The performance "The Devil Knows What!..." has absolutely amazing energy, it is all on a bare nerve, as if with the grace and ease of a circus equilibrist, a fearless tightrope walker, fluttering, vibrating, playing pranks, in a good sense of the word, misbehaving, playing tricks on everyone and everything, and at the same time, walking, as if on the edge of a knife, mercilessly dissecting and cutting into blood human souls, human lives at the turning point of years......

The performance is performed at such high vibrations, watched with bated breath, in one breath, that the audience is puzzled only by how, in the ocean of surging emotions, not to lose, not to miss hearing every sound, rustle, sigh, every vibration coming from the stage, from which, like from a fine tuning fork of a piano tuner, the instrument vibrates, so the souls of the audience vibrate from the touch of deep literary material, embodied on the stage in a canvas woven from the delicate lace of theatrical innovations.

But first things first.

The performance was created by the tandem of outstanding artists Dmitry Nazarov, Olga Vasilyeva and director Georgy Mnatsakanov.

The play is based on the famous work by A.N. Arbuzov, “Old-Fashioned Comedy,” created in 1975.

People of the older generation, avid theater-goers, devoted fans of Melpomene could not imagine their youth and maturity without this outstanding creation of A. Arbuzov, which was repeatedly embodied on the theatrical stages of Moscow, the Northern capital, on the stages of provincial theaters, on television and film screens.

This is a well-known degree of risk for the authors of the play "The Devil Knows What!", who took on such a popular, respected, beloved and "read to holes", "arranged in every possible way" dramatic work.

The question de facto arises:

"Well, what else are you going to surprise and delight us with?!"...

But look at this thing!

The authors not only shocked us, but also "knocked us down"!

The performance was created based on all

Alexey Arbuzov's favorite play.

The key word here is “based on”, since not much has been preserved from the classic original source, which has stood the test of fateful times.

The performance is truly innovative, avant-garde, by no means trivial, super-creative in everything, with a refined, brilliant sense of humor, sarcasm, and irony.

First of all, it is an "actor's performance" that rests entirely on two pillars - two actors, with minimalism and, I would add, with austerity and asceticism of the stage decoration; with lighting design: subtle and atmospheric; with the absolute dominance of classic dark tones, black and its various shades: that is, everything works to focus genuine interest, the greedy attention of the audience on two actors who monopolize the stage for almost three hours, and completely rule it.

Is it only over her?...

Above the minds, emotions, feelings, if you will, the consciousness of theatre-goers, first of all!

Nothing should distract the audience's close attention from the two of them, from the immersion of the audience in the very core of the action, while the details of the stage decoration "are not wasted on trifles", they are precisely verified and strictly functional, they carry a meaningful and deeply hidden essence, which, however, does not lie on the surface, but requires the work of the mind and soul to get to their grain.

The stage fabric of the production itself is, in essence, pioneering and path-breaking.

It combines various genres of stage action and various types of stage performance in a completely masterly and harmonious manner.

These are actions without words, playing out an event, state and experience through body language, gestures, facial expressions; pantomime; vocal facial expressions; spatial drawing; expression; touching of actors during the game; dancing; singing; harsh eccentricity, clowning...

This is the highlight of this innovative, advanced production, that it balances at the intersection of many stage genres and types, abandoning the traditional, classical speech, verbal theatrical performance.

If we put the scales on one hour, it is still unknown what predominates in the performance: verbal or non-verbal communication.

One thing is obvious and incredible, that through silent mise-en-scènes, through the play of gestures, the intertwining of hands, the movement of legs, through the riot of facial expressions, the feast of gesticulation, the virtuosity of plastic drawing, elements of clowning, the intricate colors of rich silent dialogues, two brilliant artists convey to the consciousness of the audience the interweaving of the destinies of their heroes, the enduring, universal values, ideas, ideals from which our hearts vibrate.

Without saying a single word for the lion's share of the production, they said everything!

In this stage performance, the actors work amazingly with their main instruments: body, face, psychophysical capabilities, meticulous, bright, meaningful plasticity and open acting temperament.

The production amazes with its originality, freshness, novelty, wit in reading the dramaturgy; the precision of the stage design, a sense of proportion and a sense of taste, with all the temptation of the genre - tragic farce to plunge into phantasmagoria, into the theater of the absurd, open grotesque, into a sharply fantastic reality, but this does not happen, to the credit of the authors, they happily avoided the treachery of tragic farce, creating a painfully relevant, with every fiber, to the topic of the day, theatrical masterpiece.

