“Handsome man” Ostrovsky in the bar of the Pushkin Theater

It was there that the directors of the premiere performance “Handsome Man” based on the play by Alexander Ostrovsky at the Pushkin Moscow Drama Theater placed the heroes.

On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Ostrovsky, which will be celebrated in 2023, Pushkin’s people turned to the play of the Russian classic, which is not often presented to the audience.

“I wanted to choose a play, some unexpected, unused play, in which you can still discover something new. When Danil Chashchin proposed The Handsome Man, I immediately agreed to this business, ”the artistic director of the theater Yevgeny Pisarev told reporters before the premiere.

Alexander Ostrovsky wrote about inconstancy in love penetratingly, with knowledge of the matter. And director Danil Chashchin brought Ostrovsky’s heroes to the present – from a provincial town to the trendy metropolitan bar “Krasota”. And through the mirrors of this bar, the viewer perceives what is happening with the one-day moth Alphonse Apollo. With a look and just a fleeting touch, he makes women forget about phones, selfies and cocktails. Next to him, they lose the power of speech, consciousness and their money. A handsome man and a net (if you already got into it) above all …

“In my opinion, the essence of this play and our performance is best reflected by the following phrase: “A person can talk about many things with interest, but only about himself with pleasure, and he does not look at any other work of art like he does at his own photograph” , – said the director of the production, Daniil Chashchin, about the main thing.

Sometimes provocative, often ironic, at the same time bright and wise, with fine direction and unsurpassed acting, the performance “Handsome Man” goes to the audience, who will definitely not be disappointed.

“140 years have passed. But the problems are the same. This is absolutely describing modern history, how such a person is ready to betray everything for the sake of big money. That is, everything is for sale, ”says actress Vera Voronkova about them and about us.

“This is a great classic. No matter how we dress up in modern costumes and no matter how much the scene of action moves to a nightclub, Ostrovsky is still Ostrovsky, ”actor Vladimir Zherebtsov sums up the modernized Ostrovsky.

Actors Dmitry Vlaskin, Vladimir Zherebtsov, Anna Begunova, Anastasia Lebedeva, Vera Voronkova, Vladimir Mayzinger, Sergey Miller, Andrey Zavodyuk, Irina Byakova, Anastasia Panina, Sergey Kudryashov, Vladimir Ziberev are involved in the production.

Pushkin actors who embody Ostrovsky’s characters on stage take pictures of each other in stories, track the number of likes and do their best to stay young. Is it necessary?

“There is an irony here regarding real and imaginary beauty. Regarding our worship of beauty and a beautiful life, ”answers Evgeny Pisarev, artistic director of the Pushkin Theater.

Vladimir Sabadash.

Photo by Sergey Vinogradov