"A Very Simple Story" is a parable about the current, everyday life of two village families.
Briefly, the plot is this. The daughter of a prosperous peasant discovers that she is pregnant by a neighbor's boy, a poor man and the son of a drunkard. The girl's father insists on an abortion, but here the animals from the barnyard intervene (they are portrayed by actors in disguise) - the Horse, the Rooster, the Dog, the Cow and the Pig. They save the girl from a moral crime.
The phenomenon of the play is in the unusual lightness and sentimentality of everyday history.
At the same time, the action takes place in a barn, where domestic animals act along with people, who see the environment in their own way, reflect on the events in their own way, and become witnesses of strange human relationships. A Very Simple Story shows our life without embellishment, without varnishing.
The story told by Maria Lado is even too simple. They love in it, play the harmonica, talk about life, think about death. People, horses, pigs - all together.
A simple, almost biblical story about the spiritual hardness of people and the pure, righteous world of nature. The fact that animals are closer to the commandments of Christ than people. This story, in which, in addition to people, animals and even angels surprisingly become characters, is a hymn to the highest and brightest human feelings: love, fidelity, kindness, mercy.
"Cattle are ready to die for people who have become beasts themselves" - such is the moral of a simple Ukrainian theatrical fable.
… Yesterday I watched this performance again. This time, we went with children, which I am extremely happy about! The words of one young lady: “I never thought that the theater is so great!!! I even thought where to go next time, to the cinema or to the theater? I'll probably go to the theatre! The cinema is not even close!!!”
Amazing acting! I especially want to mention Sergei Borodinov, who played a neighbor, and the owner - Valery Kondratiev.
This year's head of the corpse Asya Nayfeld made a second attempt. Gathering the Haifa actors again on stage, Nayfeld presented the audience with a tragicomedy based on the play Maria Lado"A very simple story." The premiere took place on May 16, 17 and 18.
Last Saturday I finally saw him. I am absolutely delighted with the performance!
Now I will try to talk about it, along the way, as you can see, I give links to materials from the Internet that I found.
Information for those wishing to watch "A Very Simple Story": in July and August, the theater is on vacation, but starting from September, once a month, this performance will again be staged on the small stage of the Haifa Theater.
Warning: This post contains a spoiler! For those who are going to watch the performance, it is better not to open it.
In the photo, the entire troupe after the performance, in the bottom row, the director Asya Nayfeld and the composer
Mindia Khitarishvili who wrote the music for the play.
Photos borrowed from photo essay Tatyana Klimovich
There is a barn on the stage, all the action, and it lasts for an hour and a half without interruption, takes place here. Here they live and talk, looking with respect and fear at the owners, animals.
Curious, open to the world, enthusiastic and so dreaming of flying, Pig. A frisky dog that constantly comes running here from the street, the pig asks him about everything: "What is a river? And what is swimming?..."
All the artists play very well, but Pig is especially beautiful. It is hard to believe that Lena Bulet-Baksan, who plays her, is not a professional actress and appeared on stage for the first time!
Here live a sedate Cow and an old, tired of life, Horse.
Here from time to time comes the boastful, carrying amazingly funny nonsense, Rooster. He is played by Dmitry Basin, for whom this is also the first role in the theater. Plays great!
The story is really simple: the daughter of the owner Dasha and the son of their neighbor, an unmercenary and drunkard, yearning for his dead wife, Alyoshka fell in love with each other and are even expecting a baby. Dasha's father is against and demands to get rid of the future descendant.
This story unfolds before the eyes of animals. Animals watch their owners with bewilderment, because, according to the author, the souls of animals are naturally pure, they do not know envy, self-interest, betrayal.
Here the owner takes Pig to slaughter, because the daughter needs to be taken to the city for an abortion, money is needed. And she, poor thing, thinks that the Boss went out for a walk with her for the first time, as he used to walk with the dog Fortress.
After death, the Pig is in the barn in the form of an Angel,
During her lifetime, she asked so many questions, and becoming an Angel, she knows almost everything
Pig found a way to save the unborn child and Dasha's love with Alyosha.
I will not tell the story to the end, come to the next performance and have fun. Moreover, I hide some phrases under the spoiler so as not to reveal unexpected plot twists.
I finally understood what catharsis is. This is when you watch a performance not in order to note the merits of the text or the shortcomings of the production, to evaluate the play of the actors or the originality of the scenery. This is when you merge with what is happening on the stage, as if you are participating in it, when, against your will, such emotions break out of your soul that you do not expect at all. And after that it becomes a little hard to watch, and it is impossible to tear yourself away.
Approximately such feelings aroused in me the play “A Very Simple Story” by Maria Lado, staged by the Astrakhan Drama Theater.
The story is really simple. Country life. Two families. One good-natured, prosperous one. At the head is a strong rural worker - the Owner (Daniyar Kurbangaleev). The other... Not a family anymore: a drunkard father and a son whose life is largely determined by the "reputation" of his father. The owner frankly despises the Neighbor (Valery Shtepin), who secretly climbs into his barn and steals the moonshine that he made with his own labor, and for any reason (even if this occasion is a news release!) will bonfire what the world is worth.
But here's the problem. Children of two fathers love each other. And fell in love, as it happens, to the point that the girl became pregnant. Son of Neighbor Alyosha (Nikolai Smirnov) wants to get married. And the girl, of course, does not mind. But here the Boss cannot agree in any way that his daughter Dasha (Anastasia Krasnoshchekova) should marry the son of the unlucky drunk Neighbor. It's a shame! That is why people decide to send Dasha for an abortion.
This is where the fun begins. After all, the heroes of the play are not only people, but also animals: Pig, Cow, Horse, Dog, Rooster. All of them are involved in what is happening. Moreover, it is the animals who intervene in the process and safely resolve the situation.
