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Gesher Theater gifted us on Wednesday with a efficiency of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. The 1878 Russian novel explores human life as every character in it faces the alternatives and chaos of modernity.
Stiva (Alon Friedman) cheats on his spouse, Dolly (Karin Seruya) with the babysitter. To keep away from divorce, his sister, Anna (Efrat Ben Tzur), involves Saint Petersburg to persuade Dolly to forgive him. Anna is married to Aleksei Karenin (Gil Frank), an older man she not loves.
In Saint Petersburg, Anna Karenina befriends Kitty (Neta Roth), a younger lady about to enter society who’s in love with a dashing officer, Vronsky (Avi Azoulay). Regardless of preaching marriage stability to Dolly, Anna dances with Vronsky herself, violates her marriage vows, and is consumed by a scandalous affair. A heartbroken Kitty rejects a wedding proposal by Russian nobleman Levin (Miki Leon),
Levin owns each land and the folks on it however confesses to his brother Sergey (Yuval Yanai) that he feels deep disgrace over proudly owning folks. The czar’s 1861 emancipation decree rids him of that guilt.
Levin, Stiva, Sergey, Karenin, and Vronsky are all totally different in nature and make totally different decisions, however they’re all Russian aristocrats, as was Tolstoy. The play, and the novel upon which it’s based mostly, present a timeless snapshot of Nineteenth-century Russian society moments earlier than the Revolution.
“I’m dangerous,” Anna tells Karenin, “I needs to be killed, there are two girls within me.” This realization, that human nature has duplicity in it, will not be new.
“I’m unspiritual, bought as a slave to sin,” wrote Saint Paul, “I’ve the need to do what is sweet, however I can not carry it out (Romans 7:14, 18).”
Tolstoy’s suggestion is to be like Levin.
After Kitty rejects him, Levin throws himself into farm labor.
A director’s genius for simplicity
Tolstoy championed simplicity and constructing a connection to the land and people who domesticate it – Russian peasants lately free of serfdom by Tsar Alexander II. Levin, the nobleman who selected simplicity, needs to study from the peasants and be at peace.
Director Rimas Tuminas has a genius for abbreviating complexities into easy actions. Below his steerage, a glove, a spinning prime, and even a saddle, are utilized by gifted actors to convey, in moments, concepts that took years to put in writing.
When Stiva and Levin talk about a restaurant menu, Friedman presents an perception into Stiva’s character in a single gesture as he bites off his personal glove in anticipation of the feast. This immediately transmits his interior actuality. Stiva lusts after the babysitter, he hungers for oysters and he can not wait.
Leon, who performs Levin, makes use of his bigger body to construct distinction between his Levin and Friedman’s Stiva.
“Within the nation,” he says, “we eat shortly to fill our stomachs.” He makes use of his finger to shine off a bowl of milk, thus lending his portrait of Levin a infantile, naïve, side. If Kitty rejects him, this oafish however variety man will look forward to her till she agrees to marry him.
Not like different diversifications, just like the 2007 Habima model of Anna Karenina, the Gesher Theater manufacturing reveals slightly than tells.
At Habima, Anna defined to Kitty that she will be able to snatch Levin from her at any time when she desires, as she did Vronsky. The Gesher manufacturing illustrates this with the usage of a spinning prime. The toy represents the person. Anna takes it from Kitty, then returns it to her. Not a single phrase is spoken straight about Kitty and Anna’s rivalry, but the feelings are seen.
The outwardly thrilling lives that Anna and Vronsky lead, filled with horse racing and journeys overseas, come at a worth. Azoulay makes use of a saddle to point that Vronsky crippled a mare named Frou-Frou throughout a race. The mare gave him every little thing and he shot her to finish her distress.
Extra hints like this comply with. Stiva pistol-points a finger to his temple “Girls are the axis on which all issues revolve,” he says after which mimics capturing himself. A regal Anna (Ben Tzur) listens to Puccini’s Madama Butterfly by herself. Just like the Japanese heroine of the opera, Anna provides all for love. And simply as Madama Butterfly commits suicide – Anna Karenina throws herself in entrance of a transferring prepare.
The nation life that Levin and Kitty construct is crammed with childbearing, home chores, and bitterness. Dolly and Stiva transfer to the nation to save lots of their marriage. It doesn’t work. “I would like him,” Dolly says, “so I tolerate him.”
The social standing that cuckolded husband Karenin holds on to by permitting the affair between Anna and Vronsky to proceed in secret is a poor substitute to pleasure.
“Respect,” his untrue spouse informs him, ”was invented to cowl the empty place the place love needs to be.”
Earlier than the efficiency, Gesher Theatre’s director common Lena Kreindlin greeted the viewers and defined that, ought to rockets fall, members have been suggested to duck and canopy.
Kreindlin shared that the forged of Anna Karenina had been invited to carry out in Paris at Les Gémeaux in January 2024. The French hosts, she mentioned, insisted that the Israeli theater troupe come regardless of the struggle.
It will be important “to be good ambassadors of Israel presently,” she mentioned.
The French premiere of Gesher Theater’s Anna Karenina will happen at Les Gémeaux. Wed.-Sat., Jan. 17-20 (8 p.m.); Solar., Jan. 21 (5 p.m.); Wed.-Sat., Jan. 24-Jan. 27 (8 p.m.) and Solar., Jan. 28 (5 p.m.) in Hebrew with French surtitles. 35 Euros (NIS 140) per ticket at lesgemeaux.com/spectacles/anna-karenine
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