Translated material
Kurt Vonnegut died
“Kurt’s wife sat behind him on the couch. She stuck out her leg and laid her on Kurt's knee. Kurt, continuing to talk, accepted this leg for granted and began to stroke. As if the cat sat on her knees. It was luxurious. "
Kurt Vonnegut died. Classics of American literature
The director recalls
Mikhail Levitin
You see, it is written: “My roots are love” (shows a portrait of Rita Wright Kovaleva, who 
I will not say that there was such a supporter, the apologist Vonnegut. The only thing I guessed was reading his prose that she somehow was a reflection of the theater, as I imagine it. I understood that if Vonnegut wrote a play, I would put this play. But all this was not enough to get carried away with. Until the "massacre" appeared. And something happened ...
I made a proposal to put a performance in the theater of the Soviet Army - then ideologically, you know, the most condo theater in the country. He fought against the slightest heresy. By virtue of character, I then wanted to do something that would blow up the theater from the inside, but so that they would not understand my plan. If you read the "massacre" superficially, then it seems that the American writes an anti -American novel - the Americans bomb Dresden. This is suitable for the political administration of the army and navy. If you think deeper, this is a pacifist novel condemning the war as such. And here it was necessary to infiltrate very accurately, confuse your head, stirring your eyes.
Kurt with his wife Jill Kremenz, a famous photographer, came to the premiere. Then we met with Rita. He idolized her. I had a photograph where they were at the Chekhov house in the rain. They were just lovely nearby: small, ambitious, curious, non -shaped and tough for mediocre, an irreconcilable woman and a giant with gypsy curly hair and a very beautiful sad male face. Everything in him was beautiful, everything in her was imperfect. But they coincided.
And Kurt told me then that he did not understand his success in Russia, and he has a strong suspicion that this is Rita's success. And here we are sitting at home: Kurt, Ritka, I, Volodya Dashkevich, Yulik Kim. And Jil was there, and tried to interfere with us in all ways, as it probably became a wife recently. Madly jealous, insanely young, she was 35 younger than his years. Although, it seems to me, there was no woman who could refuse Kurt Vonnegut if he asked her for anything. It was simply impossible - such softness, such calmness ... Not the slightest oddity in the form, in behavior - nothing that could coincide with the madness of the novel. And you understood that there was no madness there either. Exclusively lyrics with elements of clowning or vice versa. The unobtrusive writer always stops where the other will try to impress.
Life was significant for him. I remember such a strange episode. We sat talking as much as it was possible for people who almost did not know a foreign language. Rita translated as if the air itself spoke English. Yulik Kim stylized Russian speech to English. Kurt almost went crazy. He did not understand what was happening: the Englishman says to him, but he does not understand a single word. Jil was sitting behind Kurt on the couch. She stuck her leg in a thick woolen sock - it was cold in the house - and laid her on Kurt's knee. Not even a person wedged into a conversation, but a leg of a young fox, beautiful woman. Kurt, continuing to talk, accepted this leg for granted and began to stroke. As if the cat sat on her knees. And we completely reconciled with the manifestation of such an eccentric, severity, female jealous behavior. He immediately turned him into something natural. It was luxurious. And in this episode - Vonnegut.
I remember he told me that he had left his family, there were several children. They did not forgive his departure to Jil for a long time, and he terribly worried for many years. This theme of the family was incredibly twisted. But he fell in love with Jill, as a good lovely person can love a beautiful, imperious, predatory, selfish woman who is much younger than him. He knew her as no one knew, and he understood all her features, but he could not love her. He had to decide, take a chance. Then they told me that she left him. Then there was an acquaintance with some plans, repertoire moments-there was no performance then. The performance was a difficult discovery - he was saved by Konstantin Simonov and Lily Brik. They arrived at the theater, watched a run, they liked it. The gigantic scene of the Soviet Army Theater in the design of Marta Kitaev was all bandaged: a white-white dazzling space and somewhere above Kitaev hung a box with toys, which crumble and fell during the explosion. It was impressive.
Kurt could not come to the premiere and sent a telegram. There was a phrase: "Put a chair in the curtains for my soul - my body should stay here." Then I kept the connection with him through our Dutch friend Iru Grivneva, a very famous dissident, a student of Rita Wright. She was with Kurt in constant correspondence and helped my communication with him. Rita told me about his depression, because Kurt was shell -shocked, like Billy Pilgrim in Boyne number five. Pilgrim depression is the depression of Kurt himself. His heroes can even be suspected of schizophrenia. But if everyone were such schizophrenics as Kurt Vonnigut, then let them be more.