Theater "bat". Cabaret theater "Bat" Emblem of the cabaret theater "Bat"
GRIGORY GURVICH AND THE FATE OF HIS THEATER.
2003
The heyday of the musical in Russia had its beginning. And at the origins of the revival of the genre was a specific person. He had his own tragedy: at first he was ahead of his time in his creativity, then life treated him cruelly and unfairly, not according to his talent. The name of this person is Grigory Gurvich, Grisha Gurvich. In 1989, he created the cabaret theater “The Bat” in Moscow. Such a theater existed at the beginning of the century and died under the Soviets. So, Gurvich made an amazing synthetic theater where everyone could talk, sing, and dance. In fact, he was his own musical: he organized skit parties, staged plays and films, and was the soul of the society. He was respected as a professional and loved as a person. But he fell ill with a blood disease and died in Israel. Elena Polyakovskaya will tell you about our friend, whom we remember and love, and about his brainchild.
VSW – Elena Polyakovskaya.
Correspondent: After the death of Grigory Gurvich, his brainchild - the Bat Theater - was predicted to die soon. The main argument: this theater rested on one person.
Maya Gurvich, mother of Grigory Gurvich: When all this happened, the tragedy, Grigory Izrailevich Gorin said that he wishes the theater well-being, success, happiness, prolongation of life, but he does not see it. It was as if from his own experience that when a leader leaves, the theater usually gradually disappears.
Correspondent: Three years have passed since Grigory Gurvich passed away. There have been no performances at the Bat Theater for almost a year. The theater has not officially closed - its artists have been sent on indefinite unpaid leave. The order issued by Gurvich's widow Lyubov Shapiro contains two reasons: the first is an increase in the rent of the Cosmos concert hall, the second is the unprofessionalism and unethical behavior of the artists. There is a special conversation about unprofessionalism. After the actual closure of "The Bat", most of the theater artists successfully work in many troupes, including in productions of popular musicals. Even today they talk about the fantastic school that they had at the Grigory Gurvich Theater. Lamenting only that with the death of the leader, the atmosphere of love and creativity left the Bat. However, despite the fact that the rights to the name of the theater, scenery and costumes belong by right of inheritance to the widow of Grigory Gurvich, the artists do not lose hope for the revival of some productions.
Margarita Esquina, director of the House of Actors: I think about this all the time - on the one hand, you are in terrible shock that you had this - how many people have not had anything similar! On the other hand, of course, this is the best time already... But still, something will definitely happen.
Correspondent: For Grigory Gurvich’s mother Maya Lvovna, the situation with “The Bat” is a personal drama. When she comes from Israel to Moscow, artists certainly gather with her. These are family gatherings of loved ones.
Maya Gurvich: These are my relatives, these are my children from Grishenka, Moscow. I feel very warm with them. They are all wonderful - it’s not for nothing that he always admired them.
Correspondent: We filmed this material three days after Grigory Gurvich’s birthday. There should have been twice as many “Die Fledermaus” artists visiting Maya Lvovna, but just these days the “Nord-Ost” tragedy happened, and among the hostages in the hall on Dubrovka were those who worked at the Grigory Gurvich Theater.
Maya Gurvich: I sat in front of the TV for days. The first one I saw was Grishenka’s student, I was happy. There were still five left. Then they told me about some others who came down the coat, so there were three of them. We were worried about the others. But now there is only one in the hospital. So the acting group, here are 6 people, they survived. But we have a tragedy among musicians: one we cannot find, and the other, unfortunately, died.
Correspondent: On October 24, the artists of the Bat Theater appeared on the stage of the Actor's House, knowing that their friends were being held hostage. Already once they had to perform in a similar state - three years ago, half an hour before the performance “100 Years of Cabaret,” the theater troupe was informed of the death of Grigory Gurvich. The artists adored him, and he adored them. There were no stars in “The Bat”; everyone here was very beautiful and very talented, as Grigory Efimovich himself said. The viewer could not always determine where the ballet dancers were singing and where the singers were dancing - Grigory Gurvich created a theater where the actors were professionally versatile. Gurvich generally knew the value of talent and, like a magnet, attracted talented people. He dreamed of theater since childhood and believed that someday he would have his own team.
Maya Gurvich: Of course, I remember how he told me: Mom, I will have a theater - do you believe in it? And I couldn't believe it. Moscow, only relatively recently there was GITIS, and all the failures were theatrical, something didn’t work out, it didn’t work out with someone. Have your own theater? I didn't really believe in it. But it turned out that it all really happened in Gnezdikovsky, in the old premises of the Bat.
Correspondent: The theater was his life, but Grigory Efimovich’s talent was enough for everything. His “Old TV” is still remembered, and skits and elegant jokes are constantly quoted. Films and television programs remain on film; theatrical performances, even those captured on film and video, live as long as they are performed on stage. Unfortunately, I did not have time to see much of what Grigory Gurvich did in the theater, and therefore I, like many fans of “The Bat,” would like this theater to be revived, despite pessimistic forecasts. The artists also want this, which means the idea is worth it. At least in memory of the bright and talented man Grigory Gurvich, his brainchild should not die.
Elena Polyakovskaya, Eduard Gorborukov, Echo TV company, Moscow.
Gr. Gurvich and actor Valery Borovinsky. Bows. 
