Pygmalion. Puppets The relationship between people and puppets is one of the many connecting threads of the performance
It was a full house, the small hall was filled to capacity. We sat on side chairs and ottomans placed on the steps. But there was enough space for everyone, and the stage here is clearly visible from absolutely all points. Even if a tall person sits in front, it will be perfectly visible, since the rows are well raised.
“Dolls” interprets the eternal myth of Pygmalion, who created man and fell in love with his creation. The great puppeteer, Senor Pygmalion, creator of the famous puppet theater, whose puppets are virtually indistinguishable from real people, comes straight from Broadway to Madrid.
Actors of local theaters, whose performances have been supplanted by touring performers, are indignant, but behind their indignation there is fear: what if these dolls are really superior to them, living actors, and then they will no longer be needed and in demand, and this is the collapse of the acting profession, the end of the theatrical creativity.
Such is the conflict, and behind it new and new questions arise. Can living feelings and passions be replaced by their mechanical imitation? Can the creations of human hands become like the creations of God? Can man, like God, create and manage his own world? These are the difficult questions posed by the play “Dolls” by Valery Belyakovich at the Theater in the South-West.
Nowadays, when robots have become a part of life and have replaced people in some areas of activity, the plot does not seem fantastic. However, the mystical moment of reviving a doll, investing life, consciousness, even mind into it, exists. And the dolls created by Senor Pygmalion are beautiful, tireless and almost eternal. They do not age, do not get tired and require only energy replenishment for the work of their mechanical hearts.
The beautiful bodies and faces of the Lord Pygmalion dolls evoke passion in the audience. Some fans accompany the Puppeteer Theater on all its tours, just to be close to their idols. Each doll is unique, each has some kind of talent. One has a wonderful voice, but she is out of tune, the other dances like a real ballerina, but not like a ballet soloist, the third has the talent of a dramatic actress and imagines herself to be a theater queen. Unable to control his feelings, the sovereign lord, Duke Adulkar (O. Leushin), loses his mind and kidnaps little Pomponina (K. Dymont), who turned his head. They are pursued by the Duke's wife, Aurelia (O. Ivanova).
But who could have imagined that all the other dolls of the Pygmalion troupe would rush to the rescue of their friend! Brainless creatures, intended to amuse the public and improve the well-being of their creator, suddenly flee from the theater on the eve of the performance and declare themselves free.
Photo from the website of the Theater in the South-West
Inimitable dances, movements, plastic movements, somersaults, stunts and jumps in the light of multi-colored spotlights create the feeling that we are in one of the theaters in Madrid at a performance of animated puppets. They appear from the mirrored doors of their boxes and do not let go of their gaze until the end of the action. You want to admire them and at the same time you are scared for them when the Puppeteer’s whip cracks. And when they lie down on the stage and fall silent next to the murdered Pygmalion, all that remains is to cry. The girl next to me couldn’t hold back her tears. But then they got up and the tears dried up.
And before that, we laughed merrily at the jokes uttered by the Brandahwhip doll and the Madrid entrepreneurs, which were not at all medieval, but very relevant today. The actors of Madrid, at first offended by the advent of puppet theater and the cancellation of their performances, and then paying tribute to the skill of the Puppeteer, read real monologues from “Othello”, “Hamlet”, “King Lear” and it was clear that they were real dramatic actors. These monologues were woven into the action and gave it, as it were, greater authenticity. I especially liked Oleg Leushin in the role of Duke Adulcar and the miniature Karina Dymont in the image of Pomponina. Female roles the dolls of Marilonda (O. Avilova) and Dondinella (I. Barysheva) were wonderfully emotionally and plastically performed.
Photo from the website of the Theater in the South-West
There are many parallels in the play; everyone will find something of their own here. I was shocked to the point of goosebumps by the story of how Pygmalion came to create his own theater. Starting from childhood, when he left Spain with his parents, having one wooden doll in his hands, he created his own troupe for 27 years. One of the parallels is the political regime. Everyone laughs here, but as correctly noted. Imitating people, dolls create their own bodies of self-government: “You will be parliament, and you will be the people who are oppressed by everyone. And I will stay with Pygmalion and spy on your behalf...” In this case, dolls who are tired of their owner and want freedom can be associated with the tired people of some (not necessarily our) country, and Pygmalion, a millionaire who equates himself with God, can be imagined as some kind of president. And when the dolls, tired of Pygmalion’s “usurper” power, decided to run away from him and build a new, independent life, they die. As in life, the ending of the performance is predetermined.
Photo from the website of the Theater in the South-West
At the end, the real Pygmalion appears before the audience, and there are only three of them in the play. The first is the false Pygmalion, who is actually the Brandakhlyst doll (D. Nagretdinov), who played a prank on the theater people of Madrid at the station. The second is Pygmalion (E. Bakalov), who died from a bullet, surrounded by dead dolls, their creator. And the third - reading the final monologue, Pygmalion (A. Vanin) pays tribute to the living actors, who immediately begin to read their monologues from Shakespeare, with which the performance began. Main refrain: "These are dolls!" sounds new every time and now Pygmalion himself doubts whether he is a man or a doll. And the dolls become humanized and experience feelings that are unusual for them.
