The play is a very simple story to read. "A very simple story" (M. Lado)

I finally understood what catharsis is. This is when you watch a performance not in order to note the merits of the text or the shortcomings of the production, to evaluate the play of the actors or the originality of the scenery. This is when you merge with what is happening on the stage, as if you are participating in it, when, against your will, such emotions break out of your soul that you do not expect at all. And after that it becomes a little hard to watch, and it is impossible to tear yourself away.

Approximately such feelings aroused in me the play “A Very Simple Story” by Maria Lado, staged by the Astrakhan Drama Theater.

The story is really simple. Country life. Two families. One good-natured, prosperous one. At the head is a strong rural worker - the Owner (Daniyar Kurbangaleev). The other... Not a family anymore: a drunkard father and a son whose life is largely determined by the "reputation" of his father. The owner frankly despises the Neighbor (Valery Shtepin), who secretly climbs into his barn and steals the moonshine that he made with his own labor, and for any reason (even if this occasion is a news release!) will bonfire what the world is worth.

But here's the problem. Children of two fathers love each other. And fell in love, as it happens, to the point that the girl became pregnant. Son of Neighbor Alyosha (Nikolai Smirnov) wants to get married. And the girl, of course, does not mind. But here the Boss cannot agree in any way that his daughter Dasha (Anastasia Krasnoshchekova) should marry the son of the unlucky drunk Neighbor. It's a shame! That is why people decide to send Dasha for an abortion.

This is where the fun begins. After all, the heroes of the play are not only people, but also animals: Pig, Cow, Horse, Dog, Rooster. All of them are involved in what is happening. Moreover, it is the animals who intervene in the process and safely resolve the situation.

In the play, the animals communicate with each other, and in no way will they understand what people are talking about, what kind of abortion this is and why you need to go to the city for this. Each of the animals has its own destiny, its own world, its own “outlook”. It is understandable, because the animals in the work of art are not animals in the literal sense, but living beings endowed with human feelings. In many ways more honest and nobler than the people around them.

The pig (Violetta Vlasenko), who is without a doubt the central figure of the play, has seen nothing in her life but a barn. He does not know what a river and a meadow, grass and sand are. But he wants to know. She also wants to have wings and fly! The pig sincerely wonders why people need some money if they cannot buy wings.

And when the dream is already ready to come true, and it seems that she, the Pig, will finally be taken for a walk, she dies under the knife of the Owner ...

A piercing scream somewhere behind the stage, a dumbfounded Strong Dog, who saw IT with his own eyes, hitherto swaggering, but in an instant shrinking in horror, the Rooster ... And above all this, a sad melody that became the leitmotif of the performance: "In the moonlight, the snow is silvering ..."

After that, everything seems to turn over, everything becomes different: both the animal characters and the audience. As if not a pig was slaughtered, but the very dream of happiness ...

But a miracle! In the second act, the Pig returns to the stage. She returns in the form of an angel with wings, which she dreamed about when she was alive.

Only children and animals can see such angels. But by some miracle, the Neighbor, who was not drying out from booze, became able to see and hear angels and animals. Or maybe he is not as lost as everyone thinks? Or a lost, but in the soul a bright and kind person? After all, he is the only one who does not want an abortion, but wants the birth of a child, best of all “girls”. Because she will be more compassionate. But pity and kindness are so lacking in our world. And he drinks because he could not calmly survive the death of his beloved wife. Yes, and the Boss hates him largely because once "Verka married him, she chose him!" I chose a non-practical Host, behind whom, like behind a stone wall. Chose neighbor. Not with the mind, but with the heart.

So, now the Pig does not ask the Dog about life, but she herself explains to the animals what they had not understood until now. Including about the upcoming abortion. And what people considered the best way out of this situation, animals consider savagery and barbarism. And they want to stop it.

All animals, except for the noisy but cowardly Rooster, are ready to give their lives for the life of a little man. Because that's how it is there, in Heaven: in order for a new person to be born and find a guardian angel, someone must go to Heaven. Who? It would be better to find out about this by watching the play.

You won't see anything like this in the movies or in the series! Actors give their best! They sing songs, play the accordion. And the roles are played in such a way that you begin to believe in what is happening, no longer distinguishing the truth of art from the truth of life.

Very difficult questions are raised in A Very Simple Story... And this play is not about animals at all (they disappear altogether in the finale), and not about angels. About people. Perhaps, about the fact that something good and good is inherent in every person. And even though someone will have to suffer or even give their life for the awakening of all this in human souls, the world will become cleaner and brighter from this.

