Lyudmila MAKSAKOVA: Ranevskaya is a very sick person, but no one has noticed this for a hundred years - Lyudmila Vasilyevna, what was more important for you to play - Ranevskaya as a hieroglyph of the beauty of the “old world” or her share of guilt in the fact that this world collapsed? .. .

Lyudmila MAKSAKOVA: Ranevskaya is a very sick person, but no one noticed this in a hundred years

- Lyudmila Vasilievna, what was more important for you to play - Ranevskaya as a hieroglyph of the beauty of the "old world" or the share of her guilt in the fact that this world collapsed?

“I think there is something else out there. Ranevskaya, her perception of the world is a very fine structure. And you need to understand: what is the first trouble? Main trouble?

And this is the death of her son. Seven-year-old Grisha. All. The rest she perceives in a shifted form. And if you approach her, this is a person who does not quite control his psyche. Remember the play, because this is a cross-cutting motive: "Grisha, my boy ... Have mercy, have pity ...". And she feels guilty for this death. She, like a very Russian person, constantly bears this terrible guilt of hers.

- The performance does not seem to be a psychological drama, but a system of symbols. But you are playing the tragedy of the soul, and not the mystery of the death of the rightful heir of the Garden?

- Symbols are unplayable! The director can make such an add-on, but the actor is alive and can only play a living thing.

— How did you work with Eymuntas Nyakroshyus?

“He is a very demanding director. But I'm used to it! Petr Naumovich Fomenko is also a very demanding director. And Roman Grigoryevich Viktyuk is also a very demanding director. Another question is, how do they bring the actor to life and turn it into the figure that they need? Some are gingerbread. Others - with a whip. Still, Nyakroshus is closer to the whip. He is a harsh person. But the result is important, I suppose.

- The duet Ranevskaya - Anya lined up very interestingly in the performance. What does your heroine think about her duty to her daughter? Is he fulfilled?

— What does he think? He thinks they will never see each other again. Ranevskaya knows that she has two Mondays left to live... After all, she is a very sick person! The play is a hundred years old, they write about it all the century, but no one noticed this: it is suffocating! "My nerves are better ... everything is fine ..." - yes, she is still lying! And everyone says: "Goodbye, girl, see you soon ...". And she herself understands that this farewell at the station is the last ...

Igor GORDIN: Nyakroshyus leaves the opportunity to improvise

- Igor, you played Chekhov's Gurov as a subtle person in Kama Ginkas in The Lady with the Dog. More subtle than he himself would like, than he needs to survive and live comfortably ... How did you risk now playing such a grotesque Petya Trofimov? Aggressive, militant, didactic? It seems that Lopakhin will not buy the estate, but Petya will requisition it in the name of the people - he looks so much like a man of the 1920s ...

- I myself was interested in trying something, to get away from the heroic and romantic theme. And that was the job of the director. Eymuntas Petrovich said when he analyzed the roles: Petya is an unkind character. Rather, even evil. The most stilted in the play. The only one who does not have a single living word. Petya Trofimov is the only person in the story who is not sorry. As for the “man of the 1920s,” I don’t know, I didn’t think about it. Petya was written by Chekhov. It is such in Chekhov - what other assumptions are needed?

— How did you work with Eymuntas Nyakroshyus?

- Very interesting! We rehearsed the six-hour performance for only a month. "Lady with a dog" at Ginkas - three or four months. Ginkas always builds the role of the actor in detail, clearly pronounces everything “in moments”. Nyakroshyus sets a common goal, and then there are many opportunities to improvise. But the problems are very deep...

- So you are now “playing Chekhov” with two complete perfectionists, but their perfectionism is polar different?

- Yes! And it's a great school...