Polina Agureeva staged an unusual play about Russian reality

At first and throughout the entire performance, thoughts come to mind that are not directly related either to the writer Leskov, whom contemporaries called, not without gloating, the most Russian, or to his “Soboryans,” representing various types of Russian people.

First thought: the actress, who usually plays gentle, capricious young ladies, takes on material with the help of which she tries to comprehend and comprehend the sometimes incomprehensible – what kind of people are we and why are we walking along a sad road, stumbling over the comic? It’s as if Polina is not an actress at all, but a public figure or philologist, and even more so, a philosopher. Isn’t it really strange that she, and not radical or self-respecting innovators, are taking on such a difficult, timeless topic? To look at Agureeva is like being blown away by the wind: she is so thin and small. But, as you know, a Russian woman (even if she is an actress) is strong not only in body, but also in spirit.

Here is the Russian woman Agureeva on stage building her Russian world, calling for help Nikolai Leskov, who, judging by his works, is tormented by the same questions. Probably because he was very conscientious. And so Agureeva, with the help of decorative elements, makes the stage look like a sea, and the waves are made of wooden panels that meet each other not smoothly, but at an angle (artist Maria Mitrofanova). “Waves” rise from the tablet to different levels higher and higher, where the chamber string composition of the respected maestro Bashmet is already at the height. Under his direction, violins, violas, cellos live one life with the stage, sometimes echoing what is happening on it, sometimes being in dissonance with him, arguing cruelly, to the point of screaming… The sound element for “Soboryan” was written by Valery Voronov, with whom the director has worked not for the first time once.

The plot of “Soboryan” is not in trend for our time – we are talking about two priests – Savely Tuberozov, Zakhary Benifaktov and deacon Achille Desnitsyn, living in the fictional city of Stargorod. Saveliy firmly believes in the ideals of Orthodoxy, which is why he is in conflict with the church authorities and local authorities, who demand that he eradicate the schism in favor of official Orthodoxy. In addition, representatives of the authorities, cynical and indifferent, in the person of the governor and the police chief, hope that the archpriest will snitch on the politically unreliable. After all, Russia “is governed by the mercy of God and the stupidity of the people.” Against Father Saveliy is the local schoolteacher Varnava Prepotensky, who denies everything because he is a nihilist and revolutionary, and with him for company is the political provocateur Termosesov. What tricky surnames Leskov gave to his characters – you’ll get lost among them. In general, the plot is not particularly relevant to today – where are these schismatics, what kind of Orthodoxy? But this is only at first glance.

But the further you go, the more the plot details written by Leskov become not so important as what follows from it. And the only pattern that emerges is that Russian society has lived unchanged for centuries, and today is no exception. The righteous and revolutionaries firmly believe in the need for revolutionary changes, while others cynically use this faith. Denunciation is like a tool, and it doesn’t matter with what it is concocted – pen and paper, a gadget or social networks with continuous nicknames. Everything that Leskov’s characters say seems to be from today.

“In our country, the need for an enlightened person is attributed to unbelief, mockery of the homeland, neglect of the sacredness of family ties, promiscuity, and our allegorical beauty, external civilization, was simply inherited by us…” Or: “The Poles, therefore, have enemies—all enemies of Poland’s independence, and your enemies are all Russian patriots.” The heroes discuss what will ultimately destroy Russia and what warms up better – faith or vodka?

Thought two: how changeable time and the essence of place are. It would seem that just recently in the progressive Gogol Center they were playing more and more with vices, elevated for some reason to the rank of social and personal problems, and now here, but already in the Gogol Theater (the theater’s former name returned), they are arguing about holiness, answer the most serious questions that people today are concerned about no less than their daily bread.

Agureeva places her characters at different vertical levels, forcing them to dive and hide in frozen “waves.” And such simplicity of the mise-en-scène does not distract from the text, which, judging by the silence in the hall, they listen to attentively, as if they are not breathing. And when they hear: “We are praised for one thing – that there are many of us: we will not soon eat each other” or “Russia is governed by the grace of God and the stupidity of the people,” they think for a minute, then applaud. And they probably think to themselves that not a single modern or fashionable playwright dissecting the Russian reality of the 21st century has written so accurately or diagnosed what is happening. Well, except that he joked about the topic with varying degrees of wit.

The director puts his philosophy into the arrangement of the figures: the director leaves the heights to the righteous – Father Savely and his wife Natalya, whose faith is strong, unlike others who doubt, be mean, are mistaken, in general, behave like people.

In “Soboryans” Polina Agureeva is also on stage as an actress, playing the role of Savely’s faithful wife. Probably, I think, it’s not easy for her, because she doesn’t have to worry about herself alone, not only think about her heroine, but look after the performance as a whole and the artists. But we must admit that she herself plays easily (her Natalya is both naive and a charmingly cunning husband’s wife), and it is clear that she worked well with the actors (some of them were already with her in the previous project “The Living and the Dead. Soldiers Are Not Born “). This is Alexey Vertkov (Deacon Achilles), Ilya Shakunov (Archpriest Savely Tuberozov), Varvara Nasonova (General Vikhiorova). The production included the brilliant Moscow Art Theater actress Natalya Egorova (landowner Plodomasova), who, alas, was not in demand at the Moscow Art Theater – her colorful performance only embellished the production. All of them together tried to get closer and bring us closer to solving the mystery of Russian life and the Russian soul.

The third thought, finally: when playing such a performance, the actors should probably have a different internal state of health.

Agureeva’s verticality in the finale sharply goes up, when a simple structure of tables and chairs of different sizes, which had not been used in any way in the performance before, was filled with people who remained in light-colored, floor-length shirts. At the very top was Savely’s deceased wife, Natalya, and below were himself, and Achilles, and Martha and Nikolasha, and Zacharias – their souls. And on the wall behind the musicians, which had a gray, inconspicuous appearance for two hours, suddenly faces appeared with light. And not even the faces of saints, but their outlines, from which one could understand that they were saints.