Amoral "Banshchik"

The conflict due to the production in Pskov of the "obscene" performance led to the new intervention of the Minister of Culture in Theater Life

The director of the play “Banchik” of the Pskov Drama Theater named after Pushkin Barbar Faer, which the actors complained to the Ministry of Culture, intends to sue the theater directorate. In her opinion, the Directorate, under pressure, forced the artists to write a letter to the Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky and breaks the prime minister.

The premiere of the "banner", according to the official version, was postponed from mid-April to a month due to "technical flaws". Medinsky last Wednesday visited Pskov and the company of the regional governor Andrei Turchak and the new city theater administrator Dmitry Meskhiev listened to the complainants: they were outraged by the fact that the audience would allegedly see obscenely drinking women and hear obscene abuse. In this regard, the actors who signed the complaint reported that they did not want to be "involuntary supporters of the obscene for the sake of high effects." The FAER setting is a decoding of documentary interviews with the Pskovichi collected by the actors themselves - this method of creative work (Verbatim) was invented in British theaters and is practiced in many countries. The heroes of the play were ordinary people of various kinds of classes: prostitutes, investigator, military, sectarian and banner.

Barbara Faer is known not only for documentaries on acute socio-political topics, including with the Moscow troupe Teatr.doc, but also with its civil activity. Here's what she told Radio Liberty about the plan of the play "Banchik" :

Barbara Faer

- The idea to put a performance on Verbatim technology belongs to the former artistic director of the Pskov Theater Vasily Senin. According to this technology, actors should interview their prototypes, decipher these interviews, because the decryption process helps the actor “scan” the character, clearly understand the structure of his thoughts. Actors pass the decryption to the playwright, and the playwright in the documentary play remains only the right to install. The main character of the play is a banner who works on a very small salary in a city public bath, while he is a developed person, a philosopher and a poet, with an interesting worldview. The structure of the play is such that the main character is engaged in his usual affairs in the bathhouse and hears scraps of other people's conversations. This pushes him into memories and philosophical thoughts. Then there is an unexpected turn, and in the bath a person is that the banner once laughed. This man is a military man, and this man beats him right in the bathhouse. The director of the banner also dismisses. In the finale, it turns out that the gifted, freedom -loving person does not find a place in the city, and the best he can do to survive is to go to jail. A group of actors who signed a letter to the Minister worked perfectly until I was forced to make a run without costumes and decorations, to which people who were unkind to the performance were called. These are the oldest actors of the troupe and the former assistant to the director of the theater (now she fulfills his duties), negatively tuned to this production.

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Varvara Faer: "Only without socialistness"

The actors and administrators of the theater were divided in their assessments of the artistic merits of the performance and the essence of the conflict itself. Here are the opinions of the parties:

Actress Valentina Banakova does not participate in the production, but she saw rehearsals of the performance:

- Of course, this performance should be rehearsed, because the idea is very interesting. It seems to me that this applies not only to Pskov, but also to other regions. Universal things are touched on, exactly what is connected with the heart, with the soul; The fact that sometimes we do not pronounce aloud, but in any case we think about it. Therefore, I am "for". The only thing, some images - an investigator, a prostitute - need to be a little modified. I, as a viewer and as an actress, would like these images to be disclosed from different sides. This does not have to be monologues, but some facts from life that allow you to create a deeper image. I did not sign a letter to the Minister of Culture, I believe that these are internal affairs that need to be decided within the team. I believe that the whole country did not need to rattle. On the other hand, someone finally found out that in Pskov there is also a theater.

The high authorities of the Pskov Drama: Dmitry Meskhiev. Vladimir Medinsky and Governor of the region Andrei Tourchak

Actor Denis Kugai does not participate in the play and did not sign the letter:

- It seems to me that a situation arose in which the parties could not agree on the content of the performance. Last fall, when Varvara began work on the production, certain agreements were reached, which were probably spoke verbally. Now no one can prove to each other what these agreements were originally, and the conflict arose. I was on a brief master class Barbara, which she spent when she arrived. The director explained in sufficient detail the methods of work, talked about what underwater stones could be. In particular, she said that the requirements of work in the Verbatim technique are also in the literal transfer of the pronounced character to the actor's text, that is, vocabulary can be a problematic sphere. This arose as a discussion moment, people immediately spoke about this who decided to participate in the production. Perhaps this is exactly what one of the actors was embarrassed.

