that inconvenient emperor Paul

For those who have at least once been in the gloomy Mikhailovsky Castle and climbed the stairs along which the murderers of Paul I climbed on the March night of 1801, it is probably known that this staircase is the only witness to the crime committed. Even the room where Paul I was killed no longer exists. And contemporaries tried to forget about the emperor himself, as well as about other skeletons in the monarchical cabinets. In the memory of the descendants, “poor Pavel” remained mostly a walking clown, a solid anecdote, or even worse – just a fool.

But director Natalya Kovaleva, who is releasing the premiere of the play “Paul I” at the Vakhtangov Theater, decided to restore historical justice. And to rehabilitate this “extraordinary, inquisitive, educated, witty, historical personality capable of poetic improvisation.”

… The space of the New Stage of the Vakhtangov Theater is transformed by the fantasy of the artist Maxim Obrezkov into a gloomy castle and a parade ground, where the participants in the tragic events in the last days of the life of the Russian emperor are trying to find themselves and their face – hence the many “reflecting” heroes of the planes in which they seem to “crush” and “break down” into its component parts. Fans with images of the real faces of historical personalities seem to hide their essence, but at some point, by the will of the director, they are thrown aside.

So, what was Paul I like, this most inconvenient and most unsolved of the Russian emperors? Is it really “fool” and “tyrant”? Or, perhaps, a wise, but seriously ill person, able to look far ahead?

Natalya Kovaleva leads us between these two extremes of perception of Paul I, offered by historians, not allowing us to swing either to the right or to the left. To do this, in her own stage version, she combined two plays: a tough, backhanded one by Dmitry Merezhkovsky, and a poetic, poetic one by Evgeny Simonov.

Honored Artist of Russia Alexander Oleshko plays the title role in the play. Oleshko appears before us in an unexpected role for him: at first, the viewer does not even understand that a well-known TV presenter and showman is hiding under the guise of Paul I. A serious dramatic artist with a good professional range, Alexander Oleshko makes Pavel paradoxical, angular in manifestations. That Pavel rigidly drills the soldiers, showing indefatigable tyranny. Then he goes limp, canceling his orders after receiving a letter from Anna Gagarina (Maria Rival), dear to his heart: “I forgive everyone. A glass of wine and a pound of beef each.” That prophetically looks into the future and with all seriousness explains to his son Alexander why it is not worth talking about free republics, which his son is so delusional about, because “this is the satanic path.” “God has revealed to me,” says Pavel, peering somewhere, either into the distance, or into himself.

The scenes, successfully introduced by the director, in which Pavel, deprived of his mother’s love since childhood, mentally talks with Catherine II (Irina Dymchenko), work for the general task of the performance. “My heart since childhood is an unhealed wound, how I waited for the arrival of my mother,” the emperor opens his soul.

Actress Irina Dymchenko makes the late Empress Catherine II a tough, domineering woman who does not take into account public opinion. At the same time, she is preoccupied with the main thing – who should leave the Russian throne. In Paul, alas, Catherine II does not see the future emperor, otherwise the relationship between mother and son would have developed quite differently. But there is a grandson Alexander: the grandmother’s heart melts from this thought.

Yuri Polyak plays Alexander as a man publicly horrified by talk of his father’s bloodshed. His horror looks quite natural, but the artist subtly allows the audience to notice the little worm of arrogance that lives in this proud soul. It is no coincidence that Alexander has been talking for six months with the ideologist of the palace coup, Count Palen, the military governor of St. Petersburg.

Palen is one of the most interesting and key figures in this story. In the performance of Igor Kartashev, the count appears before us as a gray cardinal, step by step revealing the abyss of his own deceit. Palen Kartasheva is resourceful and smart. How cleverly he rubs himself into the confidence of Paul! How gracefully he sets up the imperial sons and daughters-in-law and removes Arakcheev from the road! He is cautious like a seasoned predator, and knows how to wait and sting deadly like a taipan.

The most interesting thing is that Kartashev played the role of Count Palen in Simonov’s production thirty years ago on stage in Kaloshiny Lane. But then his character was completely different. He was more romantic and … more poetic, if I may say so about the “pan-ideologist” of the palace coup. Although in Simonov’s performance, Palen was also the main clockwork spring of the unfolding tragedy.

As if in a kaleidoscope, a variety of characters pass before the audience: the play by Merezhkovsky and the play by Natalia Kovaleva are densely populated. Vitaly Ivanov, Elena Sotnikova, Elizaveta Palkina, Evgeny Karelskikh, Alexander Ryshchenkov, Natalya Moleva, Irina Kalistratova, Olga Gavrilyuk, Andrei Zaretsky, Klim Kudashkin, Anna Antonova, Daria Shcherbakova and many other good Vakhtangov artists are involved in the production.

The king, as you know, makes the retinue. Through numerous characters, through snippets of their conversations, letters, through the revelations of the emperor himself, we begin to understand what exactly Paul I experienced on the eve of his assassination. We will find out where these frightening attacks of rage came from in him. About the fears that tormented his soul, and about why he devoted so much time to the drill of the soldiers. We see whom Pavel truly loved, whom he did not intuitively trust.

With special care, the director takes us through the nooks and crannies of this mysterious soul, revealing the state of a person who bears the cross of power. The viewer in such a journey is not at all important to reveal some new historical secrets, but to compare the internal movements of the hearts of the characters with their own. Moreover, we already know the historical result, and where these movements have led Russia.

“Time reconciles with the past,” the director agrees, “and history often makes rehabilitation. To take a closer look at the personality of Paul I, to see deep human suffering in him is necessary in order to think about us today.

Elena Bulova.

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