The performance "Bad habits": reviews, features and cast

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The play "Bad Habits" is not always on in the theater, it's an enterprise. As in every such production, there is everything here to keep the viewer's attention - a stellar cast, a dynamic plot and brilliant direction.

The plot is complex, there is something to laugh and think about, and the combination of lighting design with classic dramatic techniques fills the action with dynamism, keeping the audience's attention for two hours.

Who is the author?

Philippe Lelouch is our contemporary, he was born in 1966 in Israel, in the family of a French financier. Philip grew up among the "white collar" and "golden youth", using his own position without hesitation as he understood it. And he understood him corny, that is, he endlessly got involved in adventures, had parties and often woke up in police stations.

This lasted until Philip's life enteredmovie. The first role of the "boy major" was in 1996 in the film "Woman of Honor". Much water has flown under the bridge since then, and now Monsieur Lelouch is a respectable director, screenwriter and sought-after dramatic actor. His last film, "Twelve Melodies of Love", was released in 2017, and the 51-year-old European theater and film star is already busy with a new project.

Lelouch's plays are permeated with subtle, but rude, everyday humor and filled with deep meaning. This is not surprising, because the ideas of each of them are taken from the author's own life experience, namely, from the time of his stormy and eventful youth.

What is the play about?

The plot of "Bad Habits" by F. Lelouch takes the viewer into circulation immediately, without introductions - there are three imposing men in tuxedos on the stage. They wake up… and after a few lines, the first laughter in the dark of the hall is heard - the men in tuxedos woke up in the bullpen, moreover, on Christmas night.

The original name of the performance - Boir, fumer et conduire vite - literally means "Drinking, smoking and speeding" - the most important bad habits of men all over the world.

The characters of the play were forced to spend Christmas in a cell because of them - one of them drank too much, another violated the ban on smoking in a public place, and the third was just in a hurry to the party.

Men really want to get out and are ready for anything. But for some reason there are no policemen in the station, but there is a lawyer, of course, this is a woman - young, beautiful and not too goodlaw savvy.

Who is the director?

The performance about bad habits collects reviews all over the world, because it was staged in New York, Munich, Vienna, Paris and many other cities. The play is addressed not only in the capital, but also in provincial theaters, although the performance does not survive everywhere.

In Russia, the most successful production was the entreprise of Timofey Sopolev, a well-known and very controversial figure in the theatrical environment. On the one hand, this is a recognized artist, not only staging performances, filming films and television projects, but also holding a prestigious post. Sopolev - Dean of the Faculty of Musical Theater of the Russian Academy of Theater Arts (GITIS), Associate Professor of the Directing Department of the Russian Academy of Theater Arts (GITIS). On the other hand, he is a frequenter of parties, a nihilist and a lover to speculate about the mores of his contemporaries.

As a teacher, he is adored by students, and as a director, by actors. Sopolev's performances are always more colorful than the plays that form their basis. He singles out, exaggerates and brings storylines to the point of absurdity, supplementing them with music, choreography, quotes from Russian classics and lighting design, while not spoiling the original content and without changing the thought of the author of the text.

The performance about bad habits was no exception, the audience's reviews of it are extremely opposite: from frankly indignant to enthusiastic. There are many of them, they are on every regional site that sells tickets for events and covers cultural events. This is the best evidence that the performance was a success: it offends some,makes others laugh, but leaves no one indifferent.

Who's on stage?

The disadvantage of all private performances is the lack of a stable cast. "Bad habits" were lucky in this, only the performer of the role of a lawyer changes - the role was shared by Anna Terekhova and Albina Dzhanabaeva, the trinity resting in the bullpen is almost stable, on stage - Sergey Shakurov, Daniil Spivakovsky, Igor Ugolnikov.

Which composition is more successful - it's impossible to say. For example, after the premiere of the play "Bad Habits" in Moscow, the reviews were negative, and reviews of what was shown at the theater on Malaya Bronnaya were devastating.

