Theater criticism - “The Bacchae” at the Stanislavsky Electrotheater. Bacchus to the rescue Maria Zerchaninova, Boris Nikolsky

Terzopoulos's "Bacchae" is filled with blood and wine
Photo by Andrey Bezukladnikov

Roman Dolzhansky. . "Stanislavsky" opened ( Kommersant, 01/30/2015).

Gleb Sitkovsky. . The first premiere of the Stanislavsky Electric Theater was “The Bacchae” by Euripides, staged by the Greek classic Theodoros Terzopoulos ( Vedomosti, 01/29/2015).

Alena Karas. . Dionysus was remembered at the Electrotheater ( RG, 02/09/2015).

Olga Egoshina. . The Stanislavsky Electric Theater opened with an ancient Greek tragedy ( New news, 02.02.2015).

Marina Tokareva. . The Stanislavsky Electrotheater opened ( Novaya Gazeta, 02/02/2015).

Dmitry Lisin. ( Private correspondent, 02/05/2015).

Evgeny Avramenko. . The New Moscow Theater opened with the premiere of Euripides' tragedy directed by Terzopoulos ( Izvestia, 02/29/2015).

Maria Khalizeva. ( Screen and stage, 02/24/2015).

Svetlana Naborshchikova.. The Stanislavsky Electrotheater opened with the play “The Bacchae” ( Culture, 01/27/2015).

Maria Zerchaninova, Boris Nikolsky. ( Theatre., 02/06/2015).

Bacchae. Electrotheater Stanislavsky. Press about the performance

Kommersant, January 30, 2015

Electrotheater begins with renovation

"Stanislavsky" opened

The premiere of the play by the famous Greek director Theodore Terzopoulos based on the tragedy of Euripides "The Bacchae" in Moscow opened the Stanislavsky Electric Theater - a place well known to the theater public as the Drama Theater. K. S. Stanislavsky. Narrated by ROMAN DOLZHANSKY.

No offense to the Greek director and the actors involved in The Bacchae, but the premiere of the space occupied the minds and feelings of the guests no less, if not more, than the performance itself. There really is something to marvel at here - in just a year and a half, the old, cramped, uncomfortable, long-pressed by tenants (catering enterprises) Moscow theater has turned into a complex of various premises, each of which, including the wardrobe, can, it seems, easily become a theater venue, both an exhibition hall and a classroom. All that remains of the former auditorium is the balcony - the volume is no longer divided into the usual seats for the public and the stage box; in a single space, the ratio of stage and audience can change as the next guest director wishes.

Theodore Terzopoulos, considered one of the world's leading experts on Greek tragedy, is far from the only international celebrity invited by the new artistic director Boris Yukhananov to fill the repertoire of the beautiful electric theater. So not only the plans for the theater that have already been announced, but also the taste with which the interiors are thought out and decorated seem to be an involuntary challenge to all the isolationist tendencies and the homespun rhetoric of today's cultural policy. (Moscow authorities, just in case, last days emphasize that the expensive reconstruction was carried out with extra-budgetary funds.) The logo of the renovated theater is a light bulb, the filament of which is a portrait of Stanislavsky. So there is no way to get away from the banal association with ray of light, which hits the approaching darkness.

By the way, in “The Bacchae” of Euripides, staged by Theodore Terzopoulos, it is easy to read a bold message to today’s Russia, whose culture has turned out to be defenseless against the attacks of the clerics. However, you don’t have to “read” anything from it, since it was made as a formal exercise. And here, again, it was more interesting to observe how sincerely the actors accepted Terzopoulos’s method than to comprehend the method itself - the aesthetics of the Greek director is well known to Moscow theatergoers: he brought his performances to Moscow more than once, worked with Alla Demidova, gave master classes, not so long ago staged in St. Petersburg Alexandrinsky Theater. So the severity of the stage lines, color and light contrasts, Terzopoulos’ attempts to achieve ecstatic concentration and special vocal expressiveness - all this cannot be news.

Another thing is that formal theater is generally not close to either the majority of Russian actors or the Russian public. And the fact that Yukhananov opened the theater with just such a performance probably lies in the internal attitude of the artistic director - not to look back at the expectations of a democratic viewer and ticket sales figures. As for the sensitivity to formal language, here too “Stanislavski’s” comprehension of a way of working that is far from the standards of Stanislavski’s system deserves compliments. Yes, sometimes the efforts are visible and emphasized, which is why the suggestion of the action is lost, but Theodore Terzopoulos has found a unique ally and protagonist in the person of Elena Morozova, who plays the god Dionysus in “The Bacchae” - an insidious tempter and an imperious avenger. In the way she plays, one can clearly feel both power and mobility; she is subject to both the immobility of the mask and the “snake” variability of physicality. The actress literally crawls into every line, wraps herself in sounds, only to shake them off in the next minute. As a priestess of the cult professed by Terzopoulos, she becomes almost more devout than the high priest - and as a reward receives the right to personal freedom, even to humor, which seems to be forbidden here.

As for the message, the heroes of “The Bacchae” find themselves blinded by a young, aggressive religion: people lose control of themselves, and women, seized by “Bacchic madness,” are able to tear their own children to pieces, mistaking them for wild animals, as happens with Agave ( excellent work by Alla Kazakova), whose prey, by the will of Dionysus, turns out to be the head of her son Pentheus. How exactly Euripides’ tragedy ended is unknown to his descendants. At the end of the performance, Theodore Terzopoulos himself goes on stage - he reads the final lines in a language we do not understand, throws a knife into the wings and covers the bodies of the dead with a red blanket. The epilogue looks far-fetched and even a little funny - not because the director is doing something strange, but because it is becoming more and more difficult to believe in such a theatrically conciliatory ending to a bloody drama in our time.

Vedomosti, January 29, 2015

Gleb Sitkovsky

Bacchus is with us

The first premiere of the Stanislavsky Electric Theater was “The Bacchae” by Euripides, staged by the Greek classic Theodoros Terzopoulos.

The reconstruction of the former Stanislavsky Drama Theater can be called a miraculous transformation. Completely modified interiors and almost doubling, contrary to all Euclidean laws, the total area of the theater's spectator area are not the first of them. Much more impressive is the peace and quiet that reigned with the arrival of Boris Yukhananov in one of the most quarrelsome troupes in Moscow, and the fact that it now employs first-line directors - the Italian Romeo Castellucci, the German Heiner Goebbels, and the Greek Theodoros Terzopoulos.

The creators of the electric theater do not admit why they made “The Bacchae” their first premiere, but perhaps a certain role was played by the fact that Dionysus, to whom this tragedy is dedicated, is not just the god of abundant libations, but also the progenitor of everything modern theater. True, on the façade of the Electrotheater in festive evening the image projected was not Dionysus at all, but another theatrical deity, whose cult is indisputable in Russia - Konstantin Stanislavsky. Emitting rays, he appeared to the admiring spectators and onlookers on Tverskaya in all his strength, like the Savior from Mount Tabor. The luminescent show (author of the idea - Boris Yukhananov, artist - Stepan Lukyanov) was accompanied by grinding and cacophonous noise, through which angelic music (composer - Dmitry Kurlyandsky) tried to break through.

The Bacchae themselves turned out to be a very spectacular, bloody and frenzied spectacle, which, however, at certain moments could even induce sleep with the general monotony of the solemn ritual taking place in the electric theater. Let us assume that these were the tricks of Dionysus himself, who, as is known, knows how to send both ecstasy and drowsiness to lovers of grape drinks.