The performance is very beautiful, the mirrored doors of the doll boxes transform into the mirrors of the theater of ancient Madrid, the play of light, which is either the solemn, festive light of the footlights, or the reflection of a swinging lonely lantern near an abandoned hut. And in this ghostly light, characters appear, reflect and disappear, dressed in intricate or minimally concealing clothing. The music is chosen perfectly, it either builds up and builds up the atmosphere, or relaxes and invites you to have fun. And it sounds in the places where it is needed, leading its part in the performance.
Video from YouTube channel theater:
Valery Belyakovich's performance "Dolls" was included in the project " Cultural heritage RF: best performances". It was first shown in July 2004, a very difficult time for the Theater. Valery Belyakovich - a tireless inventor and experimenter - takes on the play by the Spanish playwright Jacinto Grau "Señor Pygmalion" and reworks it on topical topics. The play is a confession, a play about painful issues , for the last few year s creative activity then, after 13 years, it remained just as relevant and modern. Final monologue performed by Valery Belyakovich:
Thank you very much for the opportunity to see this miracle to the theater staff and for the invitation, special thanks to Anna atlanta_s . Subscribe to the Moscow blogger community moscultura and you will be aware of all the most interesting events in our city.
The genre of "Dolls" is defined as tragic farce. You can’t imagine anything more precise: this material can be used to play everything, from tragedy that evokes tears and catharsis, to farce that evokes laughter. There was a feeling that in November they presented rather a farce with unexpected elements of tragedy (Pygmalion’s look at Pomponina - “what will happen next?”). In December they played a tragedy with elements of farce. I’m not that versed in theater theory, but, as far as my classical education is enough for me, there are several approaches to the theater, one of which (if I’m not confusing anything, according to Stanislavsky) implies: the viewer must forget that he is in the theater, there is a stage and actors in front of him, and dissolve in the action and completely “believe” in what is happening on stage. And there is an approach to the theater, according to Bertolt Brecht - the viewer, on the contrary, needs to constantly remember that he is in the theater.
So, I have no idea where I got this particular perception, but I have a strong feeling that in November I saw a performance made closer to the second version, and in December - to the first. It definitely didn’t fit in my head that I was seeing artists. On the stage were Pygmalion, the Duke, and the Brandwhip, and it wasn’t a play being played in front of me, no, it was I who happened to be somewhere in Madrid and suddenly spied the arrival of Senor Pygmalion with his dolls...
It was different from the very beginning. Very serious and intense entrepreneurs, and unexpectedly interesting actors. Usually their words somehow merged for me into one common “mess”, however, such a reading also took place. I finally caught where the “real” monologues of Lear, Hamlet and Othello transitioned into the text “about dolls”. This time the “actors” were able to convey not only the fact that they are, in general, average actors, but also convey a certain drama - “what about us, are we worse than dolls?”...
And then Duke Alducar came out. Usually, during the first act, I calmly relate to the Duke; usually he is somewhat pompously theatrical (but this is rather necessary - without this there will be no brilliant contrast with “you are mine” in the second act). But this time I got goosebumps already at his first monologue: “Their faces were bright...” Honestly, at the end I was seriously scared - had something happened to Igor Olegovich Smelovsky? The acting was indescribable: the suffering and melancholy on Alducar’s face, a passionate desire expressed by a man of too high a rank to allow himself to talk about his passionate desires. "The dreams of my youth have long since left me." They don’t always admit this to themselves, and it came out by accident - in front of dissatisfied actors, in front of down-to-earth entrepreneurs. Madness. And the incredible tenderness of Aurelia, who is still able to understand her husband... Then it became more and more interesting... If earlier there was a feeling that the Duke’s tragedy came more likely from his inability and unwillingness to resist his own whims and passions, but yesterday everything happened because inability to resist them. Amazing changes from: “Sell me Pomponina!!!” to “Well, if it’s not for sale, it means it’s not for sale...” It is impossible to describe in words everything that happened on stage at that moment when the Duke took Pomponina away with him. Intoxicated... frightening (only Pomponina does not notice this yet), he was waving a torn tie and those who knew “what would happen next” could see here a hint of Pygmalion’s whip.
Somehow the antagonism between the Duke and Pygmalion was particularly felt, although formally it was always present: several times they stand at opposite ends of the stage, the Duke repeating Pygmalion’s gestures. More than ever, it was felt that there was a struggle for a woman, for the right of ownership, a clash between two owners.
The next version of Pygmalion (like most of the characters in this play, Pygmalion is never the same twice) is also difficult to describe in words: there was an amazing strain in him, as if he, just appearing on stage and rejoicing at his successful joke, already knew that he was doomed. There was so much feeling in the monologue “You eclipsed everyone for me in the sublunary world”... The moment was clearly visible when from a brilliant creator (a story about a puppet show in Washington) he turned into a brilliant madman (“and then I decided - no, I won’t stop there." I was ready to cry with him - that man in the theater and that boy...
Problem: I seem to be supposed to look at the character on the front stage, but I keep looking at someone else. While singing the song "Cuckoo's Children" I suddenly became distracted by Pygmalion... He froze, he moved his hands as if playing the keys, and... he worries about them, his dolls, he wants them to succeed. .. The second time was when Pygmalion looked at Pomponina. He almost cried... he had the look of a man in love, he could have said nothing before - we would have understood everything about his love. This is the difference: the Duke’s feeling for Pomponina is a passion mixed with tenderness, the strongest, because he has “nothing to lose.” The feeling of Pygmalion is love, which over time has become a painful feeling. But who can doubt this love? After all, he understands everything that Pomponina is just a doll, his creation, that the reciprocal feelings, the ones he would like, are not there. And yet... he hopes. After all, these could be tears of hope...
