Life as figure skating

Olya Mukhina is a legend. In the mid -nineties, when only a classic was in the theater, Olya Mukhina was the first living young man - besides a girl - whose play appeared on the Moscow stage. It was Tanya-Tanya. Since then, Mukhina graduated from two plays. But this spring, she accelerated extremely: she visited the Golden Mask jury member, began to work on the Tanya-Tani sequel and came to the rehearsal of her Olympia , which on June 7 in the center. Meyerhold will open the Festival Premier " New Drama" . The art director of Tsima Elena Kovalskaya talked with Mukhina about the past and future, men and prophets, about the “golden mask”, Kamenkovich and life after death.

-I interviewed you in May 1996. Your play "Tanya-Tanya" was put in the "Workshop of Peter Fomenko" Andrei Prikhodko. This was your first production and my first interview. I had a cassette recorder. You had a hole in my head. It was in the hospital, where for some reason you were drilled. Why, by the way?

- The ears were sick.

- Then you laughed and dreamed of writing a play about Moscow, which you love so much, you love so much that everyone should read your play and love Moscow.

- I wrote it, called "Yu."

“But now you are learning English and are going to Washington.”

- And this is at work. My amazing story came out: Evgeny Borisovich Kamenkovich ordered the continuation of Tanya-Tani! It would not have occurred to me myself. Now I had to plunge into this story.

- In what sense to plunge?

- After all, I like to experiment, I plunge into a person, whom I, as a rule, are talking about my heroes about real people. Olympia is seven months with a snowboarder Lech Sechkin. And in Tan-Tan, the main character is a real person by the name of Ivanov. He is an artist, "the best man in the world." Remember, it was: “Oh, and I'm leaving for America. - My mother, to such a distance! " He left. And now I'm going to finish the play after him. Twenty years later.

- What do you think to name this play?

- "Ivanov."

- Nothing that there is already a play with that name?

- And what to do? The only thing I spend more and more on each project. Maybe because children. I began to work longer.

- This is noticeable. What other experiments did you put on yourself?

- Here she gave birth to children. Two huge beautiful guys of sixteen and seventeen years old. And a little beautiful girl, she is ten. This is a little more. The playwright Asi Guseva has six. We got carried away with her.

- Previously, you signed the plays "Olya Mukhina." When did you begin to call Olga?

- Did this have already happened? Call me Olya.

“How much can you, Olya, what will be written on your grave?”

- Olya Ivanova, I would like so (laughs) . "Olya" came up with the theme of Lebedev. Like many novice authors, I was embarrassed to write my name on the title sheet. The topic made a computer layout of Tanya-Tani and wrote: "Olya Mukhina."

- Your other name is Lavstory.

- Yes. I was familiar with Lily Higai, the winner of the Battle of Psychics; An amazing woman who sees everything through, I fell in love with her completely and went to meet her. I call her: "I am Olya from Masha, the playwright." She says: “I don’t actually accept, but I will accept you-I haven’t had playwrights yet, I wonder how your brain is arranged.” And at that time I wrote a script and imagined Bollywood. She asks me: "How will the Indian movie about love with a good end?" I say: "Lavstory?" She says: "So, Lavstory, the drama needs to be removed, you need to clean the drama." So she gave me a new name. He says: "You will be fine with him." I told everyone about this. John Friedman, who promoted my name in America, humbly began to write about me: "Lavstory AKA Olya Mukhina." I returned my name when John said that Olya Mukhina is like Coca-Cola . But sometimes I take other names for myself. Now in English courses I am Michelle.

- Twenty years ago, you studied at the Literary Institute at the drama course with Julia Edlis. What did he teach?

- Yes, my favorite teacher Julius Filippovich Edlis. When he was dying, I went to his hospital. He gave me the last lessons. And at some point he suddenly tells me: "Mukhina, well, you are a bastard." I was so upset! I am an obedient student: if he told me in the first year that the main thing is the plot, I would work on plots. But we talked more and more about philosophical things. And so I left the hospital and went to look for the plot. She sat, like Dostoevsky, read newspapers, was looking for a plot. And did not find. I had a requirement for the plot: everything has already been written, but I needed an amazing plot. And suddenly - mysticism. On my birthday, we already raised crystal glasses with champagne, and then one actress runs and says: “Wait a minute, wait, I'll tell you this!” And he tells the story from which everyone's jaws fall off. There is a crystal ringing of glasses, we drink - and I understand that it was a gift to me, this is the same plot.