Performed in a wine-colored palette, the performance was initially perceived as a chain of spectacular pictures (Terzopoulos was solely responsible not only for the mise-en-scène, but also for the set design, lighting, and costumes). It is impossible, for example, to forget King Cadmus, chained to his bed, behind whom is a whole battery of vessels filled with bright red liquid: either wine is poured into the weak founder of Thebes instead of blood, or vice versa.

The Bacchantes and Bacchantes who appeared on stage (half of the choir, contrary to Euripides’ instructions, are young men) exemplified the sad consequences of intemperance pleasing to their god: red eyes, small convulsions of the limbs and a dried trickle of either blood or wine on each torso. The leader of the red-eyed people - in fact, Dionysus himself - was played by one of the most ecstatic Russian actresses, Elena Morozova, and only thanks to this role alone one could say that Terzopoulos's performance, despite its somnolence, still took place.

At some moments, an academic and sublime spectacle suddenly ceased to be so and chilled you to the liver, and closer to the finale it suddenly became clear that “The Bacchae” may seem quite relevant today. After all, in essence, this play is about insulting the feelings of believers: stupid Pentheus (Anton Kostochkin) allowed himself to doubt the power of Bacchus and was torn to pieces by his furious fans, whose eyes were obscured not only by wine, but also by fanatical dope. Absolutely everyone here is blinded - even Pentheus’s mother Agava (Alla Kazakova), who at first mistakes her son’s severed head for a lion’s. Dionysus turns a person's head, not allowing him to see things in their true light. And no matter how Terzopoulos argued that modern civilization, having abandoned the irrational Dionysian principle in favor of the rational Apollonian, made a huge mistake, it seems that it is in Russia that his reasoning sounds completely unconvincing. Intoxicated either with wine or with blood, the country has fallen under the bacchanalian power of the irrational and, deaf to the arguments of reason, is ready to tear to pieces everyone who calls on it to get drunk. Bacchus is with us.

RG, February 2, 2015

Alena Karas

When would a Greek see our games?

Dionysus was remembered at the Electrotheater

This season the Greeks turned out to be perhaps the most representative Europeans in the Russian theater. Let's not talk about money and politics, but let's try to discern in this something necessary for modern Russian society.

At the end of December, Moscow saw the opera "The Indian Queen", which was created by Theodor Currentzis together with Peter Sellars to the music of Henry Purcell. In less than a month, Currentzis will again bring a performance from Perm to the Golden Mask - the opera Nosferatu, staged by Theodoros Terzopoulos with a libretto by Dimitris Yalamas. In St. Petersburg Alexandrinka Terzopoulos staged Beckett's play "The End of the Game".

And these days, his performance celebrated the opening of the renovated STANISLAVSKY Electrotheater.

One of the powerful theatrical passionaries, he headed the World Theater Olympiad for many years. Convinced that to modern man and a society drained of blood by the power of virtual communications lacks the energy of life, armed with his own research and training, he preaches (not imitating Nietzsche, but recalling him) the return of Dionysus. This is the name of his book, published by Boris Yukhananov in the series “The Theater and Its Diary,” which was presented as part of the Moscow premiere of Euripides’ tragedy “The Bacchae.”

"The Bacchae" is an impressive example of how healing the master's technology can be. The group of theater actors who underwent his training became a single organism. Using a special breathing technique, they push words out like corks from champagne bottles. With the same invigorating explosive energy. The chorus of Greek tragedy is mastered by Dionysus - the master of ecstasy, order and chaos, madness and logic, the mask of man and woman, man and animal. And in exactly the same way, Elena Morozova, who plays him, comes out onto the sloping platform, fearlessly letting into herself a new, but close to her, element of the ultimate. But even for her it’s not easy to play a furious, vengeful and crafty god.

With the ease of a barefoot shepherd jumping on burning coals, Terzopoulos brings back the very sense of the tragic, which seemed to be lost forever. After all, the plot of “The Bacchae” is the very root of the tragedy, a description of its Dionysian status. The ruler of Thebes Pentheus, refusing to recognize Dionysus - the god of nature, wine and inspiration, provokes his terrible revenge: Dionysus deprives the women of the city of their minds and takes them to Mount Cithaeron, where they drink wine and sing hymns in his honor. Among the bacchantes is Pentheus's mother Agave, who, blinded by bacchanalian ecstasy, kills her son, mistaking him for a lion and tearing him to pieces.

When Agave, performed by the actress of the Anatoly Vasiliev Theater Alla Kozakova, reveals her face to the audience as a tragic mask, and Elena Morozova’s flaming “mask” of Dionysus cries and mourns above her - goosebumps, these simplest childish signs of horror, crawl along the backs of spectators who are skeptical about everything .

Breath is the soul of inspiration, its root reigns in the performance, subordinating us to its pulsating rhythm, like a blood stream. Taking as a basis various trainings of the 70s, joining technology Japanese theater But Terzopoulos sends the actors in search of their origins. The actors' diaphragms vibrate like a tightly stretched tam-tam, sometimes lulling, sometimes invigorating. The theater of roots, the theater of ritual, which sunk into the past of European culture 30-40 years ago, came to life in Moscow in 2014 not as a museum, but as a recollection of unlearned lessons, as an inoculation of the necessary technology.

But not only the mystery theater, the theater of high ritual is trying to resurrect Terzopoulos. There is a lot of humor in his work. In contrast to the archaism of the revived body, with the bacchanalian pressure of muscles and ligaments, open mouths and scattered hair, stands the motionless body of Cadmus, swaddled like a mummy, the slayer of the Dragon, the husband of Harmony, the brother of Europe, the father of Agave and the grandfather of Pentheus (Anton Kostochkin). His whole pose reminds the viewer of the body of the leader lying in the mausoleum. Tubes are extended to him, and it seems that his descendants killed by each other are still feeding him with their blood.

In addition to the wonderful works of Elena Morozova and Alla Kozakova, in addition to the excellent working choir, in addition to the funny and scary Cadmus (Oleg Bazhanov), the play also features fantastic actresses from the older generation of the theater (People of the Palace), who work in a bright, grotesque, virtuosic technique of external drawing, which I also haven’t appeared on our stage for a long time.

There are, of course, mistakes in this work. The lessons of control over the body and breathing have been mastered, but poetry, its magic and rhythm (after all, this is a translation of Innokenty Annensky) does not come. However, they were not looking for them, but for the ability to manifest and control their chaos, their freedom, their inspiration. They were looking for their Dionysus. And this is perhaps the best start for a new theater.

New news, February 2, 2015

Olga Egoshina

Execution of sacrileges

"Electrotheater Stanislavsky" opened with an ancient Greek tragedy

“Electrotheater Stanislavsky” opened with the premiere of Euripides’ tragedy “The Bacchae” by the Greek director, often working in Russia, Theodoros Terzopoulos. The artistic director of the theater, Boris Yukhananov, who won the competition for a leadership position at the Stanislavsky Theater in 2013, managed to create a Fund for Support and Development of the Theater in a year and a half, and carried out a complete reconstruction of the building without involving budget funds, brought the troupe together without expelling a single actor, and invited a number of directors from all over the world to work. The first results of this work can already be appreciated by the audience.

The play “The Bacchae” by Euripides is the story of the terrible punishment of sacrileges. Angered by the slander of the Cadmus family, the god Dionysus punishes his detractors with “shameful death” and that which is worse than death. He sends madness to the daughters of Cadmus, who leave the palace and go to the mountains as inflamed maenads. Dionysus convinces his hater, King Pentheus, to disguise himself as a woman in order to spy on the antics of the maenads. Having brought the unfortunate king to the mountain hollows, Dionysus betrays him to the maenads, and his own mother and aunts in a frenzy tear apart the body of their son and nephew. With the severed head of her only son impaled on a thyrsus, the mother comes to the city, confident that she has killed the lion and boasting of her feat. The worse the sobering...

