Theater that did not give up

The Moscow theater.doc noted a housewarming in the Fligel of the 18th century mansion on Spartakovskaya Street. The New Times Observer talks about the history of this move

For twelve years from the date of its foundation, the first independent non -profit theater in Russia lived in the basement of a residential building in a three -breed lane. It was there that the new genre for Russia was born and grew up - “Documentary Theater”, combining art and journalism. For many years the theater managed not to cross with the authorities: “Doc” did not ask her anything, but she did not demand anything from him. But times are changing rapidly. In 2014, they came for the Dock.

The “extremist underground” in mid -October, when once again it was time to renew the rental of the premises in a three -breed, it suddenly became clear that the Muscovite unilaterally terminated the lease. The eviction was appointed on January 1, 2015. Devoted spectators, human rights activists, colleagues stood up to the defense of the theater. No open letters and public appeals helped - the decision was made. The Department of Culture of Moscow and the Ministry of Culture remained silent.

On December 30, in the theater.doc, an evening-presentation of the film of Ukrainian documentaries “stronger than weapons” was arranged, where the commission from the Ministry of Culture suddenly appeared, and three minutes after the start-a police officer demanding to free the premises due to the bomb supposedly laid there. The police rewrote all participants and spectators, practically defeated the theater under the guise of a search (later they called it “inspection of the scene”), seized computers, and then detained the leading evenings and sealed the entrance to the theater. The inquiry officers rejoiced: "We found an extremist underground with you!"

The next day, the director of the theater Elena Gremin was called to the Ministry of Culture and demanded to explain how the theater dared to show a foreign film without a rolling certificate. The argument that to demonstrate fragments of the film of such a certificate is not required, the action did not take action. The conversation, according to Gremina herself, was not easy: the deputy director of the department of control, supervision and licensing in the field of cultural heritage Georgy Sytenko quickly moved to threats. “Do you have little yesterday?! I'll call the police now! " He rumbled, hanging over Gremina. However, the woman was not at a loss. She got up, went out and slammed the door. And I decided for myself - the Ministry of Culture is no longer a foot.

It seemed to many that the story of a defeated theater.doc should end there. Both Gremin and the artistic director of the theater Mikhail Ugarov were ready for this. But a miracle happened.

Witchcraft love first found a room. A small outbuilding on a rampant was discovered by the husband of one of the spectators of the theater, who turned out to be a realtor. The wing of the Savin-Zakrevsky estate-the construction of 1777-retained the spirit of white stone Moscow. On the left is the Elokhov Cathedral, on the contrary-the Musin-Pushkin’s house: there, according to legend, in 1812 the manuscript “Words about Igor’s Regiment” died and the mysterious Count Bruce lived, whom folk rumor considered the wicker.

Soon, the architect Oleg Karlson, a longtime fan of Doc and a regional regional regional, looked into the outbuilding on the rampant. He looked cheerfully on the destroyed space littered with construction trash and said: “The city will be laid here!” A few days later, the Carlson company introduced the theater to the architectural project (not taking a dime for this!), And theater.doc announced the “People’s Construction”.

“I did not expect such support from colleagues and spectators,” says Elena Gremina, founder and director of theater.doc. -We were offered to play our performances in the center of Meyerhold, the Club "Workshop", Mayakovka, Pushkin Theater, Gogol Center. The theater Vakhtangova gave us equipment. The most diverse people signed appeals to our defense, asked us to be left our premises - Tom Stoppard, and Nikolai Kolyada, and arts from Moscow theaters, and playwrights, and writers, and journalists. And when the room was still taken away from us, the audience helped us look for a new one. Almost a million rubles were collected by people from different regions of the country on the Planet.ru platform. And the authorities did not help us. In general, nothing. Unless the Ministry of Culture released a press release that he was not going to pursue us in court. ”

A month and a half, volunteers worked at the theater construction site. Among the volunteers were students of the Moscow Art Theater School (Dmitry Brusnikin and Mikhail Mokeev gave their entire course), Pavel Bardin and his students, Marina Razbuzhkina and her studio, young MHT actors, artists from Minsk and Krasnoyarsk, playwrights Maxim Kurochkin and Mikhail Durnenkov, directors Dmitry Volkostrelov and Yuri Yuri Muravitsky. And, of course, the whole team “DOKA”, including leadership.