Most of the rejection goes to the female character, regardless of who exactly comes to the stage. Terekhova's game was criticized in Sochi, and Dzhanabaeva got it in St. Petersburg.

The cast, which presented the play "Bad Habits" in St. Petersburg, received a completely opposite response from both the audience and critics.

It's not so important what they write, the main thing is they say, it means that artists hurt, "insult feelings", give rise to a desire to discuss, think, experience emotions, and this is precisely what their work is about.

How does the play look?

It's impossible to say that "Bad Habits" is watched in one breath, because this performance requires two. The first is needed before intermission, the second is needed for the second act.

First act

The first act is a comedy. Heroes flaunt each otherin front of a lawyer, flaunt their own prowess and find out which of them is cooler. The artists not only joke about “everyday” topics, but also dance, find a microphone under the mattress, immediately put it into action, and Sergei Shakurov’s character, with a hilariously serious look, quotes well-known quotes from the school curriculum of literature, diluting them with songs popular at feasts.

Everything that happens on the stage is incredibly funny and, in principle, familiar to every viewer to one degree or another. They leave for intermission, as they say now, on a positive note.

Second act

The second act completely turns everything that happened in the first inside out. It is the second part of the play "Bad Habits" that makes the audience want to leave reviews, scold or praise, plunging them first into bewilderment, and then forcing them to think.

It turns out that each of the characters ended up in a cell for insulting a policeman, and the offenses were just a pretext to attract the attention of the servants of the law. As soon as the viewer has time to digest the twist of the storyline, what is happening on the stage casts doubt on the heroine's belonging not only to the legal path, but also to human nature.

Not letting those sitting in the audience digest new details, the heroes of the play publicize that one of them drank “to hell” and fell, injuring his head, the other smoked until his heart stopped, and the third loved speed so much that he failed out of control and crashed.

It's becoming apparent that nothing is what it seems. Bullpen walls, no copsa strange girl who the heroes mistook for a lawyer…

There is no place for laughter in the second act. Not only the humor "below the belt", in which the performance "Bad Habits" reviews are often blamed, there is no reason to smile at all. What is happening on stage is a reflection on the “second chance”, on the reassessment of values, on priorities and on how stupid and wasted we all live, wasting precious moments.

How long does it take?

The play does not at all consist of two fragments, as it might seem at first glance. The second act reveals the first, and the beginning explains what happens in the conclusion. The action lasts with an intermission of 2 hours 20 minutes.

What genre?

The performance is complex, it cannot be attributed unequivocally to any genre. This is not a drama in its purest form, and certainly not a comedy. To call the production a farce is also incorrect. The most accurate definition would be a mixture of several genres in one with a complete absence of specific "black and white tones", the exact "good and bad". Here everything is mixed in shades, bitter is hidden behind the funny, bad behind the good, tragic behind the funny, just like in real life.

That's why almost everyone who watched the play "Bad Habits" is in a hurry to leave a review about it.

What are they saying?

"Bad Habits" - a performance that collects different reviews, good and bad, but invariably emotional.

Interesting opinions expressed on social networks immediately after watching, "in hot pursuit." They write a lot - “is it necessary to change the habit of drinkingand smoking for the continuation of life - it will be boring", "a set of nonsense", "scattered sketches" and so on.

This performance is not the case when you can rely on someone else's opinion. The production is quite ironic and appealing directly to the person, it is worth watching with your own eyes.

Summarizing, it should be noted that the negative and bewildered responses of the audience are often caused not at all by what is happening on the stage and not by the bad work of the artists, and not by the announcement corresponding to the content. This happens especially often in the provinces - they write “comedy” on the posters, people see the names of their favorite artists and come to have an easy and fun evening. And instead of the expected easy-to-understand, funny spectacle, they turn out to be a complex, allegorical, serious performance in which humor is specific and limited to the first act.