Russian playwrights and their plays list. Five major post-war plays and their best productions

Play

Alexander Volodin, 1958

About what: Finding himself in Leningrad on the occasion of a business trip, Ilyin suddenly decides to go into the apartment where seventeen years ago, when he went to the front, he left his beloved girl, and - lo and behold! — his Tamara still lives in the room above the pharmacy. The woman never married: her student nephew, for whom she replaces his mother, and his eccentric girlfriend - that’s her whole family. Wading through the fear of misunderstanding, insincerity, quarrels and reconciliation, two adults eventually realize that happiness is still possible - “if only there was no war!”

Why it's worth reading: The meeting between Ilyin and Tamara, stretched over five evenings, is not only a story about the late, restless love of the foreman of the Red Triangle factory and the work manager Zavgar- garage manager. northern village of Ust-Omul, but the opportunity to bring real, not mythical Soviet people onto the stage: smart and conscientious, with broken destinies.

Perhaps the most poignant of Volodin’s dramas, this play is filled with sad humor and high lyricism. Her characters always leave something unsaid: under the speech clichés - “my job is interesting, responsible, you feel people need“- one senses a whole layer of difficult questions driven deep inside, related to the eternal fear in which a person is forced to live, as if a prisoner in a huge camp called “homeland”.

Next to the adult heroes, young lovers live and breathe: at first Katya and Slava look “unafraid,” but they also instinctively feel the fear that eats the souls of Tamara and Ilyin. Thus, uncertainty about the very possibility of happiness in the country of “victorious socialism” is gradually passed on to the next generation.

Staging

Bolshoi Drama Theater
Directed by Georgy Tovstonogov, 1959

You can imagine a little of the shock that this performance was for the audience, thanks to a radio recording from 1959. The audience reacts very violently here - they laugh, get excited, and calm down. Reviewers wrote about Tovsto-Nogov’s production: “Today’s time - the end of the 50s - revealed itself with amazing accuracy. Almost all the characters seemed to come onto the stage from the streets of Leningrad. They were dressed exactly as the spectators who looked at them were dressed.” The characters, riding from the back of the stage on platforms with partitions of poorly furnished rooms, played right under the noses of the first row. This required precise intonation, absolute pitch. A special chamber atmosphere was created by the voice of Tovstonogov himself, who delivered the stage directions (it’s a pity that in the radio play it’s not him who reads the text from the author).

Internal conflict performance there was a contradiction between imposed Soviet stereotypes and natural human nature. Tamara, played by Zinaida Sharko, seemed to be peeking out from behind the mask of a Soviet social activist before throwing it off and becoming herself. From the radio recording it is clear with what inner strength and amazing richness of nuances Charcot played her Tamara - touching, tender, unprotected, sacrificial. Ilyin (played by Efim Kopelyan), who spent 17 years somewhere in the North, was internally much freer from the very beginning - but he did not immediately manage to tell the truth to the woman he loved, and pretended to be the chief engineer. In a radio play today, Kopelyan’s performance can be heard with a lot of theatricality, almost pathos, but he also has a lot of pauses and silence - then you understand that the most important thing happens to his character in these moments.

"In Search of Joy"

Play

Victor Rozov, 1957

About what: Klavdia Vasilyevna Savina’s Moscow apartment is cramped and crowded: four of her grown children live here and there is furniture that Lenochka, the wife of her eldest son Fedya, is constantly purchasing - once a talented young scientist, now a successful careerist “in science” " Covered with rags and newspapers in anticipation of the imminent move to new apartment newlyweds, wardrobes, pot-bellied sideboards, couches and chairs become a bone of contention in the family: the mother calls her eldest son a “little bourgeois”, and he younger brother, high school student Oleg, chops down “Lenochkin’s” furniture with the saber of his deceased father, a war hero. Attempts to explain only worsen the situation, and as a result Fedor and his wife leave native home, the remaining children assure Klavdiya Vasilievna that they chose another life path: “Don’t be afraid for us, mom!”

Why it's worth reading: This two-act comedy was initially perceived as a “trifle” by Viktor Rozov: by that time the playwright was already known as the author of the script legendary film Mikhail Kalatozov “The Cranes Are Flying.”

Indeed, touching, romantic, irreconcilable with dishonesty and money-grubbing, the younger children of Klavdia Vasilyevna Kolya, Tatyana and Oleg, as well as their friends and loved ones, formed a strong group of “correct Soviet youth”, numerically superior to the circle of “money-grubbers, careerists” presented in the play and bourgeois." The schematic nature of the confrontation between the world of consumption and the world of ideals was not particularly disguised by the author.

The main character, 15-year-old dreamer and poet Oleg Savin, turned out to be outstanding: his energy, inner freedom and self-esteem were associated with the hopes of the Thaw, with dreams of a new generation of people sweeping away all types of social slavery (this generation of uncompromising romantics came to be called - "Rozov boys")

Staging

Central Children's Theater
Director Anatoly Efros, 1957

The most famous scene of this play is the one in which Oleg Savin chops down furniture with his father’s saber. This was the case in the performance of the Sovremennik Theater Studio, released in 1957, and from the film by Anatoly Efros and Georgy Natanson “Noisy Day” (1961) this is what primarily remained in the memory - perhaps because Oleg played in both productions young and impetuous Oleg Tabakov. However, the first performance of this play was released not at Sovremennik, but at the Central children's theater, and in it the famous episode with the checker and the dead fish, the jar with which Lenochka threw out the window, was, although important, still one of many.