- The plot of your future play?

- Yes. When she told this story, I realized that one day I had already heard it, but did not listen to the end. Friends from India arrived and told her. They smoked on the balcony, I was pregnant, stood nearby, but the story was terrible, and I did not listen to it, left.

I left the hospital and went to look for the plot. She sat, like Dostoevsky, read newspapers, was looking for a plot.

- So, how many years do you already know this story?

- Let me count. Then I was pregnant. My daughter is ten years old. But I will definitely write her! The working name "dust". Once upon a time there was an amazing boy in Simeiz, whose name was Zhuzha. He died in India. In 2004, January 14. Skamed on a motorcycle in Goa. And when they began to collect money for the transport of his bodies, the whole of Moscow was thrown. It turned out that he was the best friend of Aguzarova, Pivovarova, his best friend of Ligalay, the best friend of Mikhey; Everyone who heard about Zhuzha and knew him said: "Zhuzha was my best friend!" I like Zemfira’s song: “We dissolve each other, Zhuzha, like acid or what is worse.” After his death, he began to be a ghost to his friends - he helped them. As an investigator, I investigate this story. This puzzle is almost assembled now. This story is not a funeral or death - this is a story about immortality. She directly proves that there is no death.

- Therefore, you were hanging out when it was necessary to write plays.

- I - yes. I gone like that! Especially after the divorce. I was in love with an electronic musician. It has been for a long time, my daughter is already ten. Of course, I plunged into this world of music. And I decided to write a musical. So much good Russian music, Klondike! I was already invented by the musical - “Life is like figure skating” to the music of Katya Brenner. I miss the producer. Become my producer.

- Tell me then what it is.

- This is about a girl who did not have boots, but there were only skates. Can you imagine? Ahaha! And everyone fell on Moscow ice, fell, fell, crashed, but she did not.

- Olya, what prevents you from writing?

- Do you know how I wrote Olympia? Kamenkovich and Vorobyov was given an office in the theater and attached a girl to me. If I was late, she called: "Olya, where are you?" But how do I work? By immersion. In the afternoon I can reprint something, meet somewhere with someone, do an interview for work. And when everyone goes to bed, I dive into another world and I am in it until six in the morning. I sleep, I wake up at twelve and so on. I only need to have water, eat something and shower would be good. I stayed in the theater one night, wandered around the theater, prayed to Peter Naumovich, went on stage, tried to feel it. Kamenkovich was performed for sixty years, he wanted a play for himself and for a big scene. Why is there a white horse in the play: he is a horse, Kamenkovich, so I wrote him the story of a white horse. I wanted to give him a gift for the anniversary. But he did not like him. He shouted at me like that. For me, the play is like a child. I have a play to write, what to give birth to a child: to take them out, time needs to. I wrote Olympia for seven months, and if they had not rushed, it would be nine months. His main argument was - the actors did not like it. This is now, after the experience of the Golden Mask, I think the theater exists for actors. At that moment, I was passionate about the idea that the theater exists for the audience (laughs) . Then I even managed to tell Kamenkovich that the playwright is more important than the actor (laughs) . I have paradoxical thoughts.

“You're not a walk to the theater?”

- Yes, I'm not a walker at all. You see, I was already. Age is not the same, homework. But they invited the Golden Mask to the jury, I agreed and looked - you just imagine - forty -three performances! Forty three!

- I worked in the expert council of the Golden Mask and looked at four hundred and thirty performances.

- Horror ... it was hard, but I had a huge impression. I was shocked. I was so immersed in our Russian theater, I felt Russian culture so much, I realized that the Russian theater is alive, it is beautiful, the actors are incredible, they have a school, education, culture, and culture is transferred from a teacher to a student, and they are so talented, smart and beautiful, our actors! By this time, I hated the directors, and the actors were slightly despised (laughs) . And then love and admiration returned to me.

- The strongest impression on the "golden mask"?