It is not for nothing that the Neighbor says in response to the reproaches of his son: “Yes, if someone paid for my insignificant life, I would die, and I would give the money to Alyosha ... I, the old fool, have nothing more.” Here's your drunk!

Wait for the next performance, put aside all your business, take your relatives, friends and acquaintances, and go to the theater! Everyone will cry and laugh, regardless of gender and age.

"A Very Simple Story" is a parable about the current, everyday life of two village families.
Briefly, the plot is this. The daughter of a prosperous peasant discovers that she is pregnant by a neighbor's boy, a poor man and the son of a drunkard. The girl's father insists on an abortion, but here the animals from the barnyard intervene (they are portrayed by actors in disguise) - the Horse, the Rooster, the Dog, the Cow and the Pig. They save the girl from a moral crime.
The phenomenon of the play is in the unusual lightness and sentimentality of everyday history.
At the same time, the action takes place in a barn, where domestic animals act along with people, who see the environment in their own way, reflect on the events in their own way, and become witnesses of strange human relationships. A Very Simple Story shows our life without embellishment, without varnishing.
The story told by Maria Lado is even too simple. They love in it, play the harmonica, talk about life, think about death. People, horses, pigs - all together.
A simple, almost biblical story about the spiritual hardness of people and the pure, righteous world of nature. The fact that animals are closer to the commandments of Christ than people. This story, in which, in addition to people, animals and even angels surprisingly become characters, is a hymn to the highest and brightest human feelings: love, fidelity, kindness, mercy.
"Cattle are ready to die for people who have become beasts themselves" - such is the moral of a simple Ukrainian theatrical fable.
… Yesterday I watched this performance again. This time, we went with children, which I am extremely happy about! The words of one young lady: “I never thought that the theater is so great!!! I even thought where to go next time, to the cinema or to the theater? I'll probably go to the theatre! The cinema is not even close!!!”
Amazing acting! I especially want to mention Sergei Borodinov, who played a neighbor, and the owner - Valery Kondratiev.

A rare theater in the vast Russian space ignored the wonderful play "A Very Simple Story". Written by the Kyiv actress and playwright Maria Lado (Mishurina) back in the mid-nineties, the work is still desired on any stage and is very loved by directors of large and small drama theaters. A touching story about undying values ​​is eternally relevant, and is an excellent dramatic material for the premiere opening of the season. You don’t want to part with such an unconditional hit, and therefore many theaters willingly return to their favorite production, if for some reason it temporarily disappeared from the repertoire.

The beginning of November at the State Russian Drama Theater of the city of Sterlitamak (Bashkiria) passed under the sign of the premiere of the play "A Very Simple Story". A team from St. Petersburg was invited to work on the new production - director Viktor Vasiliev and artist Natalya Belova.

Shortly before this event, the repertoire of the Ufa Russian Drama Theater returned to the repertoire of the Ufa Russian Drama Theater after 11 years of absence, the same, but already updated "History". Its director was the artistic director of the theater director Mikhail Rabinovich.

An unpretentious story from village life is difficult to define by genre. It is cheerful and tragic, but this is not a tragicomedy, since there is more sad and philosophical in it than funny. This play is fabulous and extremely true, but it is not a fairy tale or a true story. This is a story with a Russian soul, wide, drunk, unknown. And therefore everyone in the hall finds himself in it with an invariable need to cry and laugh at the same time. The play brings the viewer closer to the eternal truths and at the end plunges into a real catharsis, therefore this little rural drama can be attributed without exaggeration to modern dramatic classics.

The peculiarity of this story is that its characters are not only people, but also animals that behave like people - they talk, dream, sympathize, rush to help. Some human weaknesses are not alien to them, but in fact they turn out to be much kinder, more sincere, braver, more patient and, most importantly, more generous. They are capable of selfless devotion, but not capable of betrayal. And therefore the Lord grants to all animals, without exception, angelic life in paradise.

The cow Zorka, the horse Sister, the pig Dunya, the rooster Petya and the dog Krepysh live in the yard of a strong prosperous business executive. They live in a small brotherhood, get along with each other, faithfully serve their masters. A businesslike, gloomy owner spends day and night in labor, not allowing his household members - his wife and daughter - to relax. Daughter Dasha secretly loves her neighbor's son Alexei. At the very beginning of the story, it becomes known that the girl is pregnant. She decides to tell this news only to her beloved and mother, because the strict father does not want to know his neighbor, a loafer and a drunkard, and, of course, does not represent his son as his son-in-law. When he accidentally finds out about his daughter's pregnancy, then, without a moment's hesitation, he pronounces his verdict - an abortion. Dasha does not want to kill the child for anything. Suddenly, all the inhabitants of the barnyard come to her aid.

