Mike Perich's Video Review of "Moscow Choir"

JD Dunne's review of Sadko

St. Petersburg is so ridiculously cold. And the metro makes no sense. It feels like we have been really pressed for time here, so we haven't had much time for taking in the city. The Hermitage was amazing! And I'm not even a big fan of art museums. I also got to see a soyuz capsule from the Apollo-Soyuz mission. Now that the exam is over there is time to just relax before our final play tonight.
Last night we saw Man=Man by Brecht, which I thought was much better than Oedipus Rex that we saw the night before. I just thought Oedipus was full of too much pretentious symbolism, like the guy who was rolling around in a basket. Apparently he was Teiresias, but I could not tell. It also wasn't visually as interesting. The set had a lot of texture, but it was all tan, with occasional red. In contrast, Man=Man had a very visually interesting set. They used the entire huge stage to great effect. I loved the way they would light the stage, especially when they used the shadows on the walls. Like the one soldier whose shadow was caught in a light box in the wall. It was very cool. The live music was also very good, though it seemed to just come in at random times. It was nice that we got invited to move from bad seats in the second balcony to ones on the floor, so I could see this time without standing up. But apparently Russians do not believe in comfortable theater seats, so my back still hurt.
I hadn't read Man=Man, but from the synopsis we got, I felt I could follow along pretty well. I got the gist of where they were in the plot at least. In Oedipus I only knew where they were in the story twice, and I had read the play before.
All in all, Russia has been quite an experience. I am going to miss the blini stands, but not the sidewalks covered in ice. I will not miss the coat checks, scratchy toilet paper, squashing in the metro, and staring dumbly at every Russian who asks me a question. The Babushki, though, I will miss. I wish we could take some babushki back with us to always make us wear hats and button up our coats.
We'll be home soon!

Oedipus The King

On the 27th we saw a production of "Oedipus The King". It was quite the interesting piece of theater that is for sure. It was in the traditional Greek style with only three actors on stage, two men and one woman. The first five minutes of the production were quite comical as they started off playing "Around the World" a techno song and dancing along to it. It was quite different than I expected from a traditional Greek play, but also very much appreciated. They basically summarized the whole play in the first 5 minutes during the song and then proceeded to elaborate on the story for about an hour and a half afterwards. It was a little hard to follow at times because only one of the actors played the same character the whole time. The other two were several different characters. The set was very cool, while at the same time being very minimalist. The costumes were very plain and beige for the most part, although they were very versatile for the many different parts that the actors had to portray. Overall, I thought the play was very refreshing and really enjoyable. It was definitely a great way to start off our final stint of plays.

Petersburg and the Idiot

We went to St. Petersburg's acting and directing school and they invited us back for their rendition of "The Idiot."
I thought this production would be 4 hours of pain; instead, it was very entertaining and witty. The exception to this being the 45 minute monologues...in Russian...that I couldn't comprehend. However, I could follow the play pretty well based on their body language and facial expressions. There was one point in the play when the main guy told the bonde daughter that she was nearly as beautifula as Nastacia = it was at this point that I said to myself, "What an idiot!" Hence I got the title of the play finally.
I thought that the set was minimal, but that it was used fantastically. The curtains allowed for multiple stage areas/ scenes at the same time. The use of the doors to run into different areas of the stage was particularly usefull as well. The minimal set was actually advantageous as it made one focus on the acting more-so than the set itself.
I loved when they were all at the dinner table (the main character and the family of the general) and how they were ACTUALLY eating the pears and it wasn't pretend or with a phony sound affect-that was refreshing. I think that the acting was superb for 5th year students and possibly far better than most of the professionals that we have seen thus far. Not to mention that the blocking was fantastic- even when 20 people were on the stage, you could always see everyone's face. ...Plus the director was adorable when he would come in and say, "Thank you all for not leaving!"
Overall, I was very glad that we attended this performance and I feel that it did justice to the St. Petersburg institute of acting and directing.

Moscow Choir

Hello again!

This past Sunday we went to the Maly Drama Theater of St. Petersburg. This theater is one of a number of "Theatres of Europe." These theaters receive funding for supertitles (translations projected above the stages) and frequently tour to other Theatres of Europe. Unfortunately, the supertitles for the production we saw at the Maly, Moscow Choir, were in Italian. This did not detract at all from the experience, however, as the Maly is supposed to be one of the best theaters in Russia-a reputation it certainly deserves.

Moscow Choir is set in Moscow in the mid-1950s. During the 1950s, Russia underwent major political changes as a result of Stalin's death. These changes originated primarily from Nikita Krushchev's "Secret Speech," delivered at the 20th party congress. In his speech, Krushchev denounced the "cult of personality" that surrounded Stalin, as well as other practices of Stalin's regime. The play takes place not long before the 20th party congress in a communal apartment. Most of the action is centered around a single family. The grandmother is schizophrenic, her son is having an affair, and his teenage daughter is likely pregnant with an illegitimate child (a few months go by between the two acts, during which she gives birth to a son). In the midst of all of this turmoil, the grandmother's brother-in-law is trying to run rehearsals with his amateur choir for an all-USSR competition.

The set looked to me to be a multi-story rendering of a single-story apartment. It appeared that the designer had taken the posessions that might have been in a 1950's Soviet communal apartment and rearranged them vertically. The result was a multi-tiered assortment of furniture that vaguely resembled an apartment. This description comes nowhere close to giving it justice, but I found the set to be very effective. For one thing, it allowed the entire cast to be seen during the rehearsals, when between 15 and twenty people crowded into a rather small space. It also gave the impression of an incredibly claustrophobic space that was preventing the characters from thriving.

The acting was some of the most emotionally powerful we have seen. As always it was difficult to tell exactly what was going on, but the acting style was highly realistic and emotive. The woman who played the part of the grandmother was exceptionally talented and her performance was met with much enthusiasm by both the audience and the cast. For me one of the most moving parts was at the end of the play, when the choir came on for the last time (they sang six times in all, at the beginning, middle and end of each act). The piece they were rehearsing this time was a movement of Bach's c minor mass. The grandmother had not sung in any of the other sections, but this time she joined the rest of the cast in singing. To me this was pointing out the healing power of music. Despite her psychological illness, she was somehow able to be brought out of that by the act of singing.

While they were lacking in technique, I enjoyed the choir's performance far more than the production of Sadko we saw at the Mariinsky earlier in the day. The timing of when the music was used in the play as well as the extremely emotional acting truly enhanced the performance a great deal. Each of the pieces was well suited to the mood at the time and they broke up the action nicely by breaking some of the tension.

Certainly another of my favorites!

Peter's Video Review of "Salome"