Великий Gatsby

DELTA

The Maxim Gorky Primorsky Regional Theater opened the new season with the play The Great Gatsby based on the novel by American writer Francis Scott Fitzgerald. Many critics consider this work a masterpiece of American literature, the so-called period of the “era of jazz” – between the First World War and the “Great Depression.” It is reported by DEITA.RU.

For American society, it was a time of economic prosperity, rapid growth and expansion. The time of great opportunities and big money, the desire to achieve the “American dream” – success, wealth, prosperity and personal happiness. The time of a fun life, unlimited materialism and a moral crisis, when fabulous money came down for entertainment and completely unnecessary things. The period was marked by the introduction of the Prohibition Act in the country, and as a result of the heyday of bootlegging – the underground trade in alcohol, on which one could easily make a fortune, which was the main character of this story. The term “era of jazz” or “age of jazz” was coined by Fitzgerald himself. The novel was written in 1925.

On the seaside stage, The Great Gatsby was staged by American director and choreographer Tina Kronis. The script for the play, taking into account the individual director’s style of Tina Kronis, was written by playwright Richard Alger (USA). The genre of the performance is designated as “Dramatic Foxtrot in two acts.”

The play “The Great Gatsby” takes place in the 20s of the last century among the rich villas on the “golden coast” of Long Island near New York. The main storyline is the love of Jay Gatsby, a man of indomitable life energy, who became a millionaire thanks to his own enterprise (actor Konstantin Suvorin), to the beautiful Daisy Buchanan (Natalia Ovchinikova), a girl from “high society”. Daisy is his former lover, from that past, still pre-war, not filled with big money, and is currently the wife of aristocrat, rake and womanizer Tom Buchanan (Andrei Krasnitsky) who is more interested in his mistress, representative of the social lower classes Mirtle Wilson (Polina Pugacheva) .

Jay Gatsby intrigues the local community with the mystery of his person. He hides his past, creating a myth of status origin and education in the hope of becoming equal in the aristocratic circle. In a private luxury villa, he rolls up unprecedented generosity of drunken parties bordering on recklessness, which collect a huge number of representatives of the “world”. In fact, Jay is a native of the lower strata, the son of farmers. In his youth, he decided that he would become rich at all costs and achieved his goal, although not in a completely legal way. But on the road to happiness, his main goal was Daisy.

“The Great Gatsby” is a story about the collapse of a dream, human tragedy and the indifference of society with a completely logical “denouement”. The only person who became a friend for Jay Gatsby and retained humanity in this story is his recent acquaintance Nick Carraeey (Maxim Vakhrushev).

It can be assumed that the play will have many bright, fun music and dancing scenes of crazy life – the plot of The Great Gatsby, the period of jazz and foxtrot suggest this scenario. Especially considering that the director Tina Kronis is a choreographer. And yes, the production is expectedly filled with dance, but not quite in the usual sense of the genre. The Great Gatsby by Tina Kronis is by no means a musical. The director weaves the dramaturgy and choreography, with rather sharp and simple dance movements, setting the rhythm for the whole action.

The whole performance can be defined as rhythmic. The rhythm also sets the lighting design of the performance, which should be noted especially. The lighting solution is impressive – bright red, black, ultramarine colors created by light paint the scene in colorful paintings, setting intense dynamics. Lighting designer, winner of the Golden Mask Prize Sergey Skornetsky (Moscow). Very interesting are the scenes resolved in the counter light, when the figures are visible to the audience as silhouettes. Due to the counter-lighting solution, the scene turns into a planar graphic canvas along which silhouettes of people quickly and outwardly move randomly, drawing the lifestyle of a business metropolis, where everyone is busy only with himself, striving for his goal, for his “American dream”. The director uses this type of stage solution to link the scenes and change the scenery, which change right before the eyes of the audience, and this also shows the form of dance. We must pay tribute to the directing and choreographic mastery of Tina Kronis – she turns everything into a schedule of rhythmic movement, so we can say that in general the production is solved “in the rhythm of the dance.”

