They will play again

Premiere at the Theater Arts Studio

Bust of Gogol and a dozen square tables covered with green cloth. Thus, in “The Players” staged by Sergei Zhenovach (designed by Alexander Borovsky) at the Theater Arts Studio, the presence of the author and the location of the action are indicated. The main character treats the bust with boyish disrespect (he uses it instead of a hat rack and hanger), trusts the author as he trusts himself (with a pre-final monologue, where Ikharev, who feels like a winner, draws plans for a brilliant life, not yet knowing that he himself has been deceived - he turns to Gogol). Actually, this, of course, is the symbol of the performance - a gentle mockery of petrified cliches, absolute touching respect for Nikolai Vasilyevich.

The roles of the players gathered in a provincial tavern usually go to adult and more than adult actors. Although only one character announces his age on stage (“I’m thirty-nine years old”), the conversations contain many years of experience, the experience of dozens of taverns and hundreds of marked decks. Zhenovach’s actors are young (they graduated from GITIS in the theater a year and a half ago) and do not use age-related makeup. This stamp - age - is swept aside. And immediately a lot changes in the text.

Ikharev (Andrey Shibarshin) is a poor provincial gentleman who did not rush into the life of a sharper. A completely different class: he has the manners of a broker, one of those gambling madmen who are capable of single-handedly destroying the well-being of the largest company. For Gogol’s Ikharev, St. Petersburg becomes a dream (the same one in which he confesses to Gogol); this country is clearly not enough. Gogolevsky Ikharev - an adventurer and gambler - is older and therefore still understands the limits of his capabilities. This one is so young that fingers nervously tapping on the table can turn the universe upside down without noticing. And in this Ikharev there is no theme that the older actors brought into the role - the theme of fight against God, devilish pride; he sees no obstacles, and he has no one to fight with. But the degree of collapse, the degree of despair after realizing that his accomplices deceived him, is different: where an adult’s life is crushed, this Ikharev’s experience only increases. He grows up after sobbing for two minutes under the table - and it is obvious that this is only one of the stages of his biography, not the end of the road.

The company of swindlers with whom this Ikharev collaborates - Shvokhnev (Alexander Oblasov), Krugel (Grigory Sluzhitel), Uteshitelny (Alexey Vertkov) - sometimes goes beyond the scope of neat acting. It seems that they suddenly remember that they need to “play Gogol” and therefore be somehow theatrical in a special way: and they portray friendliness and sweetness in such a way that any sharper would be wary - but Ikharev does not do this. Because you are busy only with yourself and your great plans? Maybe. Or because he perceives them as peers, and the whole story, despite the monetary passion burning in his eyes, as a joke?

Sergei Zhenovach, perhaps, is loved by the people because he always leaves room for breathing in the performance; his oxygen does not burn out even in the flames of tragedy. Even when he takes an absolutely tragic text (as in the fantastic “King Lear”, made almost fifteen years ago on Malaya Bronnaya), the director promises the viewer: there is something to breathe in the world even in very stuffy times. And the current “Players” again talk about interest in any person and about hope.

Anna GORDEEVA