because she was\nJewish. Yet, the only suggestion of the Third Reich in this staging is a radio\nupstage that spouts German. And the ironic information about the Jewish actress\nis projected on the back wall after the action is over\u2014a seeming afterthought.\nThe intersession of German soldiers would have enlivened the play\u2019s end. Still,\nthe opportunity to hear Jouvet\u2019s theatrical insights delivered by Toni Servillo\nwas exciting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Danila Kozlovsky (Hamlet) and the \u201cthree weird brothers” Igor Ivanov, Sergey Kurishev and Sergey Kozirev). Set design by Alexander Borovsky. Photo: Maly Drama Theatre<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Lev Dodin is Artistic Director and General Manager of the Maly Drama Theatre and was awarded the Europe Theatre Prize in 2001. I was shocked at Dodin\u2019s interpretation of Hamlet<\/em> at the Mali and amazed at how much I enjoyed it! Shakespeare\u2019s tragedy is the best known of his plays and, perhaps, the ultimate challenge to directors and actors. Dodin and his fine designers, cast and crew have done the almost impossible\u2014providing a reboot of Hamlet<\/em> that is powerfully exciting and thought-provoking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\naudience enters to Alexander Borovsky\u2019s scenic design of wooden rectangles\nabove a void instead of a stage floor. A solid stage surface will be assembled\nas the production builds. Three ladders rise above the wooden form. The stage\nproscenium is another set of rectangles: iron pipe framing covered with white\nsheeting. The arrangement looks like new construction or, more accurately, a\nrenovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead\nof nervous soldiers changing the watch in Denmark\u2019s darkness and cold, this\nproduction starts with Hamlet (an excellent Danila Kozlovsky) and his mother\nGertrude (brilliant Ksenia Rappoport) dancing a passionate tango in front of\nthe stage. They exchange dialogue from Hamlet<\/em>,\nbut not its first scene. This pattern is repeated throughout the drama. Lines\nfrom the play (and other Shakespearean sources and works) appear as their\ncontent dictates. Purists may find this off-putting, but most audience members\nwill follow this new distilled version of the play with secondary characters\nand scenes vaporized without damage to the through-story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ophelia\n(Ekaterina Tarasova) is Polonius\u2019s (Stanislav Nicolsky) sister (subsuming the\ncharacter Laertes), and Marcellus (Igor Ivanov), Horatio (Sergey Kurishev) and\nBernardo (Sergey Kozirev) become \u201cthe weird brothers\u201d (my wife\u2019s term)\nperforming from the ladders\u2014a King Lear speech, for example, instead of a\nHecuba-centric one. Director Dodin\u2019s laser-like focus on Hamlet\u2019s family, love\nand ambition provides insights to those willing to view the play with new\nperspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If one can appreciate what this production of Hamlet<\/em> provides, instead of what it omits, the power of the play is intensified: the burden of revenge, the \u201cpangs of dispraised love,\u201d the authority of destiny and the humanity of the Renaissance prince thrill us again. Lev Dodin\u2019s Hamlet<\/em> assembles a new stage for the Prince of Denmark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are you listening, Europe? <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/div>\n\n\n\n

*<\/a>Barry Gaines<\/strong> is Professor Emeritus of English Literature at the University of New Mexico, where he taught Shakespeare from 1979 to 2010. He reviewed theatre in his hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, for fifteen years, and is the former Administrator of ATCA, the American Theatre Critics Association. His volume for\u00a0The Complete Works of Thomas Heywood<\/em>\u00a0is awaiting publication at Oxford University Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Copyright \u00a9<\/strong> 2018 Barry Gaines
Critical Stages\/Sc\u00e8nes critiques<\/em> e-ISSN: 2409-7411<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This work is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution International License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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