As you know, "the theater begins with a hanger", and the performance - with the scenery, because this is the first thing that the viewer sees on the stage, the starting impulse for the perception of the play. Stage designer Natalya Belova built an amazing construction on the stage of the Sterlitamak Theater, instantly immersing the enlightened viewer in the bright era of Russian avant-garde. The geometrically clear lines of the slightly rickety courtyard buildings lead to the world of scenography by Lyubov Popova, her works for the performances of the Meyerhold workshop, to the constructivism of Vladimir Tatlin, to the distorted angles of Alexander Rodchenko. In the costumes created by the artist, there is an obvious reference to the times much older, to the 16th century, to the layering of clothes and the quirkiness of the headdresses of the heroes of the paintings of the elder and younger Bruegel.

It is not easy to match such conceptual and competent decorations. They knock out the style of the traditional Peisan pastoral, remove the lyrical goodness from the story and add hidden drama.

It was this key that director Viktor Vasiliev chose for the production. His performance is organized dynamically and clearly. It trembles like a well-tuned string, producing a clear and precise sound.

The actors on the stage radiate the energy of nervous tension. The owner (Sergey Sapunov) is endlessly busy with work, during which he has already forgotten that there are joys, feelings and emotional experiences in the world. The artist turns his character into a machine for processing agricultural products and increasing the family's well-being. His love for his family is devoid of sentiment, which is why he is so resolute in his actions and firm in his intentions. Even in moments of lyrical memories of friendship with a neighbor and first love, he remains true to his life's negativity. His wife (Olga Boven) has long become for him a strong cog in a well-equipped household, his daughter Dasha (Olga Volskaya) is seen as an obedient successor to the family. Relatives and neighbors are afraid of the severity of the owner's temper. And only animals with all their natural nature love, forgive and accept him as he is.

In the well-oiled mechanism of family life, everything goes smoothly until an unlucky neighbor (Sergei Sochivets) and his son Alexei (Alexander Chesnokov) interfere in it. The neighbor drinks, steals vodka from the cellar of his former friend, plays the harmonica and vegetates in poverty and idleness. Nevertheless, it is this character that evokes the most ambiguous emotions and obvious audience sympathy. The director found a rather unusual solution to the image, with which the actor matched perfectly. The neighbor is not just a redneck: he is a recognizable type of village intellectual, with the “flying” consciousness of the artist, a fine mental organization, a person who has not landed in “his sleigh”. He is disgusted by the simplicity and rudeness of rural life, he sees the beauty of nature, understands the language of animals, but is not capable of practical existence, which is why, despised by his neighbors and his own son, he drowns his discrepancy with reality in vodka. An alcoholic and a weakling, he will eventually prove to be the most powerful and sacrificial character.

Dasha is the flesh of her father's flesh, just as categorical, stubborn, independent. It is the inner strength of character, and not the lyrical plan, that makes her image alive and memorable. Unlike his beloved, Aleksey, although handsome and kind, is ready at any moment to reveal the weakness of betrayal, to renounce both the child and the father. It is remarkable that even with such a presentation of the image, the character does not cause viewer denial. Acting charm and skillful maneuvering in the ambiguity of human nature save the hero Alexander Chesnokov.

The inhabitants of the barnyard are a priori cute. Animals on stage are win-win in any situation. Charming naive glutton pig Dunya (Regina Rushatova), whose sad fate plunges the audience into uncontrollable squelching, turns out to be the bearer of the main philosophical idea of ​​the play. The good cow Zorka (Yulia Shabaeva), as a true mammalian, is ready to be the first to give her little life for the sake of a new human one. The horse Sister (Svetlana Giniyatullina), who for many years regularly served people, despite her age and hard-working legs, retained the proud posture of a Georgian princess. Moderately fussy, with rustic ingenuity, the dog Krepysh (Denis Khisamov) is good for his noble devotion.