Gr. Gurvich on the set of the film "Starry Night in Kamergersky" 
Sp. "Great Illusion"
Maya Lvovna, mother of Gr. Gurvich
The cabaret theater arose in 1908 from the “cabbets” of the Moscow Art Theater; it initially existed as a club for actors of this theater. Organizers - N.F. Baliev and N.A. Tarasov (together with O. L. Knipper, V. I. Kachalov, I. M. Moskvin and others). The club’s “performing evenings” were improvisational in nature, designed for “their” audience, and included comic performances by K.S. Stanislavsky, Knipper, Kachalov and others, parodies of Moscow Art Theater performances. Since 1910, the club began to give paid performances, which influenced the composition of the audience and the repertoire; in 1912 it was transformed into an independent commercial cabaret theater aimed at wealthy and educated audiences. The director, artistic director and entertainer was Baliev. Regular authors - B.A. Sadovskaya and T.L. Shchepkina-Kupernik.
Genres of amateur evenings were actively used - everyday dances, jokes, puns, charades, intimate songs. In the theater, a type of synthetic actor was formed, capable of combining a reader, dancer, singer, and improviser. The troupe included V.A. Podgorny, Ya.M. Volkov, V.Ya. Henkin, K.E. Gibshman, E.A. Marsheva, A.F. Heinz, E.A. Khovanskaya and others. Directed by V.V. Luzhsky, Moskvin, Baliev, E.B. Vakhtangov and others.
Since 1914, the Bat Theater, without changing its name, gradually approached the type of miniature theater. The tables were replaced by rows of armchairs, the leading genre was the stage miniature, built on the basis of classical operetta, vaudeville (“Six Brides and No Groom” by F. Suppe, “Wedding by Lanterns” by J. Offenbach), dramatizations of classic works (“The Queen of Spades” A.S. Pushkin, “The Treasurer” by M.Yu. Lermontov, “The Nose”, “The Overcoat” and “The Stroller” by N.V. Gogol, “The Complaint Book”, “Chameleon” by A.P. Since 1908, the club was located in the basement of Pertsov’s house; After the flood, he moved to Milyutinsky Lane. Since 1915 in the basement of the Nirnzee house (Bolshoi Gnezdnikovsky Lane, 10). In 1920, part of the theater troupe led by Baliyev emigrated, and a new, European stage of “The Bat” began. The rest of the troupe became part of the Satyr-agitheater.
" - a pre-revolutionary theater of miniatures, one of the very first and best chamber theaters in Russia, which arose from the parody and comic performances of actors of the Moscow Art Theater under the direction of Nikita Baliev.
Initially, “The Bat” was conceived as an intimate artistic circle of Moscow Art Theater artists and their friends - a community of actors of the Moscow Art Theater.
Theater enterprises must focus on the audience and sell tickets, otherwise they will go bankrupt. But the Moscow Art Theater actors wanted to hide from prying eyes in a cozy place where they could come after the performance and relax from academic theater traditions and the outside world. The creation of this kind of club became a necessity for an actor's retreat, where in a narrow circle one could review performances and, with gentle irony, write a couple of sketches about one's favorite theater.
The idea of creating an acting club was not designed for the public, but for its complete absence. Actually, the public should not see their theatrical characters in everyday situations.
The “closed” club included actors from the Art Theater: Olga Leonardovna Knipper-Chekhova, Vasily Ivanovich Kachalov, Ivan Mikhailovich Moskvin, Georgy Sergeevich Burdzhalov and Alisa Koonen.
The charter of the “Bat” circle was submitted for registration to the city presence, which was later reported by the newspaper “Russkoye Slovo”.
This charter was signed by Nikita Baliev, Nikolai Tarasov and Vasily Kachalov. 25 actors became co-founders, and another 15 members of the club were proposed to be elected by voting. But this plan "failed." It was precisely the closedness that attracted attention, as soon as Baliev announced that “this will be a club of the Art Theater, inaccessible to others, and it will be incredibly difficult to become a member,” soon “completely extraneous elements poured in” and the “supposed” intimacy of the theater was destroyed . The basement was filled with bohemian musicians, artists, writers and regulars of Moscow theaters.
“When the need for a special hall for young people became clear, a basement room was added, which at one time housed a circle of artists of the Moscow Art Theater called “The Bat,” which held its closed intimate meetings at night after performances. The soul of these meetings was N.F. Baliev, who later organized his own troupe for public performances of “The Bat,” which soon became so popular in Moscow. To set up a dance hall, I deepened the room by an arshin and laid oak parquet to prepare the asphalt." - the owner of the house later recalled"
On February 29, 1908, Baliev and Tarasov went down into the dimly lit basement of Pertsov’s house (opposite the Cathedral of Christ the Savior). A bat flew out towards them. This is how the name of the theater was born, and the bat became its emblem, parodying the Moscow Art Theater seagull on the curtain.
Thus, there was a need for the birth of a theater club, and the prospect of its development was revealed later. The theater creators didn’t even think about it.
In the theater of miniatures, the duration of the action is calculated in minutes, not hours, and in his ten-year biography Nikolai Efimovich Efros conveyed to this day the history of the evolution of the chamber theater "The Bat" from the moment the idea of creating an acting club arose in 1908, until its heyday, when it became an artistic and theatrical attraction in a city choked in revolutionary chaos.
“The Art Theater is the most serious theater, with heroic tension, in the seething creative forces, solving the most complex stage problems. But the actors of this theater also have a great love for humor, a great taste for jokes. They always loved laughter. “The Bat” should give a way out for this; these are the moods, thoughts and goals with which N. F. Baliev and N. L. Tarasov, having grouped their theater comrades around themselves, rented a basement and hung a bat from its gray vaulted ceiling. The resting place of people is a kingdom of free but beautiful jokes, and away from the outside public.”
