Borisov's Works: how was the theatrical performance on Vodolazkin's "Laurel"?
The Bolshoi was looking for the image of a saint, but instead of the usual church chants, Massive Attack music was playing, the Spartak–Zenit football match was being shown on the projector, and Yura Borisov was filming what was happening on camera. This is how the second stage of the creative laboratory of the future film adaptation of Evgeny Vodolazkin's novel "The Laurel" took place. The writer and actor read the text of the book to the music of composer and conductor Peter Dranga, and the audience became not only witnesses of the experiment, but also its participants. Izvestia attended an unusual evening where the idea of a future painting was born.
Smile, Yura Borisov is filming you.
At the entrance to the hall, visitors were presented with scrolls stylized to resemble ancient manuscripts with the text by Evgeny Vodolazkin. In them, the writer invited the public to become participants in an unusual experiment. The audience's task was not limited to watching the performance: after it was over, everyone could share their impressions and reflections in front of the cameras installed in the lobby.
Since what was happening was called a creative laboratory, anything could happen during the performance. For example, the Spartak–Zenit football match was shown on the big screen, and the Izvestia columnist was sitting among the orchestra and cameramen right on stage, in front of the auditorium.
Together with us, the direct participants in the experiment were the actress Agatha Muceniece, the wife of the conductor Peter Dranga and the composer Igor Nikolaev. Karmacoma of the band Massive Attack sounds. Camera shutters click. In such an atmosphere, a new "Laurel" is born. And the creator of the novel, writer Evgeny Vodolazkin, takes part in this process.
Before the speech, he told reporters that his book is about foolishness. This is one of the forms of holiness, and the most difficult, the author believes. The writer believes that this topic requires a special inner disposition from the performer, and it is precisely these qualities that he sees in Yuri Borisov.
— I'm not a fan of compliments, but Yura Borisov is an outstanding person. Of course, you can't play a saint. But you can get closer. I think that of all the actors I know now, he is the one who is called upon to play this role," Evgeny Vodolazkin told Izvestia.
Evgeny Vodolazkin
At 19:15, Yura Borisov appeared on stage with a camera. The image was transmitted to the projector in real time. Now Muscovites are caught in the actor's lens, just like the audience of the Mariinsky Theater before. The chorus sounds, Vodolazkin reads his own text, and Borisov, sitting in the foreground, pronounces his own overlap.
Fragments of documentary footage of laboratory preparations, a choreographic number with broken plastic performed by a dancer in nude underwear, and even the song "Magadan" are woven into this long narrative. Suddenly, the reciters and musicians are joined by men in construction clothes, who dump a pile of white stones onto the stage.
The reading covers the main events of the book: life with Grandfather Christopher, Ustina's love and death, wandering and foolishness, pilgrimage to Jerusalem, schema and death of Arseny. But Vodolazkin's text is not a script for a future film. It will form the basis of the painting, and the fragments used will be preserved without transformations.
A significant part of the laboratory is music. It was written by composer Peter Dranga. He was standing at the conductor's desk. Dranga has been working on the music for six months, but the performance at the Bolshoi Theater is not yet the final version. In the score, he used one of the themes of the church chant of the XV century. But the most important thing for him is the choir. It is the voice that becomes a key element not only of theatrical and literary narration, but also of music.
From the laboratory to the big movie
Performance at the Bolshoi is the second experience of this kind. The first stage of the laboratory took place on October 21 at the Mariinsky Theatre. For Borisov, the reading at the Bolshoi was an important event: his wife Anna Shevchuk, mother and grandmother were present in the front row.
— This is a special and personal evening for me. There were moments of real silence," the actor confessed.
"The Laurel" is Vodolazkin's most famous work, which in 2013 won the Yasnaya Polyana and the Big Book awards. Several performances have been staged based on the novel. The most notable is Eduard Boyakov on the stage of the Gorky Moscow Art Theater, released in 2020. The film will be directed by Anton Fedorov, one of the key representatives of the modern theater. He has nothing to do with performances at the Mariinsky and Bolshoi. They were directed by Galina Zaltsman.
The producer of the project, Sergey Katyshev, assured that the filming of the main picture is already underway. The premiere is tentatively scheduled for 2028. Yura Borisov will act in it not only as the main actor, but also as a co-producer. So far, he remains the only approved actor. However, his last name in the credits already guarantees the attention of the public and critics.
The Lavr performance became for Borisov a kind of continuation of his theatrical career, to which, albeit briefly, he returned thanks to the role of Hamlet in Andrei Goncharov's play of the same name at the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater. The actor played the Prince of Denmark for almost six months, but had to give up the role due to heavy film work. On November 5, he performed the play for the last time. He has now been replaced by a young actor, Oliver Mara.
Yuri Borisov can confidently be called the golden antelope for cinema producers. The story of cosmic ticket prices at the Moscow Art Theater is widely known. The public reading of the Lavra was no exception. The tickets were posted on September 8 and sold out in 10 minutes, although prices reached 100 thousand rubles per seat in the stalls.
As Sergey Katyshev hinted to journalists, the laboratory in the Bolshoi is not the last one. Moreover, the announced film "Laurel" is also likely to be not the only project related to this story. And the fragments shot by Borisov may appear in the picture itself. However, so far all participants are more interested in creative search. And whether the audience should go to such experiments is up to everyone to decide for themselves.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
