Out of 700 spectators, 30 men: the actor of the Vakhtangov Theater described the tour in Lugansk

– This is my first time in Lugansk, although I have traveled all over Ukraine on tour, and several times, but for some reason I have never been to Lugansk.

— What are your general impressions?

— Difficult, contradictory. On the one hand, I expected to see more destruction, total poverty. But on the way to Luhansk, I saw several destroyed houses, we passed the famous Izvarino checkpoint, which was often mentioned in military reports. I don’t know… Maybe we went the other way, but there was little destruction. And in Luhansk itself, we saw several houses without windows, and it was clear that they were unsuitable for habitation. But on the whole, the impression is favorable, especially since the roads were repaired there over the summer, they have become very decent.

Yulia and I went to a store near the theater – in principle, everything is there, the supply is good, but the prices are Moscow. We in Moscow cope with these prices, but they, perhaps, are a little expensive. A woman was sitting at the checkout in the store, so tired, tortured, but when she looked up and recognized Yulia and me, she immediately came out from behind the checkout: “Can I hug you?” She hugged me and said: “Dear you, our beloved ones, thank you for coming, we have been waiting for you for a very long time.” And, of course, I was completely struck by the reception of the performance – there was a ringing silence.

– Forgive me for interrupting, but before you tell about the reception, tell them about the Theater itself. Pavel Luspekaev. What state is he in now?

– In decent, thank God, did not suffer. I ran a little through the foyer, through the backstage – in fair condition. We did not bring additional equipment: they have their own light, which is quite good. We left with a large brigade – eleven people.

– Theater artists play or at the front?

– Someone was called up, a theater lawyer died at the front. Performances are played three days a week – Friday, Saturday, Sunday, mostly during the daytime, because the city still has a curfew – from 11 pm to 4 am. So after the performance, people still have time to get to their homes. The front line is 120 kilometers away, rockets and shells do not reach the city, and in this sense, it has a happy fate, unlike Donetsk, where it constantly flies, and the city continues to collapse.

Is the silence in Luhansk at the performance different from the silence in Moscow? What is the difference in people’s reactions?

– We listened to the hall with a slightly different ear: maybe the presence in this city and in this hall imposed some additional thrill and the feeling that you were playing for people where you were very, very expected. They laughed, reacted vividly, but the attention was felt super-increased, and it was very captivating, worth a lot. And in the final, the hall exploded, stood up, did not let us go for a very long time, thanked us. We gave two performances – at 15.00 and at 18.00.

At the end of the second, the director of the theater and the Minister of Culture of the Luhansk region came on stage, thanked, and brought out a basket of flowers. After that, we talked some more, and the director, a very nice woman, said that now they still have nothing and even good. “Life is getting better, we live a full life, we are not afraid of anything. But it was very difficult in 1914 and 15, when fighting was going on near the city and we were being shelled.” For a long time they lived without light and water, without heat – this went on for six months, I honestly cannot even imagine such a thing.

What kind of audience came to the performance?

There were practically only women in the hall. Our director Kirill Igorevich Krok said that for 700 spectators he counted only 30 men – this is about 95% of women, and men … Someone is fighting, and someone has probably already fought back. All this causes great sadness and regret. In fact, we saw how they were waiting for us here. They are waiting for support, as they say, from the mainland, from the big country, and it is our duty to be there as often as possible.

“If you get another offer, will you go?”

– Of course. We are obliged to support them. They believed in us, they waited for eight years – when the Russian world would finally turn to them in the full sense of the word. Support, protect by force of arms, including the power of art. They felt, in a certain sense, abandoned for eight whole years. Everyone was waiting, waiting: when, when? Mother Russia extended her hand, and they are happy. Of course, today everything is very tense, not easy, especially in the Donetsk region. Yes, and in Luhansk too. But I think everything that is happening now, everything is happening right.

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 28944 dated December 30, 2022

Newspaper headline:
Andrei Ilyin: “We saw how they were waiting for us here”