In June, in the creative life of Odessa, there was a unique event, the production of the play The Lord of the Fleas, based on Hoffmann's novel. The play was staged at the Nine Muses Theater, the artistic director and director Natalia Romanovskaya.
A unique performance allowed viewers to travel in the magical worlds of a great writer who is rightfully considered one of the most unusual authors in the world. Hoffman's incredible giftedness has created simply fantastic worlds, travels through which and, especially, the combination of these worlds, always presented a special complexity. In assessing the multifaceted creativity of Hoffmann, both readers and critics always disagreed, coinciding only in the fact that the writer's work became a real event in the world of literature and theater. But, despite the theatricality of the writer's works, Hoffmann was always difficult to put on stage. It is pleasant to realize that the theater "Nine Muses" and Natalia Romanovskaya brilliantly coped with such a difficult task, giving theatrical Odessa a bright, memorable premiere.
I will say at once: the performance turned out to be complex and serious, it makes children and adults think about it, it's not for nothing that spectators of all ages, with bated breath, watched the events unfolding on stage. Everything kept in suspense and attracted attention - from the show of trained fleas, the sad world of the protagonist, who could not become an adult, to the fantastic world of flowers and temples of fairy-tale India.
According to the head of the theater and the director of the play Natalia Romanovskaya, Hoffmann constantly worked in the theater, and therefore his works are similar to the play. And for this reason they are very interesting to put on stage. "Lord of the fleas" was the last novel by Hoffmann. In creating the play, he intentionally missed criticism of the judicial system, a bright thread passing through the whole novel. The criticism for which the writer was persecuted quite severely. This was, in principle, the right move, because it is impossible to convey the whole volume of the novel in the production, especially if the main actors are children. It was for them, and was created a special emphasis on the many-sided, vibrant worlds of magic, about which the writer dreamed all his life, and in which the most ordinary, unremarkable person is able to turn into a fairy-tale king or prince.
According to the director, when staging the performance used illustrations by Nicky Goltz, who said that the illustration is a kind of performance. Perhaps thanks to this successful suits emphasized the brightness of the images that come to life on the stage and in the souls of the little actors who with such pleasure generously shared their creative energy with the audience.
An interesting finding of the director was that in the play the role of an adult, a 36-year-old man is played by a little boy. This was done for good reason. The hero of Hoffmann did not become an adult, he could not step over the bitterness of his losses and gain strength in the sufferings sent to him. The writer himself longed all his life, he was tormented by the nostalgia for the departed close people, on those days when nothing foreshadowed the cruel losses and did not have to reconcile with the evil injustice of the adult world, in which the loved ones and the most beloved can one day go-irrevocably and forever. Therefore, with such piercing touchingness, the scene looks when the hero celebrates Christmas alone, at an empty table, with portraits of deceased parents. And in spite of the fact that this scene is performed by a small boy, there is a touching, bitter lump in the throat. The hero of Hoffmann does not want to part with his childhood. He lives in his illusory world, which has nothing to do with reality, plunging into it more and more.
Hoffmann was always short of one world. Therefore, his characters exist in different centuries at the same time. They live in worlds where there is not only reality but also magic - magic so beautiful that it can change the reality.
As the director of the play Natalia Romanovskaya said before the performance, in the novel of Hoffmann, strange people turn out to be kings, because in life kings are good people.
These are people who are beautiful in soul.
The play looks in one breath, from the beginning to the end. Until the very end of the audience, the sense of simply amazing atmosphere of the production does not leave the sense that humor, close to sadness, makes the heart beat harder, and dream that in the multifaceted life there will always be a happy ending. As beautiful as Hoffmann's work.
Irina Lobusova Photo published by Natalia Romanovskaya, Facebook.