U K S U S OBERIUpera in 4 boxes music: Erling Wold libretto: Felix Strasser & Yulia Izmaylova & Erling Wold from texts by: Daniil Charms, Aleksandr Vvedenskij, Konstantin Vaginov, Leonid Lipavskij Our Mama – Babuska Baba Yaga, a woman who represents Stalin Fefjulka Fensterchan - a woman who embodies Charm's two wives The painter Michelangelo - tragic and dramatic; the serious side of life Pushkin - more or less Daniil Charms Karabister - a giant with infinitely long clock hands instead of arms Ivan Ivanovitch Samovar - a samovar, that narrates, occasionally… *** Ivan before the Overture: In the days of the Russian Tsar, a man, Ivan Pavlovich Yuvachev, a member of a terrorist group that succeeded in assassinating Tsar Alexander the second, underwent a religious awakening in prison, or, possibly, experienced a mental breakdown, and, under the influence of this belief in his mystical abilities, and on his release from prison, predicted the exact date on which his child would be born. Calling his wife from a telephone owned by Leo Tolstoy, he demanded that she fulfill his prophecy. This she did, and on that day foretold, Daniil Kharms was born. Overture Ivan over the Overture: By the time he came of age, the First World War and Russian revolution had swept away the world his father knew, and had replaced that world with one in which there was great hardship, a terrible time of hunger and fear, from enemies foreign and domestic, to wit, (1) Stalin’s great political purges in which at least a thousand were shot each day and (2) the invasion by Germany which killed millions more. Joseph Stalin, the great General Secretary of the Soviet Union, born as Iosif Dzhugashvili, chose his nom de guerre in the revolution, and Kharms, born Daniil Yuvatchov, whose nom de plume is said to have discovered him by appearing in his thoughts and notebooks time and time again until no other name remained. 1 After Overture Box 0: Winter ’42 Ivan: in which Pushkin is attacked and robbed Spoken by M1: (gong) Russian winter (gong). The siege of Leningrad (gong). The poet Pushkin, dressed in a winter coat and fur hat, pulls a sled in the snow behind him. The sled is loaded with manuscripts. He stops and blows his nose. The poet Pushkin to the audience: I was walking straight to work and met a man on the street who had purchased some Polish white bread. And that’s it, more or less. Now bring that into the workshop! You’ll get slaughtered. Crickets will sound in the seminar room. Someone will say, “I guess I’d like to know more about the Polish bread.” Music God what a terrible way to live STOP iron hands draw me into a pit STOP I've fallen so low and so far that I can never get up STOP I don't know what we will eat today STOP what we will eat in the future I don’t know anymore STOP we hunger STOP (music) I would like only to lie still and sleep like Oblomov STOP (music) I’m going to the children's book publisher STOP to once again get no money END O Lord who controls the mechanism of the universe, please have pity on these two poor organisms, give us warmth and asylum. And please convince the children's book publisher to deliver a few pennies to this pitiful soul. M2 runs onto the stage, knocks Pushkin over, steals his fur cap, scatters the manuscripts and disappears. The following is enacted by M1 & M2: Pushkin lying down: There once was a man named Semyonov. Once Semyonov was walking and lost his handkerchief. Semyonov looked for the handkerchief and lost his hat. Semyonov looked for the hat and lost his jacket. Semyonov looked for his jacket and lost his boots. M1: "Ah," Pushkin: said Semyonov, M1: "here you lose everything. I prefer to go home." Pushkin: Semyonov headed home and got lost. M1: "No," Pushkin: said Semyonov, M1: "I would like to sit down and rest." Pushkin: Semyonov sat on a rock and fell asleep. 2 M1 & M2 help Pushkin stand up, pat him off, clean him up. M2: Anton Mikhailovich spat (M1 spits) then said M1: "blech" M2: spat again (M1 spits) again said, M1: "blech" M2: spat again (M1 spits) and said again, M1: "blech" Pushkin turns around, but can see no one. He continues. M1 & M2 place Fefjulka and Our Mama. The following is enacted by M1 & M2: Pushkin gesture: In the name of all that’s holy, I wish to tell you of Himmelkumov. Himmelkumov stared at a girl and commanded her by his thoughts to turn her head toward him. But it didn’t work. Then Himmelkumov commanded her by his thoughts to not turn her head to him. That did no good either. Pushkin turns around, but can see no one. M1 & M2 move Fefjulka and Our Mama. Pushkin is alone, captured by the gaze of the audience. Ivan: We have here Kharms, a writer of children’s books who hated children. Let us read from his novella The Old Woman: The offensive shouting of urchins can be heard from the street. I lie there, thinking up various means of execution for them. My favorite one is to infect them all with tetanus so that they suddenly stop moving. Their parents can drag them all home. They will lie in their beds unable even to eat, because their mouths won't open. They will be fed artificially. After a week the tetanus can pass off, but the children will be so feeble that they will have to lie in their beds for a whole month. Then they will gradually start to recover but I shall infect them with a second dose of tetanus and they will all croak. M1 & M2 move Fefjulka and Our Mama. The following is enacted by M1 & M2: Pushkin gesture: In the name of all that’s holy, I’d better tell you of Fedja Davidovich. Fedja Davidovich snuck up to the butter dish, and, when his wife bent down to cut her toenails, quickly grabbed the dish, opened it, scooped out the butter with his fingers and shoved it all in his mouth. Pushkin turns around quickly and confronts the two women. Maybe they’ve been eating something. Fefjulka and Our Mama scramble: Pushkin: There they go by once again There they turn to flee 3 The kisser number seven The cunt number three! The women run at Pushkin, hook him under his arms, drag him to the edge of the stage. M1 & M2 restrain him. A heroic pose: Our Mama and Fejulka stand at attention, raise their hands in a pioneer salute and sing: Our Mama and Fefjulka: To the barricades we will run, we will run, we will To the barricades we will run, and we’ll get there first In the name of freedom we will run, we will run, we will In the name of freedom we will run, and we all will die And for Stalin we will shout, we will shout, we shout And for Stalin we will shout three times! Hurrah! Hurrah! *** The women prepare the stage for a high-ranking visitor while they talk & sweep. The following is enacted by M1 & M2 & Pushkin: Our Mama: One day, Orlov ate too many mashed peas and died. Fefjulka: And Krylov, after hearing this died too. Our Mama: And Spiridonov simply died. Fefjulka: And Spiridonov’s wife fell off the cupboard and died as well. Our Mama: And Spiridonov’s children drowned in the pond. Fefjulka: And Spiridonov’s grandmother took to the bottle and wandered the highways. Our Mama: And Mikhailov stopped combing his hair and got scabies. Fefjulka: And Kruglov sketched a lady with a whip in her hand and went crazy. Our Mama: And Perechrjostow was sent by telegraph four hundred rubles, and became so arrogant that he was fired from his job. Fefjulka: They are all good people but they don’t know how to keep it together. *** 4 Pushkin is captured by the gaze of the audience. Another examination. Maybe a magnifying glass is involved. Sherlock and Watson: M1 & M2. Everything freezes. Other characters come on and disappear as mentioned. Ivan: Here we have Pushkin, who is Kharms, who shares the occupation of poet with his name, and here Fejfulka, who is this character’s wife, and also the token girl, when a token girl is needed in his boy’s world. Our mama, who later changes, through the magic of theater, into Comrade Stalin. Finally Michelangelo, the painter and sculptor, who, if he had really created every work ascribed to him, would have had to live a hundred lifetimes or more. They present this story, which they have titled Uksus, a Russian word meaning vinegar, or as it is commonly known: acetic acid. But before we begin, one word of warning: Kharms, like our composer, was a libertine, obsessed with sexual fantasies, writing of these in his notebooks in a cipher of his own devising, showing an obsession with convincing all the women in his life to give him a blowjob, dissatisfied by a culture that was too conservative. When those very few sexually explicit moments come forth here in this little play, please do not concern yourself nor clutch your pearls, as these moments will pass, to be replaced by gunshots and death and absurdity and joy, themselves replaced by explosions. *** The arrival of a distinguished gentlemen announces itself noisily. Pushkin falls to the floor. Fefjulka: Schujev! Our Mama: Schujev! Both: Schujeeeeev! Puskin (writing on the backs of M1 & M2): “Drink vinegar, gentlemen,” said Shuyev.