The central idea during Boris Lvov-Anokhin's tenure as artistic director of the Novy Drama Theater has been to maintain a repertory of plays that are not running anywhere else in town. This has led him to stage works that either have never been performed in Moscow, such as Ferdinand Bruckner's "A Heroic Comedy" and Michael Redgrave's dramatization of Henry James' "The Aspern Papers," or which have not been seen here for decades.
Such is the case with the two plays making up the director's latest production, "Moscow Stories about Love and Marriage," which opens Saturday at 7 p.m. on the stage of the Sovremennik Theater. The show brings together two plays by the great Russian 19th-century playwright Alexander Ostrovsky. The first act consists of a pared-down, fairy tale version of the historical chronicle, "Tushino," while the second act presents the one-act comedy, "Incompatible Personalities," in its entirety.
Starring in "Tushino" as Lyudmila, a girl who defies her father to wed the boy she loves, is Marina Yakovleva. In "Incompatible Personalities," Oksana Mysina plays the central role of Serafima, a young widow who hopes her wealth will lead her to love. Mysina, whose most recent work was in the Chekhov Art Theater's new production of "The Main Thing," is best known for her starring turn in "K.I. from 'Crime'" at the Theater Yunogo Zritelya.
Lvov-Anokhin has developed a style that places great emphasis on the aesthetic appeal of stylization. Fans of the Novy Theater have seen in Lvov-Anokhin's method a stance of artistic principle that does not bend for fad or fashion, while critics of the director accuse him of being out of step with the times. When asked about his attitude toward fashion in a recent interview with the newspaper Kultura, or Culture, Lvov-Anokhin said, "Fortunately, I don't care. I'm free of that."
Some of the world's top directors - Yury Lyubimov, Anatoly Vasilyev, Tadashi Suzuki, Theodoros Terzopoulos and Declan Donnellan - gathered at a press conference last week to launch preparations for the third international Theater Olympics. The event will take place in Moscow in the year 2001. The centerpiece of the Olympics will be the Fourth Chekhov International Theater Festival which, for the first time, will include a large program of street theater from as far afield as Africa, Columbia and Brazil.
- John Freedman
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