King Cadmus sums up what happened: “O mortal! If you have despised heaven, / Looking at this death, believe in the gods!”

It would be difficult to find a play with more topical issues, more closely related to the bloodiest and most hotly debated events that have shaken the world in recent months. However, it is difficult to find a play that is more distant from the spirit of our days, a play that so openly pushes and provokes a dialogue-argument with its initial premises.

How does Theodoros Terzopoulos solve this dilemma? But no way, he simply ignores her. You would look in vain for a connection with the recent bloody events in Paris: “The Bacchae” at the Stanislavsky Theater is no more connected with them than fitness or solfeggio exercises.

Turning to this play by Euripides for the fourth time, the Greek director is much more concerned with the problem: how the actors pronounce the words than with what exactly they say, what they fight for, what they defend.

The actors of “Electrotheater” spent months learning to breathe correctly, liberate the body, and learned to find and use new sources of sound. Perhaps, the unique Elena Morozova, who plays Dionysus, feels most at ease in this territory. She not only knows how to convey the frantic energy of the text, but also convey the poet’s word (the theater took the translation of Innokenty Annensky), and even give her unexpected emotional coloring to certain stanzas. The rest send words into the hall so passionately that it is almost impossible to make out entire phrases - only pieces and fragments reach them.

The tension of the flesh should convey the tension of emotions of the ancient Greek tragedy, but the tension of its thoughts is clearly not interesting to Terzopoulos.

The graphic picture of the performance is beautiful. Only once does its monochrome explode with the appearance of middle-aged women dressed in modern costumes (now everything will happen! - you hope in the auditorium). But looking like characters from the program “How Not to Dress,” the aunts, in an unexpectedly everyday conversational style, recite a piece from the text of the choir and return to their seats in the first row of the auditorium.

Contact with today turns into a dummy.

Who can argue - training in the theater is a very useful thing. And for actors who have been creatively inactive for too long, it is especially necessary. Having been developing his method of “activating the body” for decades, the Greek director can show and suggest a lot to Russian actors (it’s not for nothing that only last year Terzopoulos was invited to Perm and St. Petersburg).

But I’m still sure that Euripides’ “The Bacchae” could become for the Moscow stage something more than a reason to improve the physical culture of the stage.

In a pre-premiere interview, the new artistic director of the theater, Boris Yukhananov, said that “art today has a new mission: from superficial experiences (no matter what tones they are painted in - liberal or orthodox) to get to the essence of things. It's very difficult, but possible. You just need to get out of the grip of reactive sociality. Believe me, now many artists will take a breath and go to the bottom.”

Getting to the point is, of course, extremely useful. And when going to the bottom, it is important to remember that it would be good not to dive so deep that they stop hearing you.

Novaya Gazeta, February 2, 2015

Marina Tokareva

Galvanization of space

Electrotheater "Stanislavsky" opened

The opening of the Stanislavsky Electrotheater, which happened last Wednesday on Tverskaya, 23, was a truly electrifying event.

The history of the apartment building on Tverskaya began in 1874; a hundred years ago, in 1915, the house was turned into the most fashionable electric cinema "Ars". After the revolution, it became first a children's and then an adult drama theater. Electrical connection new era and its loudest theater name gave it its current name - Stanislavsky Electrotheater.

New story old theater began with the appointment artistic director Boris Yukhananov. A student of Efros and Vasiliev, an experimenter and theorist, Yukhananov had never been in charge (and this, as we know, is a separate profession), but he began in a revolutionary way. He closed the dilapidated building, took a year's break, and found money for a major renovation. And now - reconstruction. High quality, thoughtful, artistic. The “Electrotheater Support and Development Fund” and the Wowhaus bureau completely changed the usual appearance of the theater, like a hurricane of numerous tenants - a jewelry store, a cigar boutique, a restaurant.

Today the theater has six rehearsal rooms, a small stage, big hall for 300 seats. The courtyards, where previously there were workshops and warehouses, are now open, surrounded by galleries at different levels and serve as a flexible module for any cultural innovations. Everything has changed at the Electrotheater - from the hangers in the basements to the transforming auditorium, from the dressing rooms with showers to the impressive foyer with the old ceiling, exposed beams and soffits. In short, the Wowhaus architects, who took on a theatrical project for the first time, did a great job. Main idea space: theater can arise everywhere, everything can turn into theater - the stage is total.

The opening was preceded by a series of projection acts in the laboratory of major European directors: Katie Mitchell, Romeo Castellucci. The opening performance is “The Bacchae” by Theodoros Terzopoulos.

Yukhananov's premiere is ahead. And she is iconic. "The Blue Bird" by Maeterlinck.

Let us note that the name of Stanislavsky on the façade previously only complicated the internal life of the theater: there were no artistically prosperous times here, there were only relatively calm ones; The first decade of the new century became especially problematic: scandals, leapfrogs of managers and directors, struggle for space.

Boris Yukhananov, having received the theater, treated the troupe with care. In his upcoming “Blue Bird,” a three-night extravaganza, the main roles are given to theater premieres Vladimir Korenev and Alevtina Konstantinova. Woven into Maeterlinck's legendary plot of the search for happiness is a documentary play about the real events in the lives of two actors against the background Soviet history, which became the history of the theater. The plans include special programs - exhibitions, festivals, publishing projects. But it seems that much will depend on how good “The Blue Bird” is in the new fate of the theater.

However, the Stanislavsky Electrotheater is in itself a gift to the capital. After all, it was made with private, extra-budgetary funds. And his appearance is part of the process of theatrical renewal that began in Moscow, going on painfully and unevenly.

And now about the premiere. Terzopoulos is a master, that's undeniable. This is his fourth version of the famous play - he staged “The Bacchae” in his Attis Theater, in different parts of the world, and now with Russian actors. The play has come to us in a brilliant translation by Innocent of Annensky, “the last of the Tsarskoye Selo swans,” a subtle expert on antiquity, who created an independent poetic work from a text written in 406 BC.

The precision of the mise-en-scène, the accuracy of the plasticity, the peculiarity of intonation - Terzopoulos paid close attention to all this. The technicality of all aspects of the spectacle is an important part of it.

The event of the play is the role of Dionysus performed by Elena Morozova. She is the embodiment of the spirit of ancient tragedy, hopelessness and revenge. Bacchic darkness, inexorable and monstrous. An abyss of years have passed since the time of Euripides, but the obsession of the Bacchae, their bestial cruelty, their role as instruments in the hands of the punishing god still find support in modern times. The image of blind, unreasoning violence by the current civilization has been sharpened to a new magnitude, as clear as in ancient times.

Some will be fascinated by Terzopoulos's ritual solution, while others will see it as just a demonstration of icy skill. One thing is obvious: the technical efforts of the artists to master plasticity and speech are extraordinary. Therefore, much in the performance is simply beautiful: movement and light, Russian verse stitched with lines in Greek, the appearance of the director pronouncing the final stanzas with careless grace...

I don’t know whether the hall was touched by the electricity of the Greek tragedy, but a general galvanization of the space took place.

Private correspondent, February 5, 2015

Dmitry Lisin

Bacchae

Theodoros Terzopoulos and the Stanislavsky Electrotheater presented their first creation, “The Bacchae” by Euripides, to a public hungry for new theatrical experiences. The opening of the Electrotheater with the tragedy of Euripides staged by an adept of “Bacchanalian yoga” is the main theatrical event of the year, without any exaggeration.

