Plot synopsis

E. Vakhtangov State Academic Theatre.

The production premiered on 21 January 2010.

And we hate, and we love by chance,
Sacrificing nothing to either hatred or love,
And a mysterious cold reigns in our souls,
While fire boils in our blood.

These lines seem destined to serve as an epigraph to Rimas Tuminas's Masquerade. Mikhail Lermontov's poetic drama reveals a merciless truth about his contemporaries, about a cruel world where morality walks on a knife-edge.

But a masquerade is also a celebration, enchanting music, dazzling costumes, mysterious masks, an irresistible whirl of merriment where people slander, joke and deceive while remaining unrecognised: freedom from everyone and from oneself.
A masquerade is theatre: a theatre of characters, intrigues, flirtations, passionate confessions and dangerous revelations. Fools, cynics, deceivers, clowns, actors and romantic heroes pass by in succession, "knowing no shame", protected by their anonymity.
A masquerade is a game played with one's partner and with fate. Here, a word or a piece of gossip can kill, only for someone, having removed their mask, to shed "bitter tears of compassion".
What a captivating and treacherous gathering this masquerade is! An intrigue begun thoughtlessly gathers details and conjectures, then rolls like a snowball towards both the victim and the tempter.
A masquerade is a race in circles, without stopping or respite. Its furious whirlwind draws everyone in; its exuberant gaiety inspires boldness and sometimes robs people of their reason.
A masquerade is a dream whose meaning is revealed only with the final chord of the waltz.

Rimas Tuminas's Masquerade is a show of clowns, a tragic farce, a melancholy commedia dell'arte transported into our own time, swept into the whirl of Aram Khachaturian's waltz, which has returned after decades to the stage of the Vakhtangov Theatre, for which it was originally composed.
Source Kino-teatr.ru, translated by kinoglaz.fr

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