The Devil's Bicycle

Decades-long leading performance in teenage radio plays of the All-Union Radio by Valentina Sperantova brought dozens of radio plays into the Golden Fund of radio. And that’s why it’s so wonderful that there was also a Children’s Editorial Office on the Leningrad Radio. For fans of teenage themes, it can sometimes be pleasant to rest from the unstoppable and unruly Moscow boys in the cozy atmosphere of the restrained, dimly Baltic climate. “The Devil’s Bicycle” gives us that opportunity.

A different, “fresh” cast of performers from Lenradio is characterized by a more restrained yet—at the same time—intimate sound. And even if one of the main roles in the production is voiced by Sperantova’s niece, Elena Millyoti, you can’t help admiring her languid, half-sleepy intonations: “Boo-ba!, Well, Boo-ba, too!” Original and touching is Eduard Bogutsky, well known to Leningrad children from the mischievous sneaker Hoha from the long-running children’s series “The Big Festival.” And Maria Petrova’s voice, familiar and recognizable though it is, transforms in the grandmother’s role: the slowed tempo and lower pitch make it oddly similar to the voice of General… Alice Freundlich—a pleasant surprise.

The play also stood out for the skill of radio directing. Just as Putin “plays bad cards so well,” so too the director brilliantly embodies the generally ordinary authorial techniques—transforming the plot into a story. The retrospective transformation of an elderly narrator into a teenage girl and their dialogue impressed me: the mystery of how the director achieved it with such subtle means. Yet the cozy, home-like atmosphere of a summer country dacha is conveyed so проникновенно that you simply feel wrapped in warm, motionless, slow-syrupy air, sweetly languishing under the annoying fly.