Premiere in "Snuffbox" - performance "Kinaston". On the street there are autumn rains, the hall of the theater is covered with puddles from the shoes of the spectators who came, in the most unexpected places there are umbrellas that categorically refuse to accept in the wardrobe. Quite a London atmosphere.
Finally, all the umbrellas found where to stumble. The audience took their places, the ramp lit up and the story began, which happened a very long time in London forever in autumn. The story of the life of Edward Kinaston.
What is the performance about?
Kinaston is a performance, reviews of which are restrained. Enthusiastic tirades or negative comments are not written about him. Spectators who leave their opinions, however, like critics, select words very carefully. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the public presented the production of âKinastonâ by O. Tabakovâs theater, and itâs difficult to talk badly about the master and have no arguments. Or maybe the matter is in the performance itself.
The production tells the story of Edward Kinaston, the star of the theatrical London stage of the 17th century. At that time, London was literally obsessed with theater, the popularity of this art form and its demand was many times higher than those of today's television shows.
Kinaston became famous for performing female images, and legends still circulate about his Desdemona in the theatrical English milieu. The performance also tells about that moment in the life of the star when the decree of Charles the Second came out, obliging all English theater troupes to include women in the collective and to distribute roles according to the gender of the artists.
This decree killed many talented performers, although it gave the world many names of gifted actresses. The kingâs interest in the stage was not at all romantic stories, about which a large number of plays were written and staged, but a flare-up epidemic of syphilis among not only the nobility, but also the urban inhabitants. The spread of the disease was directly linked to the abundance of homosexual relationships, and theaters representing men as women were blamed for the dominance of same-sex love.
Thatâs exactly about this, about how the artist who gained fame and income from performing precisely female roles coped with the situation, who had many fans and patrons, but who has never played a single male character, is discussed in the play. About how Edward reacted to this situation, did he accept the decree of the king, what happened in the actorâs soul when some girl from the street spoiled the crookedness and miniscule "him" of Desdemon, about the internal crisis of a person who lost everything overnight. About what happened - the end has come or something new has begun. At the same time, Kinaston was already not young, and the global change that had befallen him coincided with a midlife crisis.
Who is author?
The play âKinastonâ in âThe Snuffboxâ, which collects generally positive reviews, is based on a play by an American playwright, screenwriter Jeffrey Hatcher, a popular Broadway writer. He was in love with the English theater school, the very history of the development and formation of this art in London. And he devoted a large number of his works to the heroes of those years.
Who is the director?
âKinastonâ is a performance, reviews of which invariably note the highest acting and directing, which defined a fine line between vulgarity and art, which allows revealing the most secret and complex breaks in the soul of the characters of the production and captivating the viewer with them.
Meanwhile, not one person worked on the story of Edward Kinaston, but a whole team. What viewers see and evaluate so highly is the result of joint work:
- Evgeny Pisarev - director and director;
- Zinovia Margolin - a stage designer;
- Maria Danilova - author of costumes;
- Alberts Alberts and Alexandra Konnikova - plastic directors;
- Karlis Latsis - composer;
- Alexander Sivaev - a lighting artist;
- Anna Petrova - master of speech production;
- Lyudmila Ulanova and Margarita Bezborodova - assistant directors.
It was thanks to the work of these people that the performance took place, promising to become the most demanded in the history of "Snuffbox".
Who is on stage?
At the premiere of "Snuffbox" in the play "Kinaston" the following composition of the troupe was announced:
- Maxim Matveev - Edward Kinaston, the main role.
- Mikhail Khomyakov - Thomas Betterton, famous in London, but already an old artist.
- Arthur Kasimov - Samuel Pips, aspiring writer, future author of Theatrical Diaries.
- Kirill Rubtsov or Peter Rykov - Willers, Duke of Buckingham, aristocrat and theater lover.
- Eugenia Borzykh or Natalya Popova - seamstress.
- Anna Goncharova - Lady Merisval, a rich lady, spectator, supporter of the introduction of women in the troupe.
- Anastasia Chernyshova - Miss Freyn, a wealthy girl of marriageable age, passionate about backstage life.
- Pavel Shevando - Sir Charles Sedley, philanthropist and patron of the entire troupe.
- Anna Chipovskaya - Margaret Hughes, officially - the first actress.
- Vitaly Egorov - Charles the Second, King.
- Anastasia Timushkova - Nell Gwin, the monarchâs mistress.
- Igor Petrov - Prime Minister Hyde.
- Alexander Kuzmin - Thomas Killigrew, owner.
- Isabelle Aiden - Elizabeth Barry, aspiring actress.
- Natalya Kachalova is the mistress of a local tavern.
- Alexander Limin - Peter Lelly, artist.
- Nikita Ufimtsev and Anastasia Bogatyreva - performers of the role of Emilia.
Many other artists are involved in the production, the so-called extras, that is, performing the roles of spectators, visitors to the tavern and residents of London.
How long does it take?
Kinaston is a performance whose reviews have never mentioned how long the action lasts. Meanwhile, the production takes three hours, filled with psychological moments that are important for understanding what is happening.
When going to the Snuffbox, you need to have not 3.5 hours in reserve, but at least 4, because the performance causes an irresistible desire to sit down at the nearest restaurant or bar and discuss what you saw or walk and think.
What do they say?
âKinastonâ - a performance that began to collect reviews before the first performance. This premiere was awaited by all Moscow theatergoers - both critics and spectators. Informational publications wrote about it long before the rehearsals began, and on the sidelines the performance was discussed even at the stage of selecting artists.
Therefore, a flurry of responses after the first performance did not follow either in theater forums, or on social networks, or on thematic portals. However, the opinions and comments left are full of the highest ratings of the actors' play, magnificent costumes, impeccable plastic and, of course, a dynamic action that does not allow distraction even for a minute are noted.