On April 16, Easter Sunday – the main holiday of Orthodox Christians – the play “Make-up artist from Lubyansk” is performed in the New Theater. This amazing production, which has no analogues on the Russian stage, is dedicated to love and heroism, faith and honor, beauty and art.
The performance uses the technique of “theater in the theater”: the heroes of the story based on the story of Nikolai Leskov are the actors of the serf troupe. It was their sincere service to Melpomene that laid the foundation for the development of professional theatrical art in Russia, which to this day remains the leader in world theater.
On Easter Day, the meanings inherent in the representation, traditional for Russian culture, are read in a particular way: a sacrifice in the name of life.
“Death tramples death” – these great words from the Paschal Troparion will resonate after the performance performed by the artists of the Nouveau Théâtre. This is how the New Theater will congratulate its audience on Bright Sunday.
Eternal and traditional themes that have preoccupied mankind throughout its existence are revealed in the “Lubyansk Makeup Room” in modern theatrical language: in the performance, which is played out in the space of a historical estate in the interiors of the 19th century, the public follows four different routes through the corridors, the rooms, the stairs of the mansion where the story takes place. The artist Arkady, in love with a serf actress, does not want to share her with the cruel count. The nobility of the people contrasts with the pettiness of the slave-holding aristocrat. Arkady gives the noble a lesson in honor: gone to war, the artist accomplishes a feat and dies. His heroism makes the count repent. And when, at the end of the show, a real window at the back of the stage suddenly opens and the audience sees today’s Myasnitskaya Street, the show’s metaphor reads very clearly: our present is determined by the pass. And only a strong bond between us and our ancestors is able to preserve what is sacred for every Russian person – the cultural code.
Artistic director of the New Theater, director of the play “The Lubyansk makeup artist Eduard Boyakov:
The particularity of our time is that we are finally beginning to reflect on our origins, our roots, our culture. We are aware of the need to acquire sovereignty – not only economic, military, political, but also ideological. We are trying to overcome the addiction to stamps and standards that have been imposed on us over the past decades. We begin to understand that the spiritual space determines our life. Without Orthodoxy, there is no Russian culture. Orthodoxy is the basis of all its manifestations – writing, education, music, architecture and, of course, theater, which has its source in the liturgy. Therefore, Easter is a holiday that we celebrate with all the theater, regardless of the degree of church.
On the facade of the New Theater, located in the estate of the Saltykov-Chertkov, you can see the saying – “Faith and honor”. Whoever owns this motto, it fully corresponds to the creative program of the theater.
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