“Wow fairy tale!”. The history of the premiere of “The Naked King” by Schwartz

On March 24, 1960, during the tour of the Sovremennik Theater in Leningrad, the premiere of the play based on the play The Naked King by Yevgeny Schwartz took place. This tale, despite the fact that it was written in 1934, no one dared to stage before that.

In the production of Margarita Mikaelyan, the role of the King was played by Yevgeny Evstigneev, the Valet by Mikhail Kozakov, the First Minister by Igor Kvasha, and the First maid of honor by Galina Volchek. The princess was played by Nina Doroshina, and the Poet by Pyotr Shcherbakov.

In the Actor’s Book (Published by Zebra-E, 2006), Mikhail Kozakov recalls:

“The success of The Naked King was so deafening that it reached Moscow, and when we returned there two weeks later, tickets were sold out not only for The King, but for all the old performances that had not sold out before. From April 5, 1960, to this day, Sovremennik does not know empty seats in the hall, and the Naked King, played in Leningrad on March 24 of the same year, did this.

And it all started like this. In 1959, Oleg Efremov suggested that Margarita Mikaelyan put on some performance in Sovremennik: “Well, find some fairy tale.” Her choice fell on the play “The Naked King” written by Evgeny Schwartz in 1934. Before that, no one staged a sharply satirical thing with political allusions. Oleg Efremov gave the go-ahead.

“The actors of Sovremennik played the fairy tale of E. Schwartz with the courage of tightrope walkers balancing over the abyss,” writes Anatoly Smelyansky, a well-known theater critic and theater historian. – The fairy-tale color did not prevent them from preserving the similarity of ministers, kings, official poets and courtiers with not at all fabulous Soviet prototypes. A burst of laughter accompanied the performance, its percussive reprises and allusions. When Igor Kvasha (he played the First Minister) “bluntly, rudely, in an old man’s way” cut the King “the truth-womb” about how he, the King, is wise and brilliant, then this was not only a hint at the mores of the Russian party court, but something more. The actor grasped the type of Soviet nominee and ass-licker, that very simple, tenacious little “from the bottom” that stood before everyone’s eyes.

The plot of the play revolves around the following events. Princess Henrietta falls in love with Heinrich the swineherd. The king, the father of the princess, is not happy with the choice of his daughter and is going to marry her off to a king from a neighboring kingdom. Heinrich is trying to upset the upcoming wedding, and the princess’s father is trying to arrange it as soon as possible.

“Like an innocent storyteller. But how many “figs” were hidden in it, directed towards Soviet reality! – writes the writer, historian and biographer Fyodor Razzakov in the book “Efremovs. No retouching”, chapter “Oleg. “Contemporary” – “The Naked King” (Published by Tsentrpoligraf, 2015). – Like this one, for example. The princess says: “Here everything is … well, like … him, miles … militarized … Everything is under the drum. The trees in the garden are lined up in platoon columns. Birds fly in battalions. And besides, these terrible, time-honored traditions, from which it is absolutely impossible to live … The flowers in the garden are powdering. Cats are shaved, leaving only sideburns and a tassel on the tail. And all this cannot be violated – otherwise the state will perish.

And these words were already heard from the lips of the Valet, played by Mikhail Kozakov: “Gentlemen weavers!.. I warn you: not a word about our national, centuries-old traditions consecrated by the Creator himself. Our state is the highest in this world! If you doubt this, you, regardless of your age … ”- and whispers something in Christian’s ear. He: “It can’t be!” Valet: “Fact. So that children with inclinations to criticism are not born from you.

Efremov from the very beginning was the artistic director of this production, giving direction to Mikaelyan.
“Right away, rumors spread that attributed the success of the performance to Oleg Efremov,” Margarita Alexandrovna writes in her memoirs (“The Naked King. On the 45th anniversary of the production of the play,” Continent magazine, No. 118, 2003). – But he was the artistic director of the theater, and, probably, his direct duties included lending a shoulder, helping with the release. In the future, he did this more than once and, when he considered it necessary, put his name on the posters of many performances. It cost nothing for Oleg to put his last name on the Naked King poster, but he did not. We didn’t even have a conversation about this. Maybe scared? Wanted to hide behind my back? Never! He was a brave man. (…) The success of the “Naked King” on tour was huge. The crowd from the street broke down the door and poured into the auditorium, sweeping away everyone in its path. The mounted police were called. Laughter, thunder of applause now and then interrupted the acting of the actors. On the first day, all tickets before the end of the tour were sold out. Inspired by success, the theater returned to Moscow.
In the morning, the Sovremennik Theater returned from a tour, and in the afternoon the Artistic Council, headed by Oleg Efremov, and I were called to the “carpet” at the Collegium of the Ministry of Culture.
Who directed this play? Who allowed?! Who you are?!! – the enraged minister shouted … (Minister of Culture Nikolai Mikhailov – S.I.)
Ohr, the panic at the collegium of the Ministry betrayed the minister with his head. He was shaking with fear that he would have to say goodbye to his chair. And what then? ..
Looking at him, I involuntarily recalled Igor Kvasha in the role of the First Minister, his words: “Why did I go to the First Ministers? For what? Are there many other positions? I feel that today’s business will end badly!

