Download The hopeless wait for a world elsewhere “The Lower Depths”, a co

The hopeless wait for a world elsewhere
“The Lower Depths”, a co-production by the Theatre of Esch, the TNL and the TOL
The theatrical season at Esch ends with an outstanding new production: “The Lower
Depths” by Maxim Gorky, which plunges us into the poverty-stricken world of a Russian
night-shelter.
In this 1902 social drama, we once again find the emblematic characters of the urban
proletariat, the vagabonds of Gorky’s earliest stories – this author who feels a kinship
with the under- privileged and shows an unerring gift for bringing to life a colorful world
of social exiles, the poor, thieves, alcoholics and prostitutes.
Subdued lighting fades up on a large timberwork structure with any number of hidden
corners – by the Romanian set-designer Dragos Buhagiar – out of which emerge men in
unsavory rags, sometimes to striking lighting effects. Confused words, moaning and
cries inhabit this teeming world of wretchedness. To get into this “cellar” under the roof,
you first have to climb up, as if to hoist yourself into a tree-house, then you climb down
into a basement via ladders – a shelter, hard to access, run by the Kostylevs (Pitt Simon
and Irina Fedotova).
Little by little, the spectator learns odds and ends of stories from the lodgers, their life
together, their wretched poverty, a moment of sharing, a sudden quarrel, sometimes
erupting in violence, rivalries, in particular between two sisters over a lover, as well as
the faint hope for a different life – a series of short scenes, depicting the course of
everyday life, to the accompaniment of soft music, faint tintinnabulations, sometimes
Russian songs.
Into this microcosm erupts Luka, an illegal immigrant (the impressive Denis Jousselin),
a kind of pilgrim, who, with his generosity and humanity, brings fresh hope into the
general dullness and revives positive thinking. He encourages one or the other plan,
gives comfort, helps those most in need. After one of the inmates of the night-shelter is
murdered, he disappears.
Expressionist approach
The Russian director, Yuri Kordonsky, opts for a naturalist approach, as truthful a
portrayal of reality as possible, describing the life of Russians living on the fringe of
society (a transposition to the lives of today’s excluded is easy to imagine) with insight,
sensitivity and at times, a touch of humor.
One can of course regret the absence of a more personal vision. Moreover, in the
second half, the reflections on the superior man, the necessary acceptance of truth
without illusions, or the hopeful dreams that make life less hard come across as
philosophical digressions (for which one can also blame Gorky); they weigh the play
down and draw it out. Still, the naturalist option, dear to the school of Stanislavski in
search of truth in theatre, lies in the tradition of Gorky’s realism and is embraced with
savoir faire by Yuri Kordonsky.
The detailed care with which he directs his cast is remarkable and the acting – besides
those already named one should mention Joël Delsaut, Emmanuel Leforgeur, Franck
Sasonoff, alternating with François Sikivie, Hervé Sogne, Jérôme Varanfrain, Jeanne
Werner and Jean-François Wolff – is coherent, subtle and altogether praiseworthy –
especially given the problems the actors must overcome to move around the stage: the
set is stunning but strewn with obstacles.
Two fine scenes, opposite in character, are worth mentioning: the head of the dead Anna
(Brigitte Urhausen), resting on the shoulder of her husband (Dominique Thomas),
symbolizes failure, the defeat that is man’s burden, while a very lively sequence portrays
hope: Nastya (Caty Baccega), with her deep love of the novel Anna Karenina, inspires
the others to act out and live the love between Anna and Vronsky; this dream of life
sweeps away, for a brief moment, its harsh reality.
The Lower Depths, a brutal confrontation with misfortune, experienced as a grand and
imposing theatrical odyssey.
Josée Zeimes, Le Jeudi, July 2013
A tremendous feat, a welcome reunion
“The Lower Depths” by Maxim Gorky
Charles Muller, director of the Theatre of Esch, has pulled off a tremendous feat by
hosting a new production of Maxim Gorky’s “The Lower Depths”, directed by Yuri
Kordonsky.
The curtain rises on the first surprise of the evening: the audience is confronted by an
immense timberwork roof structure; in this loft huddle the protagonists of Maxim
Gorky’s play, the denizens of the “Lower Depths”.
A fascinating vagrants’ sanctuary, in French, a “Cour des Miracles” – the expression is
surprising, is it not, to describe a place where no miracle has ever happened, nor will
ever happen to its inhabitants! It is here they have run aground, like the accumulated
flotsam and jetsam the tides wash up on the shore. There are those who suffer because
they are sick and are going to die, because they have reached the outer limits of
despair; there are those who need to lie low. Torturers and victims; martyrs and
tricksters, thieves, murderers. No solidarity among these specimens of (in)humanity,
save that – deceptive, habitual – born of alcoholic excess. They vie with each other to
inflict humiliation, in revenge for the humiliations they have suffered themselves.