N. E. Efros wrote in the biography of the theater, published for its tenth anniversary, 1918.
Tarasov’s aesthetic taste was especially close to the compressed eclectic forms of “small art.” The brilliantly educated co-owner of oil fields and a cotton factory in Armavir was an aristocrat in spirit, and Tarasov was a poet at heart. He loved brightly lit halls, in which he always chose a dark corner. He loved the war of witticisms, but he himself was stingy with words. This young man simultaneously combined sarcasm, tenderness and sadness, piquancy and understatement. But he was unable to experience the joy of life and appreciate the generosity of all these gifts. Tarasov could easily sketch couplets and compose a “song on the topic of the day” or a poignant epigram. He composed an apt parody of the production of “Mary Stuart” at the Maly Theater and was the author of a buffoonery about the great Napoleon and his missing driver. The comic miniature, in which the public was cleverly fooled, was called “The Scandal with Napoleon, or an unknown episode that happened to Napoleon in Moscow.” Napoleon was cold, he wanted to leave and asked: - Where is my driver? They shouted from the audience: “There were no cars under Napoleon!”
Having realized his dream of his own theater, Nikita Baliev turned the acting cabaret, an intimate club of actors of the Moscow Art Theater, into a publicly accessible commercial theater, at the same time preserving the atmosphere of the former haven of artistic bohemia. Konstantin Sergeevich Stanislavsky began to attend performances. Baliev was a shareholder of the Art Theater and secretary of Vl. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko. In theatrical productions, he created several rich images: Bull and Bread in “The Blue Bird” by M. Maeterlinck, Rosen in “Boris Godunov” by A. Pushkin, Guest of Man in the play “The Life of a Man” by L. Andreev. He was very artistic, but for his type of actor there were not many roles in the repertoire of the academic theater.
The leading actors of the theater were V.A. Podgorny and B.S. Borisov (Gurovich), as well as Y.M. Volkov, K.I. Kareev, A.N. Salama, G.S. Burdzhalov, V.Ya. Khenkin , Doronin (1911/14).
The theater's actresses were N. A. Khotkevich, A. K. Fekhtner, E. A. Khovanskaya, V. V. Barsova, E. A. Tumanova, Rezler, E. A. Marsheva (Karpova), T. Kh. Deykarkhanova, N. V. Meskhieva-Kareeva (Alekseeva), Heinz, Vasilenko
A month and a half later, in April 1908, the water level in the Moscow River rose and the water overflowed its banks. In some of the lowest places in the city center, all basements were flooded with water.
“Two or three warm days in a row and several rains at once promoted the melting of snow and loosened the ice so much that a rapid and high-water flood of the Moscow River was no longer in doubt.”
After the flood, the cozy basement of Pertsov’s house had to be restored, and Baliev’s troupe resumed its performances.
“The Bat lasted one and a half short theatrical seasons in its original premises, having experienced devastation from the raging waters of the Moscow River in the spring.”
For the second season, the theater began its performances at 21:30 in the evening.
The official opening of the “basement” took place on October 18, 1908 with a parody of the Moscow Art Theater’s premiere (October 13, 1908) performance “The Blue Bird,” in which Konstantin Sergeevich Stanislavsky and Nemerovich-Danchenko were looking for this bird. The theater was ready to receive 60 guests, as announced by the Russkoe Slovo newspaper:
“The intimate ‘tavern’ of friends of the art theater opens on Sunday.” - “Russian Word”
It must be said that the performance of the Art Theater itself was a huge success. For a whole century, the legendary performance did not leave the stage and was shown at least four and a half thousand times. The author granted the right to use the tale for the first time to Stanislavsky; The design of the performance included a complex lighting score.
In April 1909, the Moscow Art Theater's "Blue Bird" was seen by the St. Petersburg public on the stage of the Mikhailovsky Theater.
“The theater had a festive look. Each picture of Maeterlinck's fairy tale was accompanied by applause. “The Land of Memories” and “The Kingdom of the Future” exceeded all expectations and was recognized by the most strict theatergoers as the pinnacle of stagecraft and art” - “Moskovskie Vesti”
On January 14, 1909, the founder of “Mouse” Baliev was honored at the theater. In the comic-parody program, Ms. Yan-Ruban and Mr. Kamionsky sang, Ms. Balashova danced, and Mr. Lebedev narrated skits.
“The Bat” celebrated its one-year anniversary on March 19, 1909, simultaneously with the 20th stage anniversary of Alexander Leonidovich Vishnevsky. Nikita Baliev divided the history of theater into “antediluvian” and “post-flood” periods. Among the guests were V.A. Serov, N.A. Andreev and A.V. Sobinov, who was escorted to Buenos Aires the next day.
One of the “Christmas trees” arranged in the “Bat” cabaret on December 23, 1909, was remembered by the guests for a long time. The evening's program included "The Inspector General," performed by a troupe of puppets, and gifts were distributed for three hours, and the celebration ended at seven in the morning.
On the night of February 9-10, 1910, the theater gave its first paid performance. The first paid performance is in favor of needy theater artists. From that time on, “The Bat” became a night cabaret theater for a paying public. The theater's repertoire included parodies, miniatures, and various divertissements.
On the night of November 5-6, 1910, an evening took place with the performance of Tarasov’s parody of the Maly Theater’s play “Mary Stuart.” Alexander Ivanovich Yuzhin, Vladimir Ivanovich Nemerovich-Danchenko and Felor Chaliapin in the costume of Mephistopheles took part in the staging of The Brothers Karamazov. A quartet joined the action: Leonid Sobinov, Sergei Volgin, V.A. Lossky and Petrov. I read the stories of V.F. Lebedev.