It is also worth noting that outwardly the production was solved by laconic, simple, even “ascetic” elements of decoration, and this largely corresponds to the tendency inherent in modern forms of theater. The scenic artist of the performance is Zhanna Usacheva (Moscow). The main thing that director Tina Kronis focuses on, in her own words, is the story of the collapse of the “American dream” and the inequality of society, divided into rich and poor, “higher” and “lower” position in the social system, which the Great Gatsby and I could not overcome, no matter how society insists on overcoming inequality and equal opportunities for all.

AIF

Insidious foxtrot

Dance became the main provocateur of the new production of the Gorky Theater.

It happened! The premiere of the long-awaited play “The Great Gatsby” based on the novel of the same name by Francis Scott Fitzgerald took place on October 5 and 6 at the stage of the Primorsky Academic Theater. Gorky.

The Great Gatsby is a story about the era of jazz, the carefree life of millionaires, the triumphal success on the path to wealth and the rapid collapse of love. The performance is spectacular and outwardly spectacular – acting charm, luxurious costumes, continuous dance plastic, changing scenery and light. A catchy detective story. The denouement comes so suddenly that the viewer does not have time to come to his senses. After each, decide on their attitude to the heroes, the depth of drama and much more.

Difficult experiment

The production of The Great Gatsby in Vladivostok was undertaken by a creative and married couple of screenwriter Richard Alger and director/choreographer, in the past – mime and dancer Tina Kronis, creators of the Movement Bazaar theater in Los Angeles. It turned out that they are ardent fans of the Russian theater and most often work on American classics.

“We are creating modern adaptations of literary classics,” said Richard and Tina. “We strive to highlight its dynamism, musicality and humor in any material.”

For a joint project with the Academic Theater. Gorky they were looking for a plot that perfectly reflects the “American spirit”, but at the same time embodies his criticism. The choice fell on the Fitzgerald novel, which vividly portrayed the era of the jazz 1920s, a time that was called “one solid party with an atmosphere of exploitation, revelry and cheating.” Criticism, given the international situation, is worthy of the highest praise.

The plot of “The Great Gatsby” is known to many Russian viewers for the film directed by Baz Lurman in 2013, where Leonardo DiCaprio played the main role. For many years, the novel did not have much success on the Soviet and Russian theater stage. Theater named after Gorky decided on a complex experiment. The artistic director of the theater let go of the helm and, prior to the pre-premiere show, chose not to interfere in the rehearsal process. According to Yefim Zvenyatsky, everyone involved in the play spoke about the work of the American couple with warmth. And this after long exhausting rehearsals.

The fate of the novel

While for many decades the novel The Great Gatsby was required to be read in English schools and universities, it was read very rarely in our country, the books of Theodore Dreiser were much more popular. One of his major novels, The American Tragedy, like The Great Gatsby, was released in 1925. Both Dreiser and Fitzgerald, writing dramatic stories, as if they prophesied the world crisis, the Great Depression.

The action of the novel “The Great Gatsby” takes place on the “golden coast” of Long Island, where it grows like mushrooms in a villa of newly minted millionaires. In search of a better share, a certain Nick Carrayay comes here, hoping to improve his financial situation by working with bonds and loans. He visits the estate of his second cousin Daisy, who married the minion of the fate of Tom Buchanan. Spinning storyline with unfaithful husband Tom, a trip to his mistress in New York, drinking and fighting people from high society. And suddenly the main character comes to the fore – Jay Gatsby. Former fellow Nika has achieved incredible heights in the business and tamed a golden calf. Only one thing overshadows Gatsby’s life – his beloved Daisy is not free. He fell in love with her poor officer, suffered years of separation, got rich and is now full of determination to return love.

“But his teenage inability to distinguish a dream from reality leads to tragedy, just as the reckless pursuit of the American dream in America of the 1920s ended in the tragic collapse of the Exchange in 1929,” explain the essence of the tragedy, Richard Alger and Tina Kronis.

The writer Fitzgerald himself for the rest of his life was tormented and doubted whether something good had come of his creation and whether it would live on? Despite the fact that the production took place on Broadway, only 24 thousand copies were bought. Great success came to the work after the death of the author, when the books were sent to American soldiers at the front of World War II.

The coincidence associated with the novel and modern Russia is striking. Hollywood Director Baz Lurmann admitted that he decided to make a film about Gatsby while traveling the Transsiberian: he traveled through endless expanses, listened to an audiobook and thought about the rich Russians who suddenly made their millions. It turns out that the “Great Gatsby” in spirit is as much an American story as a Russian one?