The most expressive image among the animal world of the performance went to the rooster (Ildar Sakhatov). The actor has a place to roam: narcissism, complacency, bragging, cowardice, played exclusively in a comic vein, make him a favorite of the public. People, as you know, are more willing to see their vices from the outside, because fables are so popular in the world of people. Ildar Sakhatov endows his character with the features of a metrosexual and the mannerisms of some well-known pop stars, whom the smartly pomaded Petya imitates with pleasure.

The performance is highly dramatic. The atmosphere of the famous St. Petersburg "Dostoevshchina" is created by a skillful approach to solving images and staging light. The owner, washing his hands of blood, daughter Dasha with a knife in her hands, defending her right to be a mother, a horse, exposing her chest to a bullet. A neighbor in a panama and a duster coat so frankly resembles the persecuted Leningrad intelligentsia of the 1930s that the public involuntarily begins to wait for the appearance of the “black funnel”.

The light highlights the actors on the stage, leaving the corners of the buildings and the nooks of the scenery gloomy and dark. Even the Christmas snowy blue and the starry sky are full of mysterious mysticism.

The sound range is also philosophically comprehended, as is the scenography. Recognizable melodies play their own special role in the performance: they clearly form the mise-en-scene, localize the time of the action, and determine the mood. Of course, village life is not complete without choral singing, with which all the actors cope admirably.

The production on the stage of the theater in Sterlitamak turned out to be surprisingly solid, logical, equipped with a completely obvious stylistic component. Some of the roughness of acting, typical of the premiere, when the artists are still getting used to each other, looking for expressive colors, halftones, depth and dynamics of images, will eventually go away. The city will receive a bright, beautiful and seriously disturbing performance as a gift.

Now that the characteristics of the heroes of the play are already known, you can see what was born on the same material in the capital theater of Bashkiria.

Honored Art Worker of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus Mikhail Rabinovich created a distinctly rural world on stage: warm, bright, filled with the smell of hay, meadows, and cow's milk. The scenery (stage designer - Vladimir Korolev) gravitates to the same idea of ​​simplicity - a house, a yard, a hayloft, a fence, a barn, a barn. The backdrop, which is almost always dark on the stage of the Sterlitamak theater, is pastel-transparent in Ufa. Light, pastorally simple set design and soulful singing of all the characters on the bench at the beginning and end of the performance fill it with poetry, which becomes the leitmotif of the production.

Lyricism is not characterized by the sharpness of movements. This slowness also determines the characters of the play. The owner (Vladimir Abrosimov) is more thoughtful, less businesslike and somehow at home comfortable in his checkered flannel shirt. He is not harsh, but rather a little withdrawn, and although this does not contradict the general mood of the performance, it is somewhat difficult to understand why everyone is afraid of such a master.

Dasha (Ekaterina Kolmagorova) and Alexei (Ruslan Belsky) are not so young and airy, and also less emotional. But they have exactly that classic, slightly clumsy, rustic solidity. Such a Dasha no longer comes to mind bravely grasping a knife. Yes, and Alexei is not too generous in expressing his feelings for his beloved, unborn child and departed father.

Neighbor (Oleg Shumilov) in the Ufa production is close to a real rural holy fool. He is kind, meek and devoid of the escapism inherent in the hero of the previous performance. He drinks from weakness and inability to cope with loneliness and life's troubles that fell on him after the death of his wife. The wings of an angel look more organic on him, turning the natural malice of a conscientious old man into truly good holiness. The actor plays his hero in detail and in detail, without deviating from the author's intention of the play and without giving the character any other characteristics.

The director saw the animal characters in a slightly different way. In the horse (Olga Lopukhova) one feels deep cordiality and sadness, behind which lies a difficult, but not bleak life path. Cow Zorka (Irina Busygina) has a truly cow-like good nature and a wonderful ability to stupidly but cutely clap her long eyelashes. The unfortunate pig Dunya (Yulia Tonenko) in this performance is deprived of the life-loving Rabelaisian nature of her predecessor from Sterlitamak and is more like a little princess, who is very much in the process of turning into a translucent, quiet angel.

A simple but pleasant melody (composer - Yuri Pryalkin) serves as an unobtrusive background in the poetic style of the production.

After a short survey, it turned out that the clarity, simplicity and soulfulness of the capital's performance are dear to the hearts of the older generation, while the gloomy, somewhat mysterious conceptualism of young St. Petersburg authors is attractive to young intellectuals. However, energetic applause and audience comments indicate that both works really pleased everyone who attended the premiere in Sterlitamak and saw the updated version of "History" in Ufa.

