Sovremennik filmed a disastrous play about Volchek

The article in MK also helped with this.

The story of the play “Galya. A Magic Story”, made in Sovremennik on the occasion of Galina Volchek’s 90th birthday, received an unexpected continuation. Or rather, the denouement: the play was closed by order of theater director Yuri Kravets, having played it only twice. The theatrical community, the audience who loved the main contemporary, applaud. And if these applause were audible, they would be many times greater than the liquid ones that sounded at the end of the first show. Everyone admits that the management’s decision was largely influenced by the article in MK (Here You can read the detailed analysis).

According to our information, the motivation for removing the play from the playbill, which according to all calculations they wanted to turn from an anniversary one into a repertoire, was very poor sales – no more than 200 tickets for the play, with 650 going on sale. And the money for its production was spent, and it must be returned, but here, hello, please – the premiere production, not having had time to begin its stage life, is withdrawn from the run. Economic damage is inevitable.

But it’s better economic than reputational. It must be admitted that Sovremennik, after Volchek’s passing, has not been in the best shape for four years (that’s putting it mildly), and the fairy tale about Galina Volchek would have dealt a final blow to the theater’s reputation. “This is the bottom,” the audience said as they left the first show. “This is quiet horror. I am ashamed of the theater and its “young troupe,” which G.B. loved so much,” viewers and artists from both Sovremennik and other theaters later wrote to me on social networks.

And the point is not only that such an assessment is a generational story: they say, older viewers will not understand the young author of the text and director, and will not appreciate the young format. But, firstly, many young people joined the criticism. And secondly, the truth is that this is not a young and fresh format, but mothball thinking, a schematic perception of life, a lack of basic knowledge of history, which everyone in Sovremennik knows – just extend your hand. And the worst thing here is that the creators of the play are not 20 years old, but some of them are already over 40, and they began to work precisely under Volchek, but this did not stop them from weaving a false and completely tasteless myth about Sovremennik, its main people and country. However, I would not be surprised if after the filming of the performance they begin to spread another myth on social networks, that they are victims of political censorship. It has long been our custom to cover up artistic failure with this technique.