Chekhov’s last play was played in the Fomenko Workshop

Director Ivan Popovski, a Macedonian by origin, who graduated from our GITIS, has been working in the Fomenko Workshop for thirty years now. Here, his performances of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Molly Sweeney, Alice Through the Looking-Glass, Poisoned Tunic are successfully staged, in which the director has always relied on spectacular visuals. But this time…

The Cherry Orchard is his first appeal to Chekhov, and it seems that for the first time Popovsky betrayed himself: everything visible, designed to amaze the imagination, was rejected by him. Although when Firs, who first appeared on the wall as a shadow, and then as his own shuffling person, pulls the cream-colored curtain, a large Fomenkov stage will open. On both sides it is also hung with a curtain, downright radiant snow-white, as in Pushkin’s verse “Frost and sun, a wonderful day.” Everything that happens next will be placed on the left, closer to the portal, on a small furca.

And on it, three large pieces of furniture (a wardrobe, a smaller wardrobe, a sofa) and small ones (a mirror, a chest of drawers, a table in front of the sofa) stand close to each other – so the master’s house is ready, where the hostess returns from far abroad. Paris, Menton, you understand… Arrival from the railway station of Lyubov Andreevna Ranevskaya with her youngest daughter, servant, and also a foreign citizen without a real passport, and met by her brother, landowner, clerk, merchant, maid, furnished with theatrical chic, however, adjusted for province. To do this, the director, together with the artist Nina Bachun, used all the side and far doors, the passage that separates the stalls from the amphitheater.

The procession of returning to the father’s house is noisy, which practically does not subside throughout the first act. But “noisy” in Popovsky’s language does not mean chaotic and even more annoying. On the contrary, the polyphony of both the general release and the scenes that follow it is painted, as if by notes in a good orchestra. “Instruments” pick up each other in different voices, which is why the first act, going without musical accompaniment, seems very musical, where the tempo, rhythm, and pauses are good – everyone remembers the past. What could be wrong with the past? In the second act, the famous Jewish orchestra will naturally sound, but the overall sound, responding to the content of the play, will become dramatic. But for now…

Ranevskaya, performed by Galina Tyunina, a little exalted, a little nervous, a little playing, but happy with her return, leans against the mahogany cabinet with the words: “My dear closet …” However, after her brother’s monologue, addressed to the “respected closet” with a hundred-year-old biography . This place in the numerous Cherry Orchards looks more fake than funny, as the author intended when he wrote the play. And for artists (even eminent ones) who pronounce such a text, it is always a little embarrassing. But in this case, the outpouring of feelings in front of the old furniture looks so organic that you even get lost – to laugh or be touched by the sincere sentiment and naivety of these people from the century before last.

With Popovski, oddly enough, Chekhov’s people seem to have come out of our time. Like the timeless text of the classic: each of the characters in the 21st century has an analogue: the liberal loafer and talker Petya Trofimov (Fyodor Malyshev), who confused the head of the lovely, clean Anya (Alexandra Keselman). Lopakhin (Denis Avramov), who has become rich, but by his own work, looks like a peasant, but has a concept of nobility. External signs have changed (dresses, words and occupation), but the essence remains the same primordially Russian, no matter where these people return from and wherever they leave.

The production, which is absolutely traditional in form, captivates not only with its relevance, the everydayness of relations, but above all with the existence of the actors on the stage, their interaction, which resulted in a brilliant ensemble without passing characters. Everyone corresponds to their place on the social ladder: Dunyasha’s (Maria Gerashchenko’s) intonation is precisely that of a maid, and not a young lady from the past, Simeonov-Pishchik (Oleg Niryan) is fat, ridiculous, fussy, but cozy, like a teddy bear from childhood. By the way, the theme of childhood in the performance is emphasized by props: dolls (similar to Ranevskaya and daughters), horses, a wicker cradle in the finale.

Lackey Yasha (Alexander Michkov) with such dignity wears a black blotch on one eye, as if he lost his eye at least in the Battle of Waterloo, and not in a drunken fight somewhere near Paris. Hence the image. Epikhodov, performed by Ivan Ryabenko, in his actions, and not, as often happens, only in words, literally corresponds to his nickname “twenty-two misfortunes.” Few people manage to be truly funny in this role, but Ryabenko, who, by the way, studied in the director’s group, did it one hundred percent. I’m not talking about the 87-year-old Firs: Kirill Pirogov without any special age make-up (only gray hair) is generally a separate substance that exists in its own parallel world with the coat of the master under his care.

And the master – Leonid Andreevich Gaev (Rustem Yuskaev) – is good as an age-old enfant and almost terrible, whom you sympathize with despite the fact that he ate his entire fortune on candies. In “The Cherry Orchard” -2023, the actors are in many ways co-authors of the director – that’s why, I think, this is the result.

Thanks to its inner melody, the grand-rond, which began in the first act, flies right down the aisle from the hall into the second to the stage. Here the director expands the space and gives Chekhov’s heroes a large part of the scene. Everyone here has their own part to the Jewish orchestra – a duet or solo. Anya and Varya are waltzing, Dunyasha is spinning with a pen in her hand. The eternal student sat down at the piano and tries to play something.

Ranevskaya, after the tour with him, already in the foreground kindly scolds him: “… You don’t even have a mistress.” Galina Tyunina, who has not appeared in the lead roles for a long time, now has the beautiful Ranevskaya. Her game can be measured in millimeters, which, in turn, consist of the finest emotions, their shades and even nuances. And the transition between them is completely invisible. You can’t take your eyes off this Ranevskaya.

The characters in the background and in motion, now organized, now stopped, look like flat shadow theater figures against the background of a snow-white, illuminated from the inside curtain made of the thinnest cellophane. Simple means create an atmosphere of expectation of the result of the auction, tension in the air. Sadly. The fate of the cherry orchard is sealed. And if he is the whole of Russia, then what is it like?

And yet, Popovsky could not deny himself the visualization of the finale: the snow-white curtain, swollen with a sail, will somehow tear into ribbons without visible help and will ominously flutter. And the piano, hovering in the air… Oh no! This must be seen.