Black and White Love - New York Theater Event
The performance in Russian with English subtitles "Alexey Alexandrovich" based on the great Leo Tolstoy's novel "Anna Karenina" in an elegant theater near Lincoln Center in Manhattan became an event in New York theater.
I never cease to admire the great city, where they respect the preservation of the culture and traditions of residents who speak different languages. It is no secret that in higher education institutions in New York they study the classics of Russian literature, including Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and others.
On stage, as in a breathtaking black and white film, the tragic story of Karenin unfolds in the interpretation of the talented director Gera Sandler and playwright Roman Freud, a graduate of the theater school. Shchukin, who has lived in the USA for many years and created many theatrical gems. "Alexey Alexandrovich" is a bold rethinking of Tolstoy's story of Anna Karenina by contemporary artists, sometimes developing into a philosophical debate.
“When I was left without a wife, I thought that I was serving the Lord. I thought, but you need to think not about today, but about the future. Thanks from a crushed man, I won’t do anything,” sound the hero’s heartbreaking words.
The characters and situations of Tolstoy's novel are so alive and real that they allow the novel to be viewed from any point of view without losing the authenticity of the narrative. Alexey Aleksandrovich Karenin, a high-ranking government official, a true professional and reformer who truly cares about the fate of his homeland, finds himself in the midst of a personal tragedy that destroys the usual order of things and the scale of values. “You must forgive Anna, as I forgave my husband,” said Dolly. “Every day they look at me with bewilderment, and you probably won’t forgive me for loving someone else’s child. Yes, my wife left me, and something incomprehensible happened to me, I realized that my career was over. Misfortune with my wife , problems with a colleague - I realized that my career was over, and that nothing was expected of me, although I was a member of various commissions, they listened to me, what I proposed,” reflects Karenin.
The hero struggles with himself, his life suddenly falls apart like a house of cards. He is forced to reconsider his views, look inside his soul, be reborn and become different - sincere, real, sensitive. Many who came to the performance expected that Anna, beautifully played by Margarita Merkuryeva (who is also the producer), would throw herself under the train, but on stage we see Anna, not like the usual Karenina from films and books. This is how the story told anew, shown by the actors Pavel Shatu, Dima Koan, Tatyana Kot and Georgy Kirilenko, revealing new facets of the novel, read more than once in the past.
In addition, a heartfelt song suddenly sounds performed by actress Marina Ivashchenko against the backdrop of a sobbing Alexei Alexandrovich: “The ridicule of nature shouts: save yourself who can, the title is high, ladies, corsets, perfume, toilets, and there is emptiness inside. The clouds will melt, and I am like a candle "I'm burning out." But is such a person allowed to exist in the world of St. Petersburg or our society? Is he becoming torn between his sincere feelings and powerful public opinion?
Tragedies change personalities. If someone abandoned someone, then sadness remains, but not tragedy, and if the person himself is abandoned, then the whole world is destroyed for him, but at this time he can become stronger.
Marina Lagunova