Tiresias: But a citizen is harmful if he is brave and eloquent,
He, having power, is deprived of meaning.

Boris Yukhananov began with the miracle of pacifying the troupe of the former drama theater named after K.S. Stanislavsky, and the humane Greek director, through difficult training, created the conditions for the success of the premiere performance. It’s interesting how Yukhananov’s “miracle” is explained by him in an interview on the Culture channel - he took a different look at the troupe, which stubbornly “ate” one artistic director after another. The newest artistic director acted in an unearthly wise way - he saw in the troupe enchanting beauty, an untouched “natural landscape”, a collection of actors of all ages and degrees of talent. Let’s say right away that the play “The Bacchae” is a serious test for any, even the most trained and united troupe. And the “Stanislav” actors and actresses, trained by Terzopoulos and motivated by Yukhananov’s creative program, passed the exam with flying colors.

Background

Who are Dionysus and the Bacchae? Without going into the depths of the myth, we note that in Argos Dionysus drove young mothers into madness, who fled to the mountains with babies in their arms, killed them and “devoured their flesh.” King Lycurgus, who rejected Dionysus, killed his son with an ax in a fit of madness, convinced that he was cutting down a grapevine. And as we know from the tragedy of Euripides, the maddened Bacchae tore to pieces not only Orpheus, but also the king of Thebes, Pentheus. This is such extreme gloom. The paradox is that the bloody massacre is harmoniously combined with the transcendental ecstasy and joy achieved on the path of unbridled Dionysianism.

But the most interesting thing is that the theater apparently began precisely with the worship of Dionysus, precisely with bacchanalia. During the Great Dionysia, performances were organized - choirs of singers dressed in goat skins performed special hymns in honor of Dionysus - dithyrambs. From these dithyrambs, accompanied by dancing, a theatrical form of glorification of Dionysus gradually crystallized - tragedy, which means “song of the goats”, in the picturesque sense of Rubens’s paintings. When performing sacrifices and magical ceremonies, those present were located in an amphitheater along the slopes of the hill adjacent to the altar of Dionysus, located right in the middle of the orchestra.

Speaking about the beginning of the theater, we come up against the mythical beginning of man himself. According to one version of the myth, Zeus incinerated the titans (or chthonic Typhon), who tore Dionysus apart, and from the ashes of the giants, which contained the divine flesh of the eaten Dionysus, people emerged. Here is an explanation of the duality of man, who came from a mixture of good and evil: something from God, something from monsters. And this is the most naive explanation, because the secret of a myth will always slip away, because a myth (metote - dance, meet - meeting) is a meeting with a secret. Indeed, why did Typhon tear apart Dionysus, and the bacchantes Pentheus, the demigod’s cousin? And what is valuable in the Bacchic dance, so skillfully and authentically restored by Terzopoulos?

Each viewer must answer these questions for himself. I remembered here that the most impressive experience of seeing an ancient Greek mystery is described in Thomas Mann’s novel “The Magic Mountain”. A small impressive episode when a freezing skier has a lucid dream under a Christmas tree - the sea, hot sand, cool marble of the colonnade, two women, mother and daughter, preparing for a terrible secret action. Yes, Haruki Murakami also had a dark episode about an eerie lunar procession of maenads, fauns, satyrs and bacchantes on a Greek island - I don’t remember in which novel. But for Terzopoulos, the very thing that frightened the writers became the impulse for creativity, for which he is honored and praised.

Method

In the bookstall of the Electrotheater there is a book by Terzopoulos “The Return of Dionysus”, after reading which you can get some idea of the method of the great director, who explored with his actors the “remains of the Dionysian mysteries” in northern Greece. Result? “We found forgotten sources of sound in our body and also tried to discover our deep Memory.” This is how the “triangle deconstruction” exercise was born. What is this? Special breathing during special movements, similar to elements of ordinary Greek dances. The key words of the system are rhythm and energy. The rhythm of the dance gives rise to the form of the performance. Activation of the internal energy centers of the body through “deconstruction of the triangle” leads to “inexhaustible improvisation.”

For current theater studies, this is something magical. The author of the method does not hide this: “the body dances a magical dance with the forms of Memory, where various movements of the material pass through the body, using the conflict of opposing forces of instinct and consciousness, order and chaos.” It seems that this is expressed in an extremely abstract way - some kind of “movement of material”. But it only seems so; the author has thought through everything down to the specific basic forty exercises. And the “material” is completely alchemical, the primordial material of the internal energy body, which is explored by the actor psychosomatically, in the process of inexhaustible improvisation. In the book, terms that are unusual for theater scholars, but familiar to yogis, are tightly linked into a system, and the crown of the system is practice.

Practice

The performance begins with a siren air defense, and in alarm the real Bacchic ritual begins. The most important thing in the play is the search for an ancient ritual, otherwise everything would seem like an empty postmodern form, when images of modernity are strung onto an ancient text. Of course, there are “high-tech” elements – for example, several hollow tubes illuminated from the inside with blue tubes. These tubes reminded me of the unforgettable connection tube from the movie “Assa”. Terzopoulos's favorite red square, replacing the mask of Dionysus - Elena Morozova, also took place.

The music of Panagiotis Velianitis is as shamanic as it gets. A magnificent choir of four couples wriggled, jumped, stomped and amazed the audience with an unearthly ecstatic smile. They rhythmically uttered - ha! – oss! - on an exhale, gradually bringing the audience into an unusually cheerful state for Muscovites. This state of bacchanalian amazement is what the director sought for actors and spectators, starting with the very first performance of his troupe “Attis”, founded in Delphi in 1985. It is impossible to perform such a dance without undergoing months of training. Therefore, this “snake” shamanism is incomparable; nothing like this can be seen in the most advanced dance theater performances. No, it’s possible to do flasks and somersaults, learn to crawl on your hands, wriggling and making a snake-like sound - sss - but only a choir of bacchantes led by Elena Morozova can organize a bacchanalian performance. After months of continuous training under the guidance of a Greek yogi. By the way, Terzopoulos himself came out at the end of the performance and sang an afterlife folk song. Ecstasy and death are one, like two sides of a Mobius strip.

The star of the play and, now obviously, of the Electrotheater troupe is Elena Morozova. I remember how she shone in the “ancient” performance of the Theater. Stanislavsky's "The Taming of the Shrew", directed by Vladimir Mirzoev. With Maxim Sukhanov they made an archetypal pair of comedians, but the image of Katarina was “off scale” even in comparison with Sukhanov’s trickster Petruchio. In short, any role of Morozova, whether in the theater or in the cinema, betrays her immense talent. Her central word is energy, which she, by her own admission, saw in the so-called Stanislavsky system. There she managed to see the yoga of the inner body of light and the operation of “rays of perception.” Elena’s life potential is surprising - how many actors do you know who managed to simultaneously become an economist, having graduated at the same time as the Moscow Art Theater School and, for some reason, MAI. And so they met - Terzopoulos and Morozova. The result is ecstatic expressions on the faces of the spectators coming out onto Tverskaya after “The Bacchae”.