And so, at a distance of 120 km from each other, there are two identical in essence, but different in character, temperament and spirit of the performance, two heartfelt stories about the eternal - life, death, love.

Text: Dasha Evdochuk

Photos provided by the press services of the theaters:

Russian Drama Theater in Sterlitamak

Maria Lado's play "A Very Simple Story" became a hit last season (although the word "hit" does not stylistically correspond to this play, it is from a different vocabulary). The popularity of "A Simple Story" is understandable: "the heart longs for an affectionate song and good, simple love", things that are uncomplicated and humane. The stage swearing, gays and lesbians in one bottle is sick of the heart, and therefore the story of saving an unborn child from a threatened abortion is perceived almost as an avant-garde ideology: a child should not be born to a gay with a lesbian, which would be logical in our era, but from ordinary village children . The stage popularity of A Very Simple Story is due to its dramatic intelligibility: unlike the vast majority of plays, whose authors have never heard of the beginning and climax, as well as the dramatic action, Lado's play returns us to the traditional structure, and all its gears and the cogs rotate without rattle. If you want - put a HISTORY, if you want - SIMPLE, if you want - VERY. This play gives the actors the opportunity to play, the audience to cry. The only question is - what do people called directors do in the presence of this theater and good performers ... We dedicate several reviews of performances based on Lado's play in different cities of our vast Motherland to this issue.

... And so that in Holy Rus' there would be no translation for people

M. Lado. "A very simple story." Small stage of the Youth Theatre. A. Bryantseva.
Director Galina Byzgu, artist Alexey Votyakov

It is generally accepted that nowadays there are more and more women in art. Women write books, stage films and performances, sing on stage, draw - in short, they are not doing their job. Such an opinion is erroneous. Firstly, women do their job, secondly, they have been doing it for a long time, and thirdly, most often they do it well. In ancient times, women made art without even knowing that they were making art. They brighten up life. They embroidered icons and chasubles a centimeter a day, and now these wonderful things hang in museums after five hundred, a thousand years. They composed marvelous songs - love, lullabies. They made up stories. They made clothes for themselves and for men. “It seemed to me that he was laughing, and he was breaking up forever. Good people, believe me, parting is worse than death ... ”- well, who composed this? A man, right? The man composed "Black Raven, what are you doing," and this and all this like that was created by a woman in love longing.

The “very simple story” of Maria Lado from Kiev reminded me of the ingenuous great art of antiquity, when they write not about someone or about something, asserting themselves out of the blue - no, they write their own, cherished, about which it is impossible not to write, not to sing , not to tell. And this very simple story was staged by director Galina Byzgu in a very simple way - probably just as simply once the Lord created the world. He blew with a living breath, said: "So be it." The living golden substance of life spills into this simple performance, where all the actors feel good about themselves. It's very nice to play well.

A shed has been erected on the stage, animals live there. Cow (Larisa Markina), Horse (Olga Lysenkova), Dog (Igor Golovin), Rooster (Alexander Bezrukov) and Pig (Olga Samoshina). The image of animals is a long-standing tyuz occupation that can look extremely disgusting. Here it looks attractive. Actors do not act out the external signs of their characters - we have such creatures in front of us, with their own mind, their own psyche. Rooster is an artist, an intellectual by the standards of a barn, because he listens to the radio and knows a lot of beautiful and incomprehensible words like “default” for living creatures. In a bright red caftan, disheveled and arrogant, performed by the artist Alexander Bezrukov (gentlemen, what happiness! There is another Bezrukov!) This rooster is a funny and complex creature, proud and cowardly, talented and childishly conceited. The cow is all absorbed in her next pregnancy and looks at the world with unforgettable cow eyes. The horse is very nice, elderly, thoughtful, selfless, however, in her whole life she never managed to understand why people buy new clothes when they already have them. The dog is good-natured, as expected, and stupid, as is often the case with courtyards. But the pig ... I understand the creators of the play, who named the character that way, the author correctly called it - "Pig". What Olga Samoshina played is embarrassing to call "Pig". It must be affectionately - Mumps. This is, in fact, a wonderful Russian provincial young lady in a hat, dreamy, trusting, full of tenderness and love. She sits in one place and dreams of at least someday taking off and seeing God's world. She shines with the joy of life, with the happiness of talking with her comrades and with the delight that overwhelms her when she sees her beloved Master.

