The Festival of Street Theaters (FUT) has already become a tradition in Arkhangelsk. The festival is held every summer. People take the opportunity to get away from television screens and computers and watch a performance.
In Arkhangelsk there is no opera theater or ballet theater. Musicals are very rare because it is very expensive to transport the scenery from one city to another. Additionally, entry to the festival is free. Therefore, excitement in FUT is simply guaranteed.
In 2022, the festival featured stilt-walking skits, various performances, a boardwalk performance, and much more. You won’t find so much diversity in the entire city. I want to visit everything! This year I was a visitor to the performance of the organizers (!) of the festival – the Arkhangelsk Youth Theater with the production of “Chekhov-Miss”, which I simply could not attend last year. It was interesting to see what kind of performance it was. It is being screened for the second year and this time it even got a double screening.
As the authors of the article about FUT in Theater magazine explained, the creators of the production “Chekhov Minced Meat” is “Chekhov Farce”. That is, it is planned to stage Chekhov’s works (“The Seagull”, “The Three Sisters”, “The Cherry Orchard”) in this medieval genre. As the authors of the production explain, they become “Subtle chamber dramas” Chekhov in the theater on the square: “provocative, “folk”, daring, where the characters’ dialogues take the form of songs and dances, and the emotional conflicts and vicissitudes become physical confrontations”.
The program says that the public will be able to enjoy a production of the circus/horror/opera genre. Age category 16+.
To begin with, no one’s passport was checked, seven-year-old children with their parents were allowed to calmly attend the show, and also teenagers without their parents. That is, everyone was allowed entry. The youngest, according to tradition, were seated in the first rows.
Halfway through production, I admit, I was overcome with horror. The nurses cut off the conjoined twins, the actor playing AP Chekhov vomits on stage due to alcohol poisoning, Chekhov’s heroine with huge fake breasts reaching to her knees waves them left and right, in her pants There are traces of apparently menstrual blood. ..
You do not believe me?
The performance was in three acts. The actions of each act were developed according to a separate genre (circus, horror, opera).
First act. Three sisters. Circus.
“Chekhov” goes on stage (played by a girl in a black curly wig) and tells the audience about a Moscow military man who escaped from the public and the condemnation of the elite, about the children who were born to him in the desert. three sisters: conjoined twins. The narrator compares them to the snake Gorynych.
“Chekhov”, having collected change from the public for his wig, sends the sisters to Moscow, where, according to the advertisement, in one of the clinics they can be given a new life.
The doctor hits his assistant with a mallet and he and “Chekhov” begin the operation to separate the twins. Anesthesia is performed with a funnel and vodka, then the doctor “cuts” the sisters with an electric saw: wild screams, fountains of blood on the stage.
Only one sister underwent the “operation.” In case anyone doesn’t understand what the circus has to do with this, the scene is apparently inspired by the box trick and the girl cut in half.
Second act. The cherry orchard. Horror.
A naked girl, wearing pants and an ax, knocks on Chekhov’s imaginary house. Her name is Fishka or Lyubov Andreevna. The girl asks for water and begs Chekhov to help her. She says that a certain Supreme Cherry, her friend, is trying to destroy the developer, the corporate vampire Lopakhin. This supreme cherry interferes with the developer by calling for killer flowers to destroy high-rise buildings and shopping malls.
It is known that the vampire Lopakhin can enter the house only if his name is pronounced three times. The heroes (Chekhov, Cherry and Fishka) throw a party and serve champagne for some spectators and themselves, and then beer. “Chekhov” vomits. In the morning, Chekhov realizes that he needs more beer and ends up saying Lopakhin’s name for the third time. And the vampire crosses the threshold of the house, calls his “army of consumers”They kill Cherry and eat her insides.
As a result, all the heroes take the remains of the cherry, eat it, and Chekhov claims that earlier cherries were prepared completely differently.
How did this theater win the Presidential Fund for Cultural Initiatives competition?
Third act. Seagull. Opera.
The main character is a bad director, he has no fans, but he has a lover who is young when he is not there and old when he appears nearby. They rehearse together. When he forgets the text, he starts searching for the cheat sheet somewhere deep under his skirt. This seems more than strange, because for some reason this time the heroine is played by a man.
According to the script, the vampire Lopakhin, who migrated from “The Cherry Orchard” to “The Seagull”, bites another hero on the neck. However, there is no blood as is usual for the director, and the scene is reminiscent of a long and passionate kiss.
Second act.
The vampire Lopakhin (yes, he also appeared here) offers the main character to make a deal. The devil comes on stage and says that he can make any wish come true. It turns out that the main character wants fame, fans, and therefore is willing to sign an agreement. But at the last moment, his beloved girl distracts him with a song. Once again the devil offers him a deal and again his beloved distracts him at the last moment. The devil offers a deal for the third time, and only then did the hero realize that he did not want fame, but rather he wanted his beloved to be young again. They sign a contract and a magical transformation occurs. The girl is young again, wearing a transparent t-shirt and a short skirt.
The corporate vampire turns to the devil and demands that he give him half of the boy’s soul, because he has fulfilled his role. The devil tells him that he cannot, because the reason for the deal was not pride, but the desire to help his neighbor. In this case, the vampire says that he is willing to take the girl instead of the soul. The couple in love is surprised and do not want to separate, but this is only until Lopakhin says that he is very rich. After this, the girl leaves the boy in love without hesitation and leaves with the rich vampire into the sunset. A firecracker explodes and our hero dies on stage. Chekhov cries for him and says he loves him. He loves everyone, after which he runs around the audience and kisses them on the top of their heads.
Well, if someone wants to make fun, why Chekhov? It is clear why: because of the “brand” they will choose.
Apparently, the director himself read Chekhov’s work. Actors: hardly (otherwise they would refuse to participate in the “filler”). But the young people in the audience have definitely not read Chekhov’s plays, which means that instead of his plays, for which they prayed and prayed in all worthy theaters in the world, this stupid, talentless and physically disgusting action will be installed in their souls.
Why is this not done in closed clubs “for adults” (and perverts), but rather like this, in broad daylight, for a 0+ audience?
Maybe because people who read (and watch) the real Chekhov will fill the Northern Maritime Museum (which is a stone’s throw from this terrible scene) with new achievements and discoveries, but is this no longer necessary?
Source: Rossa Primavera
I am Michael Melvin, an experienced news writer with a passion for uncovering stories and bringing them to the public. I have been working in the news industry for over five years now, and my work has been published on multiple websites. As an author at 24 News Reporters, I cover world section of current events stories that are both informative and captivating to read.