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When someone wants to emphasize a talent of a theatrical director,
they might say that “he is capable of producing a phone book”. It’s
hard for me to imagine such a play, nor can I judge that which I
have not seen. My story is about an occurrence when a director managed
to produce a play based on a novel of Efraim Sevella “Marble Steps”,
what seems to be a very unlikely suspect to hit the stage. A sequence
of stories-monologues about various lives both humorous and heartbreaking
can make an interesting reading but can they really be transformed
into a play? Turns out they can. How did a director, Yuri Rubenchik,
pulled it off is beyond me, but for a little over an hour a concert
hall at the B’Nai Moshe synagogue metamorphosed into an old Vilno
barber shop. Deliberately vivid decorations, minimal but precise
props, illusive costumes, piercing music, breathtaking lighting
– every single nuance was full of thought and tastefully done.
The play turned out to be subtle and intense at the same time: while
you are trying to catch your breath from the story that just ended,
another one is flowing onto the stage. “The soul must always be
in labor”, but what a fine labor it is when you are not only a spectator
but a participant as well. Emotional intensity of some scenes is
taken to such a level that you must hold yourself back from rushing
to help – to stop Vanda from making her fatal choice, to find a
job for children that escaped death by a miracle, to soothe the
one that went through all circles of hell with a single hope of
seeing his mother, to join the final walk of the blacksmith an his
wife. So much of bitter irony in the name itself – “Road To Happiness”?
And is there such a thing as happiness or is there nothing but an
endless road towards it? A road full of steep curves: turn - and
a gas chamber door slams into your face, second turn – and you find
yourself away from the war and blanket bombardment in a countryside
paradise, another turn – and a noble count becomes an outcast, turn
number four – and a laughter of a small person intertwines with
that of people laughing at him, fifth – and … wait, this is a number
I would like to pause on. The truth is that not until the finale
I realized the fact that there were only five actors. Five actors
and a multitude of fates, characters, actions… I would like to name
the actors with gratitude and admiration: Irina Danilova, Alex Gayer,
Andrei Kaplun, Boris Klebanov and Olga Klebanov. I intentionally
am not singling out anyone of them for this is one of those rare
instances when all actors of a theatre company work as one, when
all five live and breath in unison.
Perhaps a movie format would fit this novel of Efraim Sevella better.
Perhaps that is why it begins and ends with a short film, a film
that so organically blends in with the action on stage. And this
all-too-familiar road that we all rush on towards our illusionary
happiness turns into the road towards our hearts. A road to theatre.
Larissa Mihailova, Boston.
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