Interpretation of Gogol’s works on the puppet theater stage (based on the spectacle by Oksana Dmitrieva «May night, or Moonlight Witchcraft»)
Authors: Kalenichenko O.M. 
Published: December 2019

Background. M. Gogol’s «Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka» often attract the attention of theater directors. Thus, in June 2009, the premiere of the play «May night, or Moonlight Witchcraft» directed by Oksana Dmitrieva, took place at the Kharkov Puppet Theater. Trying to reveal the genre nature of the production, theater critics give it such definitions as a fairy tale, musical, fantasy, ethno-folk show, liturgy, mystery play, as well as analyze individual finds of a young director, but the complete picture of the artistic features of this performance is absent yet. In this regard, the purpose of the article is to identify the features of the interpretation of the Gogol story by director O. Dmitrieva. Results. The «May night...» begins with a musical introduction consisting of two themes: the lyrical theme of the pipe with intonations of Transcarpathian melodies (which is connected with the young couple Hanna and Levko and the image of Pannochka) and the theme of hand drums, which reveals the inner strength of the Ukrainian people, as well as demonological beginning associated with the witch-stepmother. The music gives way to the sounds of night nature and the stars appear on the backdrop. Their low location and shape resemble the Christmas stars, with which carolers sing for Christmas. In the dark, the figure of Pannochka appears, wrapped in white cloths remembering a shroud. The unfolding of intersecting clothes above Pannochka’s head, and then their rotation symbolize both the alternation of day and night and the winter solstice. Thus, there are both, the Orthodox and the Pagan features, in depiction of the Ukrainian village. From several notes that the heroine sings, her leitmotif grows up. He fits well on modern arrangements of Ukrainian music, and is easily recognizable on his own. In combination with Pannochka’s sudden gusty movements (as if a bird is trying to break out of the snare, fly up into the sky), it helps to reveal her ambivalent nature: on the one hand, of the martyr, on the other – the representative of evil forces. Pannochka becomes the main character of the performance, and the Moon becomes her attribute, which can turn into the tambourine of shaman, the lyre, the sword, etc. The youth walking scene “on the garden” with the use of the jigging puppet, accompanied by folk songs differs in tempo and rhythm from previous mysteriously lyrical scenes. In the next episode, Pannochka enchants the characters on the stage with moonlight, so the meeting and the dialogue between Hanna and Levko begin to be perceived as a dream of heroes. This is facilitated by both the slow movements of the actors, the lengthy summons into the names of the characters, their flight around the stage, and the dialogue with the Moon that Pannochka props up. The tragic history of Pannochka is depicted first with the help of portraits of its participants on round screens, and then the screens are assembled into the figure of a Witch-Cat. This form also is reminiscent of a Chinese dancing Dragon. The episode with the hand fans depicting the “cat’s claws” is accompanied by alarming drum sound: Pannochka has no repose from the Witch even after death. The village in the new picture is reflected in the ripples of water: the real world is floating, swinging. Hanna and Levko confess their love to each other, however, Kalenik suddenly appears, recalling the Head. The image of the Head is solved by the director using two masks – large and small. At the beginning of the second act, the actors appear on the stage with long poles, which are similar both to the Chinese combat weapon and to the Ukrainian musical instruments “trembits”, allowing the actors to show brilliant plastic technique of “slow-motion”. Stylized masks of animals (cows, goats, pigs, roosters), which the walking lads pulling on themselves are the allusion to the Christmas fests. The lad boys strive to annoy the Head, so Head masks reappear on the scene, but there are already three of them: large, medium and small. With their help, there is a debunking of this character losing his power. The action transferred to the bottom of the pond, as symbolized by stylized fish. The drums and the fans – the cat’s claws – once again remind of the conflict between Pannochka and the Witch. Like in Gogol’s novella, the heroine asks Levko to find the Stepmother-Witch. The marionnette a la planchette and then – a shadow paper doll represent the image of the hero. Thanks to Levko, Mermaids (the original puppets) seize the Witch, and her death is symbolized by a broken rattle-rattle with the image of the cat’s muzzle. Next, the scene action follows by the Gogol’s novella: grateful Pannochka given to Levko the note, Head read it and allowed his son to marry Hanna. The image of Levko is represented here both in the system of the tablet puppet and in the means of the shadow theater. And the long clothes-shrouds acquainted from the first episodes of the play perform a number of new functions: this is the water of the pond, where Pannochka floats, and the paper, on which the note is written, and later – the wedding table. In this way the end of the Pannochka plot line comes. The spiritual verse «The soul with the body was parting» sounds, and in the hands of actress V. Mishchenko, the light paper doll, as the soul of her heroine, seeks up into the sky. Pannochka redeemed her sins, and now her soul can fly to heaven, because Easter has come. The last episode uses the “time-lapse” technique symbolizing the cleansing of the world from evil, and Pannochka’s leitmotif is organically superimposed on the Easter chime of bells. The action ends with a rap on the words “The Angels had opened the windows and they are looking on us” and the news that Easter has come. The final supports an idea that a person’s life moves from Christmas to Easter, from suffering to light, thus closing the spectacle into a ring composition. Conclusions. The original Gogol’s text allowed O. Dmitrieva to show a wide palette of modern possibilities of the puppet theater and the high skill of the actors of the “live plan”. In addition, the interweaving of national and foreign, Orthodoxy and paganism, an appeal to the expressive possibilities of the Ukrainian folk and modern music and to the ballet plastique suggest the postmodern nature of the play «May night, or MoonlightWitchcraft».