THE THREE MUSKETEERS

The plot of Alexander Dumas' novel is present but not dominant in the performance. If you haven't read the novel, you won't understand anything in it: some pendants, substituted by Christmas balls, the king in a padded jacket, the cardinal with a sad, pale face ... However, Yuri Pogrebnichko takes up "Three Musketeers" exactly for the reason that all have read it, and not just read, but tried on these costumes, situations and cues in their imagination. The director needs a novel that remains with a person for life, even when the person has nothing left, like old D'Artagnan: the grizzled "Gascon", with a wry smile stuck to his face forever, hauling in an old clip, and his faithful horse, having assumed the appearance of a young and cheerful woman, running behind the scenes and back. Yuri Pogrebnichko has produced a gentle, melancholic and delicate performance, showing that live is lost. Not because they lived wrongly, sinned defiantly or betrayed their ideals, but because it is impossible not to lose life in general. The characters in performances by Yuri Pogrebnichko are no strangers to memories and odds. Something happens to the characters in the theatre "Near Stanislavsky's house" that they find themselves on the sidelines of life, in the world of their own illusions and disappointments, often infused with unspent tenderness or unclaimed nobility. There is a lot of singing in the "The Three Musketeers" performance: there are Soviet author songs, the authors of which are not immediately recalled, however, and Vysotsky who is not to be confused with anyone, and popular urban romances.


Sometimes it seems that the performance turns into a pure concert, but one doesn't feel any regret about it. After all, the subject of Yuri Pogrebnichko's theatrical reflection is not the linear plot of the novel, but the time itself, which is really caught best between the lines and notes of half-forgotten songs.

Roman Doljansky