On a gloomy Sunday, November 13, 1910, Nikolai Tarasov relieved himself of the burden of persistent melancholy with a shot in the chest.
“Tarasov is an elegant young man with velvet eyes on a beautiful matte face. He had delicate taste and a happy appearance. Fate was extremely merciful and generous to him. But Tarasov carried within himself a thirst for the joy of life, but could never quench it, could not experience it.”
N. E. Efros
The performance at the Art Theater was cancelled.
After the death of Nikolai Tarasov in 1910, on whose funds The Bat existed, the theater had to earn money on its own.
On March 20, 1911, Humperdinck's opera was performed, translated and staged by Nikolai Zvantsev. The night was full of fun. At the vernissage, still lifes by Vladimir Tezavrovsky were presented: Baliev in the form of a watermelon, Mardzhanov in the form of a pineapple, Leonidov represented by a melon. Sobinov painted a picture with mustard and soybeans. “Cranberry Revolution” - written by Lebedev.
Since 1912, “The Bat” has become a theater of miniatures with a large program every night, consisting of cartoons, dramatizations of songs, romances, theatrical aphorisms by Kozma Prutkov, miniatures by T.L. Shchepkina-Kupernik, as well as dramatizations of works by classics: Alexander Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, Mikhail Lermontov, Ivan Turgenev, Anton Chekhov, Guy de Maupassant. Excerpts from works by Mozart, Dargomyzhsky, Borodin, and Tchaikovsky were performed. The performances were brilliantly commented on by the witty “host of the evening” Baliyev, resourcefully talking with the audience and harmlessly touching on the “topic of the day”.
In August 1912, Baliev presented a version of the play “Peer Gynt”, the program for which read: “A dramatic and musical poem in 36 scenes, of which, due to the difficulty of staging, only ten were carried out, the rest either did not pass censorship, or were already staged at the Art Theater theater,” and among the episodes of the production were the titles “At the Trolls” and “In the Madhouse.”
One of the cabaret parodies was called “Theater Review: The Biggest Failures of the Recently Started Season.” This was followed by a caustic parody of Leonid Andreev’s play “Ekaterina Ivanovna” and a parody “Sorochinskaya Elena” - on the premieres of the Free Theater “Sorochinskaya Fair”, directed by K. Mardzhanov and “Beautiful Elena”, directed by A. Tairov, 1913.
Over time, aesthetics and the desire for refined sophistication began to manifest themselves more and more in the theater's programs.
In 1913, the architect F.O. Shekhtel designed the building of the “Scientific Electrotheater” in Kamergerovsky Lane, which provided premises to house the “Bat”. However, the project was not implemented.
The walls of the cabaret theater were hung with caricatures and cartoons on theatrical themes. Above the entrance to the theater hung the inscription “Everyone is considered acquaintances,” and the welcome guests of “The Bat” could sign the famous book next to the autographs of K. S. Stanislavsky himself, V. S. Kachalov, O. L. Knipper-Chekhova, Rachmaninov and Isadora Duncan. The “near-theater audience” immediately fell into the thick of the eventful behind-the-scenes life. As if entering the theater from the service entrance, the viewer made an exciting journey into the world of theatrical scenes, feeling intimately involved in the artistic sphere.
Performances at the Bat began at 11:30 p.m. The audience took their seats, the lights went out, and the actors stealthily walked from the stalls onto the stage. Dressed in black robes fluttering like the wings of a bat, they, in time with the flickering red lights, sang in a whisper: “The mouse is my little bat, the mouse is as light as the breeze.” The public, already involved in the process, felt on an “equal footing” with the famous artists. The impromptu performances of Vera Nikolaevna Pashennaya, Nikolai Fedorovich Monakhov and even Marie Petipa who “accidentally” ended up in the basement of “The Bat” were actually thought out and even paid for by Baliev. Thus, a complete merging of the auditorium and the stage was achieved. Bohemia consisted of businessmen, respectable officials and successful intellectuals who played “artists” and “actors”.
The enterprise switched to a commercial basis, money poured into the budget like a river. Tickets were sold, performances were announced, reviews were published in newspapers and magazines. From that moment on, the atmosphere of a variety show disappeared, there were no tables, the clinking of glasses and the grinding of knives on plates disappeared; and “Die Fledermaus” was transformed into a theater. The entrance fee, at that time, was high, and the buffet served expensive champagne. Baliev's enterprise turned out to be very successful, and soon the capital of the "Bat" company amounted to 100,000 rubles. Thanks to the large number of fans of the cabaret theater and the success of the performances, in 1915 "The Bat" moved to a specially adapted theater with a functional stage, an auditorium and a buffet . The performances were performed in the basement of apartment building No. 10 on Bolshoy Gnezdnikovsky Lane, called the “First House of Nionese,” which at that time seemed like a skyscraper.
In the cabaret theater "Die Fledermaus" Kasyan Yaroslavovich Goleizovsky embodied his creative ideas for ballet productions, representing divertissement departments. The first production on the new stage was the comic opera "Count Nulin" to the music of Alexei Arkhangelsky. It was followed by the original production of “The Queen of Spades”, decorated in the minimalist style of symbolism: a card table, light on silk from a lonely candelabra, then a funeral candle, a piece of heavy brocade and “fantasy completed the picture of the hearse and the magnificent coffin”; instead of a ball - shadows, silhouettes waltzing outside the window, dusted with snow.
