Face to face with tragedy

The performance of Punishment Without Revenge is a pilot project, played only for 60 spectators, seated at the stage to make them feel the black jaws of an empty theater hall that results in an even keener perception of the tragic peripeteia of the play. In it spectators should not expect the usual calmness. The action develops literally next to them and during its three acts their chairs are moved around the stage. Thus, people see each new stage of the tragedy in new perspective, becoming not only intimate observers but intellectual participants in an extraordinarily terse narration about individual sincerity of emotional impulses and the fetters of the behavioral norms of society, the fiery conflict between the cynical pragmatism of clan solidarity and two apostates, who disturbed it through their love.

The movement of the audience in the Odesa theater is skillfully synchronized with scenery changes. In fact, the scenery is not the background for the action but the actual scene of the tragedy, created by swift movement of huge canvases stretched on a wire diagonal to the stage. The heroes themselves form this spiritual space, instantaneously changing not only its geometry, but the symbolism and environment of the action. Against the stage's red background appear fantastic combinations of yellow and red, white and black, yellow, red and white... And behind the moving curtain there is the emptiness of the theater hall as a metaphor for irrational human passions. Momentarily an illusive construction of baroque stage appears on which is sung the terza rima of Monteverdi, accompanied by a string quartet. A sudden shot to the young hero will interrupt this love song but will not kill his passion uncontrolled by mind.

The story, narrated by the great Spaniard, is trivial but full of sensuality. Federico, the son of the Duke of Ferrara, falls in love with his young stepmother and, in the absence of father, lets himself be captivated. The fire of passion overpowers the lovers. But subsequently, when the day of reckoning and choice comes, the protagonist either shows a lack of spirit, evil, or simply incapable of overcoming his own chronic melancholy. The narrative does not attract the unremitting attention of the audience so much as the process by which the characters themselves comprehend and comment on the action by the heroes themselves. In fact, this process of the comprehension of intents and actions brings the dukes, earls, and marquises close to us, not so much by means of their manners (although in this way as well) but by means of their vain reflections.

Ah, reflection, that burden of modern intellect... In the tragedy of the Prince of Denmark we are more interested in Hamlet's meditations and doubts than in his accidental and awkward actions. The same is true of Punishment without Revenge. The play's heroes (first of all young performers of principal characters: Taras Bahliukov (Federico), Ihor Herashchenko (Duke of Ferrara), Olha Petrovska (Cassandra) and Halyna Slobodiuk (Aurora) with astonishing internal liberation fight an uncompromising intellectual duel without winners or losers, with only a bloody denouement hanging over all.

The Odesa theater experiment was a success in the main. A wonderful classic hasbeen introduced into Ukrainian theatrical culture. It became not only a formal addition to the Ukrainian repertoire but a spiritual and esthetic enrichment to it. It would be worthwhile showing this play to a wider audience. Why not in Kyiv? Precisely in Kyiv, recently dominated by Moscow or St. Petersburg stars in accidental, hastily staged shows, staged by inattentive directors. All the while our own theater achievements are, believe me, wholly comparable to foreign ones, as demonstrated in particular by the Odesa premiere.

Photo by Borys Mytrofanov:
A duet of intellect and emotion: Taras Bahliukov as Frederico snd Ihor Herashchenko as the Prince of Ferrara in Punishment Without Revenge