Only this time I realized that Pygmalion’s monologue about Pomponin gives rise to more questions than answers. When did he realize that he was in love with his creation? He created it - and the feeling awoke? Or did he fall in love with the beautiful Pomponina in the making? (it was no coincidence that he gave her not just female name- but the name of a forest nymph). Or did he consciously want to make a doll, a woman he would love?
How scary he was, really scary, when he caught up with “his creations.” This was a real creepy and cruel tyrant and despot, what about Brandahwhip... His impeccably smoothed hair suddenly became disheveled... He broke almost instantly, you just had to shoot, and... he was also a doll. The most perfect. A doll that didn't know its essence...
Giovanni Brandahlyst. Like Pygmalion, yesterday he was different again. Half as I saw this hero in September - creepy, frightening; half as in the October performance - he tried to provoke the audience. As a result, the image turned out to be subtler than usual, it was impossible to catch how it changed and flowed in it - together with amazing plasticity: from almost human to already doll-like, from scary - to funny, from smiles in the audience - to goosebumps. The voice somehow became more mannered, imitating intonations, the character seemed to become even more cheeky (as he greeted the entrepreneurs in the role of the false Pygmalion - “Good! Great!”), and at the same time, Brandakhlyst was tougher and angrier (if you compare with the previous performance). And also - I was again very touched by the gesture - a hand raised to my face, a small scene without words (before the “night dashes”). Many thoughts flashed through this moment: is it crying, or does it seem, and can a mechanical doll cry at all, especially the cruel Brandahwhip?
The result was a kind of mechanical creation, both frightening and attractive.
And it also evokes a lot of thoughts. Why does he enjoy playing the role of the “first” Pygmalion so much? Perhaps because he is mistaken for a person? With what pleasure Aurelia holds out her hands to him for a kiss in the first act - and with what disgust she runs away in the second (“Where did you go?”). What does it really feel like for him, because in fact he, Giovanni Brandahwhip, is a kind of “buffer” between Pygmalion and the dolls. But he... he probably gets it the most. The tragedy of such a character as Brandahwhip is a completely different category than the tragedy of Duke Alducar or Pygmalion.
Separately, about resourcefulness. After all, all artists are probably afraid of forgetting the lyrics. In the “press conference” scene, the false Pygmalion, Dmitry Erin, mixed up the answers, and to the question: “How many performances have you given?” answered “No one has complained yet,” but this was an answer to the question that had not yet been asked, “What percentage goes to entrepreneurs?” At that same second, Brandakhlyst began to jerk into puppet movements - he broke down, the program jammed. Viewers who were at “Dolls” for the first time probably did not all understand what was going on. Moreover, the press conference went further, as it should - when asked about the percentage, the false Pygmalion answered irritably: “Good! Normal!” But regular viewers, at least I, admired how elegantly the mistake suddenly became part of the image.
After this viewing, another scene caught my eye that had previously passed me by - probably because it is somewhat incidental in itself: in the foreground there is a general dance of dolls, and the Duke and Pygmalion are standing at the edge of the stage, and Brandon Whip approaches them. Suitable to find approval from his “creator and master.” Even a mechanical doll, a “jointed creature,” turns out to find this approval so important and pleasant. And Pygmalion, as it turned out, can also be not only a “creator”, not only a “tyrant”, but also a “good master”. For me, after this episode, some new colors were added to the characteristics of both Brandahlasht and Pygmalion.
Pomponina. To some extent, it’s easier for other artists. They can only be compared with a theater troupe in the South-West, and even that is difficult, our “Dolls” are so different. And only Pomponina always gets it: and because in the Comedy there are three actresses playing this role; and because at one time the Nizhny Novgorod public was spoiled by Karina Dymont. At three performances I saw three different heroines, and now at least I can compare. Yulia Palagina tried to be different, to be “completely different”, Yulia Lykova seemed like a very young Pomponina (at some point even an association with Suok, “the doll of the heir Tutti” popped into my head). Pygmalion’s love for her is the love of a man who is older and wiser (but still powerless in front of the “beautiful Pomponina”). She wants people to give her “flowers, sweets, anything” because it’s nice. And she wants to see “other continents” because she has never seen them before. Marina Zamyslova’s Pomponina seemed to me like a more “mature” heroine, as if more “experienced”, and in her own, puppet-like way, knowing life. This Pomponina wants people to give flowers because she knows she deserves them. She wants to see the continents because she needs to break out of her “box.” This Pomponina is strange, unusual, mysterious, in her almost human awareness and understanding of everything that is happening constantly contrasted with the puppet's naivety - in the end it turned out very interesting option heroines.
The Aunt Hortense-Teresita couple, which I adored from the very first viewing of “Dolls,” was excellent. From the very first words of “auntie” it became clear that it would be gorgeous. Dmitry Kryukov created something extraordinary. A wild, strange woman (precisely a woman, in my opinion Matoshin in Moscow is still playing some mysterious creature of a completely indeterminate gender), moving from mannerisms to rudeness (“Sing!”), such an emotional auntie, at whose intonations and remarks the whole audience laughs . Her niece wonderfully echoes her with her inimitable facial expressions and “terrible plasticity.” And this time, how funny Teresita came out (“drive, bring us happiness!” - my favorite quote, probably from the whole performance), how terribly Krohobor barked “rolling pain!”, I even shuddered.