What else was extraordinary on stage? There was also Alla Kazakova in the role of Agave, the mother of Pentheus. Her long work with Anatoly Vasiliev at the “School of Dramatic Art” was felt. The text of the mad mother, who tore off her son's head in a paroxysm of Dionysianism and gradually realized the nightmare that had occurred, was pronounced by the half-naked actress as if she had visited those Bacchic mountains. In general, it was amazing to hear the voices of actors and actresses. Even the “auxiliary” voices of the palace people, played by the more or less “elderly” cast of the troupe, at peak moments turned into that very single voice of Valerie Dreville. In fact, the role of a French woman in the play “Medea” by Anatoly Vasilyev was the only “Bacchanalian”, ritual, shamanic role for the entire existence of Russian theater. And now we can listen to how Morozova turns consonants into vowels, how she explodes, emitting pure energy instead of sound. And although it is naive to hope for an understanding of the Bacchic cult and Greek myths, after seeing Terzopoulos’s “The Bacchae”, we can well understand the connection between the mysteries Ancient Greece with the Moscow theatrical process. We can receive the ancient impulse to travel into the “unknown fields of Memory”, where the essence of man is redefined.

Izvestia, January 29, 2015

Evgeniy Avramenko

“The Bacchae” turned on the electric current at the Stanislavsky Electrotheater

The New Moscow Theater opened with the premiere of Euripides' tragedy directed by Terzopoulos

With the tragedy of Euripides “The Bacchae”, the Greek director Theodoros Terzopoulos opened his Athens theater “Attis”, one of the most famous groups in Europe, 30 years ago. Headed by Boris Yukhananov, the Stanislavsky Electric Theater opened recently with his own production of the same play.

“The Bacchae” tells the story of how two principles, rational and irrational, collide in human nature. King Pentheus refuses to acknowledge the divine nature of Dionysus and the Bacchic riots of women in his honor. Then God, planning to punish Pentheus, instills in him the idea of dressing up as a woman and spying on the Bacchantes. In ecstasy, they mistake the disguised king for an animal and tear him to pieces.

It is clear why this tragedy is recognized abroad as perhaps the most repertoire of the ancient plays of the twentieth century and why many avant-garde directors considered it their duty to stage The Bacchae. The theme of the dormant in man natural forces consonant with the age that discovered the collective unconscious and psychoanalysis. It is also clear why this play could not be staged in the USSR.

The conflict of the play corresponds to the specifics of Terzopoulos's theater, where the ecstatic tension of the actor, the convulsions of body and soul are combined with a coldly rational form and precise mise-en-scène. Terzopoulos is not one of those who noticeably changes the playing conditions from performance to performance: the Greek master is faithful to his method of working with the actor, based on plastic breathing exercises. Here too, it would seem, the signs of his theater are evident: a distilled space cleared of all unnecessary things (the director himself was the set designer), the geometry of the mise-en-scène and the acting, which has nothing to do with life-likeness. But this experience of Terzopoulos working with Russian actors (and there were several experiences in different theaters) is distinguished by the parties’ special sensitivity to each other.

Artists of different generations boldly surrendered to directorial principles that were new to them. If the youth, performing as a choir of bacchantes, do not always succeed in the harmony of plastic design with internal energy, “biomechanics” with the word, then there are no questions for the older generation. When, in the middle of the action, five spectators from the first row suddenly appear on stage, it turns out that these ladies in bright outfits are actresses of the Electrotheater. In their mouths, the Messenger’s story about the bacchanalia becomes the view of our contemporary layman on mythical events. Dionysus approaches each of these extravagant ladies, holding a red square, symbolically introducing them to his blood. And for all the irony of the episode, a serious warning is read: the Bacchic can awaken today, even in such bourgeois ladies “from the stalls.”

The “center of gravity” of the performance was two acting works - Elena Morozova and Alla Kazakova. Morozova, one of the leading actresses of the troupe, playing Dionysus, brings a pagan androgyny to the role. Her Dionysus has nothing of the ancient canon of male beauty; he is a writhing demon. A male actor would hardly be able to convey this irrational demonic element.

Alla Kazakova, who was introduced to ritual performances at the Anatoly Vasiliev School of Dramatic Art, in the role of Agave combines internal tension with an exquisite and stylish plastic design. This role is etched into memory in separate strokes. Here is the insane, half-naked Agave clutching a mask over her head (she thinks she is holding the head of a lion, but is holding the head of her son Pentheus); now she realizes the crime committed with her own hands - and her hoarse inhuman cry, like the cry of a wounded bird, pierces space; here Agave curls up on the floor, clutching her head mask... Following her, the choir members find themselves on the floor. In the finale, Terzopoulos himself, walking across the stage between the bodies, performs a phrenos - an ancient funeral lament (the director participates in the mystery only on the premiere days in January; after his departure from Russia, the final point of the performance will be the fall of the choir).

In Terzopoulos's "The Bacchae" 30 years ago, which was performed in authentic ancient amphitheatres, the performers were completely immersed in myth, and a primitive fury was felt in the deliberately rough performance. New version the tragedy staged in the ultra-modern space of the “Electrotheater” (where the audience also sits in an amphitheater, but a modernized, rectangular one) is rather a game of myth.

Euripides here seems to have been passed through Heiner Müller, who rewrote ancient myths to fit the picture of the world of the 20th century (Terzopoulos, by the way, was the first to stage it in Russia 20 years ago). And although Müller remains an obscure author for the Russian public, the performance turned out to be contactable, “breathing” and directed toward the viewer. The director’s meanings here are not speculatively indicated by the actors (which happened in Terzopoulos’s Alexandrinsky performances), but precisely what is passed through and experienced. As if according to Stanislavsky - not canonical and dead, but alive and unknown. Which the artists of the “Electrotheater” have yet to discover.

Screen and stage, February 24, 2015

Maria Khalizeva

Tragedy dressed out of fashion

Transformed by the efforts of the architectural bureau Wowhaus, the Stanislavsky Theater under the name “Electrotheater Stanislavsky” and under the direction of Boris Yukhananov at the end of January proudly opened its doors to the premiere of “The Bacchae” by Euripides, translated by Innokenty Annensky and staged by the Greek Theodoros Terzopoulos.

The open spaces of the foyer, the modern look and the wardrobe relegated to the minus ground floor make an immediate impression, especially on those who well remember the previous cramped space. But still, the main subjects of the reconstruction were the stage and the auditorium. All the spectator rows were removed from the latter’s box (only the balcony reminds of its former appearance), turning it into a completely empty room, ready for any transformation, elongated into a long rectangle. The audience's seats can be arranged in any desired way, you can sit on a wooden floor, you can build a compact amphitheater, as for the tragedy of Euripides. Theodoros Terzopoulos believes that the hall of the “Electrotheater” is “the smallest space that is possible in a tragedy. It is no longer possible to do less. Tragedy needs space.”

Demonstrating the true chic of architectural fashion (and a number of spatial magics are yet to come, in particular, the metamorphosis of the courtyard and the creation of the Small Stage), “Electrotheater” offered the public an ancient tragedy, speaking not in the language of new drama, as is now often customary, but in the language of ritual. The viewer can only remember the line from Brodsky’s “Portrait of a Tragedy”: “Hello, tragedy, dressed out of fashion” and feel within themselves the same meditative rhythms that were set by Terzopoulos, looking for consonances.

A choir of bacchantes of both sexes, dressed in black robes trimmed with corrugated fabric (the actresses' trousers are complemented by bodices), groans in their guts, screams ecstatically, spreads along the ground, recites the text and synchronously performs the plastic movements conceived by the director. The blackness is diluted by bloody stripes, stretching in an ornate zigzag across the entire body from the ear to the foot, flowing down to the heel, and the eyes and lips outlined in scarlet. The spotlights draw clear lines, the paths of movement of the choir and Dionysus intersect at an angle of ninety degrees - the light lines seem to be platforms hovering over the abyss. Terzopoulos clearly verifies disharmony with geometry. There is almost no raging tragedy, there is a prescribed rhythm, the severity of the ritual and fascination with it.

