Poetry evening “House of Poems” by Evgeny Knyazev in the Shilov Gallery

Poetry evening “House of poems”

The house was built from poems …

It has clean glass windows, –

There are shadows of the clouds,

What a storm in the sky swept.

Leading actor of the Vakhtangov Theatre, rector of the Shchukin Theater Institute, People’s Artist of Russia Yevgeny Knyazev in the program “House of Poetry”, which he presented at the gallery of the People’s Artist of the USSR Alexander Shilov, read Mayakovsky, Aseev, Samoilov, Tsvetaeva, Smelyakov, Svetlov, Yevtushenko and Voznesensky.

“Poetry is a special thing. Poetry is like music, it is the highest manifestation of the human soul. When a person begins to speak in verse, it means that his soul is not meager. Therefore, when you come into contact with great poets, it enriches you. And quite simply poetry came to me when, as a child, I liked the theater very much, and I didn’t know what to do in order to come to this theater, I, being, probably, a schoolboy of the seventh grade or eighth grade, I began to look. I didn’t know where to go, what circles to enroll in, and there was a circle of “Artistic Word” – I signed up there. And there I began to encounter, to learn poetry, to teach it. It was very much for me… I liked it very much,” says the Maestro himself about how he “came” into poetry or how poetry “entered” him.

Evgeny Knyazev invited guests to the House, which he skillfully “built” from the works of the best poets of the 20th century. The brilliant play of the actor, which fills each poem, made it possible to make a fascinating journey through the past century. The actor filled every poem, every line with a brilliant game. With the help of light touches and hints, he created unmistakable images. The audience experienced unforgettable emotions from every line they read.

The unique manner of reading poetry in the best traditions of the Vakhtangov school gave real pleasure to lovers of Russian poetry, of whom a full house gathered in the temple of art, with a huge number of incredibly talented paintings.

And at the end of the evening, the audience’s favorite invited to the microphone those who had something to say, or rather, to read. There were three heroes (a woman and two men) who took over the poetic “baton” from Evgeny Knyazev. The hall exploded with applause not only after the recitation of the people’s artist, but also after the reading of the “volunteers”.

The emotional drawing and the enchanting image of the poetic evening were crowned by the realistic fine art of the halls of the art gallery.

Svetlana Yurieva.

Photo by Vladimir Golikov