All the dolls were good, and the special causticity of Screwball, and the romanticism (and facial expressions, of course) of Cherub, Captain Mamona turned out to be unusually emotional in contrast to the usual severity, the wonderful beautiful dolls Marilonda and Dondinella (called “trrrrrrrrrrrrr!” and “who will I be, who I will be who I will be!”), Juan-Bolvn, capable of telling a lot with just one “kuckoo!”
Never before have I been left with so many different thoughts after a performance. I’m already wondering “what will happen next”... that is, what will I see in January on “Dolls”. I have no doubt, something completely new and different.
"Dolls"
“You want to go to the theater when there is THEATER”
Evgeniy Knyazev
Sensation! Sensation! The puppet troupe of Senor Pygmalion, which has created a stir in America, is coming to Madrid. The dolls he created are practically indistinguishable from people; Tireless, dynamic, they amaze the audience with the harmony of movement, purity of intonation, and bewitching stage presence. Local actors are terrified - their performances have been cancelled, entrepreneurs are impatiently worried: what will this strange tour turn out to be, fantastic profits or a major financial fiasco. Here is a brief outline of the plot of the southwestern “Dolls”. Everything in this performance was mixed up, intertwined - people, dolls, fears, desires, the real and theatrical world, and this made the performance spectacular, rich, and also musically expressive. This performance is an explosion of accumulated directorial and acting sensations, ideas, because it contains irony, farce, lyricism, tragedy, grotesque, and a bit of philosophy that everyone can understand, and the blinding brightness of the acting of the southwestern troupe.
“Dolls” is one of those performances in which you don’t feel the bottom. It seems that you have comprehended the idea, grasped it, strengthened it and are looking closely at it, but no, it lifts you to the surface again, and twists and turns you over, and you hear new themes. It's like Bach's polyphony. Or like a mosaic panel. Already the first scene with entrepreneurs and actors discussing the upcoming tour of the troupe of Senor Pygmalion, a quiet piano gives rise to the theme of “people-dolls”. A person dependent on other people, on their position in society, words, actions, preferences, circumstances and situations. But everyone wants to take a place closer to the sun... Acting dependence - on directors, the box office, the reaction of the audience, producers, sponsors - it is even worse, because it is harder and more sorrowful. I am sure that thanks to the lively, subtle acting irony and the “bullet phrases” added by Valery Belyakovich, each of us already in the first minutes of the performance tried on this costume of a living puppet.
The emergence of the first false Pygmalion from the world of the looking glass built on stage is spectacular. With nimble dashes, he jumps out into the middle of the stage, and a tsunami of eccentrics covers us! The first false Pygmalion, who turns out to be the Brandahwhip doll, puts on airs, repeating the words put into him by the owner, grimaces, instantly changes his facial expressions, intonations, and shouts out with emotion: “They are perfect! They are dolls!” Allowing himself to be naughty, Brandahwhip, together with the dolls Pedro Cain and Krohobor, act out a small sketch in which the aging actress Hortensia asks to accept her niece Teresita into the troupe of Senor Pygmalion. Teresita with her “wonderful voice and eerie plasticity” is miraculously good! She can do anything - show a trick, sing with a “soldier’s choir or symphony orchestra", and indulge in Shakespeare. And in the case of Hortense, Brandahlyst, who is responsible for recharging the dolls, clearly went too far with the “energy recharge”! The doll spins like a top, sparkles with roguish eyes, and gushes with stories, making the viewer break into an involuntary smile.
With the advent of the second false Pygmalion, the theme of creativity is clearly heard. The little boy with a wooden horse was lonely and poor, but possessed by a thirst for creativity, and therefore happy. “My whole life has been entirely devoted to dolls. There have been years of crazy experiments, years of inspiration and hard work. My all-consuming dream was to create an ideal actor, a doll, completely submissive to the creative imagination of the author, like clay is submissive to the hand of a sculptor. I worked like a man possessed." Tension of will, unbearable concentration of thoughts and feelings in the desire to pour out, express oneself, create a dream. A sweet and difficult creative process - mystery, inspiration, improvisation, which in its emotional fullness is brighter and more valuable than the result. The second Pygmalion speaks about this obsession with creativity in an intoxicating, insightful and convincing way.