And the Owner - Konstantin Vorobyov - is closed and gloomy, this is exactly what the people call "fist", "kurkul". Of course, he is in Russian national master's clothes - a padded jacket and rubber boots. Furiously and ruthlessly the Master conducts his household, his world, where he is the king and god. Neighbor lives nearby - Sergey Byzgu, a drunkard, a merry fellow, an idler, but, as they say, a human soul.

Actor Sergei Byzgu is the husband of director Galina Byzgu. In my opinion, this is the first case in the history of the theater. Usually directors marry actresses. And then it turned out to be interesting. Sergey Byzgu is absolutely comfortable in soft female director's paws. He plays wide and free. He shows all his skills. He clearly and accurately divides stage moments into ups and downs. It is not difficult to identify his little man - we have known him since childhood. Eyes washed for many years with absolute, that is, vodka, are clean and transparent. In his pocket is a flea on a lasso. But - the soul is wide open and the accordion is sobbing sobbing. A lost man, they say about such people "he is a drunkard, but kind." But it is he who is destined to drink himself to hell - according to the play to angels - and hear how animals talk. Until you drink away your reason, you will not understand the essence of life, in any case, here, in Holy Rus'.

And this is Holy Rus', a very simple story. God sleeps with his domestic animals in the hay, sings along to a cheerful drunkard, pushes the master's girl (Alexandra Ionova) into the arms of a neighbor's boy (Denis Pyanov), who has no stake or yard, but real fire burns in young blood, and they must be born holy child. Yes, all children are saints. With every child, God still hopes for something. So he takes care of his household - so that the boys love girls, so that they have other boys and girls, and so that in Holy Rus' there will be no translation for people.

Yes, that's the trouble - the Owner hates the Neighbor and does not want to enter into a relationship with him. And Pig, who looked at him so trustingly, was slaughtered. And she came at night to her comrades in the shed already in the form of an angel. And she said that she saw God, that he stroked her head and felt sorry for her, and that there are few people in paradise - more and more animals. And that when a person dies, they make him a guardian angel of another person who is to be born. Then the animals thought about how they could help the girl's child, who was in danger of death. And the Neighbor came to them, having drunk up to transparency, and also understood what to do and how to manage his useless life ...

This, of course, is a rather controversial moment in the play - when the Neighbor shot himself to help the unborn child be born. There is some confusion here. It would be better if he stopped drinking, put the household in order and settled the conflict with the Boss. But in the Slavic Christian consciousness, well-being is somehow inexorably connected with the idea of ​​sacrifice. They say that without the blood of the lamb nothing will come of it. You will suffer - then you will receive. Who knows, maybe it's true. Actors perform this collision so simply and convincingly that you take their word for it, and questions come later.

And in the end, happiness comes - ordinary, sweet and kind to everyone: with a young mother and a child in her arms, with a grandfather brutalized with happiness, with jubilant animals, with clear stars in a clear sky and large snow that does not melt, because it is real - theatrical.

This is directing in the only sense that does not lead the theater into the abyss - the consent and understanding of all the actors, understanding the nature of dramaturgy, establishing lively connections between the actors, setting a single common correct tone. The spectator is happy - as he drank living water. Only the source is very small - the Small Stage of the Youth Theater. What can you do, so everywhere. When something real starts up, it is sure to be in some crack, basement, in a small hall, since the demons need stadiums and millions, people of light need only one soul. Two is too many.

"Where two are gathered in my name, there I am among them."

June 2003

Well, it's a very simple story.

M. Lado. "A very simple story." Theater "Commonwealth of Taganka Actors".
Staged by Nikolai Gubenko, artist Viktor Arefiev

Those who read the play by Maria Lado (and they know her, they read her) and did not get to the performance, first of all ask: “Well, how are the animals there? How were they invented?

I answer - they came up with witty. Cut out from paper along the contour the figures of a horse, cow, rooster, pig. And each - two copies. And then increase them to a size comparable to human height (for this you no longer need paper, but a canvas stretched over the corresponding frame contour), then connect both copies so that an actor can freely fit (in and out) between these figures. Put all this light structure on the furks - that's completely functional pets are ready. And they will “function” against the backdrop of a large painted backdrop, where there is only a blue sky and white clouds (immense Mother Russia). From somewhere in the clouds descends a canopy-hayloft, to which a ladder is attached. From one side of the stage, a washstand and a cart, from the other, hay and a pitchfork; in the middle is a flask. All together - a strong master's yard.

