Forgotten 'Brigadier' Comes to Life

A thoroughly delightful production at the Theater Na Perovskoi of Denis Fonvizin's comedy, "The Brigadier," provides me a fine opportunity to sound off on one of my pet predilections.


Fonvizin, the first modern Russian playwright, wrote two plays, "The Brigadier" (1769) and "The Minor" (1782). Both were enormous successes. "The Minor" has continued to be staged on occasion into our time, even if it is usually intended as a kind of supplement for elementary school literature programs.


I've never understood the general infatuation with "The Minor." It is a head-banging, preachy comedy about a stupid husband and his cruel wife trying to marry off their moronic son. Fortunately for the sweet young girl, a forgotten, right-minded uncle enters at an opportune time and saves the day. Reason prevails, good wins out and evil gets its comeuppance. Typical 18th-century hash.


"The Brigadier," more or less ignored by history, is something else again.


Sure, there are more marriage complications in which the wrong kids are set to get hitched and the right ones have to overcome obstacles, but that's just the window-dressing. What has always attracted me to this comedy is the depiction of the characters' personalities. All of them are multifaceted and attractively flawed. I'm not talking about psychological depth; Russian drama wasn't ready for that in the 18th century. I mean quirky, messy people with big hearts and big appetites who repeatedly get themselves into and barely out of embarrassing situations.


The foppish, Frenchified groom designee puts serious moves on his voluptuous future mother-in-law, who is also being pursued just as hotly by the youth's father, the puffed-up Brigadier. Meanwhile, the Brigadier's divinely airheaded wife nearly falls victim to the designs of the bride's priggish father without ever knowing it; and the proudly enigmatic bride herself has a sweetheart on the side she is determined to see as her husband.


There are enough secret trysts, seductive glances, lusty embraces and stolen kisses going on here amidst the general mayhem to keep everybody on tenterhooks. Of course, everyone but the girl and her true love ends up with egg on his face, but that is part of the fun. Nobody gets taken to task and all the near-sins are happily forgotten. Hey, it could happen to anyone.


Co-directors Pyotr Shumeiko and Kirill Panchenko brought out the best in the play by making of it a colorful, musical, folkloric romp. Yury Popov's set suggests a modest, but idyllic Russian country estate; Lyubov Lapteva provided the lusciously flowery, frilly costumes.


One of the directors' shrewdest moves was to add to the cast the members of the Ladanka folk ensemble. This trio of women serves at times as a team of graceful, smiling servants, but more often they drift among the characters unseen like Russian fairies of love. These charming women flirt with the men, talk with the spectators, look on approvingly at the amorous shenanigans, and accompany it all with beautiful, soaring vocals.


The actual characters of the play are the salt of the earth.


As the Brigadier, Yury Sherstnyov is a harrumphing man of irritating military discipline who also has a twinkle in his eye and a great love of food. His wife (Galina Chigasova) -- according even to Dostoevsky, one of the great simpletons of Russian literature -- is so painfully naive she emerges as a fount of at least common sense, if not wisdom. Chigasova, often clucking like a chicken, hits harder on the naivete than the innate sagacity, but gives a warm and sympathetic performance.


Their son Ivanushka, an arrogant snob who has just returned from Paris and can't wait to go back, is endowed with an exalted air of boredom and self-adoration by Nikolai Maltsev. Spouting clumsy French phrases and recounting what a success he was in the Parisian salons -- every time he appeared everyone howled with laughter -- Ivanushka wins over the panting, eyelash-fluttering mother (Olga Prokhvatylo) of his bride-to-be in no time flat.


Ivanushka's intended, Sofya (Inna Verzhbitskaya), is a reserved, almost repressed young woman with a nasty temper. The only ones capable of keeping her in check are her father, the fastidious, tight-lipped Councillor (Viktor Nikitin), who drags her around by the ear, and her coldly haughty sweetheart Dobrolyubov (Oleg Zhukov) who comes in for property unexpectedly and changes the whole complexion of this marriage game.


I've always suspected "The Brigadier" was Fonvizin's best; now I'm certain. With this lighthearted, folk-oriented look at some appealing people and their very human follies, Shumeiko and Panchenko gloriously returned a forgotten play to life.


"The Brigadier" plays Dec. 21 at 7 p.m. at the Theater Na Perovskoi, 75 Ulitsa Perovskaya. Tel. 375-6609. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes.


John Freedman's next Stage Page will appear Jan. 6, 1998.