Olga Mukhina: My love for Moscow was expressed in the play Yu

Olga Mukhina is considered by theater directors to be one of the most “curious and mysterious” contemporary playwrights. She broke into the literary Olympus at the beginning of the 2000s, when “darkness” flourished on the screen (and in some theaters as well). Colleagues with the enthusiasm of stalkers rushed to explore the unsightly depths of human existence, those “zones” where access had previously been closed by Soviet censorship. Gradually it became clear that the “zones” are not a territory at all, but that test, as a result of which a person can either survive or break. Whether a person would survive depended on his sense of moral dignity, his ability to distinguish between the essential and the transient. It was during these years, against the backdrop of the dominance of gloomy plots, that the clear, slightly ironic voice of a young playwright suddenly resounded, feeling the pulse of the time in his gut, catching what exactly the viewer needed at that time.

Mukhina’s plays turned out to be entirely about love. It is not surprising that Pyotr Naumovich Fomenko, Evgeny Kamenkovich, Vera Popova, Igor Konyaev, and many others became interested in her work.

Today Olga Mukhina’s play Yu is being rehearsed at the Pokrovka Theater directed by Mikhail Milkis. Our reviewer talks with playwright Olga Mukhina.

– Olga, the rehearsals of the play are entering the finish line. But when I talked to some of the artists at the very beginning, they were a little confused: the play is rich, but the main idea is hidden deep inside …

The play was written in 1995. Its premise was as follows: what if there is a war in Moscow? I then wanted to put all my love for Moscow into it. According to the plot, a war is going on nearby, and people in Moscow, as before, continue to dance. In the finale, two boys from this dancing Moscow leave to fight.

Of course, I was waiting for someone to stage it right now – such a difficult time … I was wondering who would take it. And I am very glad that it turned out to be the Pokrovka Theater. There is such a beautiful director, such beautiful actors, a beautiful renovated theater. I hope it turns out talented. I have not seen the run yet, I wonder what it will be in the end.

But why this story visited me so many years ago, I really don’t know. Evgeny Borisovich Kamenkovich says that I intuitively predicted today’s events.

What was your message to the audience in this play?

– The idea I had at that time was to tell how beautiful Moscow is. I was overwhelmed with a feeling of love for my native city – no more, no less. If my play “Tanya-Tanya” was just about love, then “Yu” is about pure love for Moscow. I didn’t put anything else into it. But according to the plot in Moscow – the war, not everything is so simple and calm. I wrote that love cannot be without conflict. I wrote this when I was very young. Now I can formulate something at my fifty, but at twenty-five I suspect I didn’t have a great mind. With a wide heart, maybe yes, but definitely not with a big mind …

— I am very impressed by people with a sense of self-irony. Mark Zakharov said that among those there are definitely no stupid people. By the way, this quality of self-irony is present not only in you, but was also “inherited” to your heroes. There is a lot of humor in “Yu” …

– I tried to make this story a comedy in the Chekhov style, it was my maximum at that time.

– Somehow you let it slip that you are an “opponent of temporary signs” in the plays. The place of action is clearly indicated in “Yu”, but it is completely incomprehensible when the events take place – in the forties, in the sixties, in the two thousandth? Is this done on purpose?

“Our teacher, playwright Yuliu Filippovich Edlis, called for writing “for the ages” so that at any time the action would take place in our day. Therefore, I try to clean up every husk in the play. Time is such a thing that it doesn’t change much in people. The main thing in us is eternal, does not depend on the time period.

– In one interview you call yourself a “plotless”. Why is that?

– It’s not me. This is what my master at the institute called me. And I promised him to find a plot. Well, I’m still looking for it.

– You have directing experience. You staged the play “Flies” in the theater. If you took on Yu as a director today, what would the performance be like?

– I wouldn’t take it. My directing experience was very difficult for me, and now I just bow to the directors. This is not an easy job, now I would not put anything. Well, maybe, if only she would work with children.

Moreover, I would not even turn to these plays of mine now. I’m excited about new topics. I direct all my energy towards them. I have a difficult life at the moment: I need to write some important scripts. Not for directing.

What topics are you excited about today?

— Divine, biblical. For example, the theme of life after death. I am finishing an unfinished project for Evgeny Borisovich Kamenkovich, who has been waiting for a long time.

In addition, I also teach: at the Institute of Culture – screenwriting (I have my own workshop), at GITIS I give a course of lectures on the work of a director with a playwright.

What would you like to teach young playwrights?

– I have a certain pedagogical theory: I would like our Russian cordiality, openness, soulfulness to be combined in them with a clear structuring characteristic of American dramaturgy. It seems to me that a new form can be found in this connection. Then our beautiful Soviet-era cinema will return, which will not be inferior to Hollywood.

What would you ask yourself if you were interviewing yourself?

“I have already asked myself everything. All my work consists of this: I ask questions myself and I answer them myself. There are no questions left. Basically answered everything.

— Is everything so clear?

— “After halfway through my earthly life, I found myself in a gloomy forest…” I am also slowly writing my Divine Comedy.

– To be in a gloomy forest is a wonderful state: it gives rise to fresh dramatic decisions. Good luck to you prime minister, Olga!

Elena Bulova.

Photo courtesy of Olga Mukhina