The Belarusian State Academic Theater for Young Spectators presented The Queen of Spades. This is a recent premiere and the show’s first tour of Minsk. One of Pushkin’s most enigmatic and attractive works was read in a special way by a young director from Moscow, Ksenia Samodurova. Love drama and mystical thriller, a game in nine scenes. “In this game, everything takes place according to its own rules, everything changes from the usual appearance. Heroes turn into images from playing cards, and their actions into a layout of cards and all-in bets.”
The SOYUZ correspondent watched the play and talked to the actors.
A new character appeared on the scene, which the author did not – the Queen of Spades. This role is played by Alina Korotkevich.
– It is logical to assume that the queen of spades is a countess. No. In our play, it is not just a storyteller who leads the story. She constantly follows Hermann – like fate, fate, like a map that haunts him. Sometimes she directs the process. It was very interesting to work on this image. Pushkin did not prescribe it, therefore, it has no given character, there are no words, there is nothing to cling to. We imagined plastic surgery, a spike on the right leg, a boot on the left, Lady’s lameness…
<p class=””>Young actress Ekaterina Krylova plays … the old countess. As we know, Tomskaya is a capricious and selfish old woman under 90 years old.<p class=””>- My reaction when I saw the distribution of roles? It’s very idiosyncratic. And strange. And it is creatively interesting, – shared Ekaterina. – There is someone in the troupe to play this role. But the director said the age of the actors in our performance didn’t matter. We’re going to put on masks, play a game like little kids, then take off our masks and be ourselves.<p class=””>Not all viewers liked this interpretation. Opinions are diametrically opposed. Someone accepts our story and the rules of the game, says that it is unusual, bright, colorful, but sometimes incomprehensible. Someone thinks it’s a parody of the classics, and the author will roll over in his grave… The show is still very young, the work will continue, but we’ve already fallen in love with it. The material is complex, multifaceted, unique. There is a lot of humor, irony, sarcasm…<p class=””>Gennady Garansky, the interpreter of the role of Hermann, said:
<p class=””>- The structure of our game is different from the story. The scenes are rearranged: let’s say what Pushkin had at the end – entered the prologue, the beginning – somewhere in the middle, between them there are definitions of terms – from Wikipedia: what is the love, excitement, laughter, death.. Everything that happens is Hermann’s fantasy, his representations of all images, how it could have happened, but didn’t happen. A character appeared – the queen of spades. Maybe it’s my hero’s second “I” or his conscience, even an accomplice, telling him where to go.<p class=””>The play begins like this: Hermann has gone mad, he is already in the hospital. He is tormented by memories. And questions: what did he do wrong? Where did you make a mistake, act out of conscience, commit a blunder?<p class=””>We also have poems from Tchaikovsky’s opera arias. Pushkin’s text has been preserved. But not everything is so dramatic – we remember the young audience of our theater – 12 years and older.<p class=””>Remember Pushkin’s finale: “Hermann has gone mad. He sits in the Obukhov hospital in the 17th room, does not answer any questions and mutters with unusual rapidity:” Three, seven, ace! .. “? Today we went to the Fontanka to see and visit the church in Konyushennaya Square, where Pushkin was buried.
Direct speech
Vera Polyakova-Makei, Honored Artist of Belarus, Director of the Youth Theater:
– After St. Petersburg, we will show in Moscow on the stage of the ROSTA Theater the shows “Figaro” by Beaumarchais and “Zhenya + Tanya = Love” from the novel “Eugene Onegin”, which are very popular with the public.
We have a large number of exchange trips with Russia. The National Drama Theater named after Basagov from Kalmykia came to us and we performed with them. It was the same with the Kaluga Youth Theater, with the Velikoluksky Drama Theater. The performances of the St. Petersburg Theater Festival “Baltic House” and the Moscow ROSTA Theater with Nonna Grishaeva aroused great interest from our viewers.
In May, we go to St. Petersburg to the International Festival of the Bryantsev Youth Theater, closing it with the play “Zhenya + Tanya = Love”. And we will stay on tour: we will play the tales “Fly-Tsokotuha”, “Pas un hérisson”, and also “Figaro”. And at the end of June, the St. Petersburg Youth Theater will come to us, bring performances of “Scarlet Sails”, “Poor Lisa” and two fairy tales.
We are setting up a big ambitious project with the Murmansk children’s theater school: on May 16, they will present the play “Children of military Murmansk” on our stage (85 people are employed there!).
In September we are expected at the Vampilovsky festival in Irkutsk. And at the end of September, we plan to invite the Lev Ehrenburg Small Drama Theater from St. Petersburg with two performances: “U” – for adult audiences, “The Wizard of Oz” – for children. From us the troupe will go to the Dunin-Martsinkevich Mogilev dramatic and comic theater. Then, we expect the “Baltic House” with a new performance “My Happiness”.
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