One morning, the barber Ivan Yakovlevich finds himself stuffing a loaf of bread. It turned out that it was … the nose of his client, the chartered advisor Kovalev. How could this happen? Meanwhile, the nose put on a uniform (!) and began to appear in secular society.
Mysticism and fantasy and, at the same time, an instructive story. The genre of the work is “an unusually strange incident.” It was staged at the Gomel Drama Theater (honored collective of the Republic of Belarus) by the famous Russian director Roman Gabria, chief director of the St. Petersburg Workshop Theater, Honored Artist of the Republic of South Ossetia.
An unexpected and original solution: some artists give voice to others. Those on stage work only with their bodies, in silence (except for Nose himself: he speaks in his own voice. He has no voice, only at the beginning: “Good evening”, and then he spit out someone else’s voice and spoke the same. ). This is Major Kovalev, the barber, the police chief. The actors in the orchestra pit (Narrators) live the action with their voices. Like in a movie studio. But the Narrators also appear from time to time on stage in the images of Gogol and the Lady in Black.
The artistic director of the theater Sergei Lagutenko, actor (roles: barber and police chief), told RG:
– As it turned out, Roman Gabria came to us with a performance, which he conceived, composed and during rehearsals everything changed radically, even on the day of the premiere some new changes appeared. Only during the general review did I realize that our “Nose” is such a theatrical “Hedgehog in the Fog” by Norshtein! There was some resistance from the actors, I won’t hide it. Roman is a “handsome southern guy”, we are southern Belarusians… “You have your own performance in your head, I have mine, I do something else,” he told an artist in our theater. “If the actors understand me, then I am happy with the result.” Gabria is a great provocateur, in a good way.
This is the first time our performance leaves Gomel. In our house not everyone received it strongly, the room was not full. And someone is delighted. If the audience leaves the performance cursing: “we have learned everything,” I call this ossification, unwillingness to accept the new, the unusual and move on. Shouldn’t theater be amazing? By Any Means. The performance can be accepted or categorically not accepted, the medium is Camoletti or Kuni.
Direct speech
Román Gabria, director:
– “Major Kovalev’s Nose” is my second production at the Gomel Drama Theater. The first was “Pushkin. Small Tragedies”, about the fate of the Russian poet. Therefore, there was an amazing mutual understanding with the company.
The performance solution is really unusual. The phantasmagoric genre of the story forced me to look for a symmetrical scenic solution. To achieve the reality effect of the story, I suggested that some artists (those on stage) exist in a special animated aesthetic. And for others who give you voices, work as if you were dubbing an animation. It was an interesting process. We couldn’t master this technique right away. But when everything went well, we were happy!