The first big scene is in the morning: domestic “living creatures” wake up, waiting for the owner. It's time to consider their costumes, humorously demonstrating the connection between a person and a domestic “creature”: the Pig is in a pink soft overalls, emphasizing the roundness of the forms, the Horse is in a long cavalry overcoat with medals (among which one of the most honorable is the Veteran of Labor), the Dog is in fashionable in torn jeans and a T-shirt with the image of her master, a Cow in a self-knitted cardigan with tassels that gently wraps around her big belly (in anticipation of calving), and a colorfully elegant Rooster “a la punk”. All the actors are young: the dreamy Pig (L. Savchenko), the pensive Cow (M. Ryabkova), the obnoxious Dog (V. Vashedsky), the snobby Rooster (A. Tynkasov) and even the Horse (E. Ustyuzhanina), wise and tired of life. All actors are diligent and diligently play only one state (dreamy, thoughtful, zapoloshnoy, etc.) - from the beginning to the end of the performance. From this, at times, a feeling of a children's matinee is created. It seems that the planar scenographic solution also determined the way the actors exist (Tynkasov's Petukh, however, is "more colorful" than the others). But maybe animals should be played like that? Not people, in the end, even though they talk.

But then there are people...

The characters are expressively selected: a cool Boss (a former sailor) in a vest (M. Basov), a busy Mistress (T. Lukyanova), an alcoholic Neighbor (A. Pryakhin) and young people - Dasha and Alexei (M. Fedosova and V. Zaviktorin) . However, it soon becomes clear that people exist in this performance according to the same laws as animals. "Multicolor" is no longer to find a single one. And here's what's interesting: as these people appear in the first scenes, they leave as they are in the last. But in their stage life there are many important events.

Here is Dasha and Alexei. According to the play, they fell in love. Hot, alive, real. How to play like this? A difficult task, of course (see "PTJ" № 24; all about it). This feeling is indicated in the performance as follows: firstly, the text helps (it talks about love), secondly, “the retinue plays the king” (in this case, everyone around also talks about their love), thirdly, Dasha and Alexei sometimes hugging, and at the beginning so a little more ... That, perhaps, is all the designations. But Dasha in the very first love scene tells Alexei about her pregnancy. And then the parents insist on an abortion. Alexei is indifferent to what is happening: "We will not go against our parents." There are, of course, such words in the text, but behind these words there is a storm of feelings, confusion. The playwright "slips" Alexei many lively scenes, play of moods. In the performance, the actor follows the words, and that's it.

Dasha loves and suffers, too, only "in words." The hostess (her mother) - too. The Host is a little more colorful, but the current of intense stage life does not come from him either. The alcoholic neighbor is persuasive, but only as an alcoholic. The actor does not leave this state for a minute. Remarkable biographical touches are also “thrown” to him: once in his childhood it was he who was in charge and played Chapai, and the future Master was Petka with him, and the future Hostess once preferred this now already drunk little man to the future Master. However, the whole range of complex experiences of the hero comes down to a simple medical diagnosis, and it is in vain to look for any other features in this poster image of an alcoholic.

Posterity and one-dimensionality in the director's decision of the play are in conflict with the parable nature of the play, filled with slyness and irony, it needs the volume of characters, the presence of a "gap" between the performing actor and his hero: "a fairy tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it ...".

The performance includes poems and zongs written by Nikolai Gubenko himself. Not all of them organically enter the stage performance. Some refer us to completely different times and to a different theater. The end of the first act is indicative in this respect, when the cute domestic animals, discussing the problem of money, suddenly abruptly interrupt their sweet and witty chatter, come to the fore and, just like in the “Good Man from Sezuan” by old Taganka, “boldly” sing and dance a zong about “Money-money, but the people don’t have a damn thing in their pocket” in the rap style. But... the times are gone, and the parable about love strongly resists such direct accusatory appeals to the audience "on a current topic."

In the performance itself, alas, there is no the most important thing - internal tension, a cherished thought about something expensive and significant, and there is no truly hurt heart. And without this - don't shout, don't shout, even in the form of a zong, even in the form of rap - there is no answer ...

April 2003

“Why is sadness inherent in cows? ..”

M. Lado. "A very simple story." State Chamber "The Fifth Theater" (Omsk).
Directed by Boris Zeitlin, set design by Boris Zeitlin and Olga Verevkina

There is one golden omen
simpler than the simplest signs:
the word "VERY" you will find in the poet,
so this is no longer a poet!

