M.A. Zakharov’s Play “Mystification”: Plot, Composition, Genre

Abstract

The article is a special study, of a historical and theoretical nature, dedicated to the stage poetics of M.A. Zakharov’s play “Mystification” (1999) of the Moscow Lenin Komsomol Theater (now the Moscow State Theater “Mark Zakharov Lenkom”, hereinafter — Lenkom), that is the study of Zakharov’s production from the point of view of finding out what techniques and methods were used to carry it out. The subject of the study are the components of Zakharov’s directing methodology: the plot and the ways of structuring it; the decoration design of the stage and the capabilities for its transformation; the episodic structure of the action, the attractions, sideshows; the genre nature of the production; and other. In addition to the reconstruction and analysis of the Lenkom production from the point of view of the director’s technique used, the task of the research also includes determining the place and role of the play among Zakharov’s productions, which study the peculiarities of the Russian national mentality by means of the theater. The sources of the study are the director’s statements, reviews of the play, iconography, and personal impressions from watching the TV version of the play. The research methodology is based on the classical principles and approaches to performance reconstruction and analysis of the Leningrad (Gvozdev) School of Theater Studies, as well as on the method of contextual analysis. The Lenkom leader managed to create a compact, dynamic and spectacular stage fantasy based on Gogol’s texts, the purpose of which is to comprehend the Russian life at the turn of the centuries, and the director’s plot is to study the features of the Russian mentality as a factor determining the past and future of Russia. “Mystification”, together with the performances “A Barbarian and a Heretic” (1997) and “The Jester Balakirev” (2001), made up a stage trilogy, which summed up the gloomy results of the 1990s and quite clearly expressed the peculiar meta-plot of Zakharov’s productions of the beginning of the 21st century — the conditionality of the fate of Russia by specific qualities of the national mentality.