In Moscow, young directors read Gogol

Overcoat, are you a woman?

Theater named after Gogol held a laboratory of director’s sketches based on the works of the classic, timed to coincide with his 215th anniversary. For two days, experts and the public watched how young directors interpreted “Petersburg Tales” today. There was no disappointment – only surprise, and there was no limit to it.

Screenings take place in the Small Hall on the second floor. The theater’s artistic director Anton Yakovlev, addressing the public, explains that the main idea of ​​the laboratory is to continue the tradition of cooperation between the theater and GITIS, whose graduates, by the way, have always worked here. But for the first time, the Gnesin College entered the laboratory company.

“The laboratory is also a competition,” says Anton Yakovlev. — The winner gets a chance to be staged in our theater. So here we go.

The first evening was opened by an opera – a 50-minute sketch based on the opera “The Overcoat” by the Soviet composer Kholminov, written back in the 70s. Director Vladimir Bilyk (workshop of Titel and Yasulovich) presented his “The Overcoat” as a tragedy not so much of a little man as of an artist through whom the revolution rolled through. The sketch used the stylistics of different genres, the most successful of which turned out to be cabaret. The performer of the main role, Roman Terentyev, performed remarkably well: he not only coped with the complex score, but also showed himself to be a promising actor. Experts also noted the work of accompanist Evgeny Klyuchnikov, who accompanied the action.

A radical reading awaited us in Notes of a Madman. Director Lev Severukhin (workshop of Krymov and Kamenkovich) transferred the heroes of Gogol’s story to a modern office. But it was not in this location, which had already become a theatrical cliche, that there was surprise. The director quite harshly instilled in the main character, Poprishchina, a disease better known as cerebral palsy. Such physiology on stage cannot but shock, but after a few minutes the audience did not pay attention to the impairment of the hero’s motor functions (imitation, of course) – this is how Evgeniy Putsylo accurately led his Poprishchin through the indifference and heartlessness of the world. The thirty-minute sketch was done with humor, but the expression “it’s a sin to laugh at sick people” was completely inappropriate here.

But no one was going to laugh: such an image of Poprishchin only intensified the contrast between a man of fine mental organization and his environment. From the office the action moved to Poprishchin’s house, where his mother was a hilarious fan of the Turkish TV series. All the young artists did an excellent job with this interpretation.

The second day turned out to be purely female: two GITIS graduates – Gulnaz Minkina (Galibin’s workshop) and Arina Bessergeneva (Konchalovsky’s workshop) showed their versions of “Portrait” and again “Overcoat”. Gulnaz followed the traditional path, visually enhancing the mystical line of Gogol’s story. In any case, when the artist Chartkov began his story about the portrait he acquired for the occasion, black doors swung open above the stage and a living picture appeared in the opening – red, a small group in black, at the head of which was a slender gentleman in a black frock coat, a black top hat and with a black face. He opened a black suitcase, from which money poured out, but not black. Apparently, the director learned the master’s lessons well, especially when it comes to working with actors: all the roles were done, even small ones could hardly be called passable.

The laboratory was completed by a sketch by Arina Bessergeneva based on the story “The Overcoat,” and it was a completely different “Overcoat” than the one presented on the first day. It started quite harshly, and again in the office, but ended unexpectedly in a romantic way. The director based the first part of her work on a rigid rhythm, which was beaten by the employees of the office where Akaki Akakievich served. He continued at the tailor Petrovich’s, but already playing the melodica. But Arina saved the main surprise for the finale – the desired overcoat came out to meet the unfortunate Akaki Akakievich, like a model on the catwalk, but without a head. From under the overcoat only women’s legs, untouched by the sun, were visible. She was illuminated, snow was flying towards her from the wings. The meeting was so romantic and touching that the audience applauded actors Mark Vdovin and Margarita Kron.

Discussion of the results of the laboratory took very little time, and the jury, consisting of the dean of the directing department of GITIS, director Ekaterina Granitova, director and teacher Alexander Koruchekov, composer, head of the department of “Musical sound engineering” of the Gnessin College Andrei Zubets, observer of “MK” and chairman Anton Yakovlev, unanimously agreed that the radicalism of the forms chosen by the young directors does not contradict the spirit of Nikolai Vasilyevich’s works. And they decided that the winner was not one, but two sketches – Lev Severukhin (“Notes of a Madman”) and Arina Bessergeneva (“The Overcoat”). And it automatically means that these two works will grow into full-fledged performances that will be included in the repertoire of the Theater. Gogol.