Last night, saw a theatrical adaptation of Anton Chekhov's short story,Rothschild's Fiddle, at the Moscow Theatre of Young Viewers.
The show was directed by Kama Glinkas in a very un-Stanislavsky style, more like contemporary New York-- lots of mugging and prancing around on big symbolic set that looked like Samuel Beckett as furnished by Ikea. The theatre program didn't have much information, but published a rave review from the New York Times, which give you some idea...
Chekhov's story is a parable of Russian-Jewish relations, and while this production was kind of distracting (there is also an opera and a film, my google search shows) it was thought-provoking and worth seeing.
Moscow is not exactly a Jewish city, but there is still a Jewish presence, even after years of emigration. Mayor Luzhkov was on TV lighting the Hannukah menorah with Russia's Chief Rabbi, Beryl Lazar, who looks like a Lubavitch from Brooklyn (though the sect originated here). The old choral synagogue in Kitai Gorod has been restored, and a gleaming steel and glass new synagogue is under construction near fashionable Tverskoy Boulevard. A holiday television special featured Russian Army soldiers holding hands and dancing to a rendition "Hava Nagila".
And yet, somehow, "Rothschild's Fiddle" reminds one that Russian-Jewish relations are complicated, have not always been nice, and subject to sudden change...