When “beautiful, slender, light, arrogant dolls” appear “in the shining space of spotlights,” when their presentation to living people begins, the line between the real world and the world “on the other side of the mirrors” from where the dolls appear disappears. You can no longer distinguish where is a person and where is a doll, where is the original and where is a copy, where is nature and where is the mechanism. The dolls in Valery Belyakovich's performance turned out to be alive, they absorbed human qualities, they learned to hate, laugh, cry, be sad, and talk about freedom and glory. They are exactly like people: talkative, silent, tight-fisted, aggressive, talented, romantic, evil and kind. They get tired, just like people. They relax like people. They dream like people. They rebel like people. And dolls know the most important thing about people, what we sometimes forget, imagining ourselves to be the crown of creation. People are toys, slaves, just like dolls. Let them not be toys of the owner, but hostages of circumstances, fate, and, finally, their own passions. The theme of love in the play is connected with the Pomponina doll. Pygmalion created a perfect creature, captivating at first sight, the brown-eyed beauty and... fell in love with her himself. For him, Pomponina is a bright creature from the sublunary world, inaccessible, pure, spontaneous. Oh, how beautiful she is, Pomponina. Capricious, but at the same time touching. In the slight hoarseness of the voice singing Dussoley’s song, there is so much passionate longing for the impossible, so much “sad circus,” so much touch of a palm outstretched for happiness. In a ridiculous robe, with dangling arms and sleeves, she seems even more attractive, even more innocent. So Duke Alducar, the patron of Spanish theaters, could not resist. Stunned by passion, stunned by feelings, he plays ardently and frantically. He craves pleasure, he is confident in himself, everything is allowed to him. The dream doll from the dream of his youth should be with him. The whole palette of colors - a quiet declaration of love, a gentle touch, timid hugs, rage from unbroken resistance and a frantic cry: “You are a doll, and you are mine” - everything is used by the actor in this role.
When the rebellious dolls are overtaken by Pygmalion, when Pomponina quietly mutters “what will happen next”, when Pygmalion in anger forces the dolls to obey his will, when Pomponina shoots the tormentor one, two, three, four times, when the dolls, deprived of “recharging”, with broken movements they wander towards Pygmalion stretched out on the floor, when the life gradually leaves them and when you realize that all this is just a script written by the real Pygmalion appearing on stage, a lump rolls up in your throat. And here, along with this tearful lump, the theme of the responsibility of the creator is obvious to me. Creator, creator (you can continue further within less philosophical boundaries - founder, leader, etc.) Create, breathe life in order to then preserve, save, not trample, give hope and a small piece of happiness. And at first you don’t even want to notice the real Pygmalion, looking at last time the hand of the Cherub doll twitching towards Pomponina; you only hear echoes of “devastated”, “disappointed”, “why”, “puppet museum”. But when the real Pygmalion says: “The theater belongs to the actors. Alive, made of flesh, blood and nerves. And only to them,” then another topic is finalized. This is a theatre! Everything that was heard from different characters during the performance was all about theater, living theater, born from the unity of will, energy, thought, and inspiration of the director and actors. Magic, hoax, witchcraft, a coven, spectators gasping with delight, a shining world where creatures are light, where voices are transparent, where they call you, and you, without knowing their language, understand everything, because what the creatures say is all about you . And you should be there with them. This is the THEATER, in which the overly temperamental entrepreneur Don Agustin (Farid Tagiyev), the impressive Brandahlyst (Denis Nagretdinov), the brutal Pedro Cain (Alexei Matoshin), the real prima donna Pomponina (Karina Dymont), the Duke Aldukar (Oleg Leushin), blinded by desires, mincingly the chattering Balabol, the picturesquely accurate “cash keeper” Krokhobor (Andrei Sannikov), the indifferent Juan the Blockhead (Alexander Shatokhin), incinerated by the “fire of the creator” Pygmalion (Evgeniy Bakalov), the gentle Cherub (Stanislav Kallas), the tired genius Senor Pygmalion (Igor Kitaev ). This is the THEATER, “where people come to experience unprecedented passions, long forgotten, perhaps, in our puppet time.”
Friends, if you do not have the opportunity to read Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion, watch this video. This is the story of how two men made a bet on a girl. Wrote Shaw's play in 1913. Events take place in London. This is a play in five acts. I’ll explain the name to you right away. There is an ancient myth about the sculptor Pygmalion. He created a statue of a girl and fell in love with her. He then asked the goddess Aphrodite to bring the statue to life. Well, the statue came to life. So... Imagine a rainy summer evening. Passers-by run to the church, where they can take shelter from the rain. An elderly lady and her daughter are nervous and waiting for Freddie (the lady's son), who has gone to look for a taxi. Finally he's back. - There are no taxis anywhere! - Freddie said. - So, let's go look! And the poor guy went out into the rain again to look for a taxi. He ran into a street flower girl and knocked a basket of flowers out of her hands. “Freddie, what the fuck,” she said. The guy ran on, and the girl was forced to collect her flowers. She then sat down next to the old lady. The flower girl was so-so, she looked about 18-20 years old, in old, although well-groomed clothes, her teeth were crooked. - Do you know my son? – the lady asked in surprise. - So you are his mother? Let's pay for the flowers. The lady took the money from her daughter Clara. “You don’t need change,” she told the flower girl. - God bless you. - So you know Freddie? - No. I accidentally called him by his name. A man stood next to the ladies and was constantly writing something down. Another elderly man ran under cover. “Buy flowers,” the flower girl began. - I don’t have small money. - And I’ll give you change. The man was forced to buy flowers so that she would leave him alone. Someone noticed that the guy wrote