Oscar (performance)

Greeting the audience, director Mikhail Uritsky noted: “It doesn’t matter how many days in our lives. It is important how much life is in our days. ”

- Anastasia Heischenets , review "Cultprostir" ^[2]

The incurably sick boy Oscar spends his last days in a hospital ward. His parents are shy, he is deprived of communication with peers from neighboring chambers. Oscar is pissed and helpless. The only person with whom he begins to communicate - pink Lady - nurse to care for patients who are hopelessly ill.

The Pink Lady offers Oscar a game, according to the rules of which every day is equal to 10 years of life, and Oscar writes a letter to God based on the results of each past day, as if summing up the results. 110 years in 12 days of the life of a small Oscar turn his life and fill it with quite adult events and questions.

• Oscar - Igor Fedirko
• Pink Lady - Julia Shapoval

• Author: Eric-Emanuel Schmitt ( Oscar and the Pink Lady )
• Dramatization: Mikhail Uritsky
• Translation into Ukrainian: Elena Borisyuk
• Production Director: Mikhail Uritsky
• Artist: Olga Filonchuk
• Musical arrangement: Zemfira songs

Student version

• 2012 , autumn - Graduation thesis at the IK Karpenko-Kary National University of Theater, Cinema and Television in Kiev

Performance of the Odessa Regional Puppet Theater

• 2013 , December - Premiere of the performance in the Odessa Regional Puppet Theater

Performance of the Kiev Municipal Puppet Theater

• 2015 , November 21 - Premiere of the play at the Kiev Municipal Academic Puppet Theater
• 2016 , March 28 - the 24th Kiev Pectoral Award ceremony. The performance became a laureate in the nomination “The Best Performance ” and “The Best Director Work ”

At one of the theater festivals in Nikolaev, Mikhail Uritsky watched a drama staged by the Daugavpils Theater based on the Schmitt novel , in which the production director focused on the theme of death , forcing the situation into three finals, after which the hero was crucified on the cross. Internal protest and disagreement with this kind of interpretation (“why didn’t Schmitt write about the same?” According to Mikhail Uritsky) served as a starting point for creating his own version in which the departure of the main character should be bright and solemn. ^{[4] [5]}

The experimental stage for the future performance was the training stage of the Kiev National University of Theater, Film and Television named after IK Karpenko-Kary , where the Oscar became the graduate work of students of the acting faculty Vlad Nikituk and Alexandra Polgyuy (teacher of drama theater actor Irina Melnik) . The premiere of the student version of the performance took place in the fall of 2012 and was accompanied by full house bells each time it was played. The work was noticed, and in May 2013, they were invited to the VIII International Festival of Puppet Theaters “ Podolskaya Doll ” ( Ukrainian. Podilska Lyalka ) in Vinnitsa . ^[6]

In an interview after the festival screening to the question about the graduation of students and the further fate of the performance, the director replied:

- They leave - the performance will leave also. He spent a lot of energy, mental and physical, a lot of time, and I am very sorry that he lived so little ...

- Mikhail Uritsky , director ^[4]

However, after graduation from students, the director decides to create a new version of the performance already on the professional stage. ^[five]

In December 2013, the first professional version of the performance at the Odessa Regional Puppet Theater was released after the student. The roles were performed by Ivan Tsurkan ( Oscar ) and Tatyana Strelets ( Pink Lady ). Theater this work drew attention to children with leukemia , like the main 10-year-old hero Oscar, and organized the collection of funds to the appropriate fund. ^{[7] [8]}

The based production, which brought together a bunch of awards and received wide acclaim from viewers and critics, was performed on the stage of the Kiev Municipal Puppet Theater . Actors Igor Fedirko ( Oscar ) and Julia Shapoval ( Pink Lady ) - the only part of the performance from the date of the premiere, which took place on November 21, 2015. ^[9]

“We put on a play about how beautiful life is - in all its manifestations, even in illness. I wanted it to be a story about the love of life, ”characterizes the production director Mikhail Uritsky. ^[four]

Olga Filonchuk acted as the artist of the performance, the main concept of which was the complete rejection of “extra household details” in the design. “The story is told on behalf of the child, the dolls have a“ childish ”look, and the minor characters appear in the form of drawings on a stick, as if they were also made by children ...” - the set designer notes. Adult characters are shown in a grotesque form based on the decision that the viewer sees the doctor, parents and friends of Oscar with his eyes, describing them all as "assholes" and "idiots." ^{[4] [11]}