The mouse as a seagull at the opening evening found that the Doc has its own seagull. The theater artistic director Mikhail Ugarov showed the audience a strange picture in the frame: on it with a non -hard hand, either a child or a drunken adult was depicted a mouse with a piece of cheese in his teeth. This drawing flashed on the wallpaper in a three -breed, and the actors, going on the stage, involuntarily applied a palm to it. Leaving the old house, the sentimental artistic director carefully cut out a piece of wallpaper with a mouse-talisman and placed it under the glass. "This is your seagull!" - shouted out of the hall a red curly lady with a fox on her shoulders. On that and decided.

There were so many people at the opening of the new Doc that the playing space narrowed to a small path along the brick wall and windows. With open windows it was noisy and cold, with closed - stuffy and hot. Passers -by -people who immediately turned into the characters of the play periodically looked into open windows. The actors confused the audience with partners, the audience ran out to the game wall and turned out to be actors, everyone clapped each other and encouraged remarks from their places. Alexey Yudnikov, the famous Dokovsky improviser, led the evening as a real entertainer. It was he who uttered the main phrase of the evening: “Do you want your theater? Build it! "

Mikhail Ugarov believes that theater.doc has already fulfilled his task: “We introduced into circulation the concepts of a documentary theater, a new drama. But now a new task has arisen: the protest theater in Russia. Interesting topic! Not propaganda or party, but protest! Therefore, the lifetime of our theater is extended. ” When asked whether he admits compromises in communicating with the authorities, Ugarov answers as follows: “I would exclude this question: I don’t want to be a hero, a coward too.”

The new life "Doc" is the first theater invading the taboo zones. The performance “Hour 18” about the death of Sergei Magnitsky is an uncompromising documentary investigation. The performances “September.Doc” (on the tragedy of Beslan), “Istanbul testifies” (about the events in Taxim Square), “Pussy Riot, were built in the genre of the testimony theater. Continuation ”(based on the materials of the court),“ Diaries of the Maidan ”. The stronger the space of freedom of speech narrowed, the more active the theater.doc replaced journalism.

On his new birthday, the theater presented the sketches of future prime minister, among which is the “New Life” by Barbara Faer and Elena Gremina’s “Swamp business”.

“New Life” is a project that began more than ten years ago, when theater.doc came to the Oryol Women's Colony for collecting material and offered a new life to the girls - “Life of the human spirit”, if we use the terminology of Stanislavsky. Many years later, Varvara Faer returned to this project with such a symbolic name for the theater and invited the former Zechka, star of the camp theater Marina Kleshcheva to the main role. Marina - a cheerful busty blonde from Serpukhova - showed the public a letter from the camp authorities, which she keeps since then, “for the excellent performance of the role of King Lear”, and then threw up the guitar and, winning the hall, stared: “The wife pulled the scarf and we rushed to the ice rink, we put skates on us, and we are standing ....

Yes, in the "dock" they do not fight non -normative vocabulary. They prefer to deal with an abnormitative life - with a lawlessness of power and officials, with undeclared censorship, with obscurantism, covering religiosity, with hypocrisy and hypocrisy, with coarse, with false patriotism.

Judging by the evening of presentations of future works, the repertoire plans, the “Doc” has ambitious ones: “King Oedipus” and “Candid” in the retelling of Maxim Kurochkin and in the production of Vladimir Mirzoev and Mikhail Ugarov, the new play by Mikhail Durnenkov “The war has not yet begun”, the documentary diary “Notes of the Social Worker” by Artyom Material in the production of Barbara Faer.

Elena Gremina is preparing an important premiere by May 6. For several months, the author Polina Bogdanova, who recorded kilometers of interviews with relatives and friends of the “swamp” prisoners, was collected for several months. A fragment of the future performance - more precisely, reading in roles - is one of the strongest emotional episodes of the evening. The heroes of the “swamp business” are ordinary people far from heroism, but became heroes because it was impossible differently.

“Did the attempt to destroy the“ dock ”policy?” I ask Elena Gremina. “If it influenced, then only towards greater stiffness and sharpness,” she replies. - This is our mentality: pressure gives rise to anger, and I want to go to the end. I try to restrain myself - I do not want frenzy. After all, the theater is still love. ”

Photo: Maria Ionova-Gribin, Mikhail Poyuev/TASS