And where is the happy end?

The creators of the play did not have a direct goal – to draw similar parallels with Russia or another country. Not a remake, but an adaptation. Before us is a precisely marked era. Forms and techniques characteristic of modern theater come to the fore. Dance is not just a number between conversational scenes, it is a connecting thread, refrain, pulse, combining an intricate detective story in a single whole.

Dance in the play is a great provocateur. First of all, the viewer succumbs to acting charm. “The beauty of these feminine faces, these proud looks of men!” Everyone notices how good and seductive the heroines are, how elegant and relaxed the men are. How exactly do heels get into the rhythm! There are no large mass scenes that are overwhelming in number, but a dozen people in the dance capture the sophisticated audience, who scream “Bravo” gratefully after almost every number. All the first action mood in the hall rolls over. The viewer is delighted with the light and simple sets that are transformed and transferred across the stage by the actors themselves, without breaking out of the dance canvas. He admires the techniques of light directing, the subtle transitions from black and white to color, as a kind of reference to the time of the “great dumb” Stylish, sexy, super. Fun! Screenwriter Richard Alger said that humor is not the last thing for him, and enriched the production with scenes where the Coca-Cola hymn is sung (and danced), where the pastor reads a sermon on the power of money, where “whiskey with soda” sounds at crazy parties as “our father”.

Dance is a great illusionist. The viewer is transferred to the second action, and his soul requires a “continuation of the banquet.” But he does not feel the catch. But the foxtrot is an insidious dance. It is light, soft, graceful, cute, dizzy. But the pace is imperceptibly accelerating, and there is a stone’s throw to the tragic end. How are Gatsby’s dreams broken? Anyone who watched the movie and read the source knows this well. Despite this, hope is gleaming in the eyes of the viewer. But the foxtrot, which has gained dramatic strength, destroys the latest illusions. Gatsby dies falling from great heights and life goes on as usual. The performance begins and ends with the stage of the station. The well-known method of “loopback” does not calm and leads to some bewilderment. Good does not triumph; evil is not punished. The American tragedy shoots in the forehead, the dance, as befits a foxtrot, smoothly ends. Time for reflection – forever!

Loyal fans of the theater. Gorky noted that a new generation has grown in him – it has grown stronger, has risen to its feet and has declared itself in full voice. Natalia Ovchinnikova, who acted as a charming blonde Daisy, torn between feelings and practicality. Alexandra Aubekerova, who played Jordan Baker – Nick’s pragmatic lover, a strong-willed athlete who is not averse to getting drunk, and after all the adventures – get married by calculation. Polina Pugacheva, in the role of shocking and Myrtle Wilson tearing into the abyss. Andrei Kasnitsky endured from beginning to end the image of the arrogant and merciless Tom Buchanan. The load is huge, in fact, Gatsby is killed with his hands. Harmonious in the role of Nick Maxim Vakhrushev, colorful in the role of Mr. Wilson Yaroslav Yankovsky. The audience separately applauded Petra Martynenko, who played a crime boss with a Jewish bias for Wulfsim.

Of course, they deserve the highest appreciation of the work of costume designer from the Mariinsky Theater Zhanna Usacheva and one of the leading lighting designers in Russia Sergey Skornetskiy.

The actor, who played Jay Gatsby, Konstantin Suvorin said that this role is like an American dream. The image he created reminded me of a real character from modern Russia. And this is again about the parallels to draw which are everyone’s personal business.

DELTA

Dance, dream and drama – The Great Gatsby opened the new season at the Gorky Theater

On the stage of the Primorsky Theater named after Gorky, drama broke out. The American dream of wealth, the crazy 20s of the beginning of the last century – the time of Prohibition, Mafiosi, stormy parties and facilitating morals – a time when everything seemed to be available. But is it?

The play based on the novel by Francis Scott Fitzgerald “The Great Gatsby” on the stage of the Gorky Theater was staged by American director Tina Kronis, the script was written by her compatriot Richard Alger. The premiere of the play, which is indicated on the posters as “dramatic foxtrot in two acts,” took place on October 5 and 6, reports DEUTA.RU.