Dionysus is performed by Elena Morozova, one of the few actresses on the Moscow stage today who is able to embody demons. Her charisma is enough to make the audience feel: such a Dionysus is capable of depriving all the women of Thebes of reason and forcing them to worship and become like themselves. The chorus of maenads here are clones of Dionysus, which can be seen even in the cut of their clothes, identical to those of their divine leader.

Neither the mannered Pentheus - Anton Kostochkin, nor the weak Cadmus - Oleg Bazhanov, lying under an IV, surrounded by a whole battery of bottles, either with blood (if so, then the mise-en-scène is clearly read: power is nourished and supported by someone else’s blood), or with wine (if so , then Cadmus has already been defeated in advance by Dionysus), unable to resist this ventriloquist speaking and abruptly exclaiming in Greek the mysterious phrase “Itte Bacchus! Itte Bacche!” Dionysus the androgyne, taking revenge on the rulers of Thebes.

The actress of the School of Dramatic Art Theater Alla Kazakova was invited to play the heartbreaking role of Agave, who tore her own son Pentheus to pieces in madness. An unusually expressive static scene is in which Agave, disheveled after the rampage on Cithaeron - one of her breasts is bare - tells Cadmus about the victory over the lion. High above her head she clutches the bloody mask of a man-beast, the head of her son, who, through the spell of Dionysus, was mistaken by the Bacchantes for a wild animal. In her harsh and gradually clearing statics, Alla Kazakova rises to tragic heights.

The only episode that seems inserted, wandered into the performance by mistake, is the exit from the stalls of four actresses of the older generation of the theater - four messengers, four noble matrons, four philistines, but not timeless, but distinctly today. The garish tastelessness of their outfits, intonation and timbre of speech blatantly contradict the structure of the performance. The tragic in the gossip of the street turns into collective vulgarity.

In the finale, after Agave, the entire choir will collapse to the ground. Then the director Theodoros Terzopoulos himself (who is also the set designer, as well as the lighting designer, the author of costumes and choreography), in modern dark clothes, barefoot, dragging a scarlet fabric behind him, will make a graceful passage across the stage, containing a hint of dance. Its low-pitched crooning suggests a funeral chant. Participation in the performance of the director, who flashed onto the stage at the very beginning, smashed the plate against the wall and set the necessary rhythm for the action, was awarded only to the premiere performances in January, which, of course, is a pity. In the mouth of this Greek, the double rhythmic exclamation “Itte Bacchus!”, meaning “Behold Bacchus!”, sounds somehow very special, gutturally majestic, almost mysterious. The ellipsis at the end of the premiere shows will be forced to be replaced by a full stop after the director’s departure. No funeral lament. Only corpses.

Culture, January 27, 2015

Svetlana Naborshchikova

Bacchanalia on Tverskaya

The Stanislavsky Electrotheater opened with the performance “The Bacchae”.

Director Theodoros Terzopoulos, a fellow villager of Euripides and an eminent expert on ancient drama, believes that this is a good start: “The theater opens, and the god of the theater plays in the first performance.” However, “The Bacchae” is a play not so much about the theater as about what can interfere with the theater.

In the tragedy of Euripides, the petty mischief of the celestials turns into a great human tragedy. People did not recognize Dionysus as the son of Zeus the Thunderer, and he, offended, sent damage to the female half humanity. On a certain day and hour, well-behaved mothers, sisters, daughters, wives fall into madness and are capable of going to the most extremes - like the daughter of the Theban king Agave, who in a fit of madness tore her own son to pieces. Then, when the darkness subsides, the women are horrified by their actions, but what has been done cannot be corrected.

Terzopoulos does not blame the gods and does not justify people. Preserving the text of Euripides' tragedy, he stages a play about the immensity of evil. About the fact that the aggression inherent in human nature, getting out of control, becomes a deadly virus and spreads at breakneck speed, sparing neither the old nor the small, neither the kings nor the dead. That no good goals can justify shed blood. A person who tastes it becomes a beast, and the path to human world ordered for him.

For all the harshness of the author’s message, “The Bacchae” is an exquisitely beautiful performance. Dionysian fury bubbles up in the words, but in the picture it only manifests itself in the chaotic waves of corrugated fabric with which the artists are draped from time to time. Otherwise, the visual image of “The Bacchae” is full of Apollonian grace: the two main colors are black and red; soft, even light; a shining white rectangle of the stage.

Eight bacchantes act in this aesthetic space and do not go backstage throughout the entire performance. There are equal numbers of men and women: Terzopoulos’s evil has no gender. Senselessly joyful faces, wandering glances, tremors of excitement, intermittent breathing - this is the collective portrait of those possessed by Dionysus. The young artists of the Stanislavsky Electrotheater do an excellent job with the most difficult part of the demonic chorus and create a worthy background for the magnificent protagonist.

Dionysus is played by Elena Morozova, an actress with a unique, one might say, animalistic energy. In the design of her role one can read the fury of a tiger and the cunning of a snake, the insinuation of a panther and the grace of a doe, and the modulations of a huge range of voices extend from the roar of a lion to the cooing of a dove. This Dionysus attracts you immediately and irrevocably. Such evil - absolute in its assertive charm - cannot be resisted; only absolute good can calm it down.

Terzopoulos takes on his role. In the final scene, he takes the stage singing a simple folk tune. For the first time in a loud-voiced performance, the most tender drunken sounds. Dionysus, following the director, out of habit praises Bacchus, but with each note of Terzopoulos's chanting his exclamations weaken. The maestro, however, is too wise to believe in victory - the final phrase remains with Dionysus, and the hall plunges into darkness...

Theater., February 6, 2015

Maria Zerchaninova, Boris Nikolsky

Hello tragedy

New life Drama Theater named after. Stanislavsky - from now on the Electrotheater "Stanislavsky" - began with a return to the roots, with the ancient Greek tragedy. Theodoros Terzopoulos, a generally recognized expert and, as he himself believes, a successor to the ancient tradition, staged Euripides’ “The Bacchae.” This text, thoroughly studied by philologists, overgrown with all sorts of interpretations and over the past 50-60 years, has been staged many times in different countries, here, all wandering between three pines - “Antigone”, “Medea”, “Oedipus Rex” - alas, is unpopular. Meanwhile, “The Bacchae,” one of the last tragedies of Euripides, is in no way inferior in its dramatic skill to Sophocles’ “Oedipus the King” or Aeschylus’ “Agamemnon.”

The plot of The Bacchae is as follows. The god of drunken fun, Dionysus, accompanied by his constant companions, the Bacchantes, comes to the city of Thebes, where he was once born and where now they do not want to consider him a god. He drives the Theban women who do not recognize him into madness, including the mother of the Theban king Pentheus; the women flee to the mountains and join the Dionysian orgies. Pentheus, seizing Dionysus, subjects him to a humiliating interrogation and throws him behind bars. And now he is already celebrating victory - but the earth shakes and the fetters themselves fall off the god. Now Pentheus will inevitably be overtaken by divine retribution. Dionysus persuades him to go watch the orgies of women, and there the distraught mother and her sisters tear the unfortunate king to pieces.

