How Sergey Bezrukov got married in the Gubernsky

Sergei Bezrukov staged a performance at his Provincial Theater that solves one of the important issues of any troupe – how to engage older generation actors, especially women, who have few roles in classical repertoire plays, and there is nothing to say about modern ones. The artistic director of Gubernsky ordered such a play to playwright Andrei Larionov – a comedy, where all the main roles are age-related. On the one hand, there are not so many of them – only four, but each is fire. From the premiere performance “Marriage. Almost according to Gogol “- columnist” MK.

Almost according to Gogol – this is not for Bezrukov’s red words. And marriage, as an act of matchmaking, and Nikolai Vasilyevich himself is present with the plot of his play about the legible, but extremely indecisive groom Ivan Kuzmich Podkolesin. Actually, everything begins with Gogol: a long-nosed writer with a dark bob of hair from under a top hat and a lionfish frivolously waltzes with a young lady in a dress of the century before last and in a bonnet. There are red autumn leaves under my feet, behind my back there are four doors, such as are found in subway cars. In the course of the action, it turns out that these are not just shorthand elements, but symbols. What they mean for Bezrukov (and he is also the production designer) will become clear a little later.

And the dancing author of “The Inspector General” and “Dead Souls” somehow instantly turned into a doctor in a uniform characteristic of a medical worker – green cotton trousers and a shirt. It’s like a doctor, since equipment instantly appears from, please note, a dental office, and not fake, and the real thing is a chair with a drill, a lamp over the patient, a nimble, thin doctor next to him. The doctor corrects the prosthesis for the patient – his grandfather and persuades him to marry without fail. And the name of the grandfather, which is interesting, is also Ivan Kuzmich, but his last name is Kolesin.

The similarity with Gogol’s heroes does not end there – it mirrors the original plot, only in a slightly upside down form. Not like in an attraction with crooked mirrors: the biographies and even the sex of the characters have been changed for the heroes of Andrei Larionov’s play. If the widowed pensioner Ivan Kuzmich has the title of Honored Railway Worker, which is also emphasized by his last name – Kolesin, and he, like his literary counterpart, is just as indecisive in his choice, then he has no competitors for the hand and heart of Agafya Tikhonovna at all.

He himself is picky, like Agafya Tikhonovna Kuperdyagina, and three middle-aged persons fight for him as for a prince. Only the surnames with patronymics for ladies were borrowed by the author of the play from Gogol’s husbands – Yaichnitsa (Inna Pavlovna), and Zhevakina (Eleonora Baltazarovna). But Agafya Tikhonovna simply became Anna Tikhonovna. The matchmaker – Fyokla Ivanovna, on the way from the past to the present, lost her middle name, but acquired a glamorous touch and a marriage agency. Cheeky as hell, Kochkarev, who at Gogol’s courtship of Podkolesin at Larionov’s, turned into a charming doctor-grandson. Well, here’s the alignment in the Provincial.

However, those who have not read Gogol’s “Marriage” or have forgotten it as unnecessary after graduation, do not care about the subtleties of rehashing and new versions of the old plot. It is important that the story is composed intelligible, funny, comedic, sometimes touching to tears. Absolutely recognizable in the signs of today, up to the voice of Sergei Bezrukov himself, which advertises the marketing “sweets” of the next bank from the TV screen. But there is no image of the provincial authorities – the TV set is turned “back” to the audience.

I must say that the lyrical comedy is very similar to Bezrukov himself – the same impetuous, energetic, charming, explosive. Mise-en-scènes do not allow the slightest voids, and it seems that even the air in them is densely filled with action, music, dances. An open reception in everything: fitters dressed in theatrical costumes pour rain on the heads of the heroes, standing right on the stage from a hose; armfuls of red leaves, from joy or despair, the heroes rush at each other. Autumn leaves, as well as the doors of a departing train, are here a symbol of bygone youth, the sunset of life, which Sergey Vitalievich Bezrukov, not without the help of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, offers to meet kindly, and, most importantly, without losing dignity. Do not grumblingly reproach, but forgive mistakes, make the only wise decision. Especially if the housing issue that has so spoiled Muscovites pops up between close people. And not only them.

“Marriage” according to Gubernsky, despite its apparent simplicity, is complex, not in an entrepreneurial way. The speed of the action, the change of scenery that the editors carry along with the characters in their arms, is provided by a large behind-the-scenes team, which the director also puts into action. Ease of perception and from the acting: Leonid Gromov, invited to the role of a pensioner from Russian Railways Kolesin, is rather humble before fate than frightened by a possible change in fate, and only in the climactic scene, drunk on a hundred grams of vodka (it is contraindicated for him to even sniff), he will go into the lead that it will become clear how much suppressed feelings have accumulated in him both from the obvious prudence of the only grandson, which the grandfather managed to overcome, and from annoying pensioners. Well, how colorful they are: a cook, golden hands Yaichnitsa (Olga Smirnova), a therapist with a ready-made poetic quote book by Zhevakin (Elena Tsagina), and a cozy housewife, a lover of silence Kuperdyagina (Elena Mikheeva), are wonderfully represented by actresses. And grandson Kirill Novyshev is famously working – the name of this young actor, who recently entered the role of Glumov (the crown role of Sergei Bezrukov in the play “The Wise Man” – M. R.) is worth remembering.

But the finale in “The Marriage” is not only almost, but not at all according to Gogol – no one will jump out the window, but on the contrary – the family will grow with new members and everyone in it will be happy. Harmony and peace will reign, albeit for a short while, albeit not all over the world, but at least in a single provincial theater.