The Play “The Tower of Cheer” as a Brother to “Translations”
Georgy Vorshansky
On May 11, 2013, the Smolensk Chamber Theater hosted another performance of “The Tower of Cheer” based on the novel of the same name by Fyodor Andreevich Ettinger, a famous writer, translator, and author of numerous historical articles. The performance is far from new (it has been on stage for 11 years, albeit with breaks), yet it belongs to the so-called “provincial theatrical productions” as it takes place in just one city, whose events are inextricably linked to its fate.
The action of the play “The Tower of Cheer” tells the legend of a tower, the history of which has been associated with devilish tricks since the day it was built (a girl jumped from it and then turned into a ghost). However, later, the audience delves into the essence of events that turn out to be much more mundane and commonplace. The play showcases traditional human feelings and weaknesses: love, hatred, greed, avarice, silver-loving, revenge, treachery, and much more.
The play “The Tower of Cheer”
A distinctive feature of the play is a traditional trait inherent in almost all works of F. Ettinger: detailed descriptions of the place and events taking place. The production vividly and colorfully depicts the beauty of ancient Smolensk (the action unfolds in the 1780s), tells about its inhabitants, their characters, and architectural features.
A remarkable aspect is the performance of the maid Agafya, who brings a special color to the play with her monologues in the Belarusian language. Thus, the scriptwriter and the contemporary director demonstrated the historical authenticity of the events unfolding on stage. After all, at that time, a large part of the population of the Smolensk province consisted of ethnic Belarusians, who naturally spoke their native Belarusian language. By the way, the descriptions of the state of affairs in Smolensk are not in doubt, as Fyodor Ettinger himself visited the city in his childhood.
Actors of the Smolensk Chamber Theater
The plot of the novel “The Tower of Cheer” resonates with the events of another Belarusian play – “Translations.” The action of this theatrical production takes place in a small Irish village of Baile Beig, where colonizers from England arrive. Then, the most ordinary thing happens: an English soldier falls in love with an Irish girl, and she – with him.
The story of this play is the tragedy of the Irish people, who not only lose their independence and freedom but also their national identity, self-awareness, culture, and sense of themselves as a nation, their native language. In the play “Translations,” the English speak Russian, and the Irish speak Belarusian. Here, a linguistic and language problem is traced – the decline in the popularity of native languages in Ireland and Belarus, which are being displaced by foreign languages (English and Russian, respectively).
It seems that both plays (“The Tower of Cheer” and “Translations”) are attempts to bring the issues of national self-awareness of nations to the audience’s attention. At the same time, social, cultural, ideological, and linguistic problems are presented in a historical projection.
Ireland and Belarus are so far apart geographically, but so close to each other in spirit, with existing historical, cultural, and linguistic problems that have been successfully showcased by the Kupala National Theater. The main points of contact between the theatrical productions of the two countries are the themes of the loss of their national features, language, culture, traditions, traits of national character, as well as some territories.