What is the meaning of this tragedy, that is, what exactly was it supposed to say to the Athenians and what can it say to us today? It is commonly understood as a tragedy about the confrontation between the irrational and the rational. Dionysus expresses the irrational principle, although denied by reason, but good and liberating for those who do not resist it. For those who reject it, it acquires undeniable and often destructive power. No matter how much commentators argue about the meaning of The Bacchae, one thing is clear - in its architectonics it is one of the most brilliant Greek tragedies. It consists of two parts. In the first half, the Dionysian world is full of charm; everything is in it - beauty, joy, truth and godliness. Pentheus, pursuing Dionysus, is a blind tyrant. The conversation between Pentheus and Dionysus in the first half of the tragedy is a conversation between a tyrant and a sage; the second seems physically weak, but endowed with true inner strength. Only somewhere in the background we discern hints of a different assessment of the Dionysian: for example, the Bacchae happily talk about how they tear a deer to pieces with their hands. Gradually, the situation turns upside down: from a victim, Dionysus turns into a persecutor, and the bacchantes no longer tear apart a beast, but a man—joy turns into villainy. A symmetrical design with a reversal of roles is found in Euripides and in other “revenge tragedies”, recall at least the pairs Medea - Jason, Phaedra - Hippolytus. In “The Bacchae,” the gradual emergence of the destructive principle, its ominous power from under the light and joyful, creates a delightful dramatic dynamic, which this tragedy surpasses many others.

In Terzopoulos's performance, Dionysus and the chorus of maenads are from the very beginning full of strength, vindictiveness and wild frenzy; they are at once formidable pursuers, rather than the pursued. From the first minutes we understand how the roles will be distributed here, what the invasion of the bloody eastern deity and his retinue threatens Pentheus with. Terzopoulos leaves no room for development. Just as he leaves no room for the comic element characteristic of Euripides, abandoning the funny genre scene where two decrepit old men, Pentheus’s grandfather Cadmus and the blind prophet Tiresias, crowned with ivy and holding thyrsi in their hands, supporting each other so as not to fall, go to the mountain Kiferon to worship the new god and take part in orgies.

For Terzopoulos, as often happened with adherents of the venerable European tradition who sought the path to ancient Greek tragedy through ritual, The Bacchae turned out to be just an excuse for physical and vocal training. It must be admitted that here he achieved impressive results.

Orgiastic frenzy rages in the performance in strict geometric forms, referring to something oriental. Face masks - to the Japanese tradition, synchronicity and discipline - to the North Korean parade. And this, of course, is not accidental - after all, Dionysus comes from the East, from Phrygia and Persia.

Trained, beautiful maenads of both sexes, dressed in black and marked with the sign of Dionysus, a red snake flowing from the ear through the neck to the chest, regroup this way and that around their leader and chant in chorus, while managing not to lose their light vibrato - special breathing exercise. The maenads have red scarves in their hands. Black with splashes of red - this is the general design solution of the performance. This should be frightening and suggest the idea of serious bloodshed. When the backdrop opens and we see old Cadmus (Oleg Bazhanov) on a hospital gurney, it turns out that he is surrounded by countless IVs with donor blood. Oh, this blood will soon be shed, because it is precisely this that flows in the veins of Pentheus. And if you add that Dionysus (virtuoso Elena Morozova) carries with him a red square, against which initiates rub their noses from time to time - they take communion, it becomes clear that even the most absent-minded viewer will not escape this haunting metaphor. But what the glowing blue cylinder means, which appears every now and then in the hands of Pentheus, on the contrary, remains unclear.

Blaming the director for disrespecting the text is bad form today. And yet, it is precisely in Terzopoulos’s lack of real interest in the various semantic shades of Euripides’ tragedy that the reason for the failure of the Moscow “Bacchae” lies. Although, in general, “The Bacchae” in Moscow is already a success, an excellent repertoire move and a good start to the educational program that Boris Yukhananov planned in his new Electrotheater.

The first premiere of the newly opened Stanislavsky Electrotheater was a play by Theodoros Terzopoulos. The Greek master staged “The Bacchae” three times in different parts of the world (by the way, the director opened his own theater “Attis” in Athens with the tragedy of Euripides), the Moscow version is the fourth. It is unlikely to please everyone without exception. Deliberate ritualism may well irritate, and the embedded meaning may seem too abstract. However, it’s worth taking a closer look; there is definitely no more technical and spectacular spectacle in Moscow. Yes, and parallels with modern reality can also be found if desired.

"Bacchae"

Before the viewer is not so much a performance as a ritual, a demonstration of divine power. King Pentheus did not recognize Dionysus as a god, and he paid for it. God convinced him to dress up as a woman in order to watch the Bacchae rampages in the forest thickets for the glory of Dionysian power. The Bacchae mistook the disguised king for a lion and tore him to pieces. The instigator of the cruel and senseless execution was Pentheus' mother Agave. The bloody myth fits perfectly into today's times. It is impossible to cope with the collective unconscious. It stronger than reason and instincts.

"Bacchae"

This wild, irrational force interests Terzopoulos. The actors portraying the bacchantes diligently portray frenzy. In a special way, they breathe loudly and terribly, writhe in terrible convulsions, look into the auditorium with unseeing eyes, and smile with bloody lips. A slight trembling hits them. Not everyone succeeds convincingly, but it is impossible not to note the efforts (including physical ones). What is striking for sure is the accuracy and precision of the mise-en-scène. The play has a very rigid structure, yet the entire “storyboard” is easy to remember. Space cleared of signs of time, impeccable light, costumes of incredible beauty (colors: black and red). The actors are “placed” around the stage like pieces in a chess game.

"Bacchae"

It was a great success that actresses Elena Morozova (Dionysus and the Second Messenger) and Alla Kazakova (Agave) took part in the play. Both are amazingly good, one is in the image of a demon-tempter, writhing like a snake, inciting, taking revenge. The other plays the role of a mother-child killer, distraught with grief. You believe every moan, sob, and squeal unconditionally, despite the absolute conventionality of what is happening (the severed head of Pentheus is made of rubber, the bloody traces that Agave leaves are scraps of red fabric). At the end of the play, Terzopoulos takes the stage himself to sing a phrenos (an ancient funeral lament). He mourns, apparently, for everyone - it is dangerous to resist gods and deities, it is pointless to believe, there is no way out. In a word, ancient Greek tragedy as it is.

You wanted to get away from the daily bustle and be transported for a while to a completely unusual and amazing world? Tickets to the play “The Bacchae” at the Stanislavsky Electrotheater will help you plunge into the history of Ancient Greece and witness the violent conflict between the offended god Dionysus and King Pentheus.

A talented person is talented in everything

Director Theodoros Terzopoulos is widely known for his unconventional approach to staging ancient Greek tragedies. He easily translates violent energy, a cocktail of acute emotions and unbridled feelings into a clear and coherent form, inherent in all his productions. At the same time, they seamlessly combine the professionalism of mature artists with the boundless enthusiasm of their younger colleagues.

Theodoros is talented in everything. He not only directs his productions, but also personally designs the sets and selects costumes. In Greece he is also known as the author of several books on theater theory and a successful teacher. Terzopoulos easily combines the preparation of performances with the activities of the International Committee of the Theater Olympiad, where he works as chairman. Moreover, thanks to his efforts, the International Collection of Ancient Drama was founded in Corinth.

The play “The Bacchae” combines the classical traditions of the tragedies of Ancient Greece with the traditions theatrical productions our country. The plot is adapted for understanding by the Russian viewer, while it does not lose its essence and principles. The main requirement that Theodoros places on all actors participating in the production is complete dedication, no restrictions and an endless flow of energy.

Divine lawlessness or triumph of justice?

