Mikhail Zhvanetsky marks 75 years. Of these, more than forty Zhvanetsky wrote monologues for the artist Roman Kartsev. How Zhvanetsky relates to women, what is offended and why the works of the satirist should be read like Shakespeare, an old friend and Odessa also told The New Times
We met in Odessa in 1961. At that time, the Parnas-2 miniature theater worked there, where engineers, doctors played ... And Misha was already the most important: he wrote (and did it very professionally), played as an artist and, of course, was the soul of the team. The bear was very beautiful! Curly, with blue eyes. And the girls, of course, fell in love with him. Well, he is in them - of course. And in this regard, he is still all right. True, I think that now he has stopped a little. But, in principle, everything can be expected from him! He is a very large and thin expert on women. (Although in this regard, however, he sometimes consulted with me ...) But his eye is outlined!
I had one conflict with him, but I do not want to talk about it ... (Laughs.) Well, yes, a woman arose between us. But this is always good! Because thanks to this you understand the value of male friendship: a woman disappears, and friendship always remains.
No author - no artist
We - Vita Ilchenko, ¹ Misha and me - was very lucky that we were "found": they began to work together, made friends. And with Misha, from his 75 years, we are together 48. This is a whole life. And if we talk about her most important milestones, then the first, of course, was our work with Arkady Isaakovich Raikin. We, so to speak, “left Raikin” - working with this great artist for 7 years. If there weren’t Raikin, then maybe the three of us would be the devil know where ... But we created our own style thanks to Misha. Therefore, I said and say that the author always determines the face of any artist, even the most ingenious. There is no author - no artist.
After work with Raikin, Vitya Ilchenko and I made more than 10 performances, ² texts to which Misha wrote to. By the way, when we rehearse performances, Misha often upset: I like to improvise, sometimes I say inaccurately his text. Moreover, sometimes I say successfully, sometimes not, and Misha, of course, watches it. And if something is wrong, offends: grimaces, noisy, sometimes scandalit. And then he says: “What will you do with you? You are stubborn! " Basically, of course, he is right ...
Then we tested ourselves and his texts abroad - we played in Hungarian, Romanian, Czech, English ... And the Mishins of the miniatures used it sometimes even greater success than ours ...
In general, somehow quickly everything flew by ...
Crayfish are always relevant
I now have a program “I was born in Odessa”, where I play the classic miniatures of Misha, written by him 20-30 years ago. And today they still sound relevant. This means that the person who wrote them is a classic. We can fulfill Chekhov, Bulgakov all our lives ... So Misha is like that! Only he writes a little shorter than the novelists. (Laughs.) In five minutes, he can write the story of the life of two people! He is an amazing master of small forms. But miniature is a very thin genre where jewelry accuracy is needed both in words and in actions. And he is unsurpassed in this genre.
Of course, I don’t know for sure, I’m afraid of these words, but it seems to me that there will be no one next to him for many, many years. After all, we do not have enough authors. Those that are, write jokes, hohma, they have every line - a rzhaka! And Misha has meaning, paradoxical thinking. Suddenly he, it would seem, makes something amazing out of nothing! Take, for example, “I saw crayfish” - twenty years have passed, and I myself still do not know the secret of their success!
We had miniatures of tragic, lyrical, and farcers - he writes in all genres. And his things must be read in the same way as Shakespeare - read a line, then again and only then to realize its meaning. And how much he has between the lines, how many second plans to dig, look. And when they open, you see so many things in these brief things that you are simply surprised. I sometimes tell him: “Misha, you wrote such a miniature from which you can make twenty!” There are so many thoughts, so many turns!
Odessa Mishka
Of course, he would not have become the Zhvanetsky as we know him if he had not been Odessa. And at the very beginning, he wrote a lot about his hometown-in my opinion, even Babel did not write as much as Misha wrote about Odessa! If he were, say, a Leningrad, then maybe he wrote differently, I don’t know ... But Misha Zhvanetsky is a real Odessa! Of course, we lived in Leningrad for 7 years, then we moved to Moscow, and we were very much affected by these cities and theaters - the Tovstonogov Theater, the Akimov comedy Theater, “Contemporary”, Efros theaters, Lyubimov ... We were brought up at these theaters and were theater ourselves.
The most important
We are very close friends with Misha, so sometimes even shy about saying something ... I have a story about Vita Ilchenko, at the end of which I wrote that we were very gestured to ourselves and to each other, very emotional and almost did not say warm words. How I would like to say a lot of affectionate words now! .. And Misha I want to say these words today. And I want to wish him to remain in good physical form - this is the most important thing.
M. Zhvanetsky. “I saw crayfish” (excerpt) (for R. Kartsev)
Yesterday I saw crayfish for five rubles. But large, but five rubles ... True, large ... but five rubles ... but very large ... although there are five ... but very large ... True, and five rubles ... but large ... although five, but large ... And today there were three, but small, but three ... but small ... although three ... therefore, three ... although they are small ... that is, five, but five ... but very large. And these are three, but small, but today ... And they are five yesterday ... but big ... but yesterday ... but very large, but yesterday, and five, and these today, but three, but small, but three. And today. And they were five, but yesterday, but very large, that is, they were five and very large yesterday, and these small, and today and three.
So choose: five, very large, but yesterday, or three, small, but today, understand? ..
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1 Victor Ilchenko (1937–1992) - Honored Artist of the RSFSR. For more than 30 years he acted as a duet with Roman Kartsev.
