The Stage

Netochka Nezvanova - Nameless Nobody

Published Wednesday 23 January 2008 at 12:25 by Jeremy Austin

Performing with the minimal of props - a violin and a battered suitcase - on a bare stage creates the appropriate air of mystery for Vera Filatova’s performance as a woman with a troubled past.

But something seems to get lost in the translation. While her strong Russian accent brings authenticity to the piece, it also lends itself to a stilted delivery that loses some of the power of the piece. Alexander Markov and Valentina Beletskaya’s direction, too, has her character acting at odds to the story.

Her delivery switches between eye-rolling insanity and regular narration without there being any apparent reason for it. At one point she laughs/cries and runs from the stage, hollering in the theatre’s foyer before coming back in. Why, again, isn’t clear.

This confusion leaves the story in a fractured state and makes it difficult to follow. Why she is where she is, how she has only just come to recall her tale, and so other many questions are left unanswered.

Filatova, however, has an obvious talent as an actress. Despite her character’s somewhat confusing behavior, she is totally absorbed in the role and convinces. There is something engrossing about her and, when the story is allowed to break through the confused direction, she has the ability to draw the audience in and allow them to accompany her on her journey.