The Gogol Theater was tempted by The Thunderstorm

Apparently, with this serious application, the new artistic director declared his intentions for the further development of the theater with a very difficult history. His “Thunderstorm” in combination with “Temptation” clearly outlined the position: there will be no more political games in “Gogol” – only artistic ones, in the center of which is the life of the human spirit. That, however, does not negate experiments in working with the classics and the use of those techniques and means that the theater has long appropriated for itself.

In any case, a thunderstorm, as a celestial phenomenon, Yakovlev begins to study from the very ground – at the top of the backdrop of the scene there is a narrow strip of a screen with a video image of an anthill. The scale of the image allows you to see in detail the chaotic swarming of these hardworking insects, whose life is actually strictly organized. And under the screen, human life unfolds, which every schoolchild, even if he didn’t want to, still went through the “Thunderstorm” according to the program. True, for the most part, this non-childish Russian life with its cruel morals in the teenage soul remained one meme: “Katerina is a ray of light in a dark kingdom.” But the schoolchildren didn’t care about poor Katerina.

Now at the Gogol Theater Anton Yakovlev presented an interesting interpretation of the immortal work, relying on an amusing visual series (artist Maria Mitrofanova, video artist Valentin Kutonov), avoiding the substitution of meaning (in this case, laid down by Ostrovsky) with a visual series that is common in the theater.

“Today, any classic should be interpreted brightly, sharply, and relevantly,” the director is sure. – For this, the theater should use modern means, but at the same time not engage in primitive distortion of the author’s text. In my Thunderstorm, I talk about the same passions that excited people 200 years ago and continue to excite today, because by nature a person does not change.

His “Thunderstorm” is also conditional in the scenery – two rows of banquettes running away from the proscenium, with exactly the same ones laid on them, only legs up, look like rows of fences. Between them live the characters of Ostrovsky, dressed by Tamara Eshba not at all in a historical costume and mostly in black.

Some of their actions even fit into our reality: Boris Grigoryevich, whom Katerina will fall in love with, as a visiting tourist, captures the life of the inhabitants of the Volga city with a camera. Barbara and Katerina, throwing a sprayer (sprinkler) over their shoulders, are engaged in the chemical treatment of plants, exchanging remarks that have nothing to do with plants or other household items – exclusively according to Ostrovsky. And more and more to feelings, one of which is temptation. In the director’s interpretation of “Thunderstorm”, it is experienced not only by the main character – here everyone has their own temptation. So, attention is paid to everyone, everyone is not passing characters.

By the way, the streamlined concept of temptation in Yakovlev has a very specific embodiment in the form of a young lady in a black dress and a hat trimmed with dark gas, which accompanies Katerina – on the screen, when she plays the cello with her or swings dangerously on a swing, thereby emphasizing the riskiness the actions of its original. Walks almost on the heels with a detached look – temptation, like a temptation: both you want and prick. That is the temptation in black here.

But no matter how equipped the heroes of Ostrovsky, they are alive, they are not from an unfamiliar past. Yakovlev, who knows how to work with actors, showed part of his new troupe – Anton Lyzo (Kudryash), Ilya Antonenko (Boris Grigorievich), Mark Burlai (Tikhon), Dmitry Vysotsky (Kuligin), Alena Goncharova (Varvara), Victoria Kizko (Glasha) . There is also another composition. Olga Naumenko, who worked both in the old Gogol Theater and in the Gogol Center, and now again ended up in the Gogol Theater, is a magnificent Kabanikha. Oleg Gushchin (Dikoy) and Andrey Rebenkov, from the old cast, perform wonderfully in the new production, playing the role of the wanderer Feklusha, apparently for the sake of a joke, renamed Thekla the wanderer.

The well-coordinated play of the actors to some extent covers the direct illustrativeness of the decisions of some of the images of Ostrovsky (why does Boris Grigoryevich wear a heavy bundle of ropes around his neck for two acts? It is already clear that he is in bondage with his uncle. And besides, such an accessory did not decorate his black linen costume). Or the tick-like plastique of people with mental disabilities (choreographer Alexandra Rudik), which was supposed to reinforce the impression of the paralyzing fear of the household before the Kabanikha, became obviously superfluous here.