And here is how Mikhail Kozakov recalls what happened then:

“We ended the season at the site of the theater. Pushkin and theater-studio of the film actor. Clouds were gathering over the Naked King and over our theater. The performance, released due to oversight and oversight, wanted to close with a bang. After learning about it, we feverishly played it every day – 30 times a month! The crowd, hoping to get an extra ticket, stood on Gorky Street, five hundred meters from the Pushkin Theater. The police dispersed people with posters on which it was written: “I will buy an extra ticket for the Naked King! The authorities of all sorts and levels attended the performance. It saw the fantastic reception that the audience arranged for what was happening on the stage, and how it itched its hands to stop the disgrace, mockery and hooliganism! Why it didn’t do that, I still can’t figure out. Or was it too late? Did the bird fly out of the nest?

“I want to wash in the bath after this performance!” yelled “Soviet Culture” through the lips of a worker from Kuzbass. (…) The Sovremennik Theater and Oleg Efremov were the heroes of the day. (…) For two months in the hot summer Moscow of 1960, we played, sang, danced “King” about 50 times. But the game was worth the candle.

The performance was saved by a miracle: the leadership in the Ministry of Culture changed – Ekaterina Furtseva became the new minister.

“The same admirer of Efremov, who in 1958 pushed through the decision to transfer the Studio of Young Actors into the category of a studio theater,” reminds Fedor Razzakov. – And now, having become a minister, she summoned Efremov to her and said: “The Naked King” remains in the repertoire, and the theater itself is allocated premises on Mayakovsky Square. True, standing on the city balance, as prepared for demolition, for which, with the light hand of Alexander Shirvindt, he was nicknamed “tolerable”. But this demolition was scheduled for the long term (this will happen in thirteen years), so the joy of contemporaries knew no bounds: they finally found their permanent, not temporary home. (…) This is how the story ended with the premiere of The Naked King – the relocation of Sovremennik to the center of Moscow, to Mayakovsky Square. As they say, surprising, but true, given the sharply satirical orientation of this performance. This is to the question of whether the Soviet government and its leaders were able to laugh at themselves. How well they knew how, since The Naked King was on the stage of Sovremennik with constant full houses for several more years (until 1966).
In her book of memoirs “The Naked King, the Handsome Man and …” (Agraf Publishing House, 2003), Margarita Mikaelyan said that Evstigneev played the modern King, the head of state. Not intoxicated with power, swaggering, but not at all like a king – “his own in the board”, an average peasant, except perhaps in a robe and with a crown on his head. He wore his crown casually, cockily to one side, like a cap, his robe more like a terry bath towel casually slung over his shoulder.

“How he sat on the throne is also understandable. Well, what a pedigree! He forged documents, bribed, jumped out by accident, – writes Margarita Alexandrovna. – They moved to Koroli, because at that time it was convenient for everyone. Yes, here is his own confession: “I am completely unsuitable for any other place, except for the royal one. I’m always missing something in the royal place, I’m always angry, and in any other place I would be just terrible. It is clear that the fatal question immediately arose before him: how to retain power? Among other attitudes, one of the main ones was the old wisdom: “Splendor is the great basis of the throne.” Therefore, only the King’s dinner attire was numbered 8498/002. But it was then that the weavers caught the King, stripping him naked … “This is terrible! It’s horrible! yelled the First Minister in panic. “Our entire national system, all traditions, are supported by unshakable fools. What will happen if they tremble at the sight of a naked sovereign? The foundations will shake, the walls will crack, the smoke will go over the state!

(…) Zhenya (Evgeny Evstigneev – S.I.) accurately caught, heard how Schwartz could play the role of the King. They understood and fell in love with each other. And a shot rang out, fireworks broke out! I am sure that this is the main reason for the success of the performance” (quoted from the magazine “Continent”, No. 118, 2003).

Margarita Mikaelyan admits that she was shocked when she read the play, which had lain in silence for thirty years. And I realized: today it is necessary, like air. With your truth about the times we live in:

“Wow fairy tale! How many caustic allusions, grotesque, sarcasm, bitter humor are in it! A special humor, inherent only to Schwartz. For himself, he defined its nature as follows:

“Russian humor is not the humor of the situation, a pun. He is in a desperate violation of the laws of logic and reason. This exactly found word “desperate” – says it all! (…) Before the evacuation from besieged Leningrad, Schwartz burned all his diaries. And, unfortunately, one can only guess why it was at that terrible time, in 1934, that he decided to write The Naked King. After all, he perfectly understood that this play would not be staged for a very, very long time. But he wrote anyway. He wrote at least to the table, but he could not help writing, he could not be silent.

“I do not write for publication, not for relatives, not for posterity – and yet I tell someone and try to be understood by these unknown readers” (Diaries of E. Schwartz, 1951).

Sergei Ishkov.

Photos from mos.ru and kino-teatr.ru