Khabensky and Agureeva directed performances about the war

Polina Agureeva in a black non-evening dress goes to the microphone on the stage of the Theater. Gogol, where The Living and the Dead are about to play, and reports that Nikolai Chindyaikin, who plays the role of Major General Kuzmich, will not be at the pre-premiere screening: the actor has a high fever, and therefore he will have to skip his scenes, make stops. The voice of the director of the performance is somehow not strong, childish, although the theme that the actress took up is tough. Does war not have a feminine face? Let’s see.

Meanwhile, the musicians take their places on the steps of two stairs that rise from the proscenium to the backdrop and, in fact, are the scenery. Moreover, violinists and cellists wear not evening, but military uniforms: simple tunics, earflaps. Yuri Bashmet himself is in an overcoat thrown over his shoulders. From the hall you can not see the stars on shoulder straps, but in status no less than a general. Music and lyrics by General Serpilin (Ilya Shakunov).

– … Stalingrad is ahead. There are 25 German divisions in an ice trap. They sit and wait… And what can they expect in the environment? Our assault? Miracle? Doom? Yes, all together. What are they doing there on New Year’s Eve in their icy holes? What do they feel, what do they hope for?

The theater of war will take over the passageway, the place next to the musicians. The scenic composition of the novel reflects both the literally documentary course of events preceding the Battle of Stalingrad itself, accurately described by Konstantin Simonov, their participant, and the relationship between the heroes of the novel – ordinary and senior staff.

One scene follows another – they are built in a military way so clearly that it’s hard to believe that a woman did it. Yes, a young, talented actress, trying her hand at directing for the first time. Especially on such difficult material. Nevertheless, Agureeva picked up, probably, the only true key to it – a realistic one, giving an idea of ​​\u200b\u200bwhat happened in this terrible cauldron in the winter of 1943. And he, in turn, surprisingly allowed to draw a parallel of those events with what is happening at the present time. And this is perhaps the most important thing.

The stage war without shots and explosions, practically without stopping, is accompanied by music. Its seeming monotony reflects both the winter landscape, scorched and blackened by the war, and the lamentation for the dead, for the victims in vain … The lamentation of the violins (there are twelve of them) is supported by the thick sound of four cellos. Valery Voronov’s music is both a background and an integral dramatic element of the production.

An ugly, inhuman portrait of the war is gradually taking shape, about which General Serpilin says:

– War is not sugar, people die every day … I felt a sense of community with everyone. Feelings of guilt and shame. Pain and fury for something that doesn’t work out … Who knows, maybe this is the feeling of the Motherland. A living human body… There are no irreplaceable ones, right? But there are no replacements either.

And although in an hour of forty stage action one can get an idea of ​​​​how it was near Stalingrad (which division connected with which, what heights were taken, what orders were given), the themes of repressions, mistakes of military leaders and their ambitions that ruined our soldiers are marked in the narration with noticeable strokes. There is a lyrical theme – in the person of the military doctor Ovsyannikova (Varvara Nasonova) and the battalion commander Sintsov (Fyodor Malyshev). I must say that the project brings together artists from different theaters and film actors, but they work as one team, which rarely happens on projects that do not have a repertoire. Ilya Shakunov (Major General Serpilin), Alexei Vertkov (Army Commander Batyuk), Yuri Belyaev (Lieutenant General Roslyakov) also did a wonderful job. Ivan Dobronravov, the successor of the theatrical dynasty, perhaps for the first time I saw in the bright characteristic role of political officer Levashov.

During the war, Konstantin Simonov wrote: “The war remained a tragedy until the last day. We had to pay the most expensive price imaginable for victory and for every step of that victory.” After the performance, you ask yourself the question: “What price does humanity pay for the wars of the 21st century? ..”

Otherwise, they approached the topic of the Battle of Stalingrad in the Moscow Art Theater. Chekhov. Here, Konstantin Khabensky took as a basis fragments from the story “In the trenches of Stalingrad” by Viktor Nekrasov, who himself was there, saw everything with his own eyes, experienced everything. The most paradoxical thing is that not fragmentarily, but fully, Nekrasov’s story was staged there at the Moscow Art Theater by ex-artistic director Sergei Zhenovach on the main stage of the theater. And by the date of the Battle of Stalingrad, it came in handy, but a season ago this serious performance was removed from the repertoire. It was replaced by the stage composition “Stalingrad-Volgograd”.

Konstantin Khabensky begins his version, which is both more modest and quieter, precisely from Volgograd, more precisely, a color image of a modern city on the screen, which is accompanied by a peppy voice of the guide: “Volgograd is spread in a narrow strip along the Volga River, according to various sources – for 80-90 kilometers , thus being the second longest city in Russia. Let’s start the inspection from the place where many visitors begin to inspect it – from the Volgograd-1 railway station … “

During the introductory film tour of the sights of the city, artists in modern clothes will come out on the Small Stage in turn and sit on the benches in front of the screen, as if they had come to the cinema. Despite modern costumes and “local” facial expressions, it turns out that they will appear as characters from the past – as if from the trenches of Stalingrad. True, the characters are more in the text than in the existence in the images.

From all the literary material, the director left the personal characteristics of the characters, thus emphasizing the importance of not only the event, but the human factor, slightly indicating the relationship within the trench. “And all people are different, and everyone lived somehow in his own way, everyone had their own interests. Someone built houses, someone performed on stage, igniting hearts with a verb. But it happened: we all gathered in this dugout, strangers, strangers, our homes are somewhere far away … ”- says the character of Artem Volobuev.

So, in alternating the cognitive part of the composition with the historical one, an hour flies, the actors approach the finale with Tchaikovsky’s music and a New Year’s toast: “I want to drink for that,” says the artist Volobuev, “so that everyone celebrates the first New Year after the war at home with his with his family, with his friends, and may he come soon.” Today, this generally traditional wish takes on special significance.