García Márquez’s short stories staged in a theater where dolls look so much like people

In Moscow, the premiere of a production based on short stories by the author of the famous novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude”, a writer from Colombia, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, took place. The works of this writer are not often transferred to the stage, but the even more uniqueness of the new performance is that it was staged at the Obraztsov Puppet Theater. The director of the staging of the play, consisting of three short stories, called "The Old Senior and…", Viktor Nikonenko, hatched this idea for many years. The result was a performance in which he became not only a director, but also a stage designer.

Each of the short stories that served as the basis for the play is a story about how an unusual meeting brings the hero happiness. For the first time, stories difficult for the stage embodiment, told a special language characteristic of the puppet theater. The dolls playing in the play come to life on stage, becoming like movie characters. Human-growth puppets move around the stage with the help of canes and acting hands. Actors first had to work with dolls of this type

During the performance, a light effect called the “black cabinet” is used, thanks to which only dolls are visible on the stage. For the movement of some of them, not one actor is responsible, but several at once. Viktor Nikonenko says that the doll on the stage in the hands of the master can become absolutely alive, while what is possible for her is not available to any dramatic actor.

Accompaniment of the performance by the melody of a live saxophone, the author of which is the famous Russian saxophonist Alexei Kozlov, and the performer is his student Ivan Dyma, gives the puppet world even more charm and magic. The play is available for any age, but kids who perceive the action more directly may interfere with other viewers.

Ludmila Trautmane