Does fairy-tale oblivion save from hellish reality? Notes from “The Witch of Konotop” at the Franko Theater in Kyiv

[ad_1]

April 28-30[1] The Ivan Franko National Drama Theater presented “The Witch of Konotop” to the audience. The dramatization of Hryhoriy Kvitka-Osnovyanenko’s story was proposed by director Ivan Uryvskyi in collaboration with Tetyana Ovsiychuk (stage designer, costume designer) and Susanna Karpenko (decoration of vocal numbers). It is restless in the glorious Konotop: a new centurion and scribe were appointed not so long ago, the hetman is collecting a centurion as far as Chernihiv, there is a drought in the district and the whole community seems to be lurking in anticipation of the next cataclysm: “God forbid war!”. Meanwhile, the centurion Zabryokha and the clerk Pistryak are making plans for the future: the old fellow Zabryokha wants to eventually get married, and Pistryak wants to “make a name for himself” – that’s why he joins the centurions. Of course, both do not mind avoiding the hike. This is how the idea of ​​hunting witches, who “stole the clouds” and caused a drought on the community, arose. The Konotop community is conservative, demoralized, not against spectacles and bread. The modernized “The Konotop Witch” was staged in the Franko Theater. Photo: Facebook of the Ivan Franko Theater Ivan Uryvsky brings this archetypal story to life on the Frankish stage in a somewhat unusual burlesque genre, which is very reminiscent of a fairy tale. And here the director does not betray himself – the plot of the story, rich in mysticism, creates a sound basis for Uryvskyi’s magical style. Special authenticity of the performance is added by sensual vocal design and minimalistic artistic solution and costumes. Tetyana Ovsiychuk and Susanna Karpenko created a circle on the stage, where private and public spaces intersect, ultimately having no clear boundaries. Read also: “A modern work about truth, feminism and anti-imperialism”: “Cassandra” by Lesya Ukrainka was translated and staged in Britain for the first time. Space plays a significant role in the production. The whitewashed wall of the clay house, the window and the door seem to separate Konotop from the outside world – the one from which the battlefield of war is approaching. The walls protect the privacy of Elena and Demyan’s relationship, but at the same time testify to the conventionality of these markers – women are drawn to drown in the pond because of their own circumstances, piety becomes an appearance. The almost exclusive black-and-white tonality of the performance emphasizes the fabulous confrontation between good and evil, contrasting with the emphasized carnivalesque of some scenes. Along with the formality of white and black, these colors seem to have other meanings as well. For example, women dressed in all white almost blend into the wall, become invisible, although they are almost constantly present on the stage. Their mass murder is taken for granted. Instead, Yavdokha Zubiha appears in all black, on a par with men, but perhaps because precisely because of her strong, “witchy” will, she is not fully perceived as a woman. Mykhailo Matyuhin (on the right in the photo) embodied the former lover of Elena (Oksana Zhdanov). Photo: Facebook of the Ivan Franko Theater The artistic solution is surprisingly successfully combined with the vocal. The performance begins with an alarming chant, as if foreshadowing the laughter that will captivate the audience in just a few minutes. It is singing that conveys the most tender, but also the most ruthless scenes, in particular, the killing of young women mistaken for witches. Malvina Khachatryan, Kateryna Artemenko and Maryna Veremiychuk skillfully balance different elements of the performance with their singing. Read also: How to write about war in war. Narrated by Ukrainian playwrights Along with this, Ivan Uryvskyi resorts to another method of reviving a classical work – dance. The comic hopak of Zabryokha and Pistryak (enchanted by Oleksandr Yarema and Andriy Saminin), the descendants of until recently noble Cossack families, seems to foreshadow the gradual, but already well-perceived decline and assimilation of the elders, which accompanies the weakening of Cossack freedoms. What remains to be done by the unsuspecting Cossacks, but to pack up, waiting for the next “leport”? Actress Oksana Zhdanova embodied Elena in the play. Photo: Facebook of the Ivan Franko Theater Olena (Oksana Zhdanova), while dancing, shows her temper to an inept groom. With dance, she conveys the torment of an already enchanted heart that refuses to believe in an engagement with Zabryokha. The trump girl yearns for Demyan (Mykhailo Matyuhin) with frantic circling. They celebrate the beginning of their life together with a dance. Read also: Justice for a billion: a new play by director Davyd Petrosyan was shown at the Franko Theater. At a certain moment, it seems that before us are not people, but marionettes, which Yavdokha Zubiha (Olena Khokhlatkina) skillfully wields. And the truth is that in despair, the heroes arbitrarily put themselves in the hands of the witch, losing responsibility for their future. Instead, Zubiha does not dance. Along with the play of white and black, this is another striking contrast. The nervous twitching of the centurion and the scribe and the static of Zubikha. The dervish dances of the young and the cold poise of the witch are few and far between. One gets the impression that Yavdoha Zubiha knows the solution long before the beginning, so he weighs his every move. In the performance, the actresses who embodied the witches are dressed in all white. Photo: Facebook of Yelena Khokhlatkina’s Ivan Franko Yavdokh Theater magnetizes the audience. Few words, majestic, sharp with a word, restrained and wise, she mesmerizes the audience. Some episodes make you feel uneasy, because you start to believe in the superpowers of the actress. Behind the coldness hides energy, which covered the audience in waves. The episode when the performance was interrupted by an air raid signal, then Zubiha-Khokhlatkina organically continued the speech with a selective and authentic abuse of our enemies. Olena Khokhlatkina offers us the image of a strong woman who, anticipating a catastrophe, tries to warn the short-sighted community against many vices – lust for power, narrow-mindedness, fleeting feelings. However, she realizes the futility of caution for desperate desperadoes in their search for fame, love…rain. “The Witch of Konotop” by Ivan Uryvskyi leaves a feeling of anxiety: maybe because, having despaired, we are also tempted to seek oblivion in mirages from time to time?
[1] The performers of the roles are mentioned in the composition of April 28, 2023. Read UP. Culture in Telegram

[ad_2]

Original Source Link