Roma Theatre “Roman” completed the anniversary XXX Theatre Festival “White Vezha” with songs and dances

The tenth and final day of the XXX International Theatre Festival “White Vezha” ended with music, a whirlwind of colorful skirts and fractional knocking of heels. The final event of the forum was the theatrical concert program "Gypsies of Russia" of the Moscow musical and dramatic gypsy theater "Roman", writes sb.by.

The team performed for the first time in Brest. In Russian and Romani, the artists told the story of two cultures that once met and could not exist without each other. The Gypsy song absorbed the melody of Russian romances, and familiar motifs gained a special freedom and temperament.

The program began without long prefaces. The musicians set the rhythm, the stage was filled with bright costumes, and the first solo parts were picked up by the entire ensemble. Lyrical compositions were replaced by dances, in which the movement gradually accelerated, and the ringing of jewelry merged with music.

The room quickly got into action. After particularly rapid numbers, applause began even before the artists had time to freeze in the final pose. During the romances, on the contrary, the audience quieted down, listening to the voices of the performers. Even songs in the Romani language did not need explanations - the mood was conveyed by intonation, facial expressions and plastic.

- This is the first time that we are performing in Brest and we are delighted with this. The city greeted us with the sun and the audience with warmth. We wanted to give the audience joy, happiness and good mood. We have heard a lot about the “White Vezh” and have long dreamed of getting to the festival, because such meetings create the necessary exchange of emotions for artists and spectators.

Theatre Roman has entered its 95th season. His poster is not limited to productions on a national theme: it has Russian and foreign classics. And yet the special gypsy flavor remains what many viewers come to this theater for.

Artur Lekarev has been with Roman since 2013. In his creative experience, the Russian psychological school and the traditions of the gypsy scene were combined:

The artist of our theater must know the word, sing and dance, and the ability to play a musical instrument gives him even more opportunities. I am half-Gypsy: my mother is a gypsy, my father is Russian. Working in different theater traditions has been a great experience for me. In this profession, you can not one day learn everything and stop – you are constantly growing.

He compares the artists of "Roman" with the performers of the Broadway theater, where everyone should be universal. This was also evident in the Roma of Russia. The participants of the program did not exist separately from the ensemble, easily changed stage tasks and maintained a single rhythm of the performance.

One of the features of the evening was the alternation of Russian and Roma compositions:

- My father once said of a foreign rock band, “I don’t know what they’re singing about, but I know what they’re singing about.” The same thing happens with gypsy songs. You may not know the language, but feel everything at the level of emotions. It was a great honor for us to close the international festival, and we wanted the viewer to accept this program not through translation, but through a lively feeling, said Artur Lekarev.

- I was expecting bright dances, but the program was much more diverse. In one episode, I wanted to beat the rhythm together with the artists, and in the next the whole hall quieted down during the romance. It was these transitions that kept the attention and did not allow to perceive what was happening simply as a set of concert numbers.

- There was a feeling that the artists did not address the entire hall at once, but to each person separately. Even during the songs in the Romani language, we understood the mood and followed the story. It was a warm and lively evening, after which I did not want to leave immediately.

So ended XXX "White Vezha" - long applause and a sense of celebration, which stayed a few minutes in the theater. The halls were almost always full: the anniversary “White Veja” was visited by more than 10 thousand spectators