Son gave the crown to Churikova theater

“When Inna Mikhailovna’s son Vanya Panfilov brought us these things, we ordered special display cases for them,” says theater director Kirill Krok, and shows me the display cases at the entrance to the new luxurious buffet, which you can’t even call a buffet – an old space. To the left, in a glass cube, Her Majesty’s dress and mantle froze, to the right – the crown, scepter, brooches and other jewelry. All this is so unlike the usual theatrical costume and props that they can rather be called museum exhibits. And it turned out that almost everyone has their own history and secrets. There is no need for an expert here. The main one for royal costumes and paraphernalia is the author of these theatrical masterpieces, Victoria Sevryukova.

I learn from her that the coronation dress of Queen Elizabeth for the performance did not appear according to, but rather contrary to. The Moscow directors, who received the rights to The Audience in 2017, had to repeat the London version one to one, in which Helen Mirren and Kristin Scott Thomas played over the years. And in everything – from the choice of the performer for the main role to the fasteners on the suit or diamonds in the crown.

Peter Morgan, as soon as he saw Churikova, immediately approved her candidacy: “Here she is – my queen!” As for the dress and other things … here the Russians were waiting for an ambush. But what is important for us? If there are no difficulties, we will definitely come up with them.

“So Gleb Panfilov came up with the coronation scene, which was not originally in the play,” says Victoria Sevryukova. – And only because the oath of Queen Elizabeth was similar to the monologue of Joan of Arc, which Inna Mikhailovna played in his film “The Beginning.”

When Panfilov convinced the English playwright and he completed the scene, it became clear to Sevryukova that the dress on such an important occasion could not be a cheap imitation – it should look like a truly royal one. To do this, the artist had in her hands only sketches of a dress from the personal designer of the Queen, Norman Hartnell, by the way, a theater artist by training. The whole team went to London in the hope of ordering it in the famous workshops of Angels costumes, where royal clothes were sewn – a refusal. And the dress is completely covered with the emblems of the countries of the British Commonwealth and, moreover, in a certain form, arranged in a certain order – from the Scottish thistle to the Canadian maple leaf. They weren’t given any drawings either.

“Then we wrote a letter to the Queen with the lowest request to use the photo of the drawings – two months later the refusal came: the dress, they say, is the property of Her Majesty and only she can allow or prohibit the reproduction of its details in the theater,” Victoria continues. “Therefore, we began to invent and compose this dress ourselves, based on Hartnell’s sketches. The only ones who could repeat the luxurious embroidery were the Indians; and we found those very famous Indian embroiderers in Great Britain. By the way, in India only men and only from one family are engaged in such embroidery. But again, failure: the Indians asked for a year to work, which was impossible for us.

But there is a blessing in disguise – the masters were found in St. Petersburg, in the workshop “Bee and Thorn”; it was they who embroidered historical costumes for the film “Matilda”. So, even before all the packages of sanctions, the Audience demonstrated the possibilities of import substitution. They were looking for a certain, “royal” fabric – duchesse satin, and only a certain color – ecru (Isabella’s color); 16 meters found in Germany. And finally, the famous character costume atelier began to create a royal dress. First, it was cut, then each detail was embroidered separately, and finally, it was assembled and the entire surface was embroidered with real Indian freshwater pearls – 40 thousand (!!!) pearls were sewn on by hand. Dress for Inna Churikova pulled 10 kg.

– How hard was it for the actress to wear such a dress on stage? I don’t ask about the queen – she has been accustomed to the hardships of the court since childhood.

— Not easy, although the weight of the dress was evenly distributed over the shoulders, around the waist. We collected it with wedges and strengthened the hem not with horsehair, like the royal couturier, but with reguilin (a special weighting agent). This made it a little easier. The dress was born, and we won – because we competed not with theatrical imitation, but with the original dress of Elizabeth.

This now historic theatrical dress has a lot of secrets in its window. For example, Victoria Sevryukova, together with the lighting designer, calculated literally by the minute at what moment the light should fall on it so that the rhinestones with which the fabric is decorated begin to play and the dress seems to glow. And so that the light from the Swarovski stones does not give an aggressive modern radiance, each stone was varnished, achieving the effect of antique-cut diamonds.

The adventures of the English dress in Russia did not end there. Another ambush for the directors was set up by a six-meter train of purple velvet with ermine, with the monogram of Elizabeth embroidered in gold. Here in it, Churikova could not even take a step. To alleviate the fate of the actress, the ermine was replaced with rabbit fur in combination with simple artificial fur. Sleight of hand and … Well, how not to be proud of our theatrical wizards.

Another test awaited the actress with the crown of St. Edward. In reality, it weighs 2 kilograms 200 grams (it’s like holding a two-liter bottle of water on your head), and you need to have truly royal courage to stand with the crown for 10 minutes (the scene in the play lasts so long), but in reality – all 42.

“Not a single jeweler wanted to take the crown into work,” the artist continues to dedicate me to the “royal” secrets. – We fought with her for a long time to make it easier. As a result, ours weighs 1 kg 700 g, and we, like children, rejoiced at the won 500 grams. The real crown is decorated with 444 diamonds – of course, we made their imitation.

– How?

“We made 3D copies, and thanks to them, all the chips, all the cracks were repeated one to one. And, finally, a diamond in the “royal” scepter, which has 54 facets and shines all over. We could not repeat the brilliance of a diamond: after all, the rock crystal from which we recreated the most famous diamond in the world could not be compared with the Cullinan. But on the other hand, the issue with Elizabeth’s favorite brooches was surprisingly simply resolved – we bought their luxurious replicas in the museum shop of the royal palace.

The participants of the production remember how Inna Mikhailovna came to the first fitting – weak after fractures, just no. And then there was the first shooting for the magazine: they brought jewelry in a safe, set up a light, a throne … Everything began to shimmer in the beams of spotlights – and Churikova began to look younger, filled with energy. A miracle happened that was impossible not to see – the transformation of the actress into a queen. After all, Churikova was not just looking for a woman in the queen, she found an actress in the queen!

– And then, when the performance was on, I saw that each coronation scene was the most important for her. Not so much the coronation itself, but the oath of allegiance to the people, the country and God.