Actress Irina Smirnova participated in the production, but refused to participate after the scandal and signed a letter to the Minister:

This letter arose as a call mechanism

- Television, cinema, the theater is taken by some preaching functions, because they show us how to live, what to drink, what to feel, how to love, how to dress. Once you have taken on this function, you must leave hope to people! It is necessary not only to show in which place we are and where we are, but we must answer their questions that life poses, we must give a vector where to move. Why did I sign this letter? Why can't I have a civil position? If Varvara declares her position seriously and at all voice, then why can't I express my own? Some mechanisms are needed to draw attention to this. There is no artistic director in the theater who could do something with his will and influence the decision of the invited director. This letter arose as a call mechanism of help. We are all disciplined actors. We were collected, we worked, but not everyone was satisfied with the result. For example, I did not like the final of the performance, where the most perfect dead end is that only a prison can give a person a quiet corner in our country. Not only does there are no answers to questions, there is no artistic image of the performance.

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Zhenya Lvova: "I did not sign because I am ashamed"

Zhenya Lvova, actress and director of the theater, plays the role of a prostitute:

Zhenya Lvova

- This is a colossally difficult job, it requires much more inner freedom than, for example, my usual freedom. And I have some disagreements with the director, because in the full decryption of the interview there are pieces that seem more interesting to me in the image of my heroine. But such is acting, many issues are resolved by the director. I did not sign a letter because it is ashamed. Because you have to speak a professional language with each other or speak with the professionals of the theater, and not to take out the IS from the hut. Then, it is written in such a style ... There is a distortion there, there is just a lie. There it is written about naked women who will not be in the play. And they talked about it a lot about how to do this correctly and visually acceptable so that the body of the artists would not distract from the body of the text. There is no mat, although it is difficult to remove it, because people say so in life. I think everything would be fixable if the tops on both sides of the conflict were ready for dialogue. But now it is unprofitable for everyone to conduct a dialogue, because if you take a certain position, left or right, you have support. If you take a professional position, you have no support.

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Sergey Popkov: "We have one theater and one spectator"

Actor Sergei Popkov refused to participate in the performance immediately:

Sergey Popkov

- These experiments must be set when the repertoire has been developed in the theater. But we did not have time after the restoration of the theater building to get to our feet and waste time on these experiments ... On Saturday there was a show. I was present. It was very outraged by it. There is no drama as a work of art. There is no literary solution, these are simply incoherent excerpts of dialogues and monologues. There is no directorial decision. For me, the director is, first of all, the solution of the stage space and a deep analysis of the problem. I did not see a deep analysis of the problem. Thirdly, I was not surprised by the actors, my colleagues, they simply conducted everyday existence on stage. I did not even see an experiment in all these three directions-something new, for example, would look, another look at Pskov’s problems. I only saw destruction - destruction of me as a person. The disregard for the city, because even specific officials of our city with surnames are mentioned in this material, a dwarf was bred to which the crown was put on with a hint of our president. It was very warmed me very much. There is no movement, there is no through action. You just sit with a feeling of fraud, adversity and internal irritation ...

We have one theater, and we have one spectator. You can’t do not care about our viewer

Who wrote this letter - I do not know. I saw the text and only offered to edit, reduce. Well, apparently, our administration, the press center-they edited and stung. I immediately signed up, because I completely agree with the text of the letter, immediately expressed my position, including directly to the director. This situation was created artificially, for the sake of conflict, and not for the artistic value of the work. To provoke our ancient Pskov, a city with deep cultural, historical, religious traditions. We have one drama theater. If there were several - yes for God's sake, experiment! But we have one theater, and we have one spectator. You can not spit on our viewer. I took an active position to prevent this.

