Moment of life
Volodymyr Vynnychenko’s texts come back to the Ukrainian stage
The Suziria theater art studio staged the play Moment of Love, based on Volodymyr Vynnychenko’s novel Moment. The production director is Taras Zhyrko, Ivan Franko theater actor, who has already directed on his native stage.
Suziria’s is the second performance of the Ukrainian classic’s text in the current season – the unknown Make Way for Beauty by Vynnychenko was performed several months ago at Ivan Franko theater. So, we can see that the author is coming back to the Ukrainian stage. It is known that the texts by Volodymyr Vynnychenko are quite difficult for stage reading: balanced psychological tension, philosophical thoughts, and stylistic European features demand serious understanding of the internal conflicts of the character. Probably, this was the reason why the creators of Moment of Love suggested to go beyond the intimate confession of the hero (Yevhen Nyshchuk), creating a rich visual-music accompaniment, which became a sort of salvation for the actor on the certain stage.
The story of one moment of love, freedom, victory over death – life behind the line – is not only told by the actor, but is also shown on video. As if he was repenting, he is telling it as a retrospective review in philosophical way, appealing to the life of insects. A person’s existence is also momentary, and the limits of showing feelings are way tougher. By the way, amidst the recollections Panna (Inna Tsymbaliuk), who gave that very moment to the hero, shows up on the screen…
The scenographic solution is quite interesting. A large screen divided into three parts, the pictures are changing quickly, which lets the viewer perceive few space imensions simultaneously.
You can hear the famous composer Roman Hrynko’s music in the play, as well as the popular band Okean Elzy. The latter is, perhaps, not quite appropriate, but emotionally justified. The picture on the screen, accompanied by music, is sometimes accepted as an independent story in the plot sense, as well as in art.
Sometimes it seems that Volodymyr Vynnychenko’s text, in the format of the play, requires more exact figurativeness and metaphoric features – at some point you start wanting to get rid of some literal aspects in Moment of Love. At the same time the atmosphere in the story and depth of sense is entirely, thoughtfully and emotionally concentrated. That is why we can say that the Moment of Love, which happened in Suziria, was intimate, tender and theatrical.