Even before the opening of the season, it became known that tickets for the performance, even in November, were already almost sold. It should be noted that the production, which many were waiting for, fully met the expectations of the public. The performance is bright, musical, filled with deep meaning, unusual in the rhythm of the action. At a press conference, the artistic director of the Gorky Theater Efim Zvenyatsky noted that the troupe of the theater, engaged in the play “The Great Gatsby”, was delighted with the meeting and work with Tina Kronis and Richard Alger.

“It’s worth a lot to enjoy daily two-month rehearsals in the morning and in the evening,” said the artistic director.

An important part in the design of the performance and the creation of the atmosphere is played by the lighting solution developed by the lighting designer, winner of the Golden Mask Prize Sergey Skornetskiy (Moscow). Scenography and costumes were created by Moscow artist Zhanna Usacheva.

PRIMPRESS

October 5, residents and guests of Vladivostok will be able to see on the stage of the theater. Gorky’s next high-profile premiere is a performance based on the book by F. S. Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby, a popular American author who reflected in his novel the atmosphere of an era of great achievements and even greater personal ambitions. The production is being prepared by the American director Tina Kronis. Corr. PRIMPRESS attended a rehearsal.

“Rehearsal is my love” is such a book by the great Soviet director Anatoly Efros: a storehouse of ideas, an inexhaustible source of inspiration. But it’s one thing to read, and another to see how it all really happens. Only by becoming an outside observer can you taste the creative process and at the same time understand how difficult it is.

On the one hand, there is a dramatic content that the actors “give”, on the other hand, work with light and sound. The real wizard controlled the light – Sergey Skornetskiy (by the way, the winner of the Golden Mask Prize). And all this in a complex serves one main goal – the realization on the stage of a certain “sensual” message to the viewer. On how harmoniously the actors, light and sound will work, depends on what the spectator eventually leaves the hall.

Over and over the same scenes took place, everything was worked out to the smallest detail, meticulously and painstakingly. Young actors employed in the play, infected in the good sense of the word with the spirit of that distant era of ambition, inspiredly created, obeying clever hands, as if the conductor, director and choreographer Tina Kronis (USA). Her lightness was conveyed by the actors, and this was felt in everything.

The program notes that this is a performance-foxtrot. Indeed, it literally all takes place in the dance. Rhythmically, clearly, sharply, and only feelings are watercolor. Although it is too early to fully judge what this premiere will be, what kind of performance the audience will see. One thing is obvious: such an action attracts and attracts, attracts, bewitches and as if plays with the audience.

Rehearsals continue. There will probably be some changes, some new unexpected finds. It remains with baited breath to wait for the premiere …

EHB

A lady with a collar, or the premiere of “The Great Gatsby” was held in Vladivostok

ЕНВ correspondent shared his impression of the viewed presentation

Today, October 5 will be the opening of the 87th theater season in the Primorsky Drama Theater. Gorky. The opening performance will be the premiere of the dramatic foxtrot in two acts “The Great Gatsby” based on the novel of the classic of American literature Francis Fitzgerald, reports UNV.

The twenties of the last century in America were a time of great achievements and even greater personal ambitions. “Life was something where you had to succeed if you were capable of anything,” Fitzgerald wrote. In 1925, he completed the novel The Great Gatsby, which forever and for many became a testament to the era and American classics.

The Great Gatsby is the story of rich nouveau riche Jay Gatsby and his love of the beautiful Daisy Buchanan. For Gatsby, Daisy is the princess who, while he was at the front of the First World War, got married the wrong way. Daisy’s obsessive, but invisible for the time being, plunges Gatsby into a fantastic illusion that he will be able to turn back the clock and return his former (and newly won during the play) mistress – not, not into his arms, but into the world of a future family illusion he invented. But the inability to distinguish a dream from reality leads to Gatsby – and the whole story told by Fitzgerald to tragedy.

“For a joint project with the M. Gorky Academic Theater, we wanted to choose a story that would ideally reflect the“ American spirit ”, but at the same time embody its criticism. And that is why we were attracted by Fitzgerald, who best reflected the era jazz 1920s, a time that was called “one solid party with an atmosphere of exploitation, revelry and cheating,” said American authors Tina Kronis and Richard Alger before the premiere of the play.

