In the Moscow Art Theater. Gorky staged a special screening of the play "Laurel" based on the novel of the same name by Russian writer Yevgeny Vodolazkin, who, according to The Guardian, was included in the top 10 best books of world literature about God. And although the premiere of Lavra, which had been preparing for several years, thundered in December last year, the passions around the new production by artistic director Eduard Boyakov do not even think to subside.
The play runs for 3.5 hours, but looks in one go. Boyakov managed to transfer the complex work to the stage and make the story about the life of the medieval physician Arseny quite fascinating. In the course, however, he starts up any means. For example, he invited famous artists to the main roles. We see Leonid Yakubovich in a long cassock. And no one is embarrassed that the intonations of the medieval elder Nikandr, whom he plays, sometimes painfully remind the famous phrase from the "Field of Miracles": "We turn the drum."
Dmitry Pevtsov appeared in two guises at once: first he reads the text as a narrator, and then, with gray hair and the same beard, turns into an aged Lavra. And 42-year-old Alisa Grebenshchikova, playing Ustina, in one of the scenes appears before the viewer practically naked, remaining only in transparent panties.
Other decisions of the director also sparked controversy. In particular, some viewers thought it was a vulgar scene when three village men come to a healing practitioner, turn their backs to the viewer and take off their trousers. He carefully examines their households, asks when they washed for the last time, and, hearing the answer, sighs:
- How do you women let in such dirty places ?!
In addition to ancient music, the performance is decorated with fancy bouquets of various smells: incense, meadow grasses and much more. But it's better to smell and see once than hear a hundred times.