TWO JILLS AND ONE DONALD

The Russian Drama Theatre has end-ed the year with a premiere of Leonard Gershe's play Butterflies are Free, directed by Aleksandr Sharovskiy. This touching drama about a young blind man who insists on his right to independence is as relevant today as ever, because its themes are eternal - the problem of fathers and children, responsibility in love and the right of the individual to creative self-expression.

Artist Aleksandr Fedorov's severe high-tech sets show us a cramped two-storeyed New York apartment where passions seethe. The duo of Donald Baker (Oleg Kharchenko) and Mrs Baker (Honoured Artiste Rita Amirbayova) have the ideal balance of emotion. This family pair in all senses (they are mother and son in real life as well as on stage) draw the audience in by the quality of their acting and their understanding of the problem. The blind hero in this play is just a way to dramatize the mother's reluctance to let her adolescent son go. In real life most mothers have less substantial reasons for their reluctance.

Mrs Baker, who is ironically called Sighted Mother by her son, is funny in her attempts at constant guardianship but sometimes right too. Rita Amirbayova paints as if by numbers this classic image in which many of our mothers can recognize themselves and are not ashamed to admit it, as neither the playwright nor director are mocking us.

But the harmony of the family pair is broken by Jill Tanner. Milana Mardaxanova and Anaida Rostovskaya play the dippy, flighty but kind girl in different performances. Journalists were able to attend both premieres and compare Milana's Jill with Anaida's. Milana organically takes on the image drawn by the playwright. She's a typical New York girl, an uninhibited child of the megapolis, carefree, relaxed, not taking life too seriously. Even a certain affectation does not spoil the natural image created by the actress, while her stunning appearance emphasizes it all the more.

Anaida's Jill is more affected, which makes her more feminine, softer and more lyrical. On the one hand, this brings her closer to many young women in Baku, who are extremely sensitive in their eastern delicacy. On the other, it makes you think that Anaida Rostovskaya's lyrical appearance in some ways makes her better suited to costume drama than contemporary roles. If Mardaxanova's Jill is Gershe's Jill with some updating from the director, Rostovskaya's Jill is Agafya Tikhonovna (from Gogol's play Marriage) who, given her freedom, has swapped her crinoline for jeans but still does not know what she needs.

Ralph Austin, a stupid playboy in Teymur Rahimov's scintillating performance, is a good foil for both Jills. Even the most insensitive members of the audience can see into the depths of the soul when the glamorous lowlife Ralph falls to his knees and feels his face to see what the young blind boy didn't like about it.

Oleg Kharchenko is the real star of the show. To his youthful charm, attractiveness and undisputed acting talent can be added a pleasant voice. He sings to the music of People's Artist Siyavus Karimi (Kharchenko's character, Donald Baker, is a musician). Kharchenko is so immersed in the role of the young blind boy who grapples with the condition he has suffered from birth that you can imagine Stanislavsky standing in the wings and applauding. Kharchenko whets the audience's appetite with bursts of tap dancing. He does not need "love beads"- he is assured of love. For those who don't know the play, this hippy talisman is given to the hero by his new girlfriend so that he might become an idol to his audience.

The finale spells things out between the characters only in the short term. This isn't a classic with a happy ever after ending. You don't know whether Donald will become a second Ray Charles or how long Jill, who is learning a lot, will be with him. But one thing is certain: the show has given us a bouquet of young talent whom we knew from supporting roles but who have now taken centre stage.