In search for fleeting happiness

A deep, moving and rich performance in term of feelings and art was shown on the stage of the Pechersk-based New Theater of Drama. Shchastia (Happiness). It was based on Andrey Platonov’s novella Rechka Potudan (The River Potudan), a joint project carried out by the theatre and Andrii Bilous’ studio (he was the staging director of the performance and author of adaptations).

It can be said that the play, under such a title and with such specific content, is quite symbolic for the creative team, which is jokingly called “kryzhovnyk” after the second name of its artistic director Oleksandr Kryzhanivsky. It is their last performance on their native stage: the Pechersk theater is about to change its “place of residence” in search of new happiness.

The story of Liuba (Kateryna Krysten) and the Red Army officer Mykyta Firsov (Borys Orlov) is so pure and moving that it seems difficult to play. The first act takes place inside the heroes’ souls. How can one play with almost ailing trepidation the all-absorbing power of love, that does not depend on time, does not surrender to circumstances, or even the body’s desires: the fear of hurting each other and breaking the secret of their feelings makes the heroes helpless.

However, owing to the extraordinary choice of composition and some natural coordination of the actors’ ensemble, the performance Shchastia coped with this. The action is developed in such a way that the plot is played only through dialogues: the artists also act as the narrators of events, retelling the story of their heroes, as if closely examining them from the side. They are also making a choir (Volodymyr Kuznetsov, Svitlana Basha, Kateryna Varchenko, Denys Martynov, Yurii Yakusha) that seems to remain in some other place, singing the song of life, whatever it is, quiet and lonely or swirling like a spring. For the Potudan river with its rhythm, at times irregular, is life as it is. The heroes are dragging one another from the whirlpool, either caressing each other in the feeling of warmth, or giving way to dismay, drowning in the feelings, examining it, seeking happiness. This structure of the performance allowed the director to preserve a great deal of Platonov’s immensely rich text.

The audience also becomes involved in the play’s trepidation and frankness, which is for the most part due to the fact that everything is living in the performance – the grass whereupon heroes go with naked feet, the water as a leitmotif of life, the trees representing memory, time, and eternity, and even the hanging pendulum luggage, from which the heroes are exempted by one another (Orlov’s script). The emotions are also vivid, ranging from childish joy to deep tragedy, as well as physical senses (one should only recall how the heart contracts at sight of hungry Liuba, harmed by own helplessness). Happiness, so long-awaited and achieved through so much suffering, is also living. The heroes are simple and easy to understand, which makes them touching and attractive. For, poverty (the rag costumes, traces of ashes and dust), calamities, hunger, fear and losses disregarding, they preserve the most important thing, the ability to love, wait, keep, seek, and come back to their origins. And their love is pure and natural, like blood running through the veins. So there must be a very simple explanation why you come out with a wonderful feeling after watching it: it seems that at least for the time of performance everyone in the audience gains his or her piece of honest happiness, even if it is slipping away.