Alexander Oleshko spoke about the injury that immobilized him

It all started at the end of March, when at one of the last runs of “Paul I” the actor stumbled and twisted his leg. “Just think,” someone will say, “it’s a common thing to twist your leg.” Here the first aid (everyone knows this) is to apply cold, then smear the sore spot with ointment and after a couple of days you can run. In the same way, on that cold March day, Oleshko thought in the costume of the Russian emperor and finished the play on his nerves.

By the way, his performance in this role was a complete surprise for many: outwardly, the darling TV presenter was unrecognizable, but most importantly, an inner transformation happened. Hounded, with complexes stretching from childhood, God’s anointed one stood in front of the audience.

The audience appreciated such a new Oleshko, and he himself understood that the role was a milestone for him. This is not Mademoiselle Nitouche, where for many years he sings and dances as a music teacher in a convent and a composer in a theater at the same time (by the way, a comic role is not the easiest).

It would seem that victory, you can reap the laurels! But the further time passed, the more anxiety the artist began to deliver the usual dislocation of the limb. Here’s the annoyance – he began to limp, move more slowly, but he usually doesn’t walk – he flies around Moscow: Vakhtangovsky – Satire – a TV set in Ostankino or on the Pit. I even had to take a stick, because at the performance Pavel is constantly on the move.

– I had to play the next five performances, limping, – Oleshko recalls. – I even heard one of the spectators say: “But we didn’t know that Pavel was limping.”

He limped in another theater – in Satire, in a different role in the play “Where are we? ..”, in which he played along with Alexander Shirvindt, Fedor Dobronravov, Yuri Nifontov. The performance is far from a premiere, but a box office one, which means it is irreplaceable. And the leg, despite all kinds of rubbing, pulling with an elastic bandage, did not pass.

When in mid-April Sasha came to our editorial office to record an interview for the Theater Wednesday program, he was already limping heavily, lay on the editorial couch, rested and limped into the studio. He did not know then that in a few days the doctors would give him a disappointing diagnosis – a rupture of the Achilles tendon. It not only tore, but as the computer examination showed, burst into tatters.

And he continued to play – four “Paul I” in Vakhtangov, in Satire – two times “Where are we? ..” Here in it, in order to move around the stage less, he gradually changed the mise-en-scene, looking for an opportunity to sit down. And he even offered to try to play in a wheelchair once (events take place not just anywhere, but in a madhouse).

Oleshko did not want to cancel the performances, because the artists try not to do this to the last. Playing with fever, sudden back pain, without a voice is the norm. Every artist, regardless of his status, has a lot of such cases in his memory.

I immediately recall the young Sovremennik, who, back in 1964, was rehearsing An Ordinary Story based on Ivan Goncharov. There was evidence of one of the rehearsals.

“It was almost night when the director of the play, Galina Volchek, asked the main character, Oleg Tabakov, to go through one more scene. He readily agreed, although he felt that he could hardly stand on his feet from fatigue. Suddenly there was a dull ache in my heart. Tabakov stopped, took a breath, thought that he would pass. Turned around to say another line and collapsed to the floor.

The diagnosis of doctors is a heart attack due to the complete exhaustion of the body. But Tabakov was only 29. Everyone, including himself, was sure that he would not rise.

As Oleg Pavlovich later said, they came to say goodbye to him, and he asked his close friends: “Is this really all, the end of life?” And already lying in a hospital bed, he thought about the fact that now his role in the “Ordinary Story” – Sashenka Adueva – will be played by another artist.

But Galina Volchek did not agree to persuasion to introduce another artist instead of Oleg and began to wait for Tabakov’s return. “It was insanely important, because the role of Aduev for him was a certain stage in his work,” Anton Tabakov’s son later said.

So you can understand Sasha Oleshko: after all, two performances for him are not just regular appearances on the stage.

– For me, these are fateful crossroads! I organized these performances myself. For a breakthrough, For development. In order to confirm their right to be a theater actor.

But the performances still had to be canceled for him. Surgery, general anesthesia, ten stitches in the leg. After the operation, there were constant painkillers, the leg hurt mercilessly, reacted to changes in the weather, to which the doctors said: “Legs are our barometer” and added: “Thank God, everything was done on time, because everything would have been much worse.”

Instead of being at this time with Vakhtangovskiy in Vladikavkaz at the opening of the Vakhtangov family home, which the theater has been restoring for almost three years, Oleshko has dressings every day, walks on crutches, communicates with doctors. The operating surgeon enlightened me: the Achilles tendon can actually withstand three tons. This means that in his case, the nervous tension and physical fatigue were colossal.

The artist moved around the ward on a walker, went for a walk in a wheelchair. In the 20th of May, the Vakhtangov patient had a splint changed, and they began to straighten and develop his leg. Started daily exercise:

“The doctors recommended that I exercise at least once a day, and I do the exercises three times,” continues Oleshko. – Through “I can’t” I try to develop muscles – sitting, lying, in any position. I also go to physiotherapy, to the magnet.

It is very scary to take the first steps, but there is an opportunity to understand, to remember that at the very beginning of life this already happened. I take it as an update. Doctors say that after such an injury, people recover from six months to a year, and that they have not seen such a craving for life and discipline as Oleshko has for a long time.

– Sasha, physical injuries, as well as moral ones, are a test. What is your main conclusion?

– The main conclusion – in any case, do not succumb to a decadent mood. Believe that you will definitely get up!

When a person who has practically no days off is told that he will be on crutches for at least two months, at first he panics, and then before his eyes there are performances and concerts in which you dance, run, jump … ..

I have never let the theater down. There is no feat in this, almost all artists play at the moment when they fall ill. I do not think that this is correct, but, nevertheless, it does not happen differently with us. I want to be a long distance runner!