The repertoire included operettas and vaudevilles. “Fortunio's Song” to the music of J. Offenbach (20-minute miniature, 1918); "Italian salad"; “About the hetaera Melitis” (stylized mystery, 1919); “Lev Gurych Sinichkin” - vaudeville by D.T. Lensky; “What happened to the heroes of The Inspector General the day after Khlestakov left” (parody number); “Wedding by Lanterns” (1919); “The Duck with Three Noses” (three-act operetta by E. Jonas, (1920).
But time gave rise to “a mood of nostalgic sadness for the passing past and tired confusion before an incomprehensible future.”
In the 1920s, Baliev went on a European tour with part of the Bat troupe. Until 1922, they somehow tried to preserve the repertoire, but “Die Fledermaus” died in Russia.
Back in 1918, Efros wrote a wish for the tenth anniversary of the theater:
“Let what happened happen again. Let reality once again surpass all dreams and desires.”
Efros, 1918
The cabaret repertoire was a humorous take on Art Theater productions; in his position as a “man from the outside,” which makes it possible to detect with particular acuteness the comedy of phenomena and situations in which the “man from the inside” could see an unshakable pattern. The many-faced actors changed their images and characters several times a day. At first, the repertoire of the “theater of improvised parodies” included humorous miniatures and sketches for productions of the Art Theater. Nikolai Baliev was one of the wittiest entertainers, his reprises created a special brightness of the theatrical evenings of “The Bat”. Then the repertoire was filled with musical and dramatic performances. Productions began to gravitate toward sophistication and elitism, aimed at wealthy audiences. The theater lived in its own premises with all the necessary decorator workshops, and the theater already had a permanent troupe.
The repertoire of the theatrical cabaret included miniatures:
“The Blue Bird” (1908, a parody of the Moscow Art Theater play)
Miniature “Clock” - from the collection of French porcelain performed by T. Oganesova and V. Seliverstova
“Under the gaze of the ancestors” - an ancient gavotte performed by T. Oganesova, Y. Volkov, V. Selivestrova
“The Council of Constance” to the music of A. Arkhangelsky and words by A. Maykov, performed by Y. Volkov, A. Karnitsky, M. Efremov, B. Vasiliev, A. Sokolov, N. Sokolov, B. Podgorny
"Treasurer" Scenes based on M. Yu. Lermontov. Participants: Treasurer - I. I. Lagutin, Headquarters Captain - Y. Volkov, Treasurer - E. A. Tumanova
“Zarya-Zaryanitsa” to poems by Fyodor Sologub and music by Suvorovsky. Performed by T. Oganesova, L. Kolumbova, N. Khotkevich, S. Tumanova, A. Sokolov, V.V. Barsova, N. Vesnina.
“Moonlight Serenade”, actress N.V. Meskhieva-Kareeva (N.V. Alekseeva - Meskhieva)
Staged painting by Malyavin “Whirlwind”. “Women”: E. A. Tumanova, T. Kh. Deykarkhanova, L. Kolumbova, V. V. Barsova, V. Seliverstova, A. Sokolova
“The Inspector General”, 1909 (short, easy, concise, apt, evil, witty)
“Mary Stuart” - N. Tarasov’s parody of the Maly Theater play, 1910.
“The scandal with Napoleon, or an unknown episode that happened to Napoleon in Moscow” (about the great Napoleon and his missing driver) - buffoonery by N. Tarasov, 1910.
Staging of “The Brothers Karamazov” (in the play Nemerovich-Danchenko and Alexander Sumbatov sit at a table and drink cognac, with the participation of Fyodor Chaliapin, 1910)
Scenes based on Pushkin’s poem “The Fountain of Bakhchisarai” to the music of A. Arkhangelsky. Roles performed by: Maria - N. Khotkevich, Zarema - T.Kh Deykarkhanova, Khan - V.A. Podgorny
“In the Moonlight” (French song), performed by A. K. Fechtner, N. A. Khotkevich, V. Seliverstova, T. Oganesova, N. Vesnina
"The knight who lost his wife to the devil." A play by M. Kuzmin, in which this wife was played by N. A. Khotkevich, L. A. Gatova, T. Kh. Deykarkhanova
"Russian toy of Posad Sergiev." Music by A. Arkhangelsky. The performance stars A.K. Fechtner, M. Borin, K. Korinct (?)
"Brigan Papa" or "evilly beaten mesalian". Vaudeville by M. Dolinov with singing. Performers: N. A. Khotkevich, I. Lagutin, A. Fechtner, Y. Volkov
“Madame Bourdieu’s Shop” - scenes of a passing Moscow. Actors: N. Milatovich, A. Fechtner, V. Barsova, I. Lagutin, T. Oganesova
“Charity concert in Krutogorsk” - Performers: N. Baliev, E. Zhenin, N. Khotkevich
“Mother”, scenes based on M. Gorky with the participation of V. A. Podgorny in the role of Timur Lench
"Vogdykhan's whim." Based on the story by A. Ronier. Performers V. A. Podgorny, A. Sokolov, Y. Volkov
“Serenade of a Faun” to the music of Mozart, roles performed by V.V. Barsova, E.A. Tumanova and A. Sokolova
“Crocodile and Cleopatra”, in which the role of Cleopatra was played by E. A. Tumanova, then N. M. Khotkevich, V. K. Seliverstova
"Katenka." Forgotten polka of the 80s. The roles were performed by V. V. Barsova, A. K. Fechtner, M. Borin
Opera (?) Humperdinck, translated and staged by Nikolai Zvantsev, 1911
“Peer Gynt” (dramatic and musical poem by Baliev in ten scenes, 1912)
“Sorochinskaya Elena” - a parody of the performances “Sorochinskaya Fair”, K. Mardzhanova and “Beautiful Elena”, A. Tairova, 1913
“Theater Review: The Biggest Failures of the Recently Started Season.”
