The Pie?s Tasty Top Layer
Quixote and Sancho at the Vysotsky Center
Culture
The Pie?s Tasty Top Layer
Quixote and Sancho at the Vysotsky Center
By Nataliya Kaminskaya
Culture newspaper No. 37, Sept. 27-Oct. 3, 2001, page 9.

Oksana Mysina?s production [of Quixote and Sancho] works better than Oleg Menshikov?s production of Maxim Kurochkin?s Kitchen (of which Oksana?s performance is the most interesting element) because of its improvisational freedom. This extremely intricate and philosophically ironic play by Viktor Korkiya is performed without an overblown set or grave earnestness.
The dense concentration of the intellectual text makes it almost impossible to understand. The glorious squire and his legendary master mercilessly assail the shadow of Anton Chekhov. The island of which Sancho is made governor is called Taganrog. Quixote?s fame as a poet leaves Sancho Panza no peace even as Sancho is busy writing a literary tome called The Foundations of Donkey Science. Sancho?s belief that donkeys are exemplars of perfection gives rise to a cult of donkeys. Plato and Socrates appear, for Sancho?s “donkey novel“ is being written in the style of Platonic dialogues, something that reveals in the simpleton Sancho an unexpected intellectual profundity. Don Quixote makes fun of the creative torments his loyal friend experiences in the “depths” of his own „soul,” all the while pulling Sancho further into the abyss of the subconscious. Despite his great literary ambitions, Sancho finds no comfort here. Following the plot and finding orientation in the stream of Viktor Korkiya?s literary prolixity is a near impossible task.
But the actress-director, fascinated with the play, was able to turn this all into a light, colorful and witty piece of theater. The duet of Dmitry Pisarenko (Quixote) and Oksana Mysina (Sancho) is classically structured. The hidalgo is handsome, slim, melancholic and very silly. The squire is extremely serious, vain and, apparently, spiritually dependent upon his master. The absurdist dialogues are performed in total accordance with the truth of psychological theater and this gives the multilayered dramatic pie a fluffy and most tasty top layer that is theatrical through and through. It is not important why, among many other things, we see a wash basin; why actors perform music on pieces of wood and bottles; why someone named Orpheus, performed by the countertenor Sergei Shevchenko, performs an aria; why the charming pair of circus actors Igor and Alla Sannikov play Rocinante and Gray while also playing naпve theatrical figures; and why the stage is overtaken by mystical smoke.
This production wins us over with its almost desperate, childlike, absolutely unencumbered theatricality. No matter what object appears on stage, it is instantly snapped up and put to use. The tender intonations of Aldonza (Natalya Pozdnyakova) stand in sharp contrast to the sharp features of her appearance.
The tall, thin Oksana Mysina in Sancho?s skin resembles Don Quixote. She exists in frenzied competition with Quixote and the more desperate she becomes, the funnier she is. The glue of Mysina?s debut as a director are the endlessly generous nuances in acting; the free, contemporary style of physical behavior; the rich musicality; and the director?s quite obvious obsession with what she is doing. Without a doubt, this very good actress also has a gift for directing. She is not the kind of director who uses an iron hand to set up the mises en scene, but rather the kind who is capable of filling the empty space of the stage with lively, amusing theatricality. She is the kind of director who will take an obviously non-commercial play and will experiment with it. She is the kind of director who is blessed with a subtle feel for intellectual enigmas and the power of irony. Quixote and Sancho is no common “actor?s production.” Even in this, the freedom-loving Oksana Mysina is ready to defend her place under the theatrical sun.

Natalia Kaminskaya, 27-09-2001