The latest premiere of Mikhail Chekhov’s Riga Russian Theater Stage on fire claims to be multi-meaning, starting with the title of the play by Artūrs Dīčas. On the one hand, the name of the Latvian theater in Moscow, which was destroyed in 1938, and the last play by Rūdolf Blaumaņis are combined here, on the other hand, the situation of the theater in the conditions of Stalinist terror is symbolically marked. Between a documentary basis and claims to generalization and symbolism, the show also oscillates as a whole, creating a very ambiguous impression. The Chekhov Theater had adjusted the date of the premiere – February 3 Stages for the anniversary of the destruction, clearly indicating that it is a specific historical fact. But in the play, the background of history is blurred, removing clues to a specific place and time. This makes it possible to treat the text of Artūrs Dīčas more broadly.
Almost a tragi-farce
The scene presented to us by the new production, the Latvian Theater of Moscow Stage shows in a rather strange light. The director of the theater, Roberts, insists that the show must go ahead, even though one of the actors is missing. The way in which his replacement is being sought to match the actress Maria, who is too old for the role of Christine, is rather comical, while the reason, as can be guessed and later confirmed, is tragic – the arrests have already begun. The artistic director of the theater, Osvalds, rumbling on his bass, pathetically calls for the show to be cancelled. In the middle of everything, a substitute for a stage worker, a local resident Ivans, the father-in-law of a Latvian actor, accidentally got into the theater.
It seems that the authors of the show value the audience’s prior knowledge of the theater very highly Stage. The program, which the viewer is not obliged to buy, shows the life and death data of the four murdered actors and pictures from the investigation documents, but there is no context as to what this theater was like and who Maria Leiko was, the most famous of the victims. From what we see on the stage, the viewer can draw two basic conclusions – that she loved her granddaughter very much, for which she moved to Moscow in the first place, and that she, with her previous experience as a diva in silent cinema, did not fit too well into the framework of socialist realism, which in the late 1930s was already strict enough. In order to reinforce this feeling, two whole female genders are delegated to Marija, played by Inese Kučinskas another self – Jana Herbst’s Dadaist and Veronika Plotnikova’s Surrealist – whose function on the stage is to enhance Maria’s visual form, but not any obvious manifestation of the specific art directions.
Inese Kučinska is undoubtedly a charismatic actress, but she, like many other members of the production, has relatively few opportunities to create a character, because the dramaturgy does not really offer it. There is nervousness, there is a certain confusion, but saving the atmosphere of fear for the second act, the rescue of the show, which is falling apart at the seams, is emphasized at the beginning of the performance. Unabashedly determined director Anna has many objections to what is happening, but she is ready to do whatever it takes. Anna Maria, played by Ekaterina Frolova, does not like Maria, and she does not really like this theater as a whole with its Blaumani, in which you can try to highlight class relations.
One color is allocated to each artist, but sparingly. Roberts, the director of Alexander Malikov’s theater, is worried, but determined to save the show, Mārtiņš Wilson’s annoyingly verbose Stages artistic director Oswald doesn’t explain what’s going on, but deals with tutorials. Konstantina Nikulina Karlis is just a confused young man whose brother has been arrested, but nobody knows anything about it. Jakov Rafalson’s Ivan has his place as an observer – a man who doesn’t seem to understand anything, but perhaps he understands best what is actually happening. The artists of the production – the duo Mareunrol’s – have created a stage on a stage, which is gradually cleared of decorations, but in general, functionally, the decoration hinders the organization of the mise-en-scene, rather than helping it.
Chekist show
However, especially in the second act, the weight of the show is focused on the Chekist, or, as it is written in the list of roles, Prosecutor X, played by Shamil Khamatov. I am not the first to point out that the abbreviation KGB is used in the wrong place in the program, because the State Security Committee was established only in 1954. Shamil Hamatovs takes full advantage of the fact that his only role gives him the opportunity to build a character that is, if not multifaceted, then in any case frighteningly diverse in its manifestations. It contains both the cruelty of power and hypocrisy (he repeats that he is only doing his job), and complexes and even hatred of actors and the desire to take revenge for the fact that others have been better off. All of this is also characteristic of the representatives of modern Russian power and propaganda, so this is undoubtedly an effective and contemporary image.
In my opinion, the creators of the show perfectly understand that the communication of the negative image with the hall is not really possible, but include the specific episode deliberately to show that people can be manipulated in this way as well. Although the totalitarian regime is in its essence dispassionately cruel, in the show’s version the Chekist’s motives are also emotional, and he derives pleasure from the process of humiliating others. However, the production, if you do not read the texts of the program, does not give the context that the theater does Stage the extermination was part of a wider ethnic cleansing, which was directed not against the actors, but against Latvians because of their nationality, similar to other operations. The arrested actors are completely helpless and are brutally tortured.
It is not really clear whether there is another reason, beyond the marketing goals to attract the audience, why Ivars Kalniņš was invited in an absolutely static role, and it is even a little confusing why the artist agreed to such a role (Anatolijs Fečins also plays the role).
In his play, Artūrs Dīcis assumes that Osvalds, whose prototype is Osvalds Glāznieks-Glazunovs, is “his” person for the Chekist. Glaznieks-Glazunovs was indeed not shot in 1938, Anna or Asja Lācis also remained alive after this operation (she was deported). However, the general impression of the show is made contradictory by the parallels that the viewer is invited to make without being disappointed, abstracting from the specific historical fact. If the play were to talk about Latvians, but mostly Soviet citizens, who confirm that they are ready to play Russian and in defense indicate that belonging to a certain nationality does not mean a threat to another, it would be an appropriate message for the specific situation. However, by blurring the boundaries of specificity and consistently using the term immigrant theater, which Stages is not correct in this case, as well as expressing readiness to speak in the language of an unnamed nation, Chekhov’s theater clearly draws parallels with its current situation, when for two years, since the Russian aggression in Ukraine, a part of society expresses the opinion that the Russian theater in Latvia should not function in these conditions.
Unfortunately, by drawing such parallels, the theater indirectly indicates that it feels threatened by a totalitarian regime, which is hardly an adequate assessment of the situation, and thus does not help the understanding of the meaning of preserving Russian theater, but works against it. Also, it is difficult for me to agree that the inconsistent mixture of Latvian and Russian, which the theater also practiced in the previous production of the director Laura Groza With ball shoes in the Siberian snows, promotes integration in any way.
STAGE ON FIRE
in the Riga Russian Theater on 20-22 III, 25, 26 IV, 17 V at 19
Tickets in the Ticket Service Network EUR 15–35
2024-03-01 07:00:35
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