what the flower girl said. The girl was upset and thought that this was not good. She approached the person who bought the flowers from her and told him to talk to the person who was recording. - They will take away my certificate and throw me out onto the street for pestering gentlemen. Help. The recorder reassured her and said that he was writing this for himself, and not for the police. Then people in the crowd began to wonder what he was writing down there. The recorder surprised them. He began to say exactly where each of them was from. Everyone was shocked. The rain subsided and people began to disperse. The lady and her daughter, without waiting for Freddie, went to the bus stop. The recorder, the flower girl and the elderly gentleman who bought the flowers remained under cover. - How do you do this? the gentleman asked the recorder. - Phonetics, my friend. The Science of Pronunciation. This is my profession. I can easily tell where a person is from by the way they speak. - And can you make money from this? - Certainly. I teach people the correct pronunciation. Meanwhile, the flower girl continued to stink quietly. “Just shut up already,” the recorder couldn’t resist. – You should be prohibited from speaking any language at all. English language . In the language of Shakespeare himself. You talk like a hoarse chicken. With such talk nothing good will happen to you in life. And then he told the gentleman that in three months he could make sure that this girl at the embassy reception would not be distinguished from the duchess. “And I’m studying Indian dialects,” the gentleman suddenly said. - Wow. Then you must know Colonel Pickering. - This is me. Who are you? - Henry Higgins. - Can't be. “I came from India to meet you,” said the colonel. - And I was going to India to meet you. In general, the men found each other. We got ready to leave to sit somewhere and chat. And then the flower girl reminded herself. - Buy flowers. Higgins threw money into her basket and left with the colonel. Much money. Freddie arrived in a taxi. “Your ladies have gone to the bus stop,” said the flower girl and got into the taxi herself. The next day. 11 o'clock. Higgins's rich house. Colonel Pickering is visiting the professor. By the way, Higgins is about 40 years old. The housekeeper entered the room and said that some lady with a very terrible speech had come to see the professor. This was yesterday's flower girl. “Oh, it’s you,” said Higgins. - Get out. - I won't leave. I came to you to study pronunciation. And I'm ready to pay. I want to work as a saleswoman in a flower shop. But they demand that I speak well. My name is Eliza Doolittle. - And how much are you willing to pay? asked Higgins. - Shilling. Not more. “Hmm, yes... But, considering your income, a shilling is even very steep,” Higgins answered. And then Pickering remembered yesterday's conversation. - I'm offering a bet. If you can create a duchess out of this stuffed animal, I will recognize you as a great teacher. And I am ready to pay for her classes. “And this is interesting,” answered the professor. - Moreover, it is hopelessly vulgar. Deal! I'll make her a duchess. In three months, in extreme cases, in six. And the first thing he did was tell the housekeeper to wash Eliza in the bathroom. - Burn her clothes, order new ones. She will live in my house. All six months. When the housekeeper took Eliza to wash, Pickering asked: “Are you a decent man, Henry?” I'm talking about a girl. - No woman can captivate me. If I let her into my life, my calm life will be covered with a copper basin. Don't worry, I won't do anything bad to Eliza. She is not a girl - she is my student. I've already had so many beauties - I've never fallen in love. The housekeeper said that some garbage man came to see Higgins. A certain Alfred Dolittle. - Okay, call this blackmailer. “I came for my daughter,” said Dolittle. “Okay, take it,” Higgins replied. Dolittle did not expect such an answer. He explained how he found out that his daughter was here. Eliza came here by taxi with a boy whom she decided to take with her for a ride. So the boy returned and told where Eliza was. - I brought her things. - You came to pick up your daughter and at the same time brought her things? What you need? asked Higgins. - Money. Five pounds. “In a good way, you should be driven away,” said Higgins. - But I will pay you. - Rest assured that I will use this money wisely. I'll drink it all away. Higgins gave him 10 pounds. Dolittle refused. - 10 pounds will make me unhappy. But 5 is just right. Maybe next time I'll take five more. Already leaving home, Dolittle did not recognize his daughter. She was washed and wearing a beautiful Japanese robe. 3 months have passed. Reception day at Higgins' mother's house. There are no guests yet. Higgins enters. - Henry, why did you come? - asked the mother. – You promised not to come to receptions. Go home. My guests are afraid of you. Higgins said he invited a girl, a flower girl, to the evening. - Flower girl? To my house? On the reception day? Are you out of your mind? - Yes mom. I need you to check it out. At that moment a lady and her daughter entered. The same ones who were hiding from the rain at the very beginning of the play. Then Pickering entered. Then Freddy. Higgins could not remember where he had previously seen this family. Miss Dolittle entered. She was beautiful and well dressed. She immediately impressed everyone. Freddie was wildly delighted. Eliza behaved well, but sometimes words from the old vocabulary slipped through. - My aunt was once killed because of her hat. And dad tried to pump her out with swill. “This is such a new conversational style,” Higgins explained, and then signaled to Eliza to finish, say goodbye and leave. Eliza left. Freddie's sister Clara really liked the new style, and Higgins advised her to use it more often at receptions. When the guests left, he asked his mother if Eliza could be shown in public. - Of course not! What are you doing? She'll give herself away. Pickering told Mrs. Higgins that both he and Eliza lived in Henry's house. - What? Did you get yourself a living doll? - asked the mother. - No. I am creating a completely new person. It's amazing. She's making great progress. We take her to concerts and teach her to play the piano. - Are you both stupid? Have you thought what will happen to the girl next? After your training. She will have the habits of a society lady, but without the money of a society lady. What should she do then? Sell flowers? - Mom, don't worry. We'll find some work