“Ekaterina Ivanovna” - a parody of the play by L. Andreev, 1913
“Count Nulin” to the music of Alexei Arkhangelsky, 1915.
“The Queen of Spades”, 1915. With the participation of T. Kh. Deykarkhanova
“The Overcoat” by Gogol, in the role of Akaki Akakievich V. A. Podgorny, A. Sokolov, A. Milatovich, Efremov, I. Lagutin, E. Zhenin, M. Borin
CABARET THEATERS have spread widely in St. Petersburg since 1908, becoming a significant phenomenon of life and art of the pre-revolutionary decade. They were created on the model of Western European cabaret theatres, using some forms of domestic artistic life and leisure (for example, “cabbage shows”). Having emerged as meeting places for the artistic intelligentsia, they transformed into entertainment enterprises for the general public, being one of the forms of Miniature Theaters. They combined the functions of club communication based on interests with the display of the latest artistic experiments and the implementation of life-creative ideas of symbolism, futurism and other movements that sought to establish a new style of social behavior. Leading modern writers and masters of art participated in the organization and activities of cabaret theaters. The first cabaret theaters opened at the St. Petersburg theater club (42 Liteiny Prospect, Yusupov Mansion): “Lukomorye” (1908) under the direction of. V. E. Meyerhold with the participation of M. M. Fokin, artists from the World of Art, actors of the improvisational stage, K. E. Gibshman and others; “The Crooked Mirror” (1908-18, 1922-31; season 1923/24 in Moscow) by A. R. Kugel and Z. V. Kholmskaya, supported by a group of writers, with director. R. A. Ungern, N. N. Evreinov, actors of the Literary and Artistic Society of the Theater and the Komissarzhevskaya Theater, artist Yu. P. Annenkov, M. N. Yakovlev, composer I. A. Sats, V. G. Erenberg and others. The programs of cabaret theatres, skeptical and ironic at their core, consisted of parodies, feuilletons, entertainers, comic scenes, pantomimes, miniatures, vocal and dance numbers, and included improvisations, imitations, and performances by guest performers. The classic example is the parody opera “Vampuka, the African Bride” in “The Distorting Mirror” (1909), which has become a household name. Another well-known St. Petersburg cabaret theater: “The Cheerful Theater for Older Children” by F. F. Komissarzhevsky and Evreinov (1909, in the Komissarzhevskaya Theater on Ofitserskaya Street, 39), “House of Sideshows” by Doctor Dapertutto (1910-11), “ Stray Dog" - club of artists of the intimate theater society, the only non-profit enterprise of this type (1912-15), its successor is “Halt of Comedians” (“Stargazer”) at the Petrograd Art Society (1916-19), “Black Cat” by V. Azov (pseud. V. A. Ashkinazi, 1910) and “The Queen of Spades” by F. N. Falkovsky (1914-15, both in the Kononovsky Hall on the Moika River embankment, 61), “The Bat” by A. S. Polonsky (1914, on the corner of Sadovaya and Gorokhovaya streets), “Blue Bird” (1915, on the corner of Nikolaevskaya and Borovaya streets), “Bi-ba-bo” with the participation of K. A. Mardzhanov (1917, in the basement of “Passage”) and others. Active participants in the cabaret movement were N. A. Teffi, M.A. Kuzmin, A.T. Averchenko, N.I. Kulbin, N.V. Petrov, poets, artists, musicians of all schools and directions. Multiple artistic forms and methods developed in cabaret theaters have firmly entered the arsenal of expressive means of theatrical and pop art.
History of development
Having emerged at the turn of the 10s of the 20th century, small theaters spread throughout Russia with lightning speed. In 1912, in Moscow and St. Petersburg alone, about 125 cabarets and miniature theaters opened their curtains simultaneously. It is impossible to establish how many of them there were in Russia: most of them flared up and went out like sparks, leaving no trace. In place of one who disappeared without a trace, several others appeared. They occupied empty basements and warehouses; former restaurants and skating markets were converted into them. It happened that another theater opened in the premises of another, still existing one.
The new type of spectacle very soon grew into a serious competitor to its older, venerable brothers, the big theaters, robbing them of spectators and luring away actors.
In cabarets and miniature theaters, the public discovered new “stars”, found new idols, they hung their photographs on the walls of their apartments, their voices sounded on gramophone records in all houses.
But less than ten years had passed before this entire huge multicolored layer of spectacular art disappeared forever, disappeared under the rubble of the life of which it was a part. Only its faint echo reached the mid-20s. Then he too broke off. The memory of Russian cabarets and miniature theaters died out for many decades. Only recently have researchers begun to collect documents again, dig up archives, look for participants and eyewitnesses who have survived to this day (what if there are such people), and their descendants, who miraculously preserved records of previously unnecessary memories, letters and photographs.
But the amount of surviving materials is disproportionately small in relation to the vast number of small theaters that filled the theatrical life of the 10s.
