a _ 1) RMT TART TR FAP ee ee Play-going in the USSR SECOND IN A SERIES By OSCAR RYAN (Author of Tim Buck: a Conscience for Canada) Moscow’s a bustling, expand- ing metropolis. And still they come — those aspiring to become permanent Muscovites, plus out- of-town visitors and foreign tour- ists. From the big city’s heart radiate miles of wide streets that make Spadina in Toronto or Por- tage in Winnipeg look like rural roads. The city is alive with people. In the daytime they hurry along pur- posefully. Evenings they slow down a bit, just a bit, but they still move hell-bent-for-leather. Wherever the majority of them are bound, you may be sure that a good many thousands are on their way to a movie, a concert, ballet, or the opera, circus, a play. Among them will be quite a few who haven't managed to reserve tickets but have decided to take a chance on picking up someone’s last-minute cancellation at the ae theatre entrance. ‘‘Billeti?’’ Any spare tickets? It’s almost a slo- gan. What to see? The choices are many, the variety near-prodigal. A handy guide for theatre-goers is the 50-page postcard-size booklet that lists Moscow’s available stage entertainment. The one I checked covered January | to 15. About 35 pages listed the princi- pal stage shows in each theatre’s current repertoire (a page to a theatre). The other 15 pages were devoted to music concerts, reci-’ tals, etc. In each case an address and phone number were given. * * * Toronto play-goers belong -to distinct groups and classes. The people who attend the O’Keefe Centre are not quite the same in social composition as those you see at the Royal Alex, both groups are somewhat different from the St. Lawrence Centre au- dience, and all differ distinctly from those you meet at Toronto Workshop, Free Theatre, Open Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre. Circle, Factory Lab or Passe Muraille. (Each to his or her mag- net.) Soviet audiences I observed, while hardly homogeneous, do not exhibit the group or class dis- ‘tinctions so evident in Toronto, Stratford or Niagara-on-the- Lake. Soviet audiences more than ours, it seemed to me, are a cross-section of their population — factory and office workers, students, professionals people, - intellectuals, army privates and officers, the cultural community, etc., mainly young to middle-aged but with a fair number of elderly viewers. Most theatre-goers wear their everyday clothes. Though some dress up in their Sunday best, there are no dinner jackets. The only formal attire I noticed was worn by the musicians in the or- chestra pit at opera or ballet. * * O* As a Canadian accustomed to. our 8:30 p.m. show starts.(except for a few opening nights) I had to HISTORIC FIRST SOVIET-U.S. FILM PRODUCTION ‘THE BLUE BIRD’ CICELY TYSON “The Blue Bird’, a musical fantasy based on the story by Belgian author, Maurice Maeterlinck, a co-production of 20th Century Fox, USA and Lenfilm Studies USSR, directed by George Cukor and featuring outstanding U.S., Soviet and English stars. “I wanted to help build the relationship between Russia and the United States,” said actress Elizabeth Taylor, “I thought that was vitally wmportant . . ae PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 28, 1976—Page 6 JANE FONDA hustle to make curtain time, which is generally 7 p.m. in Mos- cow and 7:30 in Kiev (8 p.m. in Tbilisi, with one at 6 p.m.). The custom is to eat after the show or nibble at snackbar during. the single intermission. You must be in your seat on time. Moscow’s heavy evening auto traffic delayed us 10 minutes for the Taganka’a much-praised Wooden Horses. Because we were foreign visitors we were permit- ted, as a special concession, into the rear of the house to join the standing-room-only crowd. One hour later, after the intermission, we were allowed to claim our seats. They’re very strict about such things. They’re strict about another matter of theatre etiquette. You cannot take your winter outwear to your seat; you must check coat, hat and overshoes in the cloakrooms (no charge). A thousand people all checking clothes and footwear and later re- claiming them in congested cloak- room aisles can be time- consuming if you’re impatient (5 or 10 minutes) but audiences are used to the routine and take it calmly. There was an amusing by-play every time we went to theatre. My companion’s coat had lost its peg-loop. The elderly woman be- hind the counter would receive the coat, look for the collar-loop, find it missing, sigh and shake her head in more distress than in anger. Usually she shrugged, somehow hung up the garment, sometimes even smiled. On a few occasions when I claimed my own coat, a checkroom woman in- sisted on helping me on with it. We encountered one exception to the easy-going but efficient checking procedure. The maverick was a grizzled male at- tendant who searched for the Nadejda Pavlova, newest star of the Bolshoi Ballet, makes her fil debut as the Blue Bird of Happiness, dancing to music by Soviet co poser, Andrei Petrov. faithful companio Sete Geek ; Myty! and Tyity! — Patsy Kensit and Todd Lookinland — and n, Dog — George Cole — search for Foyer of the new building of thé Lithuanian Theatre of Opera and Ballet. loop, found none and lost his cool. Exasperated, he snapped: “If you haven’t got a loop you shouldn’t go to the theatre!’ But he hung it up, still muttering, * *K O* Theatre ushers, program sellers, etc., usually motherly older women, show a proprietaty concern for their theatres. They frown on littering and sternly dis: courage intermission smoking except in a few restricted areas: You pay for programs, any where from about five cents for@ folder listing cast and productiom credits to 35 cents or more fol souvenir editions. a You may rent opera glasses a! most cloakrooms for about 3 cents. In theatre nourishment range from small snack-bars restaurant-type lounges for if termission treats, variously offer ing candy, cakes, ice-cream, col meats, open-face sanwiches: beer, cognac, wine, mineral wa ter, tea or fruit. Theatre tickets vary in price: Our front-row seats to see thé Bolshi Ballet in their magnificetl theatre cost three roubles, kopecks— about $4.50 Canadia™ All rights reserved, Progress Books, Toronto , (Note: In the first article of this series the name Mayakovsky w? incorrectly spelled.) an! air the Blue’