The Bolshoi Theater hosted the premiere of the play “War and Peace of Tolstoy,” which became a guide to the famous novel

ST. PETERSBURG. The premiere of the original stage reading of “War and Peace” was presented at the BDT. It is hard to imagine how it would be possible to embody such a large-scale novel by Leo Tolstoy on stage. However, Viktor Ryzhakov decided that there was no point in retelling the text of the novel; one should not try to create illustrations for the chapters of “War and Peace” using stage techniques.

The authors of the performance offered the audience a kind of tour of individual chapters of Tolstoy’s novel. The subtitle for the play, called “War and Peace of Tolstoy,” warns in advance about its genre. “Guide to the novel” - this phrase fully determines the content of the performance. For some viewers, this approach will be an occasion for a more thorough acquaintance with the Tolstoyan epic.

The creators of the performance took the audience on a tour of the novel for only two hours. However, everyone knows that the duration of the tour is not as important as the competence of the guide and his ability to present his knowledge to the public. Spectators who went on a tour of the famous novel were lucky - in the role of an employee of the museum, Natalia Ilyinichna, on the stage of the BDT, the unique Alisa Freindlich.

The guide, a miniature lady in modest but elegant clothes, looks like a teacher with a penetrating look. It is not for nothing that she constantly reminds viewers about ridiculous phrases from school essays devoted to "War and Peace." It is possible that Alice Freindlich embodies the image of Natasha Rostova, who has become our contemporary, because among the representatives of the families designated by the author in the play, there is no favorite character.

The audience perceived the performance differently, but there was no one indifferent to the performance in the hall. The feelings of the public in the final scenes were especially affected - the director presented the audience three finals.

Ludmila Trautmane © Gallerix.ru