The theater workers themselves are sometimes to blame for the paucity of information that has reached us. With rare exceptions, it never occurred to people who served in cabarets and miniature theaters, as is customary in self-respecting “big theaters,” to collect archives, press reviews, keep rehearsal journals, performance diaries, save the texts of miniatures, skits, sketches, interludes, jokes, songs, parodies, scripts for choreographic and vocal numbers, in short, the entire motley and fragmented repertoire that was on their stage.
Something has settled in private collections and state repositories in Moscow (RGALI, A. A. Bakhrushin Theater Museum, library of the STD of the RSFSR, Moscow Art Theater Museum, Russian State Library) and St. Petersburg (M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin Public Library, Theater Museum). Unfortunately, the information stored in them is not so much: random, scattered, scattered among different, sometimes unexpected funds, entries in personal diaries, correspondence, notes sent by express in a few words, rough sketches, sketches of conferences and comic poems, invitation cards, programs, posters and posters. And most importantly, this material is distributed extremely unevenly. Its main part falls on the most famous theaters, such as “The Bat”, “Curved Mirror”, “Stray Dog”, “Comedians’ Halt”, associated with the names of the largest Russian directors, actors, writers, artists, musicians and people from their immediate circle, through whose efforts these materials reached us.
The same theaters are also mentioned in memoirs, the authors of which were involved in them to one degree or another. V. Piast (“Meetings”), B. Livshits (“The One and a Half-Eyed Sagittarius”), A. Mgebrov (“Life in the Theater”), V. Verigina (“Memoirs”), T. Karsavina (“Stray Dog”) wrote about “Stray Dog.” Teatralnaya Street"), N. Petrov ("50 and 500"); A. Kugel spoke about “The Crooked Mirror” in “Leaves from a Tree”; K. Stanislavsky recalled “The Bat” in his book “My Life in Art” and Vl. Nemirovich-Danchenko "From the Past". “The Bat,” the brainchild of the Art Theater, was generally luckier than others: N. Efros wrote a separate book about it, dedicated to the tenth anniversary of this cabaret theater.
"Lukomoryu" and "Interlude House", associated with the name Vs. Meyerhold, researchers of his work N. Volkov and K. Rudnitsky paid attention.
Let the reader not be misled by the length of the list given; rarely in any book do their authors devote several pages to cabaret; most mention it in passing and casually.
And only in recent years have individual articles, book chapters and special publications begun to appear, exploring this spectacular phenomenon in a completely new way, more fully and in depth. These include an article by Yu. Dmitriev “Miniature Theatres”, placed in the collection “Russian Artistic Culture”, small chapters about the “House of Sideshows”, “Comedians’ Halt”, “The Bat” and “The Crooked Mirror” in D. Zolotnitsky’s book “Dawns” Theater October", covering mainly the post-revolutionary period of the last three theaters. And, finally, two wonderful publications by philologists R. Timenchik and A. Parnis, “Programs of the Stray Dog” and “The Artistic Cabaret “Comedians’ Halt”,” which appeared in the issues of the publication “Cultural Monuments. New Discoveries” for 1983 and 1988 .
But the listed works, with the exception of the article by Yu. Dmitriev, are again devoted to a few famous literary, artistic and artistic cabarets. About hundreds of other theaters of small forms, as well as about the movement as a whole, memoirists are silent, and science is silent.
A significant part of the materials is located abroad in the repositories of Harvard, London, Paris and others, which are still inaccessible to us. In the first post-revolutionary years, emigrant actors (most of whom, by the way, were cabaret fraternity and pop stars) took their archives with them: pop culture became impoverished along with all culture.
Those who remained in their homeland tried to quickly forget about their cabaret and “miniature” past, as about the sins of youth that should be erased from memory once and for all. Most former cabaret owners have succeeded very well in this. And those who managed to get a job in reputable, “real” theaters did not want to remember anything, contrary to the usual tendency of old actors to tirelessly talk about their first steps in art.
Among other things, the actors feared that their names would be associated with spectacles that had become the responsibility of the capitalist entertainment industry, as well as bourgeois reactionary art. “Both “The Distorting Mirror” and “The Bat” equally bore the imprint of reactionary influence in their repertoire, both directly and indirectly; ""Distorted Mirror"<...>began to stage one-act dramas that were reactionary in content and typical examples of decadent drama"; "... The fashionable bourgeois playwright N. N. Evreinov was a decadent and formalist"; "... the Mamonovsky theater, which cultivated decadent art (on its stage during the First World War Alexander Vertinsky debuted)".
In the real course of artistic life, any classification, attempt to isolate genre formation in its pure form is fraught with schematism. Especially when it comes to types of entertainment art, the line between which is fragile and easily crossed. Nevertheless, cabaret and miniature theater are two points between which the history of small-form theater in Russia develops.
Artistic cabarets, a meeting place for artists, an elite refuge for people of art, are gradually, step by step, professionalized as a special form of art, turning into a public theater aimed at spectators buying tickets at the box office. The audience is changing, the type of relationship between the stage and the hall is changing, the language of art is changing.
The movement from cabaret to miniature theater took place both within the fate of individual theaters (Die Fledermaus and Crooked Mirror) and more broadly within the entire evolution of small forms of entertainment art.
G.S. Burdzhalov and other actors of the Art Theater. Initially it existed as a club for actors of this theater.
Evenings of the Bat (first parody of the play blue bird took place on February 29, 1908 in the basement of Pertsov’s house on Prechistenskaya embankment) were in the nature of improvisation and were designed for artistic and artistic bohemia. They consisted of comic performances by K.S. Stanislavsky, O.L. Knipper-Chekhova, V.I. Kachalov, A.G. Koonen, and parodies of theater performances. The bat, a creature that neither birds nor animals recognize as their own, depicted on the theater curtain, also served as an ironic reference to the seagull, the symbol of the Art Theater.
