«Mockery of Uladzimir Syamyonavich's work.» Viewers in shock after Karatkevich premieres at RTBD and Gomel Youth Theater, not all stay until the end
Last year, the Republican Theater of Belarusian Drama concluded with a premiere based on Uladzimir Karatkevich's historical novella «The Boat of Despair». Tickets for the performance sold out months in advance — influenced by both the name of the Belarusian literature star and RTBD's previously established image with its high-quality and captivating productions.
But it is already clear that the expectations of the audience have not been met: social networks are full of disappointed reviews. A similar situation is with the premiere based on Karatkevich in Gomel.
The direction of the production of «The Boat of Despair» belongs to the director of the theater Svetlana Naumenko, who replaced Svetlana Karukina in the summer of 2024. The director's love for the Belarusian classic and the choice of his work for work could only be approved if we did not know that under her leadership the theater «cleaned up» from previous popular performances and leading actors solely because of political «unreliability».
Naumenko called this «the composition has qualitatively changed», in fact, young people came to replace experienced actors. The same people who remained can be spoiled by the hand of the director: more than one literary critic notes that Naumenko's direction, in contrast to ideology, is weak.
As a result, viewers who expected the usual wow effect from the premiere note that «this is the most raw, ill-conceived, as if hastily cobbled together, weak and indistinct production» in recent years.
«Excessive pathos on a patriotic note and general lack of coordination, a blurred ending without a beautiful point. A third of the texts were guessed by meaning, because there was not enough voice power of the actors for such a large stage. There were strange glitches with the light.
There should have been beautiful allegories and references to the past, to national peculiarities, but as a result, torn meanings turned out. And no one needed to sing here at all. Completely inappropriate and meaningless. It did not give any refinement to the complex story about death and redemption of life in death,» shared one of the viewers, who has not missed a single production of the RTBD since 2015.
«After «Sirozhi», «Marriage with the Wind» and other wonderful RTBD productions, this looks like some kind of fools, if not to say more harshly,» comments another regular visitor.
«It didn't touch emotionally at all. We left and forgot»;
«I forced myself to love what I see. I think «no, RTBD can't disappoint me like that, I probably don't have the right mood.» But this is really anything. Yesterday I went through all the performances of this theater in my memory… Failure, a clear failure,» other users agree.
Karatkevich fans cling primarily to the fact that the production never lives up to the book. But those who have not read the original are generally satisfied with the result.
What everyone liked without exception was the costumes created by Tatsiana Lisavenko.
According to Karatkevich himself, «The Boat of Despair» is the most successful attempt to give a generalized character to the Belarusian, for whom neither the devil is a brother, nor is death frightening, who loves his Motherland, life and fun more than anything else and will not give in to the struggle for them under any circumstances.»
Interestingly, another premiere based on Karatkevich's story faced a similar reception — in May 2025, the Gomel Youth Theater presented «The Wild Hunt of King Stakh» (specifically in Russian) on its stage. The neo-noir planned by director David Razumov also received a portion of criticism (although there are also enthusiastic reviews). Firstly, for the Russian language. And secondly, for the overly heartbreaking performance of the actors and weak scenography.
«The Wild Hunt» from the Gomel Theater is, of course, a very amateur production. And the Russian language is not the worst thing that has been done to it (although it is difficult to perceive — sometimes trashianka gets in, and this is already some kind of mockery of the work of Vladimir Semenovich). The actors shouted half of the play, because they obviously lacked other means of acting.
The final thought is that in Belarus only slaves are worthy people. It is very, very offensive for the original national idea of Belarusian dignity. I don't recommend the performance, half of the people from our company even left after the first act,» shared one of the viewers on social networks.
«My husband and I didn't find a single reason not to leave during the intermission,» another user is in solidarity with him.
Of what is currently being staged in Belarus based on Karatkevich, theater lovers advise visiting productions based on his works at the Youth Theater and at the Opera. There, in their opinion, a worthy result was achieved.
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