How Lubyansky make-up artist became a nobleman

On Myasnitskaya Street in the Saltykov-Chertkov estate, Eduard Boyakov presented the premiere of Lubyansky Make-up Artist. The poster of the Moscow New Theater says that this is “the first performance of a serf immersive theater in Russia.”

The word “first” here, of course, can only be attributed to the word “serf”. Because exotic theatrical genres, such as “immersive theatre”, “site-specific”, “environment”, “promenade”, have long been part of the capital’s theatrical use. Over the past decade, the audience has seen performances in which there are no actors at all, and performances in which there are no people on the stage. There are performances in which the audience is blindfolded, and sometimes even “put” into bed with the actress, as, for example, in the production of “Everything from my side” directed by Fernando Rubio (15-minute performance is designed for one person, and the organizers immediately warn that it is forbidden to touch the actress with hands).

There are performances that are played in the workshops of abandoned factories (an example of this is Andrey Gogun’s “Loss of Balance”, it is dedicated to the life of sailors of the Northern Sea Fleet). In a pool of water and footbridges, ten artists humorously tell the story of “one catastrophe”.

The performances of the promenade, the so-called walkers, are played quite widely, during which the audience moves along the route, and each location reveals the features of the plot. An example of a promenade is the “Canterbury Tales” by Alexander Artemov and Dmitry Yushkov, played on the territory of the Maksidom hypermarket.

And the genre of immersive theater, in which Lubyansky make-up artist is just solved, unlike just “walkers”, creates an “immersion effect”. In this case, immersion in the life of serf artists. So immersive theater is a logical result of several trends at once, both in current stage direction and in the field of urban leisure. In immersive theater, the actors can start direct interaction with the audience at any time – for example, take your hand, invite you to dance, hug, and the actress can even sit on your lap.

The first steps in the genre of Russian immersive theater were made by the unforgettable Sergei Artsibashev, who in the mid-nineties of the last century in his Theater on Pokrovka in the Three Sisters seated the audience at the laid table, regaling duck with apples. Artists there recited poetry and invited the audience to dance. And all this is within the framework of Chekhov’s text, mind you.

Later searches in the same direction were made by Maxim Didenko, who staged the first immersive musical based on Pushkin’s Dubrovsky. By the way, the production of “Black Russian”, as well as “Lubyansk make-up artist”, unfolded in the space of the old Moscow mansion of the Spiridonovs.

Well, the play, which, in fact, we are talking about, “Lubyansk make-up artist” was written by A. Zenzinov based on the works of Nikolai Leskov. The performance is directed by E. Boyakov, V. Klementyev and R. Sotiriadi. The estate of the Saltykov-Chertkovs on Myasnitskaya became the home of Count K., who kept a home serf theater. The role of the count is played by the artist Eduard Flerov (in the program, by the way, Leonid Yakubovich is also among the performers of this role).

Spectators are divided into several groups that follow different routes through the chambers of the mansion. We see a ballroom, a dining room, a bathhouse, an office, a barn with a real goat and chickens, a drying room and the theater room itself. And in each new “volume” there is some kind of action.

A rather naive love story of a young count’s make-up artist (Kirill Klimenko) and a serf actress (Daria Duzhenkova) unfolds before the audience. We learn that serf actors were flogged and even hung on a rack if the count did not like their performance. And for any offense they could simply be killed: the count was very cruel. His mercy for serf maidens did not differ much from punishment: the actresses they liked were dressed in the costume of Cecilia (by the way, a Roman martyr) and sent to the count’s chambers for comfort. Almost all the young count serfs passed through these chambers. Those with whom the count played enough were exiled to the barnyard, well, or a worse fate awaited them.

The story in the play is told from the point of view of such an elderly actress who (I won’t reveal the secrets of the plot) marries a serf Lubyanka make-up artist, and eventually becomes a countess, wife of a nobleman and mistress of a mansion (a wonderful work by Evdokia Germanova). She tells her little grandson (Nikita Kashevarov) about her life.

The story itself is more interesting in terms of the director’s idea than the acting. It is clear that the newfangled theatrical reality is part of the search and experiment that has always been inherent in the Russian theater. But the theatrical space, as you know, is a very capricious “lady”. As the great stage designer Oleg Sheintsis used to say, who created the scenery for “Juno and Avos” and “Princess Turandot”: “Today you are rude to the stage, but tomorrow it refuses to help you.”

In the play “The Lubyansky Make-up Artist” one gets the feeling that the artists of the New Theater have not yet fully “shot in” to exist in the new stage conditions and work as if they were on the huge stage of the Moscow Art Theater. But the chamber space, when the artist exists at arm’s length from the viewer, does not tolerate loud recitations, or fanciful theatrical poses, or stiffness of movements, in which it seems to the audience that the actors have nowhere to put their hands. The new performance, alas, sins with all this: we clearly read the too different professional level of those involved in the production. On a large stage, you can hide behind the scenery or a partner. There is no such possibility here, every performer is at a glance.

So if you ask if this performance will become a theatrical event, then the answer is no – I don’t think so. But if you ask if it’s worth going to it – yes, it’s definitely worth it. At least for the sake of getting to know the unique interiors of the Saltykov-Chertkov estate, which still remembers Pushkin, Gogol and Zhukovsky, who came here. Mikhail Shchepkin visited here, Stanislavsky worked in a luxurious library. And by the way, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov claimed that his grandfather was a serf at Chertkov’s.

But you will not see all these characters in the play. But you will see scenes of the formation of the Russian serf theater – a unique phenomenon that laid the foundation for the theater in the form in which we know it today.

Elena Bulova.

Photo by the author and from the website of the Moscow New Theater