How Brighton noted the last love

Photo by Anna Denisenko

Only a madman or a reporter on an editorial assignment can rush from Manhattan to Brighton on February 14th. Anna Denisenko sacrificed her plans for the evening and went to “Last Love” to share her anthropological observations with Forum readers.

The audience in the hall of the Master Theater was entirely local; at the end of the performance, no one moved towards the metro. Judging by the repertoire, they are trying to please avid conservatives. Here, for example, is a poster for the next quarter: 6/14 - Yuri Antonov, 5/24 - Yan Levinzon and Igor Guberman, 5/08 - Tina Karol, 4/24 - Jasmine, 4/11 - Tatyana Vasilyeva and Stanislav Sadalsky " The Naked Truth”, 3/08 - all KVN stars.

On Valentine's Day, the performance was, of course, about the eternal. They staged the legendary “Last Love”. Avid theatergoers in America were introduced to this work by the Canadian Russian Drama Theater directed by Grigory Ziskin back in 2002. Thirteen years later, the Israeli Gesher Theater brought its reading, starring Klara Novikova, Leonid Kanevsky and Daniil Spivakovsky.

The theme of the last love touched many people who were not indifferent to the creative expression, Tyutchev in the poem of the same name wrote:
Oh, how on the slope of our years
Tender we love and superstitious ...

The author of “Last Love” is Nobel laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer, the play was staged by journalist Valery Mukharyamov. The story is that the most desired thing comes to a person when he has already abandoned all hope and, as it seems to him, has reached the last line.

So it happened with the heroes of the play. What else to expect an eighty-two-year old man, brilliantly played by Leonid Kanevsky, who survived three wives and buried children? Going through old photos, chewing oatmeal and remembering your don Juan sins ...

By the way, it was these memories that caused the strongest reaction in the hall. The comment “To throw such a woman into my head could not have come, so I cheated on her” caused such an ovation that the performance almost came to the verge of collapse. Only the reaction to Khava-Nagilu, which sounded in the play, turned out to be more turbulent. Viewers stomped, sang and clapped their hands. It seemed that the audience knew each other for a long time and already danced together outside the auditorium.

Photo by Anna Denisenko

The heroes of the play - Polish Jews who miraculously survived the hell of the Holocaust - found salvation in New York, then moved to Miami. An old emigrant, at the end of his life, meets Ethel (Klara Novikova), an emigrant who made his heart beat faster. Perhaps a gift of love is sent only when a person can truly appreciate it.

But the viewer will draw conclusions himself. Moreover, the fact to the reflection in the play is enough. Enough in it and humor, and sadness of memories, and the bitterness of loneliness. However, a fragile hope became a “valentine” gift for the audience: while we breathe, everything is still ahead ...

I would not like to darken such bright thoughts about beauty, but, as you know, theater begins with a hanger. Of the 1360 spectators, which is the capacity of the hall, which was full on Valentine's Day, there was not a single person who took off their outerwear, although the temperature in the hall was normal.

Photo by Anna Denisenko

Individual viewers were not embarrassed to loudly comment on what was happening on the stage, and mobile phone calls often sounded.

The organizers of the tour assured “Forum” that everything was not as sad as it seemed. The theater audience is getting younger and more demanding to the repertoire. And the repertoire was tested by the ruble and criticism of the demanding public in St. Petersburg and Moscow. And although, unfortunately, this is not noticeable on the poster yet, the organizers assured that soon the Brighton audience will be pleased with the performances not only of the emigrant themes. They promised Dmitry Kharatyan and Alexander Baluev in the staging of the famous story of John Steinbeck "On Mice and Men," directed by Mikhail Gorev. True, the play does not appear on the poster yet.

“Last Love” went to Chicago, where the performance will take place on the 15 Ferval.
In Philadelphia, viewers will be able to enjoy the wonderful play of the actors 17 February.

And even though the holiday of teddy bears and pink hearts has already passed, we wish our reader love, of course, only eternal, like Charles Aznavour, another remarkable immigrant. And more pleasant spiritual experiences, which gives us his majesty the theater.