Friday, April 27, 2012

THE SIBERIAN SHAMAN - a review

THE SIBERIAN SHAMAN by Catherine the Great starts off with such promise! I really had high hopes during the first thirty pages of the play.

It starts off with something I didn't expect - Mavra the maid from the play OH THESE TIMES! is back. Actually, nowhere in the play does it indicate she's the same person as the Mavra in OH THESE TIMES! - maybe "Mavra" was a sort of generic name to give all Russian maidservant characters in Catherine's day. But I was hoping it was the same character. And then the play starts out like some kind of 18th-century Marx brothers routine with Mavra as Chico.
   BOBINA
Mavra.
   MAVRA
(with both hands in her pockets)
Your wish, madam?
   BOBINA
First, listen carefully to what I have to say, then run as quickly as you can.
   MAVRA
Very well, I’m listening.
   BOBINA
Run to my daughter
   MAVRA
At once.
(Turning around, she starts to run out.)
   BOBINA
Where are you going?
   MAVRA
To Prelesta Nikolaevna, your daughter.
   BOBINA
To tell her what? You haven’t let me finish.
   MAVRA
I’ll tell her you told me to run to her.
   BOBINA
I’m sending you to my daughter with instructions.
   MAVRA
Ah! I thought -
   BOBINA
Run to my daughter, and tell her I’ll be right there -
   MAVRA
Very well.
(Turning around, she starts to leave.)
   BOBINA
Wait a minute. Don’t be in such a hurry.
Catherine also dropped the Restoration Comedy characteristic-names that we saw in the previous play (Mrs. Tattler, Mr. Notshallow) although the names are funny sounding anyway - in addition to Bobina there's Flena Drobina - I don't know how that's pronounced in Russian but I kept hearing it in my head as Fleena Drobeena. And the daughter's name, Prelesta, sounds like a prescription.

As an aside - I really hate the format that Catherine follows in dividing up her scenes. Basically a new scene begins whenever a character enters or leaves. For example:
SCENE 10
MAVRA
Prokofii! Prokofii!


SCENE 11
(Prokofii enters.)

PROKOFII

Your wish?

So annoying!

In present times, whenever there's a holy man, especially one from an exotic religion, there's a very good chance that he's not really a holy man, just a guy running a scam. I thought maybe that was only a modern trope, but no, sure enough it turns out that the Shaman in this play is also running a scam, in cahoots with the Butler of the Bobin household, who turns out to be the Shaman's brother.

Catherine may have been diplomatic and subtle as a politician but she certainly wasn't as a writer. She lets us know that the Shaman is a fake almost right away, with another promising scene. The Shaman has been invited into the home of Mr. and Mrs. Bobin because Mrs. Bobin (or rather Bobina - in the Russian mode, women's last names are feminized) has taken ill.
   MAVRA
Well here’s what happened... our mistress fell ill, from a simple chill. (The Shaman) brought her some kind of herbal water - 
   BRAGIN
Which she took...

   MAVRA
No sir, she never did... the vial broke. We were afraid to say anything...

   BRAGIN
But how did she - 
   MAVRA
We are to blame. 
(Smiles. Prokofii laughs.) 
   BRAGIN
What are you laughing about? What happened? Please tell me. 
   MAVRA
Very well, all right... I’ll tell you... only if you promise not to tell anyone. 
   BRAGIN
Don’t worry... tell me. 
   MAVRA
We put another vial in its place -  
   BRAGIN
With medicine in it? 
   PROKOFII
No sir... just plain water. 
   BRAGIN
And your mistress drank this water? 
   MAVRA
Constantly... with a small spoon. 
   BRAGIN
And did she become better? 
   PROKOFII
Bit by bit, sir... the water began to act as a laxative! 
   MAVRA
But around here the rumors flew that she recovered thanks to the the Shaman’s precious potions. 
   PROKOFII
But please don’t tell on us. 
The Bragin in this scene is a friend of the suitor of Prelesta (side effects may include...) and Prokofiii is a manservant. I thought it bode well for the future plot that he and Mavra were in cahoots.

And then we get to see the Shaman for the first time and that scene is just wild:
(The Shaman runs across the stage and stands with his back to the wall, near the orchestra)
   BOBIN
Look! Just now he drew nearer; perhaps I can attract him somehow. If I don’t succeed, you try something to get his attention.
   SANOV
Very well, we will watch you and then try ourselves.
   BOBIN
Amban-Lai of the 140 degrees, these people wish to speak with you.
(Lai, with his face rapt, stands in one place and hops.)
   SIDOR DROBIN
That got him going!
   SANOV
Mr. Amban-Lai, we would like to hear your wisdom.
(Lai, standing in one place, does a pantomime as if someone is tickling him.)
    SIDOR DROBIN
I will see... if I can do it...
(to Lai with a tone of derision)
Don’t you need a crutch?
(Shows him a walking stick. Lai shakes his head to the right and to the left.)
    KROMOV
Haven’t you stood still at the wall long enough?
(Shows him his watch.)
See what time it is already.
(Lai nods his head forward and to the side, in the manner of Chinese dolls.)
   BRAGIN
(Showing Lai a purse with money.)
Does this please you?
(Lai stretches out both hands in front of him.)
   SIDOR DROBIN
Ha, ha! Mr. Amban... you are certainly no dummy.
(Lai barks like a dog.)
What kind of voice is that? It sounds like a dog barking.
   KARP DROBIN
I’ll try. Mr. Shaman, haven’t you  made us wait long enough in anticipation of conversation?

