American playwright William Gibson’s psychological drama The Miracle Worker is based on the childhood story of blind and deaf writer, and American social activist Helen Keller, who is able to communicate with the outside world thanks to her teacher Annie Suriven. Helen Keller’s destiny is fascinating and carries an important message. Challenges in this life are surmountable, but one should not give way to ambiguous opinions. In her capacity as an American writer, she has written numerous books and given lectures. This life and real story have found their place on the contemporary Armenian stage as well.
Seven-year-old Hellen (the actress is 9-year-old Angelina Zakaryan) is a capricious, impatient, willful girl. She does what she wants. Her father, Captain Keller (Tigran Gayobyan) and her mother, Kate Keller (Arpine Mkhitaryan), do not even try to argue with her but try to guess her every wish, pity, and caress, sometimes barely restraining their impatience, and only her half-brother, James Keller ( Sargis Gharibyan) calls things by their proper names, calling to liberate the house from such «horror», which is beyond anyone’s control.
The actress is inimitable in the possible means of expressing her mind, consciousness, speech and body. Her desire to awaken Ellen’s consciousness by teaching her a deaf-mute alphabet to begin to understand the meaning of speech, because «How does a bird learn to fly… We use words like wings, but it takes time.» Angelina Zakaryan, who plays Helen, undoubtedly believes in the story in which she appeared. Most importantly, she believes in herself and her abilities. And the house servant Winnie (Tatev Kazarian) seems to be the only one who has a little faith in Annie Suriven’s capabilities, although she sometimes gets downhearted. Tatev Kazarian’s episodic performance was also impressive.
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The director presented a lifelike and truthful story, relying on the aesthetic principles, ideas, and individual approaches he adopted. Transitions from scene to scene in the play found both musical (music by Hayk Israelyan) and the solution of shadow play, which transformed the psychological line of the viewer into a state of mind. It should be noted that the scenography of the performance is static; in order to create a realistic environment, the stage designer used a real story (paintings by Garegin Evangulyan, costumes by Lusine Khachatryan).
This play has a significant ideological framework: man is the strongest in this world. And this is the level at which man reaches when he realizes, believes, and begins to live in the word. This results in harmony between life and man, and man and man.
The Miracle Worker has a clear message, which is voiced by Narine Grigoryan, who plays Annie Suriven: «Submission without awareness is the same as blindness.» Undoubtedly, it is a universal problem, which is constantly raised and talked about, and it seems that a solution has already been found, still, the majority of people do not understand this phenomenon.
Vova Arzumanyan
