So far, Frankivsk residents can't play plays at home.
July 5, 6 Ivan Franko National Theater announces Alber Camus' Caligula on the Chamber Stage, directed by Ivan Uryvsky, and on July 15 and 16 a new play by Frankivsk residents on the big stage: The Adventure of Nicodemus Dismay by Polish classic Tadeusz Dolenga-Mostowicz directed by Dmytro Chyrypyuk. >
Under wartime conditions, due to safety rules for spectators, Frankivsk residents are not yet able to play their performances on their home stages at 3 Ivan Franko Square, although the rehearsal process continues in their home walls. Therefore, two new performances will be shown to guests, the neighbors – on two stages of the Kyiv National Theater named after Lesya Ukrainka, located near the metro “Theater”, which is used as a shelter and promotes safety rules for spectators during possible air alarms – still wartime.
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The premiere of the big stage – “The Adventure of Nicodemus Dizma” – will take viewers to Warsaw in the 20s of the twentieth century, at that time and decides to make a lightning “way up” the social ladder political swindler Nicodemus Dizma (in this role in the queue and Andriy Romany), who exploits the corruption of political institutions that pave the way for various fraudsters and adventurers.
“Ukrainian viewers must recognize in the Polish history of centuries ago a political swindler and our domestic realities of the early XXI century, when, for example, wedding photographers and other swindlers of all stripes instantly find themselves in the Verkhovna Rada and try to dictate political rules of the game “, – says on the eve of the premiere of” Dizma “theater critic Oleg Vergelis.
Albert Camus's appeal to Caligula is historically the first appeal of Kyiv's Franks to one of the most significant plays of the twentieth century on the dictator's absolute power as absolute Evil, which inevitably breeds madness, chaos and death. Oleg Vergelis – Director Urivsky and artist Bogomazov started working on “Caligula” before the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. To the director and artist, it is said that your Roman emperor-dictator will not exist in the midst of ancient Roman ruins, but in the airtight space of a modern bunker for a mad dictator. political allusions, especially since he does not like modern caricature political theater in the style of stand-up comedy and. Therefore, the theme of the absolute power of the mad dictator, as the absolute Evil, seeks to reveal through figurative symbolic stage means and through the acting nature of young neurasthenic actors. Caligula in the new play will be played by two young stars of the Franko Theater – Vitaliy Azhnov (film “And there will be people”) and Alexander Rudinsky (films “The First Swallows” and “Rhino”)
Having recently reread the play Caligula, I was struck by its open finale. When, it seems, the absolute EVIL, that is, Caligula himself, the rebels have already killed a hundred times with cleavers, as he says, “I'm still alive!” Camus, thus, seems to hint at the heredity and infinity of absolute Evil in the likeness of political power – whether in the Roman Empire, or in the middle of the twentieth century, or in our tragic wartime … “.
< p>Preliminarily, Frankivsk residents will hold technical and general rehearsals of two of their new performances on the stages of the Lesia Ukrainka Kyiv National Theater. In this matter, colleagues from “Lesya” show understanding and support for their theatrical neighbors from the center of the theater capital. “It may not be so obvious to the average spectator, but every theater professional knows that the stage space, the light, the auditorium space – is an integral part of the artistic fabric of the play,” says ZN. UA Dmytro Bohomazov, Chief Director of the Ivan Franko National Theater, – Of course, the new stage is making adjustments. But the people of Frankivsk – actors, directors, technicians – have extensive experience of performing at various festivals and tours and therefore are able to adapt performances to new theaters so as not to lose their artistic level. This is when we talk about the transfer of the premiere to the stage of the Lesia Ukrainka Theater. Although the preparation of new performances takes place on the Frankivsk stages, the directors certainly take into account in advance that the premieres will have to be shown “on a visit”. It is good that the parameters of the two stages of the Lesia Ukrainka Theater do not differ significantly from ours. Therefore, fortunately, the directors did not have to make significant changes to the previous author's idea.
Rather, some of the emphasis in the new performances has changed our current military realities. And this is understandable, because these three months have turned each of us upside down. And creating a play is a living process. At least, and in it is engraved and the worldview, and well-being, and even the daily mood of its creators – directors and actors. But the classical works therefore remain interesting for decades, even centuries, that the existential meanings embedded in them resonate at any time. “The Adventure of Nicodemus Dizma” based on the novel by Tadeusz Dolenga-Mostowicz, for example, raises an important question today: where is the limit of compromise, how not to lose honor and dignity in the pursuit of their own well-being? I think we should continue to be diplomatic and not clarify today's parallels with some of our European neighbors. And the famous play “Caligula” by A. Camus, as the anatomy of tyranny, in general is so relevant today, as if written by our order.
The next new play of our National Theater named after Ivan Franko will be “Arturo's Career” Wei “- a famous play by Bertold Brecht – a play-warning, a play-study, written in 1941 and was an attempt to explain to the world the nature and path of the rise to power of Adolf Hitler. I think that the relevance of this material is quite obvious. And although the theater, unable to play on its own stages, is now in an extremely difficult financial situation, we have already started work on the play and plan to premiere in the fall. “