But no matter what the production, traditional or radical, if Katerina is not in it, consider that there is no “Thunderstorm” either with or without temptation. Anton Yakovlev, it must be admitted, has a magnificent Katerina. This is Lyubov Konstantinova, who was accepted into the troupe last summer, but before that she acted in films a lot (the last role in Sergei Ursulyak’s The Righteous). Small, fragile, with blond slightly curly hair. But what is her inner strength, emotional mobility and plasticity. Sincerity on the backhand, without looking back. Her famous monologue “Why don’t people fly like birds?” as if extended in time and space of the first act. She does not even read it, but in different intonations (questioning, surprised, slightly ironic) loses. She is on the move. Plays on the verge of a premonition of doom, at the moment experiencing feelings of light, promising joy, but disturbing. Amazing this actress Konstantinova.

After the performance, I talked to her.

– Lyuba, at school, teenagers don’t really like Groza: the time is far from them, and Katerina’s behavior is incomprehensible to them: why is she so killed by cheating on her husband? What was your attitude towards this play in school?

– To be honest, I do not remember my attitude towards her at school. But now both the play and its characters are extremely interesting to me. Adolescents do not dislike The Thunderstorm; due to their age, they do not understand its issues. It becomes closer when you grow up and begin to understand what the feelings of adults are, family matters. And even more so, when you read “Thunderstorm” in the classroom, how to understand what temptation is? The older you get, the more difficult life becomes and it turns out not to be what you imagined it to be. Moreover, you yourself are not like that.

– Have you seen the performances of “Thunderstorm” before? Maybe before the start of rehearsals they watched recordings of the old Thunderstorms? Or new ones?

– I saw only one production of “Thunderstorm” on television from the Maly Theater. But I never get in the way of looking at other people’s work, because when they ask me how your Katerina differs from others, the answer is obvious – mine speaks in my voice, she has my facial expressions, my reactions. And that’s the only reason why my Katerina can’t be the same. There is a phrase: “Everything was in the theater, you were not there.” So I’m not afraid to watch other people’s performances.

– What helped you the most in working on the role? What was your support?

– My support is the text, these are the letters that Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky wrote. Exclusively. If you read deeper, all the clues, all the keys to the role are laid by him there. There Katerinin’s maximalism, her imperfection. The definition of “a ray of light in the dark kingdom” is absolutely immutable for this girl. From the text we learn about Katerina’s childhood: at the age of six, this child, whom her relatives offended in some way, ran out to the Volga alone at night, climbed into the boat, pushed her away from the shore, and found her only the next morning. From this moment you begin to unravel her character.

She is an extremely vulnerable organism, a maximalist, not afraid of impulsive actions. It is driven by impulse, by the heart, not by the ratio. She doesn’t really think about how her actions can affect others – it is important to respond. She has an exaggerated perception of the world: she sees it very brightly, takes everything to heart. I have such a joke: “Katerina would be yes to a theater university.” And this is not just a joke, it seems to me that we, the actors, understand this nature of feelings very well.

– What do you like most about her?

– I like to find paradoxes in her: where she is weak and where she is insanely strong or damn pathetic in moments of insane weakness. I love Katerina very much, because I do not see in her any ray in the dark kingdom, but only an extremely impulsive child. And children are cruel in many ways. It was important for me to understand that with such a temperament, she would not know how it would all end. After all, at the moment she came up with the idea of ​​\u200b\u200btelling her husband: “Hush, don’t leave.” Ready to change the plot, put yourself in the position of the heroine of some movie.

Even her fall into sin… Reacting to her own sin puts her in a hopeless situation. If we try to save Katerina, we won’t get Katerina. She lives in a time when divorce was impossible. And as far as she can change the plot, she changes it: she abandoned her faith (her only support) in order to feel something in this life, to live something. I like many solutions of our performance. For example, the absence of a terrible drama at the departure of Boris. By the end of this male-female story, Boris manages to get tired of Katerina – there are too many of her: she is one of those who live not one hundred percent, but two hundred, three hundred. And it was not the arrival of Tikhon that put an end to the so-called love (I won’t even call it love, but a huge, not splashed out loneliness). She is like a moth that has already flown into a light bulb.

I was greatly helped by our dialogue with Anton Yuryevich Yakovlev, his willingness to hear how I perceived the role, and our joint ideas, incarnations, decisions. I really liked to add irony to Katerina (when she says: “Even if fate itself wants it”), because I hear her like that – different. When everything is important to you in a heroine, then she is born.