"Contemporary" is a documentary film by Vladimir Raevsky about the main theater of the thaw

It hurts to watch him, because we know the final of history: Khudruk - Mashkov, on stage - “Heroes of Svo”

Journalist Vladimir Raevsky posted on his Utuub channel a documentary film "Contemporary: a free theater in a non-free country." The Raevsky team worked on him in 2021 by order of the “Contemporary” itself, which celebrated the 65th anniversary. They were going to release the picture, show on television and online standing, but with the beginning of a full-scale invasion, this became impossible, since Raevsky opposed the war and left Russia. And in the summer of 2022, the Moscow Department of Culture fired the artistic director of the “Contemporary” by Viktor Ryzhakov, who had previously signed an anti -war letter. Critic Anton Khitrov tells how Raevsky’s documentary is perceived three years after the planned premiere.

Watch this, of course, is unbearable. For two reasons. Firstly, the documentary of Vladimir Raevsky, who had been on the shelf for three years-greetings from another era, when the Russian theater could still afford more or less free reflection. And secondly, his heroes and events are categorically unimaginable in modern Russia, and indeed in the modern world, which is not like complete hopes of the 1960s.

All this does not detract from the obvious advantages of the picture created in the genre, so important for the early “contemporary” - the genre of an unpleasant conversation. The unique experiment of the founders of the theater, young artists, graduates of the Moscow Art Theater School (let's call them by name: Galina Volchek, Evgeny Evstigneev, Oleg Efremov, Igor Kvasha, Viktor Sergachev and Lilia Tolmacheva) was not only in search of a genuine-and not the ceremonial Stalin-realism, but also in the new organization of theatrical affairs: Raevsky has repeatedly emphasized. At first, the “contemporary” was not led by the leader, but by the team-this was required by the communist beliefs of the ideal actors. So, at the meetings, they analyzed the personal contribution of everyone - even the main director - and voted whether the employee should continue to work in the theater. It was possible and necessary to criticize each other.

The film, shot in the 2021 anniversary year, on the 65th anniversary of the “Contemporary”, was made according to the same rules: this is not a congratulatory postcard, but an honest biography of the theater (mainly-the first 16 years of its work). Basically, of course, complementary, but in some places-uncompromising-critical.

What is the plot of tour in Temirtau, in the Kazakhstani SSR. In 1959, Komsomol members who arrived to build a metallurgical plant raised a riot, demanding the best working conditions. The authorities brought the troops into the city, brutally suppressed the riots, sentenced the instigators to execution and prison terms, and then, in order to appease the rest of the builders, sent the most fashionable metropolitan theater to Temirtau. ““ Contemporary ”was attached, as a sheet of plantain, to a sore spot,” Raevsky himself describes this episode in an interview with Novaya Gazeta Europe.

The subtitle of the film is “Free Theater in a Non -free country”. What freedom could afford the “contemporary” in the thawing USSR and how he disposed of this freedom - the most important issue for Raevsky. The author speaks of almost more performances forbidden by censorship - at least no less - than about the performances of those held and beloved by the public. “Contemporary” tried to work with the most painful plots of his time - the Holocaust, the Gulag, - but neither the “sailor’s silence” based on the play by Alexander Galich, nor the “deer and the hut” according to the story of Alexander Solzhenitsyn “One Day of Ivan Denisovich” did not allow the theater to play.

Raevsky's “Contemporary” is not a theater study, but rather a detailed video essay. There is a minimum of archival personnel and there is practically no direct speech of people involved in the history of the famous theater (video interview arises only on the final credits). But there is a lot of historical context, which helps the author tell about the whole generation of sixties through one iconic team. Laconic animation resembles the most daring samples of the Soviet graphic design of the 1960s, and allegorical visual solutions-such as a theatrical wardrobe, hung with strict bossal coats, then with motley student jackets-the documentary chronicle is replaced by full.

Releasing the film three years later than the planned premiere, Raevsky deliberately did not edit it, but chose to leave it as a finished document of time. The circumstances of the appearance of this picture, as well as the reasons for its protracted release, nevertheless deserve a separate story, since this is a plot, thematically associated with the history of the early “contemporary”.

In December 2019, Galina Volchek died, the last of the seven actors, who founded a “contemporary” in 1956. She was 86 years old, and she headed this theater for most of her life: since 1972 she served as the main director, which she went to Oleg Efremov, from 1989 until his death, first established the position of artistic director there.

Once the “contemporary” in full accordance with the name was able to find a new language for the new era-however, by the end of the 2010s, as is usually the case with former fashion teams, it turned into a respectable, but not too interesting institution somewhere on the periphery of Moscow theatrical life.

