Mono-performances are very difficult to understand, one actor must keep
the eye of the audience on him with the help of his word and
callisthenics. Georgian famous producer Robert Sturua, who is the guest
of the third international theatre festival “Armmono” and whose
pageants have been staged around the world, said: “a good producer is
first of all a spectator, he must look at his staging with the eyes of
the future spectators”.
Sturua states, that it has already been a long time, that dramatic
theatre has become part of the producer. But monotheatre is first of
all a dramatic theatre. It is impossible to hide what the actors can do
during mono-performances, a “weak” actor can’t do well. This year
“Armmono” gave preferences to Shakespeare, whose texts already contain
big passion and are deep, and the experiments with his heroes can go
very far. But Shakespeare can also confuse the actor, because the
leading and the only actor on the stage must bear everything himself.
It is impossible to stage the plot in its entirety: you must find
unexpected solutions.
Shailok, who arrived from the country of Shakespeare
British actor Garet Armstrong, who passed an excellent actor’s school
and worked at Shakespeare royal theatre, brought to Yerevan the
marvelous interpretion of the most interesting figure of “the Trader of
Venice” play-Shailok. Jewish pawnbroker Shailok asks from Antonio, who
was bankrupted, to give a piece of his body to him, proving the
delusion, that all the Jewish people are unpleasant, they have big and
bevel noses and don’t have any sense of conscience. In any case,
Shailok was described like this in the times of Shakespeare, though
there were no Jewish people in England in the Middle Age, and
Shakespeare was not familiar with the representatives of that nation.
The Jewish, who had been banished from England, live in Ghetto city in
Venice. For a a long time much was spoken about actors, who had played
this role and interpreted the figure of Shailok. In addition, Jewish
history was being presented: starting from Movses, Huda, Mariam, Jesus
and ending up with the gas chambers, made by Hitler, and with bearing
the star of David by a Jewish actor. There are practically no props and
musical meddling is at a minimum. Everything is built on the actor’s
word, and since it is in English and very difficult, it leaves the
spectators kind of confused. Though the text is really interesting, it
is very much like historic excursions or lectures. Armstrong is very
good, changes his intonation very flexibly and very fast. He tells
about Shailok in the name of Shailok’s friend Tabul, about whom
Shakespeare wrote several sentences in ”the Trader of Venice”. And in
this one hour and thirty minutes staging (this is a record for
monoperformances) the British actor tries to change the history and
stage injustice, pushing forward secondary personage of pawnbroker
Shailok, who is canny, hates Christians and is led by his vengeance
will. The figures made by the previous British actors are very
interesting and Shakespeare, starting from major actor of Shakespeare
theatre Richard Birbage, and ending up with Shakespeare the Shailoks of
Henry Ervine and Edmun Kini. Armstrong doesn’t play Shailok, he
interprets that figure and also points out, that Shailok, who makes
devilment as an answer to devilment, might be a victim. This staging is
very general and meanwhle a little boring. And it is a pity, that the
Theatre university students left the hall in the middle of the
performance. They could learn a lot.
The Lir King of Karen Janibekyan
The figure of Lir needs to be worked out. The king, who used to be
strong and proud, needs nobody now, but he is alone and left by
everyone. First, his daughters don’t need him. The tragedy of Lir is
not his loneliness , but not being able to realize that loneliness. Lir
makes his decision to leave the ruling power and thus becomes
”nothing”. Janibekyan-Lire plays when the king has already left, his
relations with people are left in the past. He only remembers this,
impends the sky, recalling the bad behaviour of his daughters. He tells
parts from different monologues, being placed sometimes in the role of
king, and sometimes in the role of a jester, because, according to
Shakespeare, too much knowledge makes a person either crazy or a
jester. Lir-Janibekyan is simply in a cobweb (the decoration is like
this) and sees no way out of it. The audience likes Janibekyan and
expects an impressing play, but the performance is ”weak” and doesn’t
have general design. Janibekyan-Lir is already down and has become an
unclean and helpless old man and writes thoughts about his life. But
his thoughts don’t make tragedic impressions, maybe because of the
absence of a strong voice or because of poor staging. Janibekyan can be
a very successful Lir, there are tragic elements in his human
temperament, but showing his figure in ” the thoughts of king Lir”,
in the scopes of ”Armmono”, doesn’t develop and he turns into a
muttering old man, who can change his figure and become a jester, but
never a king.