After the mysterious death of Tarasov in 1910, who was the soul and sponsor of the evenings, Baliev was forced to make performances chargeable, which affected both the composition of the audience and the repertoire (by that time, due to the flood of 1909, the theater had moved to B. Milyutinsky Lane, 14 , now Markhlevsky street). The actors' night club, having separated from the Moscow Art Theater, turned into an independent repertory theater aimed at an educated, wealthy audience. His new status finally took shape in 1912, when N.F. Baliev, remaining an entertainer, served as both director and artistic director of the theater.
The 1910s were a time of “cabinet epidemic” in the theatrical life of Russia. Following "The Bat" B.K. Pronin’s cabarets “Lukomorye”, “Comedians’ Halt” and “Stray Dog”, V. Meyerhold’s “House of Sideshows” open in St. Petersburg. The emergence of cabaret became a phenomenon in the art of theater of the Silver Age, brought to life by the interest in parody and stylization experienced by the symbolists and artists from the circle of the World of Art magazine. "Bat" became the first sign. Stylized miniatures, a genre of animated paintings, enjoyed success: Vyatka toys,Women F.A.Malyavina,Japanese fan,Chinese porcelain; melodic recitation (poems by P. Beranger), staged romances ( Don't tempt,How beautiful, how fresh the roses were), buffoonery ( Scandal with Napoleon). The actors of the Art Theater still willingly performed in cabaret. Baliev used the genre of amateur evenings: dances, jokes, puns, charades, songs. The audience was also attracted by Baliev’s witty compere, who based his performances on a “scandal”, a clash of polar opinions. His sketches, reprises, parodies, and witty announcements of numbers were the “highlight” of the evenings. The authors of the texts were: A.Z. Serpoletti, L.G. Munshtein (editor of the magazine “Ramp and Life”), T.L. Shchepkina-Kupernik, N.A. Teffi with her daughter, poetess E. Buchinskaya, A.N. Tolstoy, I.G. Erenburg. Being a theater of high taste, cabaret easily captured artistic fashion and made discoveries of great art accessible to the public.
A type of synthetic actor was formed in the theater: reader, dancer, singer, improviser. The troupe consists of: V.A. Podgorny, Ya.M. Volkov, V.Ya. Khenkin, Ya.D. Yuzhny, K.E. Gibshman, T.Kh. Heinz, E.A. Khovanskaya and others. Directed by V.V. Luzhsky, I.M. Moskvin, E.B. Vakhtangov, Baliev himself.
Since 1914, the theater, without changing its name, has become closer in type to the theater of miniatures. From elegant, highly artistic trifles, the theater moved on to staging stage miniatures based on classical operetta and vaudeville ( Six brides and no grooms F. Suppe, Wedding by lanterns J. Offenbach), to dramatizations of classic works: Queen of Spades And Bakhchisarai fountain A.S. Pushkin, Tambov treasurer M.Yu. Lermontova, Nose,Overcoat,Stroller,Mirgorod N.V. Gogol, Complaint book,Chameleon A.P. Chekhov, (director A.A. Arkhangelsky).
In 1915, the theater moved to the basement of the new apartment building of E. Nirnzee at B. Gnezdnikovsky Lane, 10. This was its third address (now the premises of the RATI Educational Theater). The foyer and curtain of the theater were painted by S. Sudeikin (later, in exile, he continued to collaborate with the theater along with M. Dobuzhinsky, N. Annenkov, whose wife, ballerina E. Galpern, was an actress of “Die Fledermaus”). Here the voice of V. Barsova sounded for the first time, R. Zelenaya and I. Ilyinsky appeared, the Satirical Chapel performed under the direction of I. V. Moskvin, and V. I. Kachalov read poetry.
In February 1917, reviews of political events began Pages of Russian history, grotesque At 12 o'clock at night. Operettas by J. Offenbach Beautiful Elena And Orpheus in Hell were the last productions of the theater under Baliev (1918). The elegant, but inconsonant with the revolution, cabaret aesthetics did not fit well with the new times.
In 1919, Baliev, wary of the revolution, took the troupe on tour to Kyiv, then returned, but in 1920 he and part of the troupe went into exile, to Paris, then to New York, where he revived the theater.
In Russia, the rest of the troupe continued to work under the leadership of director K. Kareev. Without Baliev's leadership and compereance, it was a different theater, although the repertoire did not change. Attempts to revive the former glory of the theater were the invitation of directors A. Arkhangelsky, N. Evreinov, V. Mchedelov (the latter staged the play by A. Remizov Tsar Maximilian, season 19211922). The performance was a success for the theater against the backdrop of a number of boring evenings and a half-filled auditorium. The remaining part of the troupe in Moscow was jokingly called the “candied mouse.” In 1922, for non-payment of rent for the premises, the theater left the Nirnzee house forever, where its place was taken by the Crooked Jimmy cabaret (the future Moscow Satire Theater). Part of the “Bat” troupe joined this group. And although the genre of the new theater was related to Baliev’s theater, its style was sharper, rougher, more primitive than the subtle, lyrical, filigree manner of “The Bat,” the brainchild of the Moscow Art Theater.
In 1989-2001 G. Gurvich revived the miniature theater under the legendary name on the stage of the Film Actor Studio (the authors of the idea were M. Zakharov and G. Gorin).
Elena Yaroshevich