Not being a big fan of the work of Fitzgerald, and not having mastered a rather large novel (the film with Leonardo di Caprio was not only seen very lazy), it is difficult to fully appreciate Alger’s staging in full. However, yesterday’s premiere “public” viewing of “Gatsby” was left with the correspondent. ENV as a whole is a very vivid and colorful impression.

“The Great Gatsby” on the “Gorky” stage was successfully looped by practically dancing on the passenger flow on the platform of the station in New York. Here we are met by one of the main characters of the play, Nick Carroway, by the way, an aspiring alcoholic and schiz, who came to New York to build his fortune by playing the Wall Street Exchange. Actor Maxim Vakhrushev (two years on the stage) plays the role of an allegedly scary business enthusiast to drink and dance for nothing precisely and confidently. Together with the husband of his cousin, he drinks and has fun almost all the time of the stage performance, sometimes tearing himself up so that he does not remember how he returned home.

Jay Gatsby, excellently played by Konstantin Suvorin, is a veteran of the First World War, hung with awards and medals. And at the same time – an ordinary person, with his emotions, emotions, difficulties – in his own way an unfortunate person with some kind of post-war “Afghan syndrome” in American style, but with a big wallet and opportunities.

Yes, Gatsby is unhappy. Unhappy in love. Having gone to war, he left his beloved – Daisy, who married another.

Nick brings Gatby, at his request, with his cousin Daisy, who loves the latter all these years – wonderful plays the American beauty, as always the unrecognizably beautiful “blonde” Natalia Ovchinnikova. Gatsby and Daisy, like Romeo and Juliet love each other, but they are not destined to be together. Gatsby waited too long for the triumph of his love, so he demanded that Daisy quickly and a lot, and everything naturally went awry …

The “traitor” Myrtle absurdly perishes with a dog collar in her hands (in her role, Polina Pugacheva is stunningly and unexpectedly sexy in a dress that fits to every dimple on her body and a red wig “lady vamp”). Her husband kills the allegedly guilty of the death of his wife Gatsby, Daisy returned to her cheating husband, Nick leaves the starting point at the station to his home, in the American outback. Happy end?

The performance for more than two hours goes under the naturally expected applause for each (even short) show of actors on stage. But they really play great, as if bathing in a seemingly endless foxtrot party with alcohol in an embrace.

The performance staged on the stage of the Primorsky Theater by the American director and choreographer Tina Kronis turned out to be bright and colorful as a holiday. Who should be given credit for this holiday is Konstantin Suvorin, who was inspired by the character and played Gatsby beyond all praise – no worse than DiCaprio. He damn skillfully alternates either a sweet image of a lover, or a scary image of a nouveau riche, easily changing his voice, gestures and look – now friendly, then distinctly rude and hard.

The role of his many-sided “vis-a-vis” – either a butler, now a servant, or a showman in the brilliant performance of Maxim Klushin, who tore off at the show about a dozen applause from his comrades, should be called luck.

Looked great in the role of “pumped up” charming sportswoman Alexander Aubekerov with a golf club in his hands and life planned in a cute head for years to come. By the way, it is precisely Aubekerova, along with Valeria Zaporozhets, who during the stage starts the parade-avenue of women’s clothing from that era on the stage of the theater – and the elegant collection of dresses and costumes from the artist of the production of Muscovite Zhanna Usacheva is worth a lot in the opinion of the author.

Are there any flaws in a performance on a solid four with a plus?

American authors have staged performances in Manhattan for many years. There are a huge number of theaters, the main sign of which is most often the auditorium seats for … one hundred and just the same miserable stage (Primorsky Academic Theater seats 900 spectators almost). Kronis’s habit of a small stage, as it seemed to the author, sometimes deprived the stage work in our huge theater of depth and volume, and the actors have so far mastered only the ramp and the middle of the stage.

According to the author, the pinkish almost peignoir Katherine – Valeria Zaporozhets is knocked out of the rustling volume of wonderful female outfits of the play. It seems to me, girls, that in those years, women of marriage were more active in covering up (no doubt, pretty cowards and buttocks) … well, there, with petticoats or something, or, again, elegant combos, which were elegant in principle and smoothed to a crunch.

In general, the production of Americans in Primorye should be recognized as luck. She will be interested in the viewer in many ways with a fundamentally different approach to working with actors – and everyone should look at this production paragraph from the USA quickly.