Skapto 3 construction begins
Sasha (Mihaylova) bursts bubbles of love.Photos by Radina Efremova
The Dome of Despair: Absurd meets Mundane in Chekhov’s Ivanoff
By Marius Nicolescu
December 3, 2008
A strong theatrical performance entertained AUBGers
There are many ways in which Ivanoff’s plot can be summarized in under two sentences. It is not a complex play, and does not require too much imagination as to what is going on on stage. It is a story that can be played anywhere in the world, and people would laugh, would feel sad, would show some sort of emotion because it reflects the human condition, regardless of the environment.
The Ivanoff AUBGers saw at Mladezhki Dom on December 1 was almost OK. You have to take into consideration that the actors were not professionals and the props were almost non-existent. But I am not judging the play according to these criteria. The audience laughed, felt sorry for the main character, and empathized. And that, indeed, is what the final result should have been.Overall, Ivanoff was a success.
The story revolves around Nikolai Ivanoff, a man whose wife is dying of Tuberculosis. Instead of caring about her, and staying with her all the time, Ivanoff takes nightly trips away from the house. Already in the second act we can see one of the places he visits, Pavel Lyebedev’s house, where a party is going on. By the end, we can see him kissing the daughter of the host, Sasha. The two are seen by Ivanoff’s wife, Anna and their house doctor, Lvov. Eventually, Anna dies, and the final act is an absurd wedding and wake ceremony, where a dead body is next to a bride, where the main character shoots himself, after replacing an Orthodox icon with a Jewish star.
By far the most applauded character in the play was Michael Borking (Marko Lubarda), who was Ivanoff’s estate manager. He played the funniest role in the entire act. Lubarda’s role was based on falls, stumbles and the usual “clown” type and was received extremely well by the audience. In terms of drama, Ivanoff (Antoni Stoyanov) had a close to perfect role, performed with a lot of care. In the third act, Stoyanov gave the audience probably one of the most well-delivered monologues in the history of AUBG Theater.
Unfortunately, though, part of the plot was indistinguishable because some of the characters were speaking way too fast in a language that is not their native tongue. They hurried up to deliver the lines and because of that they undermined some acts.
Overall, the actors were good, started a little bit slow, but gained momentum while being on stage, and the play was worthwhile. Hats off to the director and the actors, and let’s hope more plays like these will follow.