- If I distributed a “mask” alone, I would give a grove for a “raven”. I watched him with an open heart. It was after the Zholdak . On Zholdak, I started an asthmatic attack. Still taking place on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater. And at that moment, when Masha was raped, I had the feeling that this was happening in the presence of people who created the history of the Moscow Art Theater, that they saw all this. Well, then they were killed by all three, sisters.

The Raven was after Zholdak. They promised that the intestines would be wound somewhere, that is, I had poor expectations. And suddenly a miracle happened. The very thing for which people go to the theater: we are all filled with endorphins! I have witnesses, I was not alone. We laughed like children, surprised, there was a real catharsis, and he was on the theater day, people received such a gift! Then, in the jury, smart people explained everything that the Gozzi play was not disclosed, that this is a repetition of Fokin, others said that it was a repetition of Meyerhold, that Catharsis was not fashionable ... But I had a holiday on the theater, in the Moscow Art Theater, they distributed flowers, tulips on this day, Navalny went on the street, and we were all happy. And no matter how beautiful the “thunderstorm” of the mighty and other performances were then, the “raven” could not be overshadowed, the endorphin no longer repeated.

- In our first interview, I asked you: you, Olya, write everything about love. And where are your modernity? And you replied that I would have regretted the playwright who would take and write about the White House. Tomorrow no one will remember about the White House.

- You see, but she wrote. I like this moment in Olympia: "A white horse against the backdrop of a black house."

“The White House stands black.”

- Exactly! You know, I don’t consider myself a writer. I have many writers-writers, they have a motor. They get up in the morning and begin to write. They cannot fall asleep until they write. And I may not write.

“You are not a graphomaniac.” But the writer.

- Is it true? I reassured, thanks. There is such Archpriest Andrei Tkachev, I listened to his lecture on the prophets. He explained why people began to write. Previously, only the prophets wrote. The Prophet in the Old Testament times if he knew that there is a person nearby who can transmit information and who would save and transmit it unchanged, then conveyed his knowledge to him. And if such a person did not find it, I had to record. So the first notes appeared. But in principle, a normal person should not have a need to write. If not, of course, is that important that he must certainly fix and convey. And recently I have been thinking more and more often: who I am to write - I am not a prophet, besides a woman. Well, I would convey the story about the beet. You can write "Life as a figure skating." I also have one play underwritten under the name “Leo” - about a woman with a tail, but while she is lying, this was already shot about this, like him, Tverdovsky. I then told myself: “And what did you want, Olya. You have no office. ” Now Vorobyov gave me (director of the "Workshop of Peter Fomenko."- Ed. ) Cabinet, write a continuation of Tanya-Tani. My daughter was sick for a week, I come to the theater - and in the office of the sauna (laughs) . Maybe I will go to work to you? I am a modest, ascetic person.

- I'll think about it. You also need to put an employee to you.

-The main thing for me is to feel that someone needs it. I have no need to express myself. I started writing to enter VGIK for directing. Four years arrived. And they are there: "Write what you want to make your first film about." In the fourth year, I wrote a script, glued to the pages of the rental and, so that there were no questions left, I also wrote comments under them. But then they did not take me. Probably, God saved me from directing. And then I accidentally read in the Literary Gazeta about the existence of the Literary Institute. I took this thing there. And they took me to the faculty of drama. In fact by chance. Then I had to write, because every year it was necessary to report. Then “Yu” and “Flies” asked Kamenkovich. At Olympia, he simply began to support me. My grandfather was an astrologer, and it was transmitted to me: it is impossible, but from time to time I will take a horoscope and take a look. Kamenkovich, it turns out, is my astrologically perfect partner. I tell him: "Zhenya, we are intended for each other." And at that moment he usually begins to scream. I'm offended. After “flying” when he shouted, we broke up for ten years. He then called me a fool. And at this time I had a divorce. And I was a fool for him and for my husband was a fool. Vorobyov also shouted. It is ridiculous that he was sick and was in a mask. And now they are sitting: this one screams in a mask, Kamenkovich screams ... Can you imagine a picture? Ha ha ha! I think: what have I done to you, guys? I almost died when I wrote this play. After all, when you write, you go through Catharsis your writer. No matter how much I want to do with little blood every time, it does not work. With each play, the plank rises - you raise it for yourself, they raise it, with each play you set new tasks theoretical, invent a new move, each time it is more and more complicated, and now I wrote a difficult thing ...