A “fine catalogue” of corrupt humanity that Russian director Yuri Kordonsky seeks to
characterize and as far as possible individualize, during the first half of the play. He
achieves his goal, even if these “expository scenes” seemed to us somewhat drawn
out. Each one of these lost souls acquires a human reality. But that is also, and above
all, thanks to the large cast of actors (what a pleasure in this age of nearly non-stop
soliloquies and duos) who portray them: Pitt Simon, Irina Fedotova, Jeanne Werner,
Hervé Sogne, Dominique Thomas, Brigitte Urhausen, Caty Baccega, Emmanuel
Leforgeur, Joël Delsaut, Franck Sasonoff, Jean-François Wolff, Denis Jousselin,
Jérôme Varanfrain. Charles Muller specifically wanted his actors to be “home-grown”. A
winner. It has been a long time since we last saw them all reunited on a stage like this.
It is thanks to them the production succeeds. Motivated, directed, positioned, they are
able to demonstrate their skills to best advantage.
A good century later, Maxim Gorky’s theme has taken on new dimensions. Its initial
Soviet context – class struggle, exploitation of the proletariat – has become universal,
timeless. The subject is Man! It is He who is “the truth”, it is He who must be respected;
it is as necessary to believe in Him as it is for him to believe in Him! And the tsarist
“lower depths” are transformed into those of our own society, with its individuals, its
peoples “living on the margins”, of whom so many come to be literally washed up on our
shores…
Yuri Kordonsky, then, is remarkable at directing actors, superb at creating atmospheres.
Where we hesitate to follow him is in his commitment to naturalism, expressionism.
Personally, we do not believe theatre is most effective, today, by making itself an exact
reflection of real life – cinema is there to do that. We prefer a theatre that proposes to a
theatre that imposes, a theatre that turns the spectator into a spectator.
Nevertheless: this production of the “Lower Depths” is a fine theatrical adventure,
wonderful too in the way it involved, in the creation of the magnificent set, the “artisans”,
the technical team of the Theatre of Esch. It is a project that motivates and generates
enthusiasm. Yes indeed, Charles Muller has pulled off a tremendous feat.
Stéphane Gilbart, Luxemburger Wort, June 2013
“The Lower Depths” by Maxim Gorky
Russian through and through
Gorky’s “Night Shelter” was given its first performance in 1902 by Konstantin
Stanislavski. Yuri Kordonsky’s production, currently to be seen in Luxemburg, pays
homage to the Russian theatrical reformer, his naturalism and his “true-to-life” style.
The style might seem outdated today, yet the production convinces, by treating the
different conventions fearlessly, head-on and with impressive self-confidence.
Anna is coughing her lungs out; her husband thinks the six months he has meanwhile
spent in the night-shelter seem more like six years; Nastya is curled up under the table
with a love- story; one or two are playing cards and all of them are waiting for death, for
sooner or later everyone has to bring his life to an end in his own way. Sickness is
made more bearable with alcohol, cigarettes are handed round; there are arguments,
shouting, fights and sometimes even laughter.
Minimalist plot
The plot is negligible, basically defined by the portraits drawn of the individual
characters. For three and a half hours the spectator watches these shipwrecked
existences going about their daily life in a loft – a structure made entirely out of wood
that, in keeping with the production, is highly realistic. Aesthetic choices determine the
atmosphere: the costumes, all in dingy shades of grey or brown, emphasize the
wretchedness, the light is mostly gloomy, only softening at a few exceptional
moments.
One of these exceptional moments comes after the interval, with the scene that opens
Act Three. The best scene in the entire production. Nastya is reading to a group of her
fellow in- mates from “Anna Karenina”. With some difficulties and gaps in vocabulary
(“What is a functionary?” – “Someone who functions.”), yet with so much devotion that
the scene can also be seen as a homage to great literature itself: a literature that gives
comfort, offers the possibility of identification and frees its readers for brief moments
from their own misery, by letting them get involved in the life of others.
Falsehood or truth
The production, a co-production of the Theatre of Esch, the National Theatre and the
TOL, interpreted by a cast of some dozen Luxembourgish actors, is Russian through
and through. Not just the author and his material, but the actors too seem to function
like the ensemble of a Russian municipal theatre (though they speak French) that has
never done anything else but appear together on a stage. Hearty congratulations to the
whole troupe. Even the songs the inmates of the night-shelter break into at exuberant
moments are sung in Russian.
The inhabitants of the loft talk a lot about truth and lies. Time and again they raise
variations on the question whether it is better to live with a hopeful lie than to come to
terms with the reality of their hopeless situation. If that is not where the link should be
made with the world of today...
Janina Strötgen, Tageblatt, June 2013
English translations by Ariel Wagner-Parker