FIGARO
Yevgeny Mironov Company, Moscow
Director Kirill Serebrennikov
At first sight this loud production by Kirill Serebrennikov, which has something in common with a slideshow, moves us back to the atmosphere of the 1970s. “The events of one day” – this is the second title of the production – and the day turns out to be really insane. In its form the performance resembles unconstrained bourgeois entertainment, but it reflects an important feeling that characterizes today’s Moscow: the feeling of an unavailing chase for happiness, feverish hedonism and a desperate disillusionment with the pleasures of life. Figaro, performed by Yevgeny Mironov, has a clear theme: he is the wise man who is alone at this tiresome festival of life. The ‘New Russian’ Figaro is an idealist surrounded by successful philistines, a romantic outcast among rapacious pragmatics. It is almost as if Mironov’s character stood on the brink of a dangerous and cruel epoch, nevertheless realizing that this is the only life he will ever get, and therefore he should live – here and now.
This Figaro is a child of a bourgeois age, who is always ready to swap his role for another one just to earn his living.
Instead of a classical translation, Kirill Serebrennikov used a more contemporary one by Maria Zonina and changed it by adding some scenes, by making the language coarser and by filling the play with today’s and yesterday’s signs. But if we compare the result to the classic play, it is clear that little has changed: the structure and the basic idea remain intact.
…in Moscow Mironov and his company rehearsed in the FSB Culture Centre situated on Lubyanka Street. Apparently this center, with its monumental Soviet luxury, influenced the designer Nikolay Simonov, who framed the set in dark wood. The small white room given to Figaro and his bride resembles a torture chamber. The pre-historic telephone, a lamp and an armchair of the 70s, the cold light of fluorescent lamps – all these props make Count Almaviva’s chambers look like the private office of a Party activist of that very same KGB in whose Culture Centre the rehearsals took place.
At first sight this loud production by Kirill Serebrennikov, which has something in common with a slideshow, moves us back to the atmosphere of the 1970s. “The events of one day” – this is the second title of the production – and the day turns out to be really insane. In its form the performance resembles unconstrained bourgeois entertainment, but it reflects an important feeling that characterizes today’s Moscow: the feeling of an unavailing chase for happiness, feverish hedonism and a desperate disillusionment with the pleasures of life. Figaro, performed by Yevgeny Mironov, has a clear theme: he is the wise man who is alone at this tiresome festival of life. The ‘New Russian’ Figaro is an idealist surrounded by successful philistines, a romantic outcast among rapacious pragmatics. It is almost as if Mironov’s character stood on the brink of a dangerous and cruel epoch, nevertheless realizing that this is the only life he will ever get, and therefore he should live – here and now.
This Figaro is a child of a bourgeois age, who is always ready to swap his role for another one just to earn his living.
Alyona Karas', Russkaya Gazeta
Instead of a classical translation, Kirill Serebrennikov used a more contemporary one by Maria Zonina and changed it by adding some scenes, by making the language coarser and by filling the play with today’s and yesterday’s signs. But if we compare the result to the classic play, it is clear that little has changed: the structure and the basic idea remain intact.
Dina Goder, Gazeta.Ru
…in Moscow Mironov and his company rehearsed in the FSB Culture Centre situated on Lubyanka Street. Apparently this center, with its monumental Soviet luxury, influenced the designer Nikolay Simonov, who framed the set in dark wood. The small white room given to Figaro and his bride resembles a torture chamber. The pre-historic telephone, a lamp and an armchair of the 70s, the cold light of fluorescent lamps – all these props make Count Almaviva’s chambers look like the private office of a Party activist of that very same KGB in whose Culture Centre the rehearsals took place.
Alla Shenderova, Kommersant