- What tasks does the director set before the playwright?

-Well, for example, Kamenkovich spoke about Olympia: "The theater needs something new that has not yet happened." Ahaha!

- Before Olympia, there was no Olympia. What is the claim then?

- That this is not a play. To which Kashkovskaya (actress “The Workshop of Peter Fomenko” Galina Kashkovskaya. - Ed. ), Hearing this, said: “Yes, this is not a play. This is a bomb. " Galya raised this story. She wanted the role of her mother. After all, what else does Kamenkovich usually say to me by receiving a play from me: "I have no one to play it." I say: "Here are the times!" I wrote “Yu” for Pirogov (actor “Peter Fomenko’s Workshop” Kirill Pirogov. - Ed. ) And Tunina (actress “Peter Fomenko’s Workshop” Galina Tyunina. - Ed. ), They refused. In “Fly” she wrote an orange for Kutepova (actress “The Workshop of Peter Fomenko” Polina Kutepova. - Ed. ). She didn't like it. Olympia wrote for Kabanyan and roses Schmukler. I represented them, and it was so funny to me when I represented the child Kabanian and my grandmother Rose. I’m from television, as they say to me, so I do.

- Do you work on TV?

“Not anymore, but I worked there for twelve years.” Television is my universities. I was an editor of a live broadcast on RTR, in a musical edition. I worked with Igor Vernik, with Ksyusha Strizh, I was the first to broadcast the Spleen group, I have an almaz eye on the performers. In fact, I am the editor. They give the task - you go and do it. And now he know what he wants, talking about the continuation of Tanya-Tani? He says: “I will take this play, if it is ...” - you listen! - "... Supergeal." This is what my task is now. Yesterday I came up with an episode for her. Remember, in Tanya-Tan: "It's good how!" Now it sounds so: "Everything will be fine, everything will be fine, everything will be fine."

- Kamenkovich is not screaming from evil. He just screams. I work in GITIS, and it’s always clear when Evgeny Borisovich at work is worth entering the building.

- I adore Evgenia Borisovich, he is my benefactor. If not for him, I don’t know what I would eat. I am alone with three children, I am not married, I probably would not have survived without him. I'm without a husband ...

- Without a muse?

- Without a husband. I don't like this state “not married”. My bulbs do not burn, everything is falling apart. As soon as I dispersed with Maximov, IKEA furniture began to unwind itself, and the cabinets began to fall. My sons live with my father and grandmother. They are Maximov. Ira Maksimova, the most powerful director, works on television. At first I was in love with her, and then she discovered such a ... young and handsome. I love them very much now. And Ilyusha was such a prince. I thought he would make a movie on my plays. And Ira and I will work on television, as before. And then I left the love triangle with Ivanov. And Maksimov once says: "And I will not shoot, as you slept with others." I to him: "Ilyusha, I invented everything." I was the only girl on the course, and they immediately explained to me that I was not a writer. I think: O'Kay, I am not a writer. I will take eroticism. My favorite scene in the play “Love of Karlovna” is where she sleeps with four men. And in Tan-Tan there is a lesbian scene, however, it is put as if they had not noticed anything. So I added and added eroticism in the plays, but in my life I did not happen. She sat in the village, ate apples and wrote a play. I will bite an apple-and a knock-a-foot-foot on the keyboard. Но Максимов не поверил. Кино мы так и не сняли. Я даже в какой-то момент смирилась, что до конца своих дней останусь одна, но тут отец Андрей Щенников говорит: «Женщина без мужчины — это противоестественно». И я снова об этом стала думать. А тут вдруг надежда забрезжила. Такой проект интересный — Иванов, Америка.

— Ты их называешь проектами?

— Пьесы?

— Мужчин.

— А как их называть? Видишь, я с первым мужем хотела кино снять. Вместо кино получились два мальчика. Со вторым хотела сделать мюзикл. Получилась девочка. И сейчас появился шанс, наверное… я дерзну. Будет новая пьеса о том, что любовь бессмертна.