Extra!_Extra!_Theatrel_Review_T_Lindon_Nameless_Nobody_New_End_Theatre

Luminous arts and Russkiye Notchi Theatre of St.Petersburg, in association with the New End Theatre, present:

Netochka Nezvanova

Nameless Nobody

Directed By Alexander Markov and Valentina Beletskaya

Performed by Vera Filatova

New End Theatre

16 January – 3 February 2008

Dostoevsky. As a read, he is an undertaking, arduous (not least to lift the behemoth) but worthwhile, and it is very rare that he escapes the library to hit the stage. However, The New End theatre in Hampstead plays host this month to one of Dostevsky’s rare outings with an award-winning one-woman show from Luminous Arts.
Netochka Nezvanova (Nameless Nobody) is adapted for the stage from a short story following one girl’s recollection of her cramped family life with her fanatical musician of a father and terrifying mother, embittered by the souring of her marriage ‘for love’. Music is a vital force in the story of the father, and so, the orphaned daughter’s life. Our young storyteller appears carrying a large suitcase with only one possession inside, the most precious souvenir of her childhood: her father’s violin swathed carefully in a piece of cloth. Director Alexander Markov punctuates Filatova’s speech with powerful excerpts of classical music, often functioning to overwhelm; silencing the young woman as she is swept up into her memory.
Vera Filatova plays the part excellently as an impassioned yet disconnected character, portraying the arrested development of a child orphaned in tragic and bizarre circumstances, her peculiarities thereafter allowed to develop unchecked into the young woman we see on stage. The vigour of Filatova’s delivery makes her tale all the more distressing in a very dramatic & physical performance. In her manic behaviour we see both her father on the cusp of madness, and also the little orphan frozen in time by her abandonment. For this, it is hard to tell how old the character is when we see her: though physically a young woman, she still acts very like a little girl, at one point even running offstage because she cannot control her giggles.
Filatova’s intensity can be quite frightening at times, with arms outstretched and a manic grin as her character is caught up in the euphoria of a memory. Heart-rendingly, she admits that she cannot remember anything before the age of nine, the turning point of which was her first experience of parental affection: a caress from her father. This moment then splits her life into worship-like passion for her father and biblical terror of her mother, a woman she was more petrified of waking than the nightmares she had as an infant.

In a very wordy, hour-long monologue, Filatova’s emphasis and diction was particularly impressive, more so considering that English is not her first language. Although the stylised performance may not be to a naturalist’s tastes, it was unarguably powerful, and with no set and minimal props, Filatova held the space with confidence and pace.

Tube: Hampstead underground (Northern Line), 5 minutes away. Buses: 46, 210, 268