Kintia Sture as Jasmīne.
Publicity photo (Justine Grinberga).
22:52 on November 29, 2023
Author: Normunds Akots, “Kultūrzīme”, JSC “Latvijas Mediji”
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In the play “Jasmīns” staged by Dmitriy Petrenko in the Liepāja Theater, all the characters of the play are connected in a kind of fateful communion.
Dmitrijs Petrenko has finally fulfilled a dream he has cherished for years and has staged Inga Ābele’s early play “Jasmīns” in the Liepāja theater, which once experienced stage versions created by three different directors (V. Kairis, G. Poliščukas and V. Sīlis) in different theaters. The plot situation in which Yasmīne, the main character of the play, has found herself thanks to her husband’s irresponsible debts, is almost hopeless, and the loss of the inherited house seems inevitable. Through the outline of legal procedures, Inga Ābele captures it in the play as a harsh reality that drives people to a dead end and humiliates them without giving them the opportunity to defend themselves.
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The only way out is coincidence or chance, and the author successfully uses this phenomenon of life, which is so popular in dramaturgy, in her work as well. With the unexpected arrival of the mother, the action of the play is reoriented to the chaotic interweaving of Jasmīne’s actions and feelings, which reveals a clash of values rooted in the soul with challenges caused by new feelings. In an interview, Inga Ābele said that in the play “the characters come by themselves, they speak for themselves and she allows them to speak freely”, and it is this freedom given to the characters that also creates the lasting value of the play, as it allows the author to direct our attention to what cannot be expressed in words, and the directors, in turn, to insert it in a wide variety of treatments and time contexts.
Dmitriy Petrenko uses this opportunity in a very unique way, and by transferring the action to the present, expands his production into an impressively illustrated treatment of the play with scenes from a surreal “monkey ball”. The play begins with the description of the real situation in the scene of the property description, which takes place in the foreground of the stage in a modestly furnished room and slowly thickens the atmosphere full of despair, from which Jasmīne has no hope of escaping, if only in her dreams or visions.
The further action of the play, opening up to the deeper plan of the stage, is treated by the director as a vision of Jasmīne in a magnificently green garden with a huge tree in the center (set design by Maria Ullman), allowing her to dream up the solution of the situation provided by a possible chance, which at the same time offers Jasmīne an opportunity to awaken her frozen life of feelings. The mystical appearance of the mother on the cut branch of the “family tree” (a well-honed performance by Karina Tatarinova in the role of Laura) brings bright colors to Jasmīne’s gray outlook on life, but meeting her friend Mihaela, who is played by Edgars Ozoliņš in well-balanced expressions as an artist tired of popularity, quickly sows germinating seeds of love in her heart.
The mother’s experience and experiences in the show’s dialogues with her daughter melt away Jasmīne’s reproaches for her long absence and silence, but Michael’s unique “philosophy of life” opens much wider horizons in her worldview. All this irritates Jasmīne’s soul, refreshes her imagination and prompts her to take unexpected action. As Albert Camus once said, “the feelings we enjoy do not transform us, but tell us the thought of transformation”, and Jasmīne gives in to these thoughts and willingly surrenders to transformation. I won’t say that all the events sublimated in Yasmīne’s soul come to life equally convincingly on the stage, but if the outwardly restrained way of playing is matched to some imaginary temperament, then in general the actress portrays them as a well-contoured shorthand of the character’s inner life.
Each actor unobtrusively highlights the intonation fluctuations encoded in the text, which resonate with the emotions of the audience.
Publicity photo (Justine Grinberga).
In the performance, all the characters of the play are connected in a kind of communion of fate and each of them thematically colors a thread in the common fabric, which the director has chosen to look at and offer to the public’s perception through a light haze of mysticism. For example, the dementia of old age, in which Jasmīne’s grandmother Gertrude is slowly sinking, in Anda Albuže’s carefully selected expressions of behavior and behavior evokes something of the theme of love between relatives, while the clerk Verdi, depicted with intense strokes of paint by Sanda Pečs, hints at the pragmatic aspects of love.
Thanks to Aneta Berke’s juicy and colorful performance as Lana, the director also manages to flirt with the sensual component of love in an attractive way and to weave these intimate characters into the pattern of mutual relations. This is perfectly complemented by Ghat Malik’s insight into Victor’s strange understanding of love. In their performance, each actor unobtrusively highlights the intonation fluctuations encoded in the text, which resonate with the audience’s emotions, and in the characters they create, one can well feel those mysterious vibrations that very often correlate our actions in real life.
Dmitri Petrenko’s mystery of Liepāja ends with a visually grandiose scene: the huge “family tree” with all its roots rises above the ground, and Yasmīne disappears in the white haze below it. The impression remains that the director has indulged in an impressive finale, but has not fully considered what exactly he wants to convey with this scene. The associations caused by uprooted roots can go in completely opposite directions today, and the viewer can only guess which one could be the real one? In which direction will Jasmīne go now? In her vision, she supposedly regained her native home, but lost her love and Michael, getting the idea of transformation instead. What’s next? It could also be that the purpose of the mystery was simply to ask us this question.
INQUIRY
Inga Ābele, “Jasmīns”, production in Liepāja theater
Director: Dmitrijs Petrenko, scenographer Marija Ulmane, costume designer Baiba Litiņa, lighting designer Niks Tsipruss, composer Jūlijs Melngailis.
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Starring: Kintija Stūre, Rolands Beķeris, Anda Albuže, Karīna Tatarinova, Edgars Ozoliņš, Anete Berķe, Gatis Maliks, Sandis Pīcis, Laura Jeruma.
Next performances: December 3, January 5, 26.
Themes
2023-11-29 21:04:15
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