In the play, the animals communicate with each other, and in no way will they understand what people are talking about, what kind of abortion this is and why you need to go to the city for this. Each of the animals has its own destiny, its own world, its own “outlook”. It is understandable, because the animals in the work of art are not animals in the literal sense, but living beings endowed with human feelings. In many ways more honest and nobler than the people around them.
The pig (Violetta Vlasenko), who is without a doubt the central figure of the play, has seen nothing in her life but a barn. He does not know what a river and a meadow, grass and sand are. But he wants to know. She also wants to have wings and fly! The pig sincerely wonders why people need some money if they cannot buy wings.
And when the dream is already ready to come true, and it seems that she, the Pig, will finally be taken for a walk, she dies under the knife of the Owner ...
A piercing scream somewhere behind the stage, a dumbfounded Strong Dog, who saw IT with his own eyes, hitherto swaggering, but in an instant shrinking in horror, the Rooster ... And above all this, a sad melody that became the leitmotif of the performance: "In the moonlight, the snow is silvering ..."
After that, everything seems to turn over, everything becomes different: both the animal characters and the audience. As if not a pig was slaughtered, but the very dream of happiness ...
But a miracle! In the second act, the Pig returns to the stage. She returns in the form of an angel with wings, which she dreamed about when she was alive.
Only children and animals can see such angels. But by some miracle, the Neighbor, who was not drying out from booze, became able to see and hear angels and animals. Or maybe he is not as lost as everyone thinks? Or a lost, but in the soul a bright and kind person? After all, he is the only one who does not want an abortion, but wants the birth of a child, best of all “girls”. Because she will be more compassionate. But pity and kindness are so lacking in our world. And he drinks because he could not calmly survive the death of his beloved wife. Yes, and the Boss hates him largely because once "Verka married him, she chose him!" I chose a non-practical Host, behind whom, like behind a stone wall. Chose neighbor. Not with the mind, but with the heart.
So, now the Pig does not ask the Dog about life, but she herself explains to the animals what they had not understood until now. Including about the upcoming abortion. And what people considered the best way out of this situation, animals consider savagery and barbarity. And they want to stop it.
All animals, except for the noisy but cowardly Rooster, are ready to give their lives for the life of a little man. Because that's how it is there, in Heaven: in order for a new person to be born and find a guardian angel, someone must go to Heaven. Who? It would be better to find out about this by watching the play.
You won't see anything like this in the movies or in the series! Actors give their best! They sing songs, play the accordion. And the roles are played in such a way that you begin to believe in what is happening, no longer distinguishing the truth of art from the truth of life.
Very difficult questions are raised in A Very Simple Story... And this play is not about animals at all (they disappear altogether in the finale), and not about angels. About people. Perhaps, about the fact that something good and good is inherent in every person. And even though someone will have to suffer or even give their life for the awakening of all this in human souls, the world will become cleaner and brighter from this.
It is not for nothing that the Neighbor says in response to the reproaches of his son: “Yes, if someone paid for my insignificant life, I would die, and I would give the money to Alyosha ... I, the old fool, have nothing more.” Here's your drunk!
Wait for the next performance, put aside all your business, take your relatives, friends and acquaintances, and go to the theater! Everyone will cry and laugh, regardless of gender and age.
A performance-parable that tells about the thin line between good and evil, about the dangerous proximity of love and death. The fact that people are sometimes more cruel to each other than animals. And animals, on the contrary, are capable of self-sacrifice for the sake of those who are dear to them. Even if this is the future child of the master's daughter ...
P.S. Photo galleries for performances are being prepared now / Elena /
ATTENTION! The term for booking tickets for all performances of the Theater of the Commonwealth of Taganka Actors is 30 minutes!
staging N. Gubenko
Painter V. Arefiev
Music: S. Barber, B. Bartok, M. Brook, G. Mahler, J. Massenet, D. Shostakovich
Poems, Zongs N. Gubenko
Assistant Director - N. Bondar, I. Yatsynina
The play "A Very Simple Story" was staged based on the play by the young Kyiv playwright Maria Lado.
The characters in this play are not only people, but also domestic animals - the Horse, the Cow, the Rooster, the Dog and even the angels. The genre can be defined as a play-parable, tragicomedy. The author shows life through the eyes of animals - this unusual technique allows viewers to take a fresh look at seemingly familiar things.
Animals watch their owners with bewilderment, because, according to the author, the souls of animals are naturally pure, they do not know envy, self-interest, betrayal.
The action takes place today. The plot of the play is really “very simple”. Two young people, Dasha and Alyosha, love each other. They find out that they are about to have a baby.
But their parents don't like each other. Dasha's father is a wealthy peasant, and Alexei's father is a poor man who has not found a place in the changed reality. Dasha's father demands that his daughter get rid of the unborn child. Loving owners of animals, having learned about this, decide to prevent the sin committed by people - to save the child, and for this everyone is ready to sacrifice themselves.
Behind the uncomplicated plot of the play, a deep meaning is hidden: a man went against the laws of nature, and his soul became callous and hardened. Only people for their own benefit are able to kill a person who has not yet been born.
The stage director of the performance, Nikolai Gubenko, and artist Vladimir Arefiev, managed to reveal the philosophical, biblical content of this play-parable thanks to an innovative stage embodiment, partly inspired by Chagall's paintings. Zongs written by Nikolai Gubenko also help convey the idea of the performance to the audience.
The most important thing is that, despite the tragic notes that sound in this performance, it turned out to be very bright and kind. Thanks to such works, even in the most difficult times, faith in love, support, warmth of relations lives in the hearts of people.
In the play are involved:
Basov Mikhail YurievichDuration:2 hours 15 minutes
Photo and video