It’s not that the theater suited this situation - attempts to make contact with the sought -by modernity never stopped. Say, one of the last performances that came out there at the wolf was Nancy, combining two seemingly incompatible genres - stand -up and musical; The author of the text and director was the star playwrightIvan Zarypaev . But nevertheless, next to the Gogol Center , Practice, the Stanislavsky Electr theater and other young platforms, contemporary, looked more like a monitor theater than a tribune Theater.

With the death of Galina Volchek, who repeatedly saved her theater and until the last tried to save life in it, the “contemporary” risked completely falling into stagnation. In 2020, this seemed to be avoided. The successor of the Volchek became director Viktor Ryzhakov, the leader of one of the most avant -garde theatrical institutions of Moscow - the center named after Meyerhold - and the leading director of the actual drama, who opened, in particular, the same Vyrypaev.

Ryzhakov’s team rapidly began the reform of the theater: introduced a new minimalist corporate identity, wrote manifestos calling for development. The leader spoke the right words about the support of the legacy that does not interfere, but helps to go to the future, invited young directors, replenished the repertoire with the texts of modern authors.

Perhaps the main challenge for the new team was the 65th anniversary of the Contemporary-and it coped with this task brilliantly. Together with the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, the theater prepared an ambitious memorial exhibition full of media materials; Its architect and curator became the winner of the Golden Mask, theater artist Maria Tregubova. Among the exhibits were the work of contemporary artists created specifically for the project.

Another partner institution was the recently arising “Mobile Art Theater” . For a couple with the “Contemporary” they released the performance of the Audiogide “Non-line Youth”: the audience walked along the Boulevard Ring and listened to the stories of the founders. Ryzhakov himself staged a documentary play by Mikhail Durnenkov “Eternally Living” about the creation of the famous theater.

The film by Vladimir Raevsky, ordered by the journalist, the Contemporary team, was supposed to be the final head of this anniversary project. They were going to release it in cinema, show on TV and online platforms. The premiere was expected in 2022.

An attempt to reboot the “contemporary” failed for obvious external reasons. Ryzhakov’s work at the head of the theater became one of the last high-profile cultural projects of the “hybrid” era, when, despite censorship and repression, contemporary art in Russia could still count on support (so while the “contemporary” celebrated the anniversary, the VAC Foundation prepared the HES-2 House of Culture).

The head of “Contemporary” became one of the theatrical leaders who openly opposed the invasion of Ukraine - and soon lost their positions. The signature of Ryzhakov, under the anti -war letter of cultural figures, appeared in February, and in July, the capital's department of culture sent the director. There was no question of the rental of the film, since Vladimir Raevsky also spoke out against the war, and even left the country.

The artistic council, headed by the artist Vladislav Vetrov, was managing a “contemporary”. The next year, in March of 2023, his leading actress Leah Akhedzhakova left the theater-after the leadership canceled all the performances with her participation. And in June 2024, “Contemporary”, this main theater of the thaw, created to combat conformism and conjuncture, was headed by actor and director Vladimir Mashkov, a convinced supporter of the war.

Since 2018, Mashkov has been led by the Moscow Theater Oleg Tabakov; Over the years of a full -scale invasion of this position, two more were added - even before the appointment of a contemporary, the actor headed the Union of Theater Workers as a result of non -alternative elections. In March of 2025, the performance “Contemporary” was published “Contemporary” about “Silence” about “Heroes of Svo ”-the co-product of two theaters led by Mashkov. Judging by the reviews of critics, this is the premiere in the best traditions of the Stalinist “big style”, from the rejection of which “contemporary” was once born-with flat heroes and propaganda slogans.

Someone will say that the heritage of the seven founders of the “contemporary” is infinitely wider than the individual Moscow theater-and will undoubtedly be right, because the theater is not a building or not even a team, but an idea that can get a second life anywhere. The “Contemporary” himself, in essence, was the reincarnation of the early Art Theater, and his claims to the heritage of Konstantin Stanislavsky and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko were much more thorough than that of the overwhelmed Stalinist Moscow Art Theater.

Another thing is that in the 2020s it is very difficult to imagine a community of ideal artists who intend to create a new art for the New Age. The question is not which country is freer, the Khrushchevsky USSR or modern Putin Russia, the question is exclusively in the vector of development. If tomorrow promises more opportunities than today, we can talk about new art. And if, on the contrary, everything that remains artists is to try to preserve the culture in its established form and wait for a new historical chance. Well, to explore the experience of predecessors, of course - this task is always relevant.

“The raft” is a telegram channel where they talk about culture in the era of bad news. Every day, the editors of Medusa Sofya Vorobyova and Anton Khitrov talk about cinema, series, music, literature and contemporary art. Subscribe: we will be saved together in a storm.

Anton Khitrov

Photo on the cover: Sergey Kiselev / Agency "Moscow"