Last weekend we went to New York City to see Pushkin's Little Tragedies. This was the English premiere of Pushkin's four short plays. The man behind all of this is Julian Lowenfeld, an American lawyer by day and Russian translator and scholar by night. In 2005 he published a bilingual book of poems by Pushkin.
In his new endeavor, Julian seems to have stretched himself a bit too thin. He was the translator, director, musical coordinator and an actor. I must give him an "A" for effort but I hope next time he takes that energy and focuses on one area.
The four stories told in the 2.5 hour long set are: The Knight-miser, Mozart and Salieri, The Stone Guest and The Feast in Time of Plague. I am by no means a theatre expert nor even really a fan so it's sad to say that even I found the acting a bit wanting at times. I thought The Knight-miser was the best performance out of the 4. It's the story of a rich duke who is enfantiated with his money much to the chagrin of his lazy son. The story with the most potential (but perhaps the worst acting) was Mozart and Salieri which entertains the idea that Mozart dies at the hand of his jealous friend and rival composer, Salieri.
Regardless of all the mediocre reviews, I think it's still wonderful that someone is trying to bring Pushkin to a wider audience and I can not wait to see what Julian comes up with next.
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