Shocking moments, stirring passions, figures of happiness and unhappiness, situations imbued with subtly grotesque humor, a lyrical vision of love. This is how the swan song of director Rimas Tuminas, who left in March, could be summed up. The performance of Anna Karenina was brought from Israel to MITEM by the Gesher Theater, which was the first time, but hopefully not the last.
As it turns out, the Lithuanian-born director has been working at the Gesher Theater for the last two years, which can be considered almost symbolic, since the name of the theater means a bridge, so they play a kind of mediating role between cultures. As we found out at the audience meeting after the performance, they originally (about thirty years ago) started as a Russian-language theater in Tel Aviv, but today they mainly play in Hebrew, and there are few Russian-speaking actors among their actors. In any case, the Israeli theater accepted the former artistic director of the Vakhtangov Theater in Moscow, who apparently sought a kind of refuge with them. Before his unfortunately early death (he was 72 years old), he also worked with an Italian troupe, but in essence, the Anna Karenina seen now can be considered the director’s swansong of the magical stage world.
In this highly emotional performance, Tuminas stripped the stage image to the bare minimum: we could only see a corridor suggesting a large building space and a few benches, and he mainly focused on the acting. He did well, as the members of the troupe dazzled the audience one after another with excellent performances. Anyone who remembers the Tuminas performances at the MITEM of previous years (mainly Yevgeny Anyegin or Uncle Vanya are good examples of this) could easily discover the director’s characteristic style: the lyrical delicacy fueled by inner passions, whose melancholy is always interwoven with kind, slightly grotesque humor (for me the burlesque of Uncle Vanya’s duel scene remains unforgettable). There was no lack of such here either, it is enough to recall the “home decoration” episode of Kitty (Roni Einav) and Levin (Miki Leon), in which the newly married woman – here again with almost burlesque humor – carries increasingly large flower boxes into the living room, while the the husband feels more and more uncomfortably tense about the commission of the problems of the relationship that has changed from love to marriage. It’s a silent scene, but it very kindly and entertainingly informs the viewer that there are indeed such places on the map of happiness. Just as there are others like the couple in the opening scene (Sztyiva: Alon Friedman, Dolly: Karin Seruya), whom we meet at the very moment of cheating. From them, the viewer gets the same charming drama from the very beginning: we simultaneously laugh at the husband’s clumsiness and we can sympathize with both of them in this relationship, since the fate of women trapped between many children, but also the desires of men longing for excitement are part of our lives – how many such ruined couples can we see today too… Tuminas’s great merit is that he shows these versions of happiness and unhappiness in an extremely humane and beautiful way.
The same is true of the protagonists, Anna Karenina (played brilliantly by Efrat Ben-Tzur) walks the path of how passion destroys itself so precisely that it can only be admired. The dramatic power of the excellent actress can be felt most at the end of the first act, when we hear the recurring melody of the waltz of the meeting with Vronsky, while she sits tense and motionless – one can viscerally feel the destructive power within. The character of Karenin (Gil Frank) is also outstandingly good, in this arrangement and play we get a more lovable character compared to the usual one. We see this every day.
It’s as if the inner world of Rimas Tuminas has come to life in the strange form of Anna. After all, passion can also be interpreted for creation. Perhaps it is not sacrilegious to say that it is certainly not an accident, as he has depicted the process of this here, which causes deep wounds to the soul when someone is swept away by this storm. Regardless of whether it is love or a creative force, self-surrender comes with a lot of sacrifices, and here, in the final scene of the performance, we can feel the drama of this as well, with an elemental force. Anna’s exit from the world is simple and cathartic, almost a dance theater episode, as she finally curls into the fetal position. Thanks for letting us see this…
Judit Ungvár
news-date">(April 13, 2024)
