Justice for a billion: a new play directed by Davyd Petrosyan was shown at the Franko Theater
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On Thursday, March 30, the premiere of the new play “The Visit” took place at the Ivan Franko National Drama Theater. Director Davyd Petrosyan staged the performance with People’s Artists of Ukraine Natalya Sumska and Oleksiy Bogdanovych in the lead roles based on Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s play “Visit of the Old Lady”. Tonight in the theater it will be shown for the second time. Read UP.Kultura in Telegram The play was planned to be released last year, but due to the attack of Russia, it did not happen then. As Petrosyan notes, both the understanding of the text and the decision of the performance have changed during this year. “There were many doubts about whether it was worth working on this text. Ultimately, the nature of the play acquired a more ascetic solution. The number of characters was reduced to emphasize the relationship between the main characters,” says the director. The play “Visit”. Photo: Yulia Weber The plot is quite realistic and absurd at the same time. Billionaire Claire Tsakhanasyan, played by Natalia Sumska, comes to her native mining town of Gülen, which is surrounded by poverty and decay. As a 17-year-old girl, she became pregnant here from her then lover Alfred, whose role is played by Oleksiy Bogdanovich, and was forced to leave due to public condemnation. And now she is a respectable and rich lady, who already has a ninth husband, besides, she is a Nobel laureate. The whole town is preparing for her arrival, including the burgomaster and the priest, because she has billions that the local officials are hoping for to supposedly restore the abandoned town. “Once our town was the cultural center of Europe, and now the billionaire is our only hope,” says the burgomaster played by Ostap Stupka. The play “Visit”. Photo: Yuliya Weber The poverty of the residents is shown in the play through the scenographic space, the author of which is the artist Daniyla Kolot. This is the image of a mining town where life has stopped, which is characteristic of many Ukrainian villages and cities. “The idea of scenography arose when I accidentally came across pictures of a salt mine dressing room. I was so surprised by the space that I immediately wanted to play it in the theater. In abandoned salt mines, someone’s clothes and personal belongings are often left hanging. And there will always be those who are happy to search them, in the hope of finding something valuable,” Petrosyan notes. The play “Visit”. Photo: Yuliya Weber Over the entire space of the stage, outdated, shabby clothes, similar to junk, hang on chains from above. In the semi-darkness, untidy women rummage in the pockets of these clothes, hoping to find something. The chains on which it is held, on the one hand, symbolize the unshakable attachment of people to material values. People become hostages of these things, in fact, slaves of the material world. The hope to change everything is personified by the wealthy Claire, who agrees to give the townspeople a billion, but on one condition: to take Alfred Ily’s life. And then the city will get money and flourish. The choice must be made by the citizens themselves. The issue of personal revenge, which Claire has longed for all her life, is scaled to the level of the entire city, of each resident. Demand for justice is contrasted with material values. In one moment and unanimously, someone’s life is devalued, like that junk that is kept on chains. The play “Visit”. Photo: Yulia Weber Contrast is everywhere in the play. In particular, amid the constant sound of chains, live music is played by an orchestra from the stage. On the one hand, this shows the contrast between Claire’s life and the town of Gülen at the level of a sense of freedom and responsibility. On the other hand, the theme of sacrifice and atonement is transformed through music. For example, a fragment from the opera “Don Juan” sounds. “The music in this story helps me emphasize for the audience the semantic parallels that are important to me to reveal in Dürrenmatt’s text. After all, just as in Mozart’s opera “Don Juan” the statue of the Commander comes to life to take revenge on Don Juan, so does Natalia Sumska’s heroine – Claire Tsakhanasyan comes to life from the shadow of the past in order to pay back for the evil done to her by Alfred, whose role is played by Oleksiy Bogdanovich,” comments the director. The play “Visit”. Photo: Yulia Weber The final episode of Ms. Claire and her image aptly reflects her costume – pompous, shiny like gold, dress and mask. “The Golden Lady”, who illuminates the abandoned city with her wealth. Costume designer Natalia Rudyuk created an original and symbolic dress for the main character. And the sculptor Norayr Kesayan also created a part of the costume for Natalya Sumska and a separate majestic statue-transformer, which is a symbol of the same billion from Claire Tsakhanasyan. “The Visit” is a story about freedom, which is determined by the level of personal responsibility for one’s actions: in one’s own life or in the state. And the request for justice in various aspects in Ukrainian society today is a powerful factor on the path of our struggle. Read also: Satire about the dictator: a play based on Brecht’s anti-fascist play was released at the Franko Theater
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