Forgotten poems by Oleg Efremov found in the collections of the Moscow Art Theater Museum

The evening of memory “A little silence …”

At the Moscow Art Theatre. Chekhov in honor of the 95th anniversary of the theater reformer, outstanding actor and director Oleg Yefremov, a memorial evening was held. Only the current artistic director of the theater Konstantin Khabensky, dancer Sergei Polunin, pianist Andrei Korobeinikov and … the spirit of Efremov are on stage.

Konstantin Khabensky, due to the age and geography of Efremov’s life, could not personally know. I saw once. Neither Sergei Polunin nor Andrei Korobeinikov knew him personally. But in the hall there were many people who were friends with him, who went out on the same stage. And on it that evening there were two Moscow Art Theater curtains with a seagull – the usual one, which separates the stalls from the stage, and the inner one, behind which there is a large screen. On the screen – Oleg Efremov. He says that we all lack concentration and silence. Hence the name of the jubilee performance “A little silence …”, which was staged by Oleg Nikolayevich’s student, director Nikolai Skorik. Efremov directed this theater for thirty years. He came in 1970 and worked until his death in 2000, when he was only 72 years old.

Artists, politicians, relatives gathered. Mikhail Shvydkoy, who had been friends with Efremov for many years, Alexander Kibovsky, Vladimir Urin, Sergei Garmash, Evgeny Kindinov, Vanguard Leontiev, Marina Brusnikina, Igor Vernik, Efremov’s daughter Anastasia and his granddaughter came. There was not only Mikhail Efremov, who is in prison, who is strikingly similar to his father. His absence was physically felt. He made his father’s biography tragic after his departure.

The authors of the performance extracted previously unknown materials and documents from the funds of the Moscow Art Theater Museum. Konstantin Khabensky began by reading a letter written by Oleg Efremov in 1948 from Gurzuf to his parents. Then I read his youthful poems and diaries. There were two of them – vital and creative with records about girls with whom he was briefly in love, about serving the theater. Perhaps the most surprising thing is that Efremov wrote poetry, which almost no one knew about. They were found in the museum’s funds, as was a letter from eighth grader Oleg Efremov, dated 1943, addressed to Major General Borisov. He asked to be admitted to a military special school in Kuibyshev. I wanted to be useful to my homeland in a difficult hour. Either he did not receive a response, or he did not survive. The museum also found an oath of allegiance to the theater, given in 1947 together with a classmate, future journalist and Khrushchev’s son-in-law Alexei Adzhubey. The text is a bit pretentious and naive in modern times. And he was sealed with signatures from his own blood. Efremov will tell you from the screen how it was. Mystic, but the paper stored for many years in the archive retained the color of the ink, and the blood disappeared over time. It happened after the death of the signatories.

The most touching episode is associated with the appearance on the screen of Oleg Nikolayevich’s father, no longer a young man, who tried to explain where his son’s artistry, craving for the acting profession came from. No one in the family is involved in art. That’s just the name of the great-grandmother is suggestive.

She was a joke. And surnames are always not accidental – they are directly related to the professions and skills of their carriers. Obviously, there were some clownish roots in the family.

We devoted a lot of time to the production of The Three Sisters. Efremov rehearsed in a suit and tie. Now you won’t see it. He was explaining something to Andrey Myagkov and Vyacheslav Innocent, the most interesting actor in his natural reactions. It should be so necessary – it will fulfill the will of the director without further questions. At the same time, they are on you, but no less respect. Suddenly Efremov starts dancing. This goes on for a long time and right at the rehearsal. Again, it is impossible to imagine who is capable of this today. The artist in Efremov is indestructible.

His idols were Pushkin, Chekhov, Stanislavsky. Konstantin Khabensky will tell about this. His reading from the author was periodically interrupted by musical inserts, when the passionate pianist Andrei Korobeinikov performed works by Shostakovich and Scriabin. Sergei Polunin, in ordinary trousers, not in ballet leotards, periodically danced, and it looked somehow exotic. At some point, the sound of bells rang out, and he made jumps on the stage, flew like a black bird, and sad Efremov in the make-up of Boris Godunov, who completed his acting career, looked at us from the screen. Royal vestments, and he himself is so earthy and tired. There is something touching about these shots. And then suddenly everything ended without a code and before the promised one and a half hours. There was a feeling of inadequacy. The heart did not ache, the spirit did not capture, although in the fate of Efremov there were enough grounds for this. They remembered something, told about something new in fragments. Those who did not know anything about Efremov left with that, but they saw many celebrities. For such a person, this is still not enough.

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 28883 dated October 5, 2022

Newspaper headline:
Efremov’s blood disappeared