Initially, a set of all characters was made for the performance - plane dolls with partial mechanics, each of which had its own moving element (the doctor had eyebrows moved, mother was wringing her hands, etc.). When the dolls appeared on the scene, the director decides to leave only three of them, without which you just can't do without - Oscar, Rosa Dame and Peggy Blue. From the rest refused, so as not to dispel the viewer's attention. The experiment with a full set of characters - flat dolls (children, mother, father, Dr. Düsseldorf) was conducted in the Odessa version of the play. In the Kiev version, one hospital bed, two actors and three dolls remained on the scene. ^{[4] [2]}

From the original idea of ​​the design of the performance by the music of Pyotr Tchaikovsky , in accordance with the novel in which Oscar listens to The Nutcracker , the production group refused to discuss the process. KNUTKiT students caught fire with Schmitt's text, but they were very wary of Tchaikovsky, who, in their opinion, sounded out of date. An alternative option was made by Freddie Mercury , an emotionally ideally appropriate dramatist, while also rejected for language reasons - so that even the song text that sounds in the play was understandable to the viewer without additional knowledge. So in the play appeared Zemfira songs. “Given that, to be honest, I am not a fan of it, I realized that they are perfect, they are solemn and bright,” comments Mikhail Uritzky on his choice. This combination, found in the work on the student play, has been preserved in all subsequent ones, while causing a lot of controversy. However, the director's idea was carried out - the musical accompaniment made its way from the initial complete rejection to the bright final. ^{[4] [11]}

" Kiev pectoral "

The 24th awards ceremony in the field of theatrical art " Kiev pectoral " (in Ukrainian Kyivska pectoral ) became a triumphal performance for the play and its creators. For the first time in the history of the award, the puppet theater performance was nominated in three categories, in which works of dramatic theaters were traditionally presented (“ Best performance / performance of dramatic theater ”, “ Best directing work ” and “Best female role.” According to experts of the award, the performance turned out to be the best in two of three nominations. ^{[12] [13] [14]}

The fight for the title of " Best Performance of the Year " was between the Oscars and the Enchanted Performances directed by Andrei Bilous at the Young Theater based on the play of Beztalan by Ivan Karpenko-Kary and directed by Dmitry Bogomazov in the Theater for them. I. Franko " Forest " by Alexander Ostrovsky .

Dmitry Bogomazov entered the short-list of the nomination “The best directorial work ”, except for the director of “Oscar” Mikhail Uritsky, for the play “Sing, Lola, Sing” based on the novel “The Teacher Gnus, or The End of One Tyrant” by Henry Mann in the Drama and Comedy Theater and Stas Zhirkov with the performance “Stalkers” based on the play by Pavel Arie in the joint project of the “ Young Theater ” and “Golden Gate”.

Julia Shapoval remained the nominee for the role of the Pink Lady, losing the title of “Best Female Role” to Irme Vitovskaya , who played Prysyu in the “Stalkers” project of the “Golden Gate” and “Young Theater” theaters. ^[15]

Festival life

The performance "Oscar" becomes the leader of the survey of the theater community "The Seventh Row, the Eighth Place" entitled "Performances that are recommended by the audience." ^[16] As part of a social initiative, it is shown to pupils of the Prilutsk penal colony. ^[17]

The performance participates in a number of theatrical events, among which the ІІ International Puppet Theater Festival "Both People and Puppet" ( Ukrainian people І, yalky ) in July 2016 in Lviv ^{[3] [10]} ; in May 2006 at the “ Melpomene of Tavria ” ( Ukrainian Melpomene of the Brand ) in Kherson ; in October 2016 at the XXIII International Festival of Puppet Theaters "SPOTKANIA" ( Bai Pomorsky Theater , Torun , Poland ), in December 2016 at the Festival of Puppet Theaters Dnipro Puppet Fest in Dnipro ^[18] and others.

At Melpomene of Tavria , the work of Yulia Shapoval was awarded with the award for the Best Actress, and the festival SPOTKANIA brought the award for the Best Director Mikhail Uritzky. ^{[19] [20]}

• "Oscar" on the site of the Kiev Municipal Academic Puppet Theater (ukr.)
• Oscar Official Trailer 2016
• Photo from the performance of "Oscar"
• Reviews of the play "Oscar" ("Seventh row eighth place")