Behind the transformation of the actions, behind the enchanting transformation of the stage costumes of the heroes, their masks - faces; behind all their eccentricity, sometimes balancing on the edge of a foul, the audience recognized themselves in the heroes, their loved ones, friends, acquaintances and strangers at various stages of life: at the zenith of life, its culmination, in mature youth, in Balzac's and, finally, in old age, when "the chrysanthemums in the garden have long been taken away ..."

The story of two lonelinesses that are hidden behind funny, fairy-tale, magical masks, sometimes,

with their absurd, comical costumes, their true faces, their incinerated feelings, their unspoken pain, pressing like the sword of Damocles, the power of memory and the unbearable burden of experienced misfortunes and sorrows, losses and disappointments, stirs the soul, does not allow the soul to be lazy, excites the imagination, resurrects historical and personal memory, makes you think and retrospectively analyze your lives....

Isn't this the cognitive, emotional, spiritual and mental maximum effect of such a masterpiece of Melpomene?!

Isn't this his unconditional and unconditional victory?!

Isn't this the very essence of serving the art of theatre?!

It seems impossible to imagine people more totally opposed to each other - "duelists", one of whom is "not yet eighty", and the other "already sixty", who, it would seem, are a priori doomed to misunderstanding, breaking pikes and crossing swords, rejection of each other, but that is why their union is unique, which has befallen them with the greatest feeling of awareness of involvement, affection, attractiveness of one to the other.

Alone with each other, they allowed themselves the rarest luxury: to be themselves and accept each other as he and she really are.

This is LIFE as it is!...

They have a lot to talk about...

They discovered that they had so much in common...

They have something to do, how and with what to fill their lives....

They turned out to be so necessary, to the point of tears and goosebumps, they needed each other...

To be, not to seem!

And this is their common victory over vanity, over old age, over ageism, over the stereotypes that have been tenacious in our consciousness for centuries....

People's Artist of Russia Dmitry Nazarov and actress Olga Vasilyeva, without a doubt, made this theatrical creation, the highest example of aesthetic taste and theatrical skill.

Both artists on stage are so organic, natural, refined, sophisticated, motivate the audience to an intriguing development of the action, keep them in suspense, in anticipation of a miracle, as if they are bathing, tirelessly enjoying the theatrical performance, create on stage easily, gracefully, exotically, as if playfully receiving true pleasure and genuine joy from the ongoing feast of emotions and, I am not afraid of this word, a holiday on stage.

It would never occur to anyone what price the artists pay for this magical, graceful performance; what kind of sweat-inducing, exhausting work, an abundance of merciless efforts lie behind this unique mastery, when the artists play their roles as if for the only and last time.......

Their heroes have entered that phase of life which is called the final chord, when you listen with apprehension to the heavy steps and the chilling knocks of approaching death, when you acutely realize that life has turned out to be nothing more than a painful journey from birth to death...

And suddenly... like a roll of universal thunder, like providence from heaven, like a blow to the head, like a body pierced by the tip of lightning, a delirious mind, confused, with an amplitude: from barely smoldering to resurrected - feelings, off-scale sweet emotions, when you uncontrollably and passionately want to dance until you drop, sing at the top of your lungs, clown around, talk some kind of devilry, laugh out of place, when you are ready to reach out to the sky with your hand......

What is this?!

What the hell is all this?!

Are these the illusions of my senile, dying consciousness?!

Or is this a catharsis, a second birth of my tear-stained soul and old, flabby body?!

No!

Death!

You won't wait!

You and I are not on the same path, look for fools, and we have not yet drunk this life to the bottom, for us, perhaps, only just found a second wind, in its sweetest, most delicious and happiest time.....

Do you know what kind of life it is when you are sixty years old?!

This is the best part of life - it's its dessert!

And, as we know, at the end, for dessert, they serve the best, the brightest, the most glorious, the sweetest, the most wonderful...

So let us live and enjoy life, given by God and beautiful, exceptional and unique in every manifestation, in every moment....

---

Author: Jeanette Rogers,

British journalist, publicist, member of the Union of Journalists of Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan, member of the International Union of Journalists, Doctor of Science, associate professor.