for her. Everything will be fine. Another three months passed. Higgins House. Midnight. Higgins, Pickering and Eliza return home. A girl in a luxurious evening dress. They were at a picnic, then at a dinner party, and then at the opera. Everyone is tired. “You won the bet,” Pickering said. – Eliza was at the highest level. - If it weren’t for the bet, I would have stopped all this long ago. I wasn't interested. Thank God it's all over. The men didn’t even pay attention to Eliza when they were saying all this. Of course, she was bombed. She took Higgins' shoes and threw them in his face. - What's wrong with you, Eliza? - Nothing! What will happen to me now? Again as a flower girl? Eliza rushed at Higgins. He stopped her and threw her into a chair. - Know your place! I don't give a damn what happens to you next. Have you been offended? Have you been treated poorly? No. What's the matter then? We got nervous. Happens. Go to bed. Cry, pray. By morning everything will be over. - What should I do next? - Get married. My mom will find someone for you. Or Pickering will give you money (he has a lot of it) and open your own flower shop. Yes, there are plenty of options. You are an attractive girl. - Tell me, are all my dresses mine? What can I take with me so that no one thinks I'm a thief? - Take everything except the diamonds. They are rentals. Higgins was already sick. And Eliza enjoyed the fact that she was able to piss him off. Morning next day . Higgins' mother's house. Henry and the Colonel enter. - Mom, Eliza ran away. What should I do without her now? And mom already knew about it, because Eliza was here. Suddenly Eliza's father came. Only now he was not the same scavenger who was seen six months ago. Dolittle has changed. Looked decent. - It's all you, Higgins. My appearance is your work. - You're delusional! I see you for the second time in my life. And then Dolittle explained. Higgins corresponded with an American millionaire and mentioned one interesting specimen, i.e. about Dolittle the Garbage Man. So, that American died and in his will he left a share in his business to Doolittle. Provided that he will lecture 6 times a year at the World League for Moral Reforms. - I didn’t ask to be made a gentleman out of me! I lived for my own pleasure, but now I don’t. Now everyone is coming at me: lawyers, doctors, endless relatives. Everyone wants my money. Well, Mrs. Higgins asked a completely logical question: “But no one forced you to accept the inheritance.” It was your choice. - Yes, I didn’t have the strength to refuse such an offer. Mrs. Higgins told the men that Eliza was at her house. - She came to me in the morning. She says that she even wanted to drown herself after the way you treated her yesterday. After a good evening, you neither congratulated her nor thanked her, but only said how glad you were that it was all over. Mrs. Higgins called Eliza and asked her father to hide for now so that her daughter would not find out ahead of time about his new position. Eliza appeared. “So, Eliza, don’t be a fool, come on, get ready to go home,” Higgins said. The girl did not react to such rudeness. She thanked the colonel for teaching her good manners, because the rude Higgins was not capable of it. - You, Colonel, treated me like a lady. And for Higgins I always remained a flower girl. Thank you. “Without me, in three weeks you’ll end up in a street ditch,” Higgins said. The father appeared, Eliza was shocked. “Now I have money,” he explained to her. - And today I’m getting married. Dolittle invited his daughter and the colonel to the wedding. Mrs. Higgins asked for it herself, but Higgins didn’t even ask—he got ready too. Higgins and Eliza remained in the room. “Come back and I will behave as before,” said Higgins. - I'm used to you. “You are cruel,” Eliza answered him. – You don’t care about anyone. I can do without you. Why should I come back? - For my own pleasure. Do you want me to adopt you or maybe you want to marry Pickering? - Yes, I wouldn’t marry you either. Freddie writes me three letters a day. He loves me so much, poor thing. Henry, I'm a living person, not an empty place. I want attention. Eliza began to cry. - I will marry Freddie. - No. I won't allow my masterpiece to go to such an idiot. You deserve a better man. Eliza said that she could now go work as an assistant to another professor who deals with phonetics. After all, now she knows a lot of tricks. “You don’t dare tell this charlatan my methods of work.” I'll strangle you. - Yes, I can teach classes myself now. I will be polite to my clients. Mrs. Higgins came in and invited the girl to the wedding. Eliza said goodbye to the professor. “I’ll be waiting for you at home in the evening,” said Higgins. “Good luck,” answered Eliza. Friends, this is where the play ends. But! In the afterword, Shaw wrote how he sees the future of the heroes. He did not want a banal ending to the wedding of Higgins and Eliza. He married the girl to Freddie. And the colonel helped the young people open a flower shop with his money. Something like this…
THE SAVING SPIRIT OF BEAUTY. Premiere at the Theater in the South-West: Valery Belyakovich. "Dolls" based on Jacinto Grau's tragic farce "Señor Pygmalion"
Elena Movchan
Elena Movchan
THE SAVING SPIRIT OF BEAUTY. Premiere at the Theater in the South-West: Valery Belyakovich. "Dolls" based on Jacinto Grau's tragic farce "Señor Pygmalion"
This performance is extraordinarily beautiful - beautiful with some kind of eerie, tragic beauty. It is created by the exquisite scenography of Valery Belyakovich, and the subtle play of light (V. Klimov), and carefully selected beautiful music (M. Korotkov). Beauty reveals itself even before the performance begins. The spectators are seated, the hall is filled, or rather, packed to capacity: people are sitting in all the aisles, even the exits from the hall are lined with chairs. There is silence, and eyes finally turn to the stage, immersed in twilight, illuminated only by the light from the hall. Mirrors are placed in a semicircle along the backdrop of the stage, and the reflection in them auditorium resembles a giant panel by Pablo Picasso - both in composition and, strangely, even in color scheme. The first musical chords are heard and the performance begins. The actors enter the stage, the mirrored doors swing open, and puppet actors emerge from the mirrored wardrobe trunks. The world of the Looking Glass merges with the real world. This prologue, full of amazing plasticity, carries a deep meaning and sets the tone for all subsequent action.
