DRAMA REVIEW: 'Grateful Erodiy' presented by Les Kurbas Theater (04/07/96)

DRAMA REVIEW: 'Grateful Erodiy' presented by Les Kurbas Theater

by Julie-Anne Franko

Under the direction of Volodymyr Kuchynsky, the Lviv-based Les Kurbas Theater presented "Grateful Erodiy," a parable by the Ukrainian philosopher Hryhoriy Skovoroda (1722-1794) at the Kathryn Bache Miller Theater at Columbia Univer-sity on March 22. The performance, which drew a near capacity crowd, was attended equally by theater professionals, students and members of the Ukrainian community.

"Grateful Erodiy" was first staged in 1993 at the Kurbas theater in Lviv - a small and intimate theater in which set designer Andriy Humeniuk's massive storybook set and Mr. Kuchynsky's expansive direction claimed every inch of theater as fair game for playing out the tale of a conversation between Erodiy, a passing stork, and Pishek, a monkey, who wants to know of the ethics in Erodiy's world.

The playing space, as arrived at by Messrs. Kuchynsky and Humeniuk, included the audience's space, which immersed them directly into the atmosphere and texture of Skovoroda's parable. Surprisingly, the transition of this original performance to the Miller theater, a large and immutable space that clearly delineates actors from au-dience, nonetheless managed to present the essence of the original's sense of intimacy.

In this new production, the set design preserved its original structural concept which, like Skovoroda's parable, stressed the capacity of basic elements - trees, paper, baskets - being combined to create majestic images: what is simple in apparatus can also be elegant in presentation. This was evident in how massive sail-like murals painted onto sheets flanked and framed the set, which consisted of a small elevated sub-stage, and gathered branches that formed a pole, atop which a structure resembling both a nest and a heart was perched.

Through these sails emerged Erodiy (played alternatively by Tetyana Kaspruk, Yuriy Mysak, Oleh Tsiona and Andriy Vodychev) and Pishek (Oleh Drach, Natalka Polovynka and Oksana Tsymbal) to have their conversations on the meaning of family, education, nature and gratitude. The individual performances of the actors - which included Mr. Kuchynsky as "the father" - all demonstrated aspects of each actor's particular talents.

However, to accord these talents, aside from being a lengthy observance, would also be diffuse, as the point of their being brought together is meant to unify their diversity rather than distinguish it. Thus the different aspects in their portrayals - humor, diligence, magnetism, haughtiness...all achieved a confluence of character.

And as the conversation between Erodiy and Pishek evolved, the cast at large also achieved a confluence with the text. Against Skovoroda's words, the company's agile movements and celestial tempering of song injected and augmented the sense of what was being said by Erodiy and Pishek. There was a constant oral and visual compliment to the text.

Beyond revealing Mr. Kuchynsky's adroit directorial ability of harnessing the Kurbas Theater's impressive dexterity, this compliment to Skovoroda's text provided a direct invitation into the work itself - inclusive of which was the audience's non-Ukrainian-speaking members, for whom the visual became the primary source of text. Mr. Kuchynsky's invitation into the work, however, was ultimately embraced by all, as was evident by the three curtain calls.

Julie-Anne Franko is an M.F.A. candidate at Yale University's department of dramaturgy and dramatic criticism.

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