(Lai mews like a cat.)
   SANOV
Isn’t that Chinese?
   SIDOR DROBIN
Does Chinese sound like the cry of a kitten?
   KROMOV
Mr. Lai, could you perhaps be pretending?
(Lai crows like a rooster.)
   BRAGIN
I’m beginning to think you’re playing a joke on us.
(Lai clucks like a hen.)
   BOBIN
Amban-Lai of the 140 degrees,  come to your senses!

(Lai suddenly rushes forward, pushing the others apart and runs from behind the wings, at full speed.)

SCENE 3
   KROMOV
What a crazy man!
   BOBIN
Never in my life...

   SIDOR DROBIN

He almost knocked us all down.
   BOBIN
Please excuse him.
   SANOV
I don’t know what to think!
   KROMOV
He certainly stretched out his hands to take that money.
   BOBIN
I beg you, don’t judge him so quickly.
   BRAGIN
In many ways he acts just like village women in hysterics.
   BOBIN
His fellow Siberian Shamans all make even more sounds and movements than that. I appeal to anyone who’s ever seen them. But it must seem strange if you’re not used to it. Shamans learn such things by degrees; this one has attained 140 degrees. There are rules so that by degrees they can reach this state of trance.
   SIDOR DROBIN
Live and learn! Who among you, brothers, has ever heard of rules... so that by degrees... one may go out of one’s mind? What a science!
   KROMOV
He has a reputation as both a wise man and a sorcerer.
   KARP DROBIN
He acts like a child...
   BRAGIN
And plays the buffon. 
SCENE 4
(Lai enters gravely with a rapt visage, holding a shamanic kettledrum in his hands. He strikes it intermittently at first, then quickens his steps and then blows  and runs around Sidor Drobin singing oo oo oo, producing a sound like the howling of a storm.)
   SIDOR DROBIN
Don’t tell my wife, she’ll think he’s enchanted me.
(Lai continues his running around them all, shaking and frightening them, hopping and singing ooooo, iiii, eh eh eh eh, a a a a.  Then he runs straight up to the chair, where he falls as if unconscious. His followers leave him after a short ballet.)
Now that is some pretty bold and original dramatic business there. And a huge cast - there are already fifteen characters in the play and then she throws in an indeterminate number of followers who do a short ballet.

I'm sure that all the barking, meowing, crowing, etc. was thought hysterically funny by the audiences of the time - hell, I'm sure today's audiences would laugh too. As I was reading it I thought, "not bad for the Empress of Russia." I mean, she has this amazing, promising set-up - a sham Shaman, mischievous servants, wackiness galore. That narrative train is chugging right along - and then it completely derails.

As I said, she's not the most subtle of writers. It isn't enough to reveal that the Shaman is fake once, we must be told many times.

But then she introduces a character named Ustinia Mashkina who is either extremely stupid or insane and all the other characters express contempt for her. She's certainly portrayed as annoying, Catherine constantly describes her as affected. And I mean constantly:
   USTINIA MASHKINA
(affectedly)
I’ve come from Zaraisk, matushka, from Zaraisk.
   FLENA DROBINA
Did you bring us any much news from there?
USTINIA MASHKINA
(affectedly)
From Zaraisk, I first went on ahead to Moscow, and having met up with some acquaintances there, I accompanied them here.
   FLENA DROBINA
Who do you mean?
   USTINIA MASHKINA
(affectedly, holding a fan in front of her face)
Does it vex you that I have come?
(affectedly to Bobina)
It is my fate, you see; out of jealousy for their husbands, all the ladies envy me!
She's shown to be fooled any time a man says he loves her - she apparently can't tell when somebody is teasing. My guess is she's based on someone Catherine knew who was autistic. This was before autism was recognized as a condition. She's a pitiful character but Catherine displays no empathy for her and she seems to be placed right into the middle of the play as a plot device: she believes that she is engaged to the man that Prelesta (ask your doctor about...) loves, Ivan Pernatov. But of course it turns out that Pernatov was teasing Ustinia Mashkina and she thought he was sincere. But even though they know she's a delusional fool, some of them believe that she's actually his fiancee, especially Prelesta because Prelesta is also an idiot.

So the Ustinia Mashkina character is there to keep Prelesta (do not take on an empty stomach)  from getting together too quickly with her beloved and meanwhile, what happened to the Siberian Shaman plot? Well, we barely see him after his big dance scene and then we find out about his fate through servants' dialog, and then later from the master & family's dialog because why the hell not tell the same thing twice?
   PROKOFII
The trouble’s already happened; he’s been arrested.
   MAVRA
The Amban?

   PROKOFII

Yes, they’ve just led him away.

   MAVRA
Oh, poor fellow! He wasn’t so clever after all.

   PROKOFII

They also say he swindled a merchant’s widow out of her money. He promised her he would reveal her husband in the flesh, and for two day sin a row he brought her some kind of bearded man in disguise. Frightened, she took him for her dead lover. But now the entire sham has been exposed.
And this, by the way, is the only other conversation between Mavra and Prokofii - the smart-ass servant plot was discarded along with the sham Shaman plot to make way for the stupid and mean-spirited Ustinia Mashkina plot.

But the worst thing about the Ustinia Mashkina plot is that at the end of the play Catherine has a character compare her to the Shaman, after she's been heartlessly fooled yet again. These are the last lines of the play:
   USTINIA MASHKINA
You are all leaving, but I must remain.  
   KROMOV
You resemble these Shamans; both you and they follow rules you’ve invented. At first you deceive only yourself, but then you deceive everyone else who puts their faith in you.
This is idiotic. The Shaman was deceiving everyone because he was running a deliberate scam. Ustinia Mashkina is just a haplessly delusional character. But hey, if you're going to destroy a perfect comedy set-up, why not completely blow it away with a wrong-headed moral too?