When I conceived my Senor Pygmalion dolls. The saving spirit of beauty. premiere at the theater in the southwest: Valery Belyakovich. "Dolls" based on the tragic farce of Jacinto Grau "Señor Pygmalion". Creative burning is divine; it cannot go out. The spirit is creative

Madrid is excited by the news of the tour of the magician Signor Pygmalion and his miracle dolls, from which half the world has already gone crazy. Local actors are rebelling: they do not want to give up the palm to soulless mechanisms, although they themselves have not attracted full houses for a long time. However, the main theatergoer and philanthropist, also endowed with the ducal title, dreams of seeing the extraordinary performance as soon as possible. In addition, Signor Pygmalion is his fellow countryman; he was taken to America as a 5-year-old boy, but he remembers his roots.

The plot of replacing a living person with a doll has been so deeply developed in “serious” literature (although what is considered “serious” literature? “The Deer King” by Gozzi? “The Sandman” by Hoffmann? “The Gray Car” by Alexander Green, in the film adaptation of which he played one of the most famous his roles, the main star of the Theater in the South-West, the late Avilov, Sheckley, Bradbury, or the Uruguayan author Felisberto Hernandez who recently came across to me with the story “Dolls Called Ortensia”?), that today he is almost completely pushed into the sphere of pop culture? . Everyone sings about “puppet love” - from Pugacheva to Vitas, more than others, of course, “simply the Nutcracker” Moiseev. It is not surprising that, according to the decision of Valery Belyakovich’s tragic farce based on the play “Signor Pygmalion” written in 1921 by Jacinto Grau (expressionism, the victory of the machine over man and technology over nature), in some episodes it strongly resembles popular variety shows, from the same Boris Moiseev to “Star Factory” ". The episode with the dance of Pomponina (performed by Karina Dymont) almost literally, both musically and plastically, correlates with the famous choreographic number with clowns from Moiseev’s program “Simply the Nutcracker”.

The aesthetic aspect of the play - the displacement of live actors by high-tech mannequins - is more relevant today than in the early 20s (the premiere of the play, by the way, took place on a Friday evening, already closely associated with the next reporting concert of the Factory). The social plan of the conflict - technology against nature and mechanism against man - also remains. But generalizing to a metaphysical conflict: Man the creator strives to maximally improve his creation up to the point of completely identifying it with himself, but he himself is imperfect, and if so, it turns out that the closer the creation is to the “perfection” of the Creator, the more imperfect it is?

By the way, this question concerns Valery Belyakovich himself. I haven’t been to a theater in the South-West for almost three years, although I once went there often, and a couple of my reviews from Komsomolskaya Pravda (including Brecht’s Threepenny Opera staged for the 25th anniversary of the group) were still hanging for a long time at the stand in the foyer. Belyakovich developed (not without an eye, however, on Taganka) his own unique style: vital, brutal, bright, recognizable - but difficult to transform. In this connection, the plays of Gogol, Camus, Shakespeare, Erdman, Chekhov, Sukhovo-Kobylin, Sorokin, Simon in his interpretation seem to have been written by the same author. Sometimes this approach leads to the appearance of performances that are clearly secondary ("The Seagull"), sometimes, on the contrary, unexpectedly interesting ("Three Sisters"), but most often, despite all the entertainment, predictable. The Muppet Show from Belyakovich is also very recognizable and also imperfect: the action is quite chaotic, not always proportionate in composition (the first scenes, before Pygmalion appears, are drawn out), rough, and at times deliberately vulgar. Without departing from the “general line” of the developed method, the Theater in the South-West itself is turning into a kind of machine for producing high-class (well, at least high-quality), but similar to each other and rather mechanical spectacles.

It is unfair to blame the director for the fact that his own work is subject to those global laws. Especially a director who is aware of these laws and tries to creatively analyze them. However, whose life, and not only creative life, is not subject to these laws? Is it in vain that both “serious” literature and popular music turn to this topic from century to century?
The faces are erased, the colors are dull.
We have no more words, we have no more dreams.
The kids just got older.
Why was this world created this way?

Indeed. A well-organized group of men in shorts and boots - this will destabilize the psyche of many people. There are also few objections to homo-erotica (black color, latex or leather, a lot of makeup, cutouts where interesting).
Spectacular, quite stylish, within the framework of cheap public style, a little embarrassing.
And that's nothing. All this does not negate the content. Somewhere deep, somewhere superficial.
Yes, the actors appear to be wearing shorts and generally revealing outfits, but the glimpses of bodies under short T-shirts are accompanied by excellent texts, and they do not forget to pronounce them, and not even to say them, articulate them, with temperament, almost preaching.

The introductory part was terribly interesting to me. All these exchanges of witticisms 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 - puppeteer Karabas-Barabas. It seems that the Duke of Pinocchio is ready to give his last shirt in advance. He,

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and touchingly mentions his love for the theater. Besides, these dolls are a real miracle and all that. Beautiful, perfect, better than living actors, because they don’t get tired (during the course of the play this is immediately refuted by the phrase - “oh, you’re tired!..” and thump-thump-thump), they don’t complain, and so on.

Their main desire is freedom, or rather, will (and peace? that will be for sure). Interesting, though. 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 one,
Go and you will see, go
You'll see.

Then the Duke acts according to the usual pattern - he chases after the most attractive doll, steals it, not particularly interested in the consent of not only the owner, but also the victim himself. Pimpinona is against it, she needs the company of dolls. But the Duke is apparently in the grip of sleep and passionate love. (to the theatre? yes, of course) He wishes to have sole possession of her, an excellent quality doll. And the question immediately arises - what about maintenance? Before stealing, you should take care to familiarize yourself with the manual and user instructions. But no. Just to steal the best. Oh, the aristocracy is the same everywhere and incorrigible. Mine, and that's it. So why then does the lady with the magical name Aurelia love such a simple man, even a duke? For beauty, probably. Love is a miracle that cannot be explained.

