The Poet Mashrab in the Play “Flights of Mashrab” by Mark Weil

The legendary Central Asian poet Boborakhim Mashrab, who lived at the turn of the 17th-18th centuries, has inspired Russian artists, writers, and theater performers since the late 19th century, the time of the Russian Empire’s conquest of the Turkestan region. In the study the theatrical performance “Flights of Mashrab,” staged in 2006 by director Mark Weil in the Tashkent theater “Ilkhom”, is observed in the perspective of theatrical biopic as an artistic biography of a historical person. Emphasis is placed on the carnival poetics of the performance (in M.M. Bakhtin’s concept): eschrology, travesty and buffoonery. The poetics of the performance is analyzed in comparison with the narrative source “Life of Divan-i-Mashrab” by N.S. Lykoshin, who revealed Mashrab’s personality to the Russian-speaking public in the early 20th century. Attention is paid to the musical design of the performance and the personality of the composer Mozart, who became a character of the theatrical performance.