The acting director of the theater Tatyana Martynova claims:

- The run was initiated by me precisely due to the fact that the situation around the performance was a little incomprehensible. Actors sometimes expressed some misunderstanding of their roles, misunderstanding of the performance, goal, its main idea. Sometimes they said that it is difficult for them to work with the director. The fact is that I can not always attend rehearsals, but now, in general, I saw what I wanted. Apparently, this stirred the troupe, the troupe addressed me with a letter to Vladimir Rostislavovich with a request to judge the situation. I can’t influence the actors, because, in accordance with the Charter, I have no right to get into the creative policy of the theater. The text of the letter was provided to me. This was done in accordance with the wishes of the troupe, its overwhelming majority. Five actors have already abandoned the roles, so we plan to make a casting so that Barbara can choose new actors, and then they will begin work. Date of the premiere-May 14-15, you can purchase tickets. Whether changes will be made to the text of the play - the question is not for me. "Banner" - the product of Barbara Faer, entirely and completely. I do not fit into the creative life of the theater, I am an administrator.

"Pskov banner. Between the lines." The plot of the studio "Che TV"

The director of the performance by Varvara Faer insists on his version of events. She reports that the theater administration has already invited her to terminate the contract for the performance of the performance:

-Until there were offensive opinions about the play until the actors were offered the text of the petition, prepared not by them, but by someone who does not admit authorship, everything was fine, everyone worked, the performance went to release. The actors did nothing on their own, they just worked. After negative opinions sounded, Tatyana Martynova summoned one to the office of each actor and, by persuasion, pressure and blackmail, forced to sign this petition. And some of the actors were signed.

-Is this a dispute between creative concepts or do you see some wider socio-political context in the incident?

-You know, I see in this the cynicism of Dmitry Meskhiev, who led a creative association, which included the Pskov Drama Theater ( Meskhiev was appointed head of the theater and concert directorate of the Pskov region.-RS) . Both I and the actors are just bargaining cards in his game. It so coincided that the Minister of Culture was supposed to come to Pskov in any case, and Meskhiev had to create an occasion for a personal meeting with Medinsky. We all know how hard it is to catch an employed person and ask him for money. So he arranged this scandal, created an informational occasion. It ended that Medinsky drove into the Pskov Theater, and discussed the "banner" for an hour.

- Have you been there?

- I do not consider it possible to go to a meeting with a person whom I do not respect.

“But you were called, at least?”

- Yes, my name was. As far as I know, a fire was blazing there, there was a lot of negativity, some of the actors tried to protect me. The main role, actor Maxim Plekhanov (he did not sign the petition) stood up, and said: "I wrote the text of the smart banner myself, this is not a documentary text, I myself composed the text for documentary." Plekhanov wanted to defuse the terrible situation in this way. It turns out that the play is not quite documentary now.

- And what, the performance will not be staged now?

- It cannot be set, since some of the actors refused to participate in the play, and the theater sabotes the release of scenery, the provision of props and costumes.

- The acting director of the theater refutes this information, claims that costumes and props are preparing on schedule. Tell me, do you have any explanation of why your project turned out to be so unsuccessful as a result?

They strive to turn culture into the so -called socialist realism, which is a praise of the authorities in an accessible form for the authorities

- The art director of the theater Vasily Senin and director Sergei Dunberg, who invited me to Pskov, were forced to quit. Another person came to the leadership of the Pskov Theaters, completely opposite to me political views. Meskhiev is embedded in the power system with all his might, he is going to shoot a film according to the script of Medinsky, builds good relations with the authorities. And I have a completely different relationship with the authorities, and Meskhiev is known. In general, it is not only Pskov history - this is an all -Russian rink that goes not only through Russian theaters, but in culture in principle. They now strive to turn culture into the so -called socialist realism, which is a praise of the authorities in a form accessible to the authorities, ”says theater director Varvara Faer.

The result of the meeting of the theater troupe with the Minister of Culture was an urgent recommendation on the creation of an art council, which, obviously, will make fundamental creative decisions.

Vasily Senin and Sergey Dunberg, who worked at the Pskov Drama Theater for a little over a year, were able to shake the cultural life of the regional center and draw attention to the work of the troupe, which has adhered to a classic Soviet approach to repertoire policy for decades. The dismissal of the "new" leaders of the drama theater in the city is associated with the restructuring of the Pskov Theater Management Management. Dmitry Meskhiev, a popular chopper and theater director, is well known in Moscow and really prefers not to quarrel with the authorities. From the theatrical poster, the play “Banchik” has not disappeared yet , but this does not mean that the premiere will take place.

Fragment of the final issue of the Freedom Time program