The performance “Masquerade” based on Lermontov’s play,
that was released in the Vakhtangov Theatre is a new copyright version of the
“Masquerade” staged Rimas Tuminas in 1997 in the Vilnius Maly Drama
Theatre. The Vakhtangov actors have managed to fill with new content the
familiar to the theater connoisseurs form.The snow falls down to the sounds of Khachaturian Waltz.This company is playing by the rules of play, not are
different from the ones Tuminas offered to the Lithuanian actors in the first
stage-version in 1997. Interpretation of characters in one version and in the
other is quite different from each other, but one should not compare them for a
very simple reason. The Lithuanian “Masquerade” was on Moscow stage for only a
couple of days, and it was seen just by critics and people attracted to the
theatre. As for the Vakhtangov “Masquerade”, it will be available for
anyone.They will face a challenging and a most beautiful
snow-white production in Moscow.
The stage is covered with a thick layer of artificial snowflakes. The set
designer Adomas Yatskovskis has replaced the gambling house and ballrooms,
described in the play by an empty space with tombstones and a graceful statue
of a woman, very much alike with an abandoned cemetery. Snowflakes are falling
down from the sky, and the blizzard is accompanied by a disquieting waltz of
Aram Khachaturian, that sounds over and over again, becoming the leitmotif of
the performance.