"Red Torch" releases a play by Alexander Ostrovsky

The Novosibirsk Drama Theater “Red Torch” is completing work on its next premiere. Director Andrey Andreev from St. Petersburg is staging the play “Forest” by Alexander Ostrovsky, which audiences will see on April 9 and 10. Any serious dramatic group has experienced the temptation to turn to Alexander Ostrovsky’s textbook “The Forest” at least once: the play contains poignant lyrics and a brilliant satire on Russian life, all those eternal questions to which art tirelessly appeals. The dramaturgical masterpiece attracts with its volume and diversity of characters, whose relationships are tied to the key conflict of changing formations. It is not without reason that literary scholars tend to compare “The Forest” with Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard”: in both works, the old noble nobility is crowded out by a new class of entrepreneurs who cut down gardens and forests so that only chips fly.
However, the social context in the productions of recent years invariably receded into the background, and the main figures became the figures of traveling artists - the comedian Schastlivtsev and the tragedian Neschastlivtsev, antipodes in role and attitude, united by the mania of selfless service to the theater. So romantically upbeat was, for example, the play staged by Anatoly Uzdensky at the Novosibirsk “Old House” theater. Strange and sad as it may seem, he recently repeated the fate of his hero, deciding to leave the troupe in which he served for 22 years, so as not to compromise his artistic ideals.
Novosibirsk residents also remember the interpretation of the classical play proposed by one of the leading St. Petersburg directors Grigory Kozlov - a performance of great style, in which the ensemble was brought to the absolute. Andrei Andreev, a graduate of GITIS, a student of Maria Knebel, and now a teacher at the St. Petersburg Theater Academy, also gravitates towards the big style.
Mr. Andreev was invited for the first time to collaborate in “The Red Torch” and for the first time in his directorial practice he embodied “The Forest”. According to him, he thought about this creation, which he himself called a sad ballad about a cheerful artist, for a long time. “In our literature, Ostrovsky is almost the only author who wrote plays that were effective in every sense, and it seems to me that he has still not been discovered by the Russian theater, since he wrote in the so-called “pre-director era”, and in modern times he was already so clear that it needed rethinking. And today I would like to play the text itself, the positions themselves, in an exciting way, because in Ostrovsky, what is written is what happens,” says the director. He views the play as a comedy of psychological situations, and considers its central theme to be “lies as the habitat of the Russian person.” In the play, everyone cheats and is a hypocrite, but some do it for selfish reasons, others mainly out of love for art, which turns their lies into sacred ones.
Andrei Andreev is rehearsing with two actors, he has occupied almost the entire troupe, but only by the day of the premiere will the performers of the roles be finally determined. Among them are leading masters Valentina Shironina (Gurmyzhskaya) and Valery Chumichev, Mikhail Strelkov, Albert Dorozhko, Kira Orlova, Igor Popkov. Together with them, artists of the younger generation, no less beloved by the audience, will appear on stage: Sergei Pioro (Neschastlivtsev), Oleg Mayboroda (Schastlivtsev), Konstantin Kolesnik, Victoria Levchenko and others.
The production designer is Oleg Golovko, who recently participated in the premiere of “Lie Detector.” He came up with an original scenographic design in which the realistic façade of the estate is combined with an abundance of painted textile curtains, easily transforming into a conventional forest, a road landscape, and a gazebo for meetings. The costumes he designed are also fantastic. Musical design is provided by Andrei Popov, choreographic design by Irina Vakarina, a former soloist of the opera theater ballet troupe.
IRINA ULYANINA
Valery Grishko took Anna Pokidchenko for the role of Pamela
At Red Torch, work began on John Patrick's comedy Dear Pamela. Valery Grishko, who is directing the play, has not yet finally decided what the play will be called: the play goes under different titles - from “My Dear Pamela” to “How Should We Sew an Old Lady.” The main director of “The Red Torch,” according to him, was inspired for this work by the presence in the troupe of the wonderful actress Anna Pokidchenko, whose creative range is inexhaustible. She will play the main character. The play is expected to conclude the Red Torch season in May.

Kommersant (Novosibirsk) No. 53 dated March 25, 2004, p. 15

“Forest” is staged as written