Anton Pavlovich endures

Moscow International Theater Festival continues

At the Moscow International Theater Festival, the heroes of Chekhov's plays read Solzhenitsyn and join the FSB. For what?

Chekhov will endure everything. And ballet, and pantomime, and circus, and various performances, and free treatment of the text, bordering on outrage. He himself was distinguished by unpredictability and disdain for authorities, all his life he rushed between melancholy and cheerful hooliganism ... The classic "sofa" Chekhov has long given way to bold experiments, and nothing takes him, he is ready for any interpretations.

Parsley from Lubyanka
After the "Red Banner" German Castorf

* * About his performance “To Moscow! To Moscow!" The New Times wrote in No. 18 dated May 31, 2010. on the stage of the theater The heroes of the Cherry Orchard came out of the Moscow City Council and spoke in Swedish (Swedish Royal Theater Dramaten, choreographer and director Mats Ek). Start. Dunyasha and Lopakhin appear from behind the scenes, both dressing hastily, helping each other. With their heads up, the audience obediently read the Russian translation of the Swedish Chekhov on the scoreboard: “Lopakhin: The plane has arrived, thank God. What time is it now? Dunyasha: Two soon. It's already light. Lopakhin: How late was the plane? Two hours!” Excuse me, what plane?! But the Swedes do not let us come to our senses, and in the next ten minutes we learn that Lopakhin's father was the chairman of the collective farm, and Ranevskaya's husband was a well-known Soviet politician, that Gaev is a "man of Soviet temper" who loves to talk with waiters "about dissidents" (Chekhov's - about the decadents), that Firs is a veteran of the NKVD (he walks in a worn tunic and with a medal on his chest), and Yasha is a bodyguard, that Yepikhodov reads Solzhenitsyn, and Petrushka Kosoy “works for the FSB.” And only Petya Trofimov is still wearing glasses and an eternal student!

"Brothers Ch" staged by the Moscow Drama Theater. Stanislavsky The reaction of the Moscow public "pleased" with its diversity: half of the audience, familiar with the original source, openly laughed at the credits, the other half whispered in bewilderment: what's funny here? Probably, they were completely sure until the end that Chekhov had written a drama about the inhabitants of Rublyovka. However, we must pay tribute to the Swedes: all this nonsense in no way contradicted the author, and even, on the contrary, once again emphasized his suppleness and flexibility. The action of Chekhov's plays takes place at the turn of the ages, at the turn of the century, so why can't the nineties and two thousandths be this boundary? After all, nothing has really changed! And the arguments of the homegrown philosopher Firs about the past order and the present will are no different from the grumblings of the current Stalinist veteran: “It used to be easier. Anyone could be shot. The workers had their own party, the people their leader. And then freedom came. “Before the misfortune, the owl also screamed. - Before what? “Democracy!”

Chinese Syndrome
An attempt to place Chekhov in a modern context was also made by Mark Zakharov, who also turned to The Cherry Orchard and allowed himself many liberties with respect to the canonical text. Our criticism reacted to the stage version of Zakharov with coolness. But what is not allowed to Lenkom is allowed to foreign guests - critics treated their intrusions into Chekhov's dramaturgy indulgently. However, ideas are in the air, the artist can only sniff - and then the role of Passer-by in all "Cherry Orchards" will be given to an actor with a pronounced Asian appearance. But if Zakharov's Passer-Chinese walks through Ranevskaya as the future master, tomorrow's Lopakhin, formidable and adamant, then the Swedes, on the contrary, the Passer-by will turn out to be an obliging and ready for any humiliation guest worker-Tajik, loudly and out of tune singing the Soviet (Russian) anthem. True, the Chinese in the Swedish version will still appear - and will take the place of Chekhov's English, who discovered valuable "white clay" on the grounds of the lucky Simeonov-Pishchik. Although the firs of Leonid Bronevoy (in Lenkom's play) does not pronounce Stalin's name, his convictions and mannerisms are quite definite - the longing for a strong hand and serf order, no, no, yes, and it will break out of the outgoing subconscious. The last words of the Swedish Firs, crawling out onto the empty stage in search of the lost medal, will be: “Stalin! .. Nothing ...” And Varya and Lopakhin will dance their farewell scene to the war song “Oh, roads ...”

Neither the Swede Mats Ek, nor our Mark Zakharov fight Chekhov, but only say what the author saw more than a hundred years ago. And in this look there is much more cunning and irony than formidable warnings about the end of the world.

From what rubbish...
To explain the unprecedented viability of Chekhov's dramaturgy, the chief director of the Moscow Drama Theater named after A. Stanislavsky Alexander Galibin in the biographical genre sketch "Brothers Ch". A few days in the life of a Chekhov family contain the torments of creativity and the torments of everyday life, the hero's throwing between duty and vocation, and obvious attempts to kill, crush, strangle the notorious slave in himself, who haunted the writer throughout his life. Having buried all his loved ones, tormented by guilt before them, Anton Chekhov “with one stroke of the pen” resurrects that past hysterical life that passed in debt, in drunkenness, in sin, but in a delightful acute feeling of happiness. “If only you knew from what rubbish” Anton Pavlovich collected his refined ladies and philosophizing gentlemen! A red-haired, nervous young man with a fishing rod rushes between a burning brunette and a sunny blonde, trying to save his brothers from drunkenness and forgive the sins of his father, who drove and killed his gifted sons. The desire for freedom is higher than the desire for love, but for some reason you want more love. Having healed from one slavery, we immediately fall into the trap of another, more sophisticated one, and again suffocate in the captivity of other people's desires and generally accepted norms.

The image of a nice intellectual with a beard and pince-nez remained in the distant past. The times of socialist realism, thank God, have passed, Chekhov was removed from the list of harbingers of the revolution and placed on the list of simply geniuses of great Russian literature. But this did not save him from interpretations. Theater is a free art: everyone is free to “break his Shakespeare” and his Chekhov. And they break.

"The Cherry Orchard" by the Swedish Royal Theater Dramaten