The play “Date in the suburbs” is a conversation about love

At the Cherry Orchard International Trade Center under the leadership of Alexander Vilkin, the premiere is again. This time the audience saw a brilliant staging by director Tatyana Arkhiptsova “Date in the Suburb” based on the play by Alexander Vampilov “The Elder Son”.

The play often attracts the attention of theaters. A television film was made based on it and an opera was written (composer G. Gladkov). The director of the film, Vitaly Melnikov, said that when creating the film, he was attracted by “a wonderful dialogue, accurately noticed characters and human types, a rare combination of tragic and comedic, and most importantly, serious and deep problems …”

The play was written in 1965 and has options – both text and title. For the first time under the name “Suburb” it was published in the anthology “Angara” (1968, No. 2), then in other theaters of our country and abroad.

“Elder Son” begins with a seemingly innocent joke of two young people – Silva and Busygin. At night, somewhere in the suburbs, having missed the last train, they began to look for a lodging for the night, but no one wanted to let them warm up. In the next apartment, seeing that they are about to be expelled, Silva gives Busygin the illegitimate son of the owner of the apartment, Andrei Grigoryevich Sarafanov. At first glance, the situation seems comical, Busygin did not expect Sarafanov to believe him so recklessly. Yes, this is ridiculous: how can an adult person in his right mind and solid memory take some stranger for his son? Moreover, Sarafanov has his own children: Nina and Vasenka. But they will leave soon, and even with them he feels lonely. Sixteen-year-old son Vasenka fell in love with a frivolous person, who is also ten years older than him. Because of an unrequited feeling, Vasenka wants to leave the house, leave. Daughter Nina is going to marry officer Kudimov and also leave.

But let’s not go into a retelling of the play we all love. Many people know its content well, but every director and every actor involved in it contributes its own interpretation.

In the ITC’s production of The Cherry Orchard, despite the academic nature of the material, this is exactly the kind of story unfolding before the eyes of the audience. And although the action takes us back to the distant sixties of the last century, everything that happens on stage looks very modern. And long-familiar truths in the current realities begin to sound in a new way. Director Tatyana Arkhiptsova speaks about the idea of ​​staging the play:

“Staging Vampilov’s play “The Elder Son” or, as it was called at the beginning by the author himself, “Date in the Suburb” was invented by our Sarafanov, an actor Vadim Nikolaevich Raikin. Once at the dawn of his acting career, his first role was the role of Vasenka in The Elder Son. And so the boy grew and grew, well, he grew up to the main character – Sarafanov. Vadim Raikin and I have known each other for a long time – we worked together. Once, about a hundred years ago, in my play “The Government Inspector”, he played Khlestakov … So, this is not the first meeting with the honored artist Vadim Raikin on stage … Vadim, of course, is very worried – everyone remembers Yevgeny Leonov in the role of Sarafanov, but I I’ll tell you: the actor Raikin has some secret of his own, his own life secret, he knows something about his hero, something that makes him believe. Compassionate, smiling. Imperceptibly you are drawn into this story of a musician and a single father, and for some reason you don’t want to part with him. Maybe because Vampilov wrote well, or maybe because the hero of Vadim Nikolaevich is a very warm person.

Warmth and even involvement in the events taking place on the stage help to feel the musical numbers. It seems that you are not in the auditorium, but at home. The table is laid, at which the people dearest to your heart have gathered, the guitar sounds, and the seemingly uncomplicated words of the text penetrate the very soul, because they are addressed not to the audience, but to an individual person. Music in the performance becomes another character, it helps to understand the character of each character and completely immerse yourself in what is happening … The characters ironically, and sometimes seriously sing about their love aspirations and sorrows of the song by Yuli Chersanovich Kim and Tatyana Gorchakova, specially written for the performance, by a young composer , the author of the musical background of the play Olga Popova.