Dove manca la fortuna
Non si va più con il cuore
Ma coi piedi sulla luna,
Oh mio fanciullo
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 there is great pain hidden,
Go and you will see human madness.

If we were the Puppeteer, we should take the Duke to his team. Somehow pupate, and that’s it. Cut off the leather trousers at the very edge... and forward to the stage. But the play has its own logic and ending. Simple. Everybody died. Those who seduced the living with all sorts of nonsense. All that was left was a dream, a haze and memories of the future. Completely stunned by 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-ahh, I want to go to the circus! This is madness?

Premiere performance of the Kaliningrad Regional Drama Theater.
A play by Valery Belyakovich based on Jacinto Grau's tragic farce "Señor Pygmalion".
Director and production designer - Vyacheslav Vittikh (Moscow).

The Kaliningrad audience has probably never received such a theatrical shock.
For the spectacle (fast-paced action, unexpected stunts, monologues and dialogues, individual movements and well-coordinated team play of actors, musical and lighting effects) to electrify and inspire the audience to such an extent - we don’t remember this since the victory of Russian football players over Holland with a score of 3:0 .
Crowds of people had to take to the streets and chant: “Our theater is a champion!”

Fortunately, a theatrical performance is an exclusive thing, and not everyone can see it.
That's the only reason the city survived.

Honestly, I never expected such energetic power from a theater that had become tired in recent years.
A wizard, a master, just arrived, took his wonderful and at the same time terrible dolls out of his case - and they created a sensation.

In principle, that’s how it was. The director brought a precise, tough, well-thought-out stage solution - and embodied it (with the help of a talented and skilled Kaliningrad troupe and artistic production team) into a breathtakingly beautiful performance.
Without forgetting to do something elusive and most importantly: breathe the mystery of life into your collective creation. More precisely, to breathe life and mystery...

Well, how is Adam or Galatea made from ordinary clay?
It is unlikely that we will understand this, and we are unlikely to be able to repeat it.
Pygmalions are now a rarity.

The performance amazes with the courage and simplicity of the solutions found.
The curtain opens and aerialists hover above us, like living puppets. The spectacle 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 conventions, because they have already found themselves in the world of theater and circus.

The stage is fenced in a circle, like an arena, with curtain-columns, but when they, miraculously illuminated (lighting designer - Lyudmila Voronina), rise, transparent boxes with dolls appear under them. Like crystal sarcophagi coffins. And which of them will come out? Is he alive or dead? Can he (or she) be trusted?
This question keeps the whole room in suspense - and does not find an answer.

When the speaker’s facial expressions do not coincide with the meaning of what was said, one becomes somehow uncomfortable, and the viewer laughs nervously.
Artist Marina Jungans brilliantly achieves the necessary tragicomic effect, creating the image of a doll named Captain Momona using grotesque clown plasticity.
A huge gun is a prop, but who knows, if the spring in the head comes off... Mechanisms, although similar to people, do not know how to spare.

The other characters (a team of Spanish producers who look like matadors) are positioned on stage in such a way as to take the place of these mysterious dolls at any moment. The strict symmetrical arrangement of the group does not turn it into a crowd. Vice versa!
Each individual character - although everyone is dressed according to the principle of “red and black” - people, “white and red” - dolls - is presented individually, dressed beautifully, recognizable and unique.

You can’t take your eyes off Nadezhda Ilina 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.
The infernal Pyotr Mutin would perhaps outshine the great tragic actors in Pygmalion's monologue.
The charismatic figure of Alexey Pereberin is at the center of any composition.
What the flexible and comedically gifted Alexander Fedorenko and Anton Zakharov do is worthy of individual applause and an encore.

But the most amazing role went to Alena Kolesnik. Playing such a role doesn’t require any Oscar!
Of course, she is helped by winning, dramatic music and incredibly beautiful design, but the actress conveys the dual and dark essence of her character using her extraordinary abilities, 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 accurately, in the genre of a tragic farce, played by wonderful young actors. Each of them is a personality. And together - a powerful, well-coordinated ensemble.
The theater succeeded in the main thing - to emotionally convince the viewer that each character in this modern tragic farce is capable of suffering, “bleeding cranberry juice,” and that all this is related to his own life.

No, those who have not seen this will still not understand.
Just as a person who wants to sleep will not understand the midnight delights of football fans.

Sleep well, man who has never seen the Theater!

• International Conference:
• Conference dates: December 3-5, 2018
• Report date: December 3, 2018
• Type of talk: Invited
• Speaker: not specified
• Location: IMLI RAS, Russia
• Abstract of the report:

  The report is dedicated to the tragicomic farce “Señor Pygmalion” by the 20th century Spanish playwright H. Grau. The premiere of the play took place outside of Spain: the first production was carried out in Paris in 1923 by C. Dullen, in 1925 in the Czech Republic by K. Capek, and a little later in Italy by L. Pirandello. The main characters of the work are dolls-automata, 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 framework of the report, the novelty of Grau’s proposed interpretation of the theme of the relationship between the creator and creation is revealed by comparing “Signor Pygmalion” with various works, developing this topic up to the 20th century. Another feature of Grau’s tragicomic farce is the intertextual richness of the images and plots of “Señor Pygmalion,” which refer to various texts that influenced the playwright to one degree or another: from Spanish folklore to the novels of G.D. Wells and G. Meyrink.