Marina Davydova - Oleg Tabakova

The last week at the Wiener Festwochen festival was under the sign of the Russian theater: the programs of one of the largest forums in Europe showed the performances of Konstantin Bogomolov and Timofei Kulyabin . Yesterday evening, on the official website and on social networks of the Moscow Art Theater, Oleg Tabakova, opened by Marina Davydova , was widespread. Today, Colta.ru publishes the response of the program director of the Vienna festival - 2016 to the artistic director and director of the Moscow Art Theater named after Chekhov.

Dear Oleg Pavlovich!

Our paths did not intersect in Vienna, although we went, as it was easy to guess, in the neighboring paths - but I read your letter and I cannot but respond to it.

I am touched, grateful, glad and (a little) embarrassed.

Grateful for warm words addressed to me. It is touched by the fact that you found the time to come to the festival and write about what you saw here. I am glad that the notorious conversations about the conflict of generations were just talking, and the connection of times is not interrupted.

You intuitively felt that something important and even fateful was happening in Vienna.

So it is.

Participation in Wiener Festwochen really turned out to be a milestone for our theater and - it seems to me already not to be afraid of loud words - his triumph.

I want to remind you that the beginning of this triumph laid last year's arrival at the Vienna Festival of Dead Souls Kirill Serebrennikov. It was after Vienna in front of the Gogol Center that the window opened to festival Europe (Avignon, Bateph, etc.). And now from the lips of critics and festival producers, the names of Konstantin Bogomolov and Timofei Kulyabin, MHT and the Red Torch do not go away. The current success was confirmed by the pattern of last year.

I know the international context well. Believe me, the modern Russian theater is a brave, looking, mistaken, not mired in a routine, not afraid of failure, but afraid to say to himself: I know how it should - not just competitive in this context. He has every reason to be in the very upper part of the conditional theater pyramid. But in order to be in demand on the world theater market, we had to first realize the value and importance of what was happening to us. It was necessary not to take precious shoots for the weed. Do not ruin, do not trample what has been born throughout Russia - from Moscow to Novosibirsk and from St. Petersburg to Yekaterinburg.

And I’ll tell you directly, well, just like that honest old man from the play of Schwartz: that this new theater has survived is your huge personal merit. Sorry to get down to an ironic tone. I am afraid of Paphos, although I understand that pathos is appropriate here. For many years, you invited directors to our average ideas to our average ideas about the beautiful to the main stage of the country, you gave and give them the opportunity to experiment, you protected them from obscurantists of various stripes from various workshops and departments. You helped them with a word, deed, and sometimes, when it became completely bad, just personal money. Believe me, we remember all this and never forget.

Is it happy that such intercessors, like you, are generally needed, that our theater life cannot develop naturally? No, it grieves me immensely. But there are things that neither you nor I can change. A person does not choose the time in which he lives, but he chooses himself in this time. It seems to be a quote from Ibsen. Thank you for your choice!

I dare to say this “thank you” not only from myself, but also on behalf of the entire new Russian theater, which, as we see, is not a chimera and not an invention of a handful of faces. This is a reality given to us - and now all theatrical Europe - in sensations.

Russian reality programs everything is much cooler than any software director.

In the end, I will allow myself a slight digression from my somewhat confused and emotional speech. Exactly on the days of Russian tour, when the “ideal husband” of Konstantin Bogomolov and the “three sisters of Timofei Kulyabin, in the courtyard of this MQ, was built on the two main venues of the festival in MQ ( Museumsquartier ) , an impromptu epic was built in the courtyard of this MQ . On the stage was the inscription feelrussia.com . This was the festival of Russian art organized by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation.

At first I did not believe my eyes - this coincidence seemed so incredible to me and this neighborhood. It was joyful for me to think about how almost simultaneously on two neighboring sites, Russian artists would pronounce a final monologue from the “three sisters” (because the “perfect husband” also ends with this monologue) and critics will see how diverse the Russian theater will appreciate the different ways of handling stage texts, different manners of acting, and different directorial systems. It seemed to me that this is my successful move as a program director. But Russian reality programs everything is much cooler than any software director.

The true contrast in Vienna was the contrast of the new Russian theater (and art) and that Kalinka Malinka, which came from an impromptu stage and which was brought here for a considerable money of Russian taxpayers.

I respect folklore teams, but I sincerely do not understand what the meaning of such tour. I poorly imagine that the Ministry of Culture of Austria or the Department of Culture of the city of Vienna, as part of the promotion of Austrian culture, brought to Paris or London performers of Tyrol songs. And so that somewhere next to the Louvre or Covent Garden, these songs were performed in the midst of celebrating citizens. Such an intrusive service was not stuck, but a backward, provincial culture. This is a costly and meaningless concept of promoting Russian art, working not for, but against art and at the same time against the budget for the development of art.

And there is a different concept - to do what will be in demand in the world. What will be invited and paid by the inviting party. What causes genuine, genuine interest. I am sure that you will continue to adhere to this concept in your theater.

We do not make furniture, cars and combines for cleaning grain, but we have a wonderful, interesting, talented theater. Beautiful, talented and free people work in it.

This is what makes me love my country and believe that the darkness will be scattered and darkness does not embody us.

Your always
Marina Davydova