“Eugene Onegin” was played in a building that miraculously survived

The Vakhtangov Theater gave a tour in Minsk

The Evgeny Vakhtangov Theater has opened a tour in Minsk, where it is showing its hit “Eugene Onegin”. The Republic of Belarus does not play to the abolition of Russian culture – there are enough guest performers from Russia to suit every taste, but the capital’s academic theater is unrivaled these days, despite the high ticket prices set by the distributor.

While Moscow is buried in snowdrifts, in the capital of Belarus it is unusual to see clean streets, as if washed with powder. You can already feel the approach of spring here. Moscow artists play in the Central House of Officers, located in the government quarter in the very center of the city. This dark gray stone building, unique in its monumentality and history, deserves a separate story. Construction of the Red Army House, later renamed the District Officers’ House, began in 1934 and lasted five years. Eight floors up and six down, a total of 22 thousand square meters. An underground passage four kilometers long leads from the building to the opposite side of the Svisloch River. During the war, when Minsk was under occupation, the Germans used the building as an entertainment club for soldiers and officers: it operated as a cinema, casino and brothel. And when leaving the city in 1944, the occupiers planted a bomb in it, calculating that the force of the explosion would wipe it off the face of the earth, but… Something went wrong, and for some reason the explosive mechanism did not work – so the House of Officers was almost the only one that survived in completely destroyed Minsk.

It took Soviet sappers three months to find and neutralize the deadly shell. And the miraculously surviving building began a new life. Today it houses: in one wing – the Belarusian Army Theater, an academic song and dance ensemble, a Library, an administration, and in the other wing – a large swimming pool, which, by the way, was the first in the city. The theater hall with 850 seats with perfect acoustics is a special pride of the House of Officers. The best theaters in the capital and St. Petersburg, including the Vakhtangov Theater, worked here during Soviet times.

“After graduating from college, my first tour was in Minsk, and here we played “Old Russian Vaudevilles,” recalls Sergei Makovetsky. Now he plays the aged Onegin – the counterpart of the young Onegin, whose role is played by Viktor Dobronravov. In the role of Tatyana Larina – Ekaterina Kramzina. By the way, 15 years ago, near Minsk, at the Belarusfilm natural resource base, Sergei Vasilyevich Kamenka starred in the film “Pop” by Vladimir Khotinenko.

In “Eugene Onegin”, like no other, artists of all generations are involved – from Lyudmila Maksakova, who practically never leaves the stage, Yuri Shlykov, Elena Sotnikova, Lyubov Korneva, Irina Kupchenko, Elena Melnikova, Yuri Krasko to young people who have clearly shown themselves in other works (Maria Shastina, Nikolai Romanovsky, Anna Antonova, Alexandra Streltsina, Polina Kuzminskaya, Valery Ushakov, Nikolai Romanovsky, Alexander Galochkin), just accepted into the troupe (Daniila Gnido and Vitaly Ivanov). The performance by Rimas Tuminas, released in 2012, which many also call a ballet – it is so poetic, musical and visually beautiful – is one of the most popular on tour. The route of “Onegin” is scheduled until the end of the season – Yoshkar-Ola, Izhevsk and further – China, where the play already toured in pre-pandemic times. And the audience there is not simple – they like to look at the stage, holding in their hands not the program, but the original text. This is how music lovers go to symphony concerts with the score.

It remains to add that while “Eugene Onegin” is being received in Minsk, at the same time in Cyprus in Limassol they are receiving another Vakhtangov hit – “Promise at Dawn” with Anna Dubrovsky and Grigory Antipenko, and all six stages continue to operate in Moscow.