Belarusian mystery play

The celebrated Minsk-based drama company, the Yakub Kolas Theater, last performed in Kyiv in the late 1980s. Now, 17 years later, it is back on the stage of the Ivan Franko Theater. The artistic director of the Belarusian company, Valerii Raievsky, told The Day that they selected the eight most resonant plays for this tour to demonstrate their creative range (see interview with the stage director in Den, No. 170).

The opening performance was the mystery play Simon the Musician, the company’s calling card. It is a stage version of a poem written by the Belarusian classic Yakub Kolas, after whom the Minsk drama company is named. The hero is a shepherd named Simon (Aleksandr Molchanov), a man with a sensitive and poetic heart, who hears unforgettable melodies in the noise of the wind and the forest. His fellow villagers think he is strange, a kind of maverick. After the death of his grandfather all Simon inherits is a violin. He takes it with him on his travels in search of the meaning of life. On the way the hero encounters various people and must struggle with ordeals and temptations, but he remains true to himself.

Simon the Musician was staged by the noted director Nikolai Pinigin, who has lived in St. Petersburg for the past seven years and worked for the Tovstonogov Bolshoi Drama Theater. The production designer is Olesia Snopok-Sorokina and the music is by Aleksei Zubin.

The tour will last one week, ending on Oct. 19 with the drama-requiem Evening staged by Valerii Rayevsky. Based on a popular story by the modern playwright A. Dudarev, it is a story about loneliness, memory, and repentance.