The script of the performance uses the texts of translations by B. Pasternak and M. Morozov of W. Shakespeare's tragedy.
The performance shows a fragment of the movie "Othello", directed by Sergei Yutkevich, "Mosfilm", 1955.
In his performance Nikolai Roshchin, while retaining the plot of one of the most famous plays in the world repertoire, significantly reinterprets it. The basis of this performance is not an immutable literary monument, but a Shakespearean story read by a man of the XXI century and told in the language of modern theater.
Emphasized theatrical, playful, often on the verge of the grotesque forms of theatrical language in combination with an emotionally accurate sense of the nerve of the time have become distinctive features of Nikolai Roshchin's performances of recent years, created on the stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater based on the plays of the classical repertoire.
The modern sound of the classics in these productions is born from the search for purity of text perception, from the liberation of textbook works from subsequent layers of habitual interpretations. The stage tradition here is capable of multiplying meanings, but in no way limits them to the circle of memory of legendary productions of the past.
This is the first time that the director has turned to the legacy of William Shakespeare. The plot of Othello unfolds against the backdrop of the Venetian-Turkish war of the late 16th century. In Nikolai Roshchin's performance each of the main characters of the story gets the right to present his truth. In the play will sound version of Othello himself, Iago's version, Desdemona's version ...
In Alexandrinsky Theater this play of Shakespearean repertoire has not been staged for almost three decades, after the performance in 1993, where the roles of Othello and Iago played by People's Artist of Russia Victor Smirnov and People's Artist of Russia Igor Volkov, the role of Desdemona - Honored Artist of Russia Elena Zimina, directed by Rostislav Goryaev.
In the XX century the history of the theater included two legendary performances of the Alexandrinsky stage: "Othello", created by Sergei Radlov in 1927, and "Othello" by Grigory Kozintsev - the performance of 1944. In Sergei Radlov's play, the role of Othello was performed by Yuri Yuryev, Iago was played by Leonid Vivien. In Grigory Kozintsev's production Othello was played by Yury Yuryev and Vagram Papazyan, Iago by Leonid Vivien and Konstantin Skorobogatov. The role of Desdemona was played by Eugenia Wolf-Israel (1927) and Olga Lebzak (1944).
The premiere is December 24, 2022
Alexandrinsky Theater would like to thank the following for their help in working on this production:
Kirill Sbitnev, Alexandra Spirina, Olga Goryacheva, Victoria Otsvera, and Vitaly Sazonov
Alexandrinsky Theatre would like to thank the authors of the photographs: Anastasia Bryukhanova, Oksana Ivleva
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Roshchin is staging Shakespeare for the first time, but he is not abandoning the form he has found for working with classical texts on the Alexandrinsky stage from Gozzi to Gorky. His "Othello" is in some places grotesquely theatrical, generously machinized and acutely topical.
Maria Chernova. Chaos will come
Elegant and expressive artistic design of the stage (as always with Roshchin): cell phones are located on the walls in the form of screens. And each character, periodically using these surfaces, turns on a different musical theme. The main meaning, which gives us an unexpected view of what is happening and contrasts with the previous actions, lies in the final version.
Tatiana Trojanskaya. Thirst for possession: who should see the premiere of "Othello" at the Alexandrinsky Theater?
But by straightening the Shakespearean plot and making it comical in many ways, Roshchin still ties the action into a tight knot of cross-references and associations. Three views of the same story - three stories of the same event. While one loves, the second is jealous, and the third settles scores with everyone, the fourth hopelessly summarizes, stating that there is no soul in man.
Alexei Isaev. In the thicket of human passions
Generously endowed with political talents, Iago is actually a miserable loser. And the mountain of corpses in the finale proves it. However, the third act soon degenerates into an outright farce, with bouffon pistols and butchery. That is the whole point of the disembodied scenery: farce is the underside of tragedy. Nikolai Roshchin again demonstrated his ability to update the classics with his favorite means, carefully preserving its spirit. So it was with Goldoni in "The Raven", and with Rostand in "Cyrano", and so it was with Shakespeare
Yuri Yudin. Alexandrinsky's tour opened with a Shakespearean tragedy on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater
