Журнал «Филоlogos»

THE PROBLEMS AND POETICS OF V. SHENDEROVICH'S PLAY "TWO ANGELS, FOUR PEOPLE"

Author: Shelenok M.A.

The article is devoted to the study of the dramatic legacy of V. Shenderovich, one of the best XXI century comedy writers, whose texts do not lose their actuality and with each passing year resonate increasingly sharp. The analysis of the comedy "Two angels, four people" (2001) is at the centre of research. Game techniques at the levels of a plot, characters' images, literary reminiscences (the dialogue with the text's of M. Bulgakov, N. Erdman, V. Orlov), languauge humour are covered. Their functions are being defined. Satire addressing of a text is being revealed. Special attention is given to vaudeville poetics in the play's structure. The article proves that the techniques specific for a vaudeville occupy an important position in the text, because they give certain dynamism to the play's action and contribute to a general comic atmosphere of this work of fiction. Taking into consideration the external comedy effect of "Two angels, four people" often based on dark humour, Shenderovich solves topical social and moral issues that are common to all mankind, and through the subtext he appeals to present-day socio-political problems (e.g. complete bureaucratization of a society, confrontation of religious denominations, etc). The playwriter proposes a mock structure of the afterworld as a multilevel bureaucratic system, where it is needed not only for dead souls, but for bureaucrats (angels and demons) themselves to fill in an infinite number of documents, wait in queues (without any hope of an appointment), report to inspectors, etc. The conflict of a central character is a tradegy of a low ranker. Being sinfull, he did not deserve to go to Heaven, but his sins are too small for ending up in hell. So, even in the afterworld the fate of an average philistine (solely and exclusively nomenclature unit) suffering endlessly in the purgatory's waiting-rooms awaits for him. The author insists on humanistic ideas and at the same time he turns social and moral, everyday vices (greed, filthy lucre, lust, whistle-blowing, etc) into ridicule, and discloses the topic of profitable connections as a cosmic-scale problem. Shenderovich also proposes to take a fresh look at the image of the fallen angel, making him a tragicomic character - an anti-hero charged with functions of a reasoner.