According to the classic plot of the myth written by Euripides, Dionysus, upon returning to his hometown, discovers that all its inhabitants, led by King Pentheus, categorically refuse to recognize his divine origin and worship him. The angry Dionysus sends madness to the Theban women, including Pentheus’s mother.

Distraught women go to the elephants of Mount Cithaeron to indulge in bacchanalia - orgies and festivities in honor of Dionysus. Pentheus, faced with an insoluble conflict of logic and instincts, tries to prevent the actions of the cult, which ultimately leads to very sad consequences.

Plunge into the world of vivid emotions and a riot of imagination! By purchasing tickets to the play “The Bacchae,” you are guaranteed to enjoy the non-trivial production of the classic ancient Greek myth.

Tiresias: But a citizen is harmful if he is brave and eloquent,
He, having power, is deprived of meaning.

Boris Yukhananov began with the miracle of pacification of the troupe of the former drama theater named after K.S. Stanislavsky, and the humane Greek director, through difficult training, created the conditions for the success of the premiere performance. It’s interesting how Yukhananov’s “miracle” is explained by him in an interview on the Culture channel - he took a different look at the troupe, which stubbornly “ate” one artistic director after another. The newest artistic director acted in an unearthly wise way - he saw in the troupe enchanting beauty, an untouched “natural landscape”, a collection of actors of all ages and degrees of talent. Let’s say right away that the play “The Bacchae” is a serious test for any, even the most trained and united troupe. And the “Stanislav” actors and actresses, trained by Terzopoulos and motivated by Yukhananov’s creative program, passed the exam with flying colors.

Background

Speaking about the beginning of the theater, we come up against the mythical beginning of man himself. According to one version myth Zeus incinerated the titans (or chthonic Typhon), who tore Dionysus apart, and from the ashes of the giants, which contained the divine flesh of the eaten Dionysus, people emerged. Here is an explanation of the duality of man, who came from a mixture of good and evil: something from God, something from monsters. And this is the most naive explanation, because the secret of a myth will always slip away, because a myth (metote - dance, meet - meeting) is a meeting with a secret. Indeed, why did Typhon tear apart Dionysus, and the bacchantes Pentheus, the demigod’s cousin? And what is valuable in the Bacchic dance, so skillfully and authentically restored by Terzopoulos?

Method

Practice

The performance begins with an air defense siren, and a real Bacchic ritual begins in alarm. The most important thing in the play is the search for an ancient ritual, otherwise everything would seem like an empty postmodern form, when images of modernity are strung onto an ancient text. Of course, there are “high-tech” elements – for example, several hollow tubes illuminated from the inside with blue tubes. These tubes reminded me of the unforgettable connection tube from the movie “Assa”. Terzopoulos's favorite red square, replacing the mask of Dionysus - Elena Morozova, also took place.

What else was extraordinary on stage? There was also Alla Kazakova in the role of Agave, the mother of Pentheus. Her long work with Anatoly Vasiliev at the “School of Dramatic Art” was felt. The text of the mad mother, who tore off her son's head in a paroxysm of Dionysianism and gradually realized the nightmare that had occurred, was pronounced by the half-naked actress as if she had visited those Bacchic mountains. In general, it was amazing to hear the voices of actors and actresses. Even the “auxiliary” voices of the palace people, played by the more or less “elderly” cast of the troupe, at peak moments turned into that very single voice of Valerie Dreville. In fact, the role of the French woman in the play “Medea” by Anatoly Vasilyev was the only “Bacchic,” ritual, shamanic role in the entire existence of the Russian theater. And now we can listen to how Morozova turns consonants into vowels, how she explodes, emitting pure energy instead of sound. And although it is naive to hope for an understanding of the Bacchic cult and Greek myths, after seeing “The Bacchae” by Terzopoulos, we can well understand the connection between the mysteries of Ancient Greece and the Moscow theatrical process. We can receive the ancient impulse to travel into the “unknown fields of Memory”, where the essence of man is redefined.

If the gods submit to fate, then people even more so. As a certain professor, a specialist in black magic, said at the Patriarch's Ponds, man is not just mortal, but suddenly mortal, and schizophrenia is completely normal for a two-legged creature. Only a thin film separates a person from Chaos. The bad thing is that you can break it completely by accident, unnoticed by yourself. Nobody will tell you: stop, it's dangerous. If he does, then according to the rules of ancient Greek tragedy, it is too late.

The truth of life is terrible. Therefore, in Greek theaters, after a tragedy, they immediately performed a comedy. In order to avoid a mental crisis among the audience. Today's theaters are not so humane. They give you tragedy, but you somehow look for comedy yourself; after all, there is champagne at the buffet. What I mean is that the Greek director Theodoros Terzopoulos staged Euripides’ “The Bacchae” at the Stanislavsky Electrotheater - the performance is heavy, gloomy, and if you take the content of the tragedy seriously, it tears the viewer apart.

Do you need to co-tune your soul with such an action? I don't think so necessarily. Not everyone can take what happens on stage to heart. Nevertheless, there is a chance to enjoy the performance. The performance was done professionally. Everything is calculated down to the millimeter, both the costumes and the music and the actors’ movements. A great working art machine. Just very gloomy.

Let's figure out why the Greek director did not spare the viewer. The tragedy of “The Bacchae” is the revenge of Dionysus on the inhabitants of the city for the disrespect shown. It must be said that the ruler of Thebes, Pentheus, is quite an adequate person. Defended order and law. Protected the state from Chaos. The trouble is that in Ancient Hellas this was...a reckless and thankless task. It was later that the primacy of legal law was established in Rome, and in Hellas the gods were above all else.

Pentheus sided with the state order and dug his own grave. Disrespect for the gods was punishable in Rome, but there was no conflict between the power of the gods and state power. Theodoros Terzopoulos interpreted this conflict in his own way. He presented the state as a media empire, as metaphorically conveyed in one of the key scenes by the monitor on the head of the ruler of Thebes.

The action of the play is largely built on plastic scenes, on music inducing a trance, but ultimately it seems to be strung on the main character - Dionysus. He is played brilliantly with full dedication by the talented Elena Morozova. He plays both with his voice and body, and with what can be called internal vibrations.

Despite all the avant-garde that shows through the extravagant costumes, scenery and music, this is a truly Greek tragedy, as it was two thousand years ago. From here it’s funny to see how the germ of farce tries to break through in the deliberately serious director’s work. This happens twice. The first is when the figure of old Cadmus appears, hung with droppers of red liquid. The second, when the inhabitants of Thebes in multi-colored comic costumes of the 30s of the last century stand from the first row in the auditorium.

Every time a farce bursts into action in this way, you are deceived and wait, now it will explode, and chaos will begin on stage with rap reading and a demonstration of Andy Warhol’s paintings, but no, the performance quickly returns to its previous course and moves on without any surprises . Maybe even against the will of the director. After all, he said in one of his interviews that he wanted to transform the traditional Greek choir into a chapel for Syrian refugees.

You won’t see any farce, comedy or parody, and not at all because the maestro lacked the courage. No. This is simply the modern European reality and the director feels it well. Today it is clearer than ever that European order is separated from Chaos by the thinnest film, in which huge holes have already been made. Neither the EU authorities nor Theodoros Terzopoulos know what to do with the threat looming over the continent. Where does optimism or even ridicule come from?

So, if you are ready to plunge into the abyss of terrible passions with a bad ending, welcome to “The Bacchae” at the Stanislavsky Electric Theater. If you don’t like tragedies, then by turning off your emotional apparatus, you can simply enjoy the extraordinary plasticity of the actors, good music and action in its classical ancient Greek sense. The director did a great job with this.