Onegin. Commentaries
Alvis Hermanis - New Riga Theatre
23/05/2013
, 
21:00
24/05/2013
, 21:00
from “Eugene Onegin” by Alexander Pushkin
direction Alvis Hermanis
with Kristīne Krūze, Sandra Zvīgule, Vilis Daudziņš, Kaspars Znotiņš, Ivars Krasts, Andris Keišs
set design Andris Freibergs
computer graphic Ineta Sipunova
video Gatis Builis
lights Arturs Skujiņš-Meijiņš
make-up, hairdresser Sarmīte Balode
stage director Zane Staņa
stage technicians Jānis Liniņš, Andris Skotelis
Jaunais Rīgas Teātris
Running time 2h 40’
National premičre
Played in Latvian with Italian simultaneous translation. Pushkin’s verses will be played in Russian.
Internationally renowned artist, acclaimed by critics as Master on the international scene, the Latvian director Alvis Hermanis, that the audience of Teatro Storchi would remember for the successful Emilia Romagna Teatro production Le signorine di Wilko, comes back to Modena at VIE Festival for the third time. In the past years he has presented By Gorky, Sonja and two years ago Kapusvētki - Graveyard party.
Hermanis’ international success is determined not only by the quality of his plays but also by the continuous research in developing his style and by the his creativity in finding resources hybridizing different stylistic languages. According to his recent productions inspired by the great Russian writers, Hermanis here will stage Onegin. Commentaries based on the novel Eugene Onegin by the great Russian writer Alexander Pushkin.
For those who have not read Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin, this story might seem like an exalted unhappy love story – an opinion made mainly by the famous Tchaikovsky opera. For the writer’s contemporaries, however, this book became a detailed testimony of the era, describing the Russian society in the first half of the 19th century.
The performance focuses not only on Pushkin’s story itself but also on the historical context that explains the novel. The texts written by Pushkin stand along with the commentaries of different authors but mainly those by the legendary semiotic Yuri Lotman. Lotman considered that reading a historical text requires the complete knowledge of the everyday residential rituals’ archeology that, for the contemporary reader, remains hidden behind the writer’s words.
In Onegin. Commentaries, one part of audience will see a discussion about shame and honesty in different times and cultures; the others will find a paraphrase about the ambiguity of literary text and the unlimited possibilities of interpretation in the contemporary theatre. (That is why the argument “this is not Pushkin!” is stupid, because who, except maybe the shot poet himself, exactly knows “who is Pushkin”?) Somebody else will see a leisured pastime, watching two giggling teenage girls wrapping two freaks around their finger. And only in the end of performance when you see the numb, marble-pale faced Tatyana (performed by Kristīne Krūze) in a somnambulist peace and with tears overflowing her face, ripping out de profundis the nightmare-like, half-Russian/half-Latvian Pushkin’s verses about love, friendship, and killing the feelings, you realize that in this couple of hours you have faced something really precious.
Normunds Naumanis, Diena (Kultūras Diena), 26/04/2012
This is a playful but, undoubtedly, revealing research. (..) Lotman and the New Riga Theatre team take a picture of the past in the flashlight and illuminate people living in rules set by other people, trying hard to not infringe them, because in that case they wouldn’t have happiness or fulfillment, although there will never be any inside these traditions. That is why Tatyana accepts safe but loveless marriage after Onegin’s subtle refusal. (..) The caricatured figure of Pushkin is a version about the genius, about the fact that outstanding literature is not always written by socially and morally outstanding personality. And finally, it is a great investigation of the era in the artistic vision of set designer Andris Freibergs. ‘Search in writings’, an inscription on the wall of Misiņš’ library in Riga suggests. It’s really worth it; however it takes a lot of resolve and strength. But this is all ready to come to. Don’t miss it.
Toms Treibergs, arterritory.com, 10/04/2012
www.jrt.lv
Alvis Hermanis - New Riga Theatre
Alvis Hermanis, born in 1965, since 1997 is the artistic director of the New Riga Theatre (NRT). From 1987 until now has signed several productions including Oblomow, Ruf der Wildnis, Friedhofsfest (Kapusvētki), Ziedonis and Univers, Black Milk, Maidens from Wilka, Late neighbors and many other.
He has also won many prestigious awards, including the Award of Konrad Wolf in 2010 – about his work in German speaking countries, Berlin, Germany; Ziedonis and Universe was awarded as “The Best Performance of Latvian Drama” of the fall 2009/10 (Annual Show of the Theatre Performances in Latvia);he was awarded „Best director” at International Theatre festival Kontakt (Torun, Poland); with Martha from the Blue Hill, Grandfather he won the Grand Prix at the International Theatre festival Kontakt (Torun, Poland); Shukshin's Stories won the National Theatre Award of Russia The "Golden Mask" in the nomination "Drama/Best Large Scale Production".