The action unfolds rapidly and inevitably leads to a tragic ending. The eternal myth of Pygmalion, who showed the miracle of creativity - like God, who created man and loved his creation - appears before us again. The great puppeteer Senor Pygmalion (E. Bakalov), creator of the famous puppet theater, whose dolls are practically indistinguishable from living people, comes to Madrid. Theater actors, whose performances have been supplanted by touring performers, are indignant, but behind their indignation there is fear: what if these dolls are actually superior to them, living actors, and then they will no longer be needed and in demand, and this is the collapse of the acting profession, the end of them, acting, creativity... Such is the conflict, and behind it new and new questions arise. Can living feelings and passions be replaced by mechanical imitation? Can the creations of human hands become like the creations of God? Can man, like God, create and manage his own world? These are the difficult questions posed by the play “Dolls” at the Theater in the South-West.
Valery Belyakovich decisively and boldly reworked the play by the Spanish playwright Jacinto Grau, written in 1921, leaving only the main conflict and main characters, while adding new scenes and introducing new ones characters. In addition to the “main” Pygmalion, two more appear in the play: “false Pygmalion” (the Brandahwhip doll) and Pygmalion-2, and thus a chain arises - the creator, his alter ego and the imitator. The role of the imitator, the “false Pygmalion” who controls the dolls, was brilliantly played by A. Ivanov, who quite unexpectedly turned from a hero-lover into a talented character artist. His monologue, which refers to theatrical movements and discussions of the beginning of the last century, sounds parodic and at the same time very relevant. And the refrain “These are dolls!”, delivered each time with a new intonation, is literally etched into the minds of the audience.
What are these dolls? They (and False Pygmalion is also a doll) are the main characters of the play; it is not for nothing that V. Belyakovich changed the title of H. Grau’s play - not “Signor Pygmalion”, but “Dolls”. The puppet ensemble plays superbly, combining the plasticity of puppets and living, human plasticity, without over-exerting anything, without allowing the slightest falsehood. The night scene, in which the dolls try their best to resemble people with their earthly passions and instincts, is played with great tact and taste. Alas, puppet passions cannot have a real embodiment, and this existentiality of the situation is conveyed plastically subtly, in strict accordance with the genre definition of the play - tragifarce. At first, the dolls' futile attempts are funny, then all these chaotic movements develop into some kind of creepy phantasmagoria. And the furious cry of the Cherub (O. Leushin): “Dolls, stop!.. Pygmalion, is this what you wanted?!” - breaks a vicious circle, a vicious circle, when a desire is not confirmed by feeling and its implementation is impossible. It is also impossible to carry out a puppet rebellion against the tyrant Pygmalion. This scene is done in the style of a parody. Imitating people, the dolls create their own bodies of self-government: “You will be a parliament... And you are the people who are oppressed by everyone... And I will stay with Pygmalion and spy on your behalf...” The audience laughs, but the ending is a foregone conclusion, the tragic outcome is predetermined. And when the doll Pomponina (K. Dymont), Pygmalion’s favorite creation, kills him with multiple shots from a pistol and continues to automatically pull the trigger, producing dull, short clicks, it becomes clear that this is murder and suicide at the same time, because the dolls are helpless without their creator. And so they reach out to him and lie down around him - not lifeless, but “windless.”
What about people? Actors, entrepreneurs, the philanthropist duke, his wife? Shocked by the dolls of Lord Pygmalion, their indistinguishability from people, they merge with them, communicate as equals, Duke Alducar (V. Afanasyev) falls in love with Pomponina and behaves with her as with a living woman. “We are just like them...” people say to Pygmalion. “We are dolls too.” But no. People, with all their sins and shortcomings, are the creations of God, and not of man, who imagined himself to be the Creator. God created them in his own image and likeness, and this is the image of the Creator. He instilled in them the spirit of creativity, the ability to create, and this is what will prevent them from becoming puppets.
This is the ending of the play and the play, written by V. Belyakovich. Pygmalion-2 (V. Belyakovich) appears on stage when, it would seem, everything is over: the dolls, along with their creator, are dead, and shocked people froze around them. He pronounces the final monologue and gives the floor to the actors, who simultaneously read the initial stanzas of their monologues from Shakespeare's plays: Lear, Hamlet...
The play "Dolls" has already become a landmark for the Theater in the South-West. Such a landmark performance was “Molière” by M. Bulgakov in this theater, recently removed from the repertoire due to the death of Viktor Avilov, the inimitable Molière. "Molière" of the Theater in the South-West had its own clear and clear concept, and in "Dolls" we see its new affirmation and development. The main thing in “Molière,” staged by V. Belyakovich in the early 80s, was not the line between artist and power, which was usually emphasized in productions of Bulgakov’s play, but the theme of creativity as the only opportunity to live in this world full of dangers. And when at the end of that performance a bunch of lost actors surrounded their Teacher, their hearts sank with pain for them: what should they do now in this world without him, who created them and endowed them with creative fire? And here in “Dolls” there is an answer to that painful question: creative burning is divine, it cannot fade away. The spirit of creativity, living, true creativity, revealing beauty to the world, is saving.