“I got friendship with Yuli Chersanovich Kim from my teacher Pyotr Naumovich Fomenko. Petr Naumovich and Julius Chersanovich studied at the same course at the Pedagogical Institute – there they became friends and made friends all their lives. Another author of the play, writer Yury Koval, also studied there, and now his son, actor of the Cherry Orchard theater, Alexei Koval, in our “Date” on behalf of his character Vasenka sings a song of his father. So, as they say, everything is running with us – family and other tender ties are everywhere. (This is exactly what our performance is about, “all people are brothers” – this is what the main character Sarafanov thinks, well, we follow him). Julius Kim is a legendary person who has not sung or at least heard his songs?! They are native, you want to sing them – light, seem very simple, but in fact deep and very modern. “Oh, how much humanity – and how little humanity,” moan the homeless Silva and Busygin. Julius Chersanovich wrote five songs especially for us. The actors have already fallen in love with them, I think you will like them too, ”Tatyana Arkhiptsova is sure.

It is the songs that help to completely immerse yourself in modern reality, and their text begins to sound in a new way. Eternal, like day and night, ageless themes of art that will never cease to excite humanity: life and death, love and hate, happiness and sorrow, conscience and dishonor … A chain of coincidences and mismatches occurred not only on stage, but also while working on performance:

“Our performance is about connections. Not those that are corrupt, but about spiritual ones – friendly, kindred, soul mates, including. It happened, it happened – Tatyana Gorchakova, the mother of actor Georgy Marchenko, came to our rehearsal, he plays Busygin in the play. Well, come and come. A nice, interestingly dressed woman, she reacted very vividly. For me, it is always good when someone from the outside is present at the rehearsals – you immediately check whether you are on the right track. Tatyana Markovna, as they say now, is an absolutely brilliant woman, and this is not a figure of speech! It turned out that she has been writing songs since the age of 14, she herself is a great actress, she graduated from Gnesinka. Who remembers, there was such a group – “People and Dolls” – an extraordinary theatrical group, where people-actors existed on a par with puppets, which they themselves controlled. It’s a pity that this group no longer exists.

But more about connections: it turned out that Julius Chersanovich Kim, who was a friend of my teacher, Pyotr Fomenko, and who wrote songs for our performance, once wrote for the People and Dolls ensemble. Moreover, another relative of Mount Marchenko, his father Alexander Marchenko, staged performances and wrote music for the performances of Yuli Kim and another of my teachers, Oleg Kudryashov. That’s how confusing! How was it possible to avoid interactions? Impossible. And Alexander Marchenko again met with Yuli Kim in our “Date in the Suburb” and made arrangements for his songs. This is how connections work. The main thing is that everyone should be happy from this. And benefit. We definitely have what we want for you.”

Joy happened, and not only from the music, but also from the performance of the actors, not a single false note sounded on the stage. By the end of the action, each of them made them fall in love with themselves. Even the careless Silva and Nina’s fiancé, the narrow-minded Kudimov (actors Alexander Savelyev, Vladimir Roganov) do not cause direct antipathy, rather sympathy. Because they are alive, the way they really are. You involuntarily ask yourself: is it possible to remain human? Is it possible to understand everyday trials, where truth and lies, love and betrayal, passion and indifference, sincerity and falsehood, cruelty in the name of good and enslavement are difficult to distinguish. We begin to sympathize with Vasenka, seized with youthful first love (actor Alexei Koval), worry about Nina, who fell in love with her “native” brother (actress Sofia Zentsova). Yes, and the role of the “girl without principles” Makarska (actress Aksinya Oleinik) is about loneliness, about the eternal desire for simple, womanish happiness … Everything is here at once: laughter, tears, and love. The premiere performance was played by one of the troupe, it is very interesting to see how other actors will play the roles.

Vampilov is called the Chekhov of our time, which may be why the director included painfully familiar Chekhov’s texts in the text of the performance – they contain hope for mercy and justice. Andrey Grigorievich Sarafanov pronounces them in the finale, whose main achievement is children, this is a family, this is a soul untouched by time, capable of loving and reaching out to the suffering. You must admit that we, the current ones, should learn this: blood relationship is not as important as spiritual closeness. The kinship of souls is much stronger and stronger than ordinary family relationships. The ability to understand and listen, to support and help, to love is the most important thing that makes us human.

Nina DONSKIKH.

Photo (black-and-white staged) by Olesya TARASOVA and from the Cherry Orchard ITC archive