Arkady Kutilov

The fact that Boris Tseytlin did not fall "as if into heresy, into unimaginable simplicity" by posing a simple story (excuse me, a VERY simple story; "very" is highlighted large both in the program and on all advertising stands) - so, then, that “didn’t fall” became clear at first when opening the aforementioned program, and then already at the entrance to the auditorium, where there were so many piles up that ...

God bless him, with the genre of "simple history" (as the Pig, who ended up in heaven, might well say). But here is the “unity of form and content” (as the same Pig would say, which changed the form of being after its murder, but retained the content) - this is hefty and very serious.

The scenographic design, invented by the director, obsessively tuned in to VERY global: the ceiling-sky for the entire auditorium, the platform-passage through the entire stalls ... The "effectiveness" of this construction, alas, except for the extra. opportunities for solving a number of mise-en-scenes, turned out to be zero at all levels, well, except that it set the intrigue: since in each intermission (there were two) the audience was politely asked to leave the auditorium, it seemed that, upon returning, we would see how, say, the heavens would open up and - will begin! And the great plan of Boris Zeitlin will become clear!.. Don't open up. Didn't start. Everything remained static. Not to mention the fact that during these intermissions the performance itself seemed to be artificially interrupted and it was more than difficult to “enter” it after the break.

Everything that exists on our sinful earth is interconnected. And about this, first of all, is the simple and wise story of Maria Lado. The strangest (and inexplicable) thing is how it was possible to manage to lose this relationship. There was no “society” in the barnyard, and “relationships” became purely speculative. Each inhabitant of the "animal farm" was a lonely individual phenomenon, good actors of a good "Fifth Theater" created their character "individualities" in an interesting way, but even the classics of Marxism-Leninism, if they saw this, would utter the imperishable about the impossibility of "living in society and to be part of society." The talented "piecework" of each is artificial, popular, but, strangely enough, there is no compassion and love for "individuals" in Zeitlin's performance. Basically no. With the exception of the Neighbor, who, living outside of everyone and everything (like everyone in this performance), simply "lived on the stage", at least a little saving the "simple story".

What Zeitlin had in mind when he made a puffy-bodied and snow-white aristocrat out of the ingenuous and kindest Pig, who, sticking out her little fingers, absorbs food from silver dishes, only, perhaps, the director knows. What did he mean by making a sort of colorful-bearded and recklessly gloomy "merchant-bullshit" out of the Owner - again, only Zeitlin knows ... And the fairy tale begins. And the owner-merchant, grinning ominously, sharpens the ax, and the sparks from the grindstone fly into the auditorium, and the aristocrat Pig “absorbs” something, and the slaughter of the Pig becomes a kind of “comic book”, causing a kind of adulterous smile before eating the pork kebab …

And if we take into account the explosive mixture of different styles (but, I note again, talented) "stay" of the actors on the stage, it becomes completely uncomfortable. “Mkhatovskaya” Horse, “Tyuzovskiy” Rooster, “Tagankovskiy” Dog, “Brechtovskaya” Cow… As if Van Dyck’s brightest personages appeared in Pirosmani’s painting…

What Zeitlin "painted" by placing Lado's play on his "palette" is neither guessable nor predictable (it's like with his samovar in Tula). All colors are welcome! Although the finale was quite intelligible (even if it’s from a “different opera” altogether): a molasses, fabulously popular popular picture, where all the heroes stand in snow-white sheepskin coats and felt boots, and such sweetness is sugary (but ours, primordially, ancient, racist!) all this, which even seems to be - the anthem is now “God Save the Tsar!” it will break out ... It turns out that there was a performance about Russia. And I, a fool, tried to sympathize with someone. And he sat at the same time, tormented - why I don’t feel sorry for the killed Pig ...

... “How does our cow live now, tearing straw sadness? ..” I, imagine, “associatively” remember this Yesenin line to this day after Lado’s “Simple Story”, seen in the Tyumen youth theater “Engagement”. The best performance I have ever seen based on a popular play today. With love and compassion, with pain and simplicity, with real life and without any VERY “matryoshka” flirting with Russia…

Well, if someone, like the Boss on the Pig, rushes at me with a double-edged ax, I will read four lines to him from the same brilliant poet Arkady Kutilov, with the epigraph from which I began my notes today:

Fake snow fell on the stage ...
The horn sobbed with false pain...
On the stage, a man rudely "died",
And in the hall someone was crying unfeignedly.

Just don't cry!