‘Beethoven’ – Written by Valeriy Pecheykin. Directed by Yana Gladkikh. Stage Management by Natasha Klochkova. Composed by Sarah Infini Takagi. Lighting Design by Tyson Miller. Props Design by Irina Vilenchik. Costume Design Consultancy and Coordination from Lena Kazakevich and Alla Trachtenberg. Arlekin’s ‘Beethoven’ runs from May 1st – May 10th at The Arlekin Studio, 368 Hillside Avenue, Needham, MA, 02494.
By Charlotte Snow
Everything about Beethoven is daunting: his life, his music, the torture behind his genius. One can only imagine how daunting it was for director Yana Gladkikh and the Arlekin Players’ ensemble to take on this play, so I’m happy to report that they rose to the occasion, despite a few odd notes played here and there.
The primary issue is that the script is lacking. Those expecting a biopic-esque play about the man and what made him click may be disappointed. Beethoven is not a story about the eponymous character, but rather how his contemporaries interacted with him. While an intellectually fascinating premise, it’s also an uphill battle for the audience to ride the emotional wave of Beethoven’s journey, as he remains a mostly silent character until the last few minutes of the play. His hearing loss is only briefly touched upon, and the script misses its chance to fully delve into how he persevered and continued to pursue his art.
Shikh; Misha Tyutyunik; Gene Ravvin. Back: Sarah Infini Takagi and Polina Dubovikova
That said, Arlekin’s production of Beethoven is wonderfully executed. Yana Gladkikh’s direction was as deft as it was imaginative. Characters flowed in and out of the space, live music underscored and heightened tension, and even the stillest of moments felt like a wondrously strange fever-dream. Tyson Miller’s lighting design beautifully haunted the space like a playful phantom. Costume design consultancy and coordination by Lena Kazakevich and Alla Trachtenberg featured many successful sight gags using household objects. (The pair have produced some of my favorite costume designs in recent memory.) The overall production values of this play are something to behold.
Sarah Infini Takagi effortlessly provided the live music with abundant grace and portrayed Young Beethoven prior to his hearing loss. When not at the piano, she played Beethoven with the comedic timing and presence of Chaplin. Polina Dubovikova’s post-hearing-loss Beethoven leaned very much into the petulance and jadedness of a man who had his life’s pleasure and purpose stripped from him. Both performances were outstanding despite the relatively small amount of stage time.
The cast was stellar across the board, working as an ensemble while maintaining their individual voices and presence, which kept the play from dragging. It was also refreshing to see an ensemble of multigenerational women perform a play that wasn’t solely based on women’s issues, the mistreatment of women, or relationship trauma.
For the non-Russian-speaking audience, the mounted TV with captions is helpful, though focusing back-and-forth between the screen and the onstage action can be distracting. One hopes that a remounting of this project will bring the captions closer to the actors without being overly invasive. The video elements (and the butterfly puppet), while beautifully realized and visually impressive, lacked context.
There’s a lot to like about this production, whether you’re familiar with Beethoven’s life story or not. Despite its occasional flaws, Arlekin’s Beethoven crescendos in the audience’s imagination. Even if it creates moments that clash and contradict itself, the dissonance is heavenly. For more information and tickets, go to: https://www.arlekinplayers.com/