The main thing in Anatoly Efros’s performance at the Central Children’s Theater was the feeling of polyphony, continuity, and fluidity of life. The director insisted on the significance of every voice in this populous story - and immediately introduced the viewer to a house filled with furniture, built by the artist Mikhail Kurilko, where precise details indicated the life of a large friendly family. Not a denunciation of philistinism, but a contrast between the living and the dead, poetry and prose (as noted by critics Vladimir Sappak and Vera Shitova) - this was the essence of Efros’s view. Not only was Oleg, played by Konstantin Ustyugov, alive—a gentle boy with a high, excited voice—but also Valentina Sperantova’s mother, who decided to have a serious conversation with her son and softened the forced harshness with her intonation. Very real is this Fedor himself, Gennady Pechnikov, who, in spite of everything, loves his pragmatic wife Lenochka very much, and another lover - Gennady Alexei Shmakov, and the girls' classmates who came to visit Oleg. All this can be clearly heard in the radio recording of the performance made in 1957. Listen to how Oleg pronounces key phrase plays: “The main thing is to have a lot in your head and soul.” No didactics, quietly and deliberately, rather for yourself.

"My poor Marat"

Play

Alexey Arbuzov, 1967

About what: Once upon a time there lived Lika, she loved Marat, she was loved by him, and Leonidik also loved her; both guys went to war, both returned: Marat - Hero Soviet Union, and Leonidik was without a hand, and Lika gave her hand and heart to “poor Leonidik.” The second title of the work is “Don’t be afraid to be happy”; in 1967, London critics named it the play of the year. This melodrama is a story of meetings and separations stretched over almost two decades of three characters growing up from episode to episode, once united by war and blockade in cold and hungry Leningrad.

Why it's worth reading: Three lives, three destinies of Soviet idealists stung by the war, trying to build a life according to the propaganda legend. Of all the “Soviet fairy tales” by Alexei Arbuzov, where the heroes were necessarily rewarded with love for their labor deeds, “My Poor Marat” is the saddest fairy tale.

The Soviet myth “live for others” is justified for the characters – still teenagers – by the losses and exploits of the war, and Leonidik’s remark: “Never change our winter of 1942... right?” - becomes their life credo. However, “days pass”, and life “for others” and a professional career (Marat “builds bridges”) does not bring happiness. Lika leads medicine as the “unexempt head of the department,” and Leonidik ennobles morals with collections of poems published in a circulation of five thousand copies. Sacrifice turns into metaphysical melancholy. At the end of the play, 35-year-old Marat announces a change of milestones: “Hundreds of thousands died so that we could be extraordinary, obsessed, happy. And we - me, you, Leonidik?..”

Stifled love here is equal to strangled individuality, and personal values ​​are affirmed throughout the course of the play, which makes it a unique phenomenon of Soviet drama.

Staging

Director Anatoly Efros, 1965

Reviewers called this performance a “stage research”, a “theatrical laboratory” where the feelings of the characters in the play were studied. “The stage is laboratory-like, clean, precise and focused,” wrote critic Irina Uvarova. Artists Nikolai Sosunov and Valentina Lalevich created a backdrop for the performance: from it, three characters looked at the audience seriously and a little sadly, looking as if they already knew how it would all end. In 1971, Efros filmed a television version of this production, with the same actors: Olga Yakov-leva - Lika, Alexander Zbruev - Marat and Lev Krugly - Leonidik. The theme of a scrupulous study of characters and feelings was further intensified here: television made it possible to see the eyes of the actors, giving the effect of spectator presence during close communication between these three.

It could be said that Efros’s Marat, Lika and Leonidik were obsessed with the idea of ​​getting to the bottom of the truth. Not in a global sense - they wanted to hear and understand each other as accurately as possible. This was especially noticeable in Lika-Yakovleva. The actress seemed to have two game plans: the first - where her heroine looked soft, light, childish, and the second - which appeared as soon as Lika's interlocutor turned away: at that moment the serious, attentive, studying gaze of a mature woman glared at him. “All real life is a Meeting,” wrote the philosopher Martin Buber in his book “I and You.” According to him, the main word in life - “You” - can be said to a person only with his whole being; any other relationship turns him into an object, from “You” - into “It”. Throughout Efros’s performance, these three said “You” to the other with their whole being, most of all appreciating each other’s unique personality. This was high voltage their relationship, which even today it is impossible not to be carried away and with which one cannot help but empathize.

"Duck Hunt"

Play

Alexander Vampilov, 1967

About what: Waking up in a typical Soviet apartment on a heavy hangover morning, the hero receives a gift from friends and colleagues funeral wreath. Trying to unravel the meaning of the prank, Viktor Zilov recalls the pictures in his memory last month: a housewarming party, his wife leaving, a scandal at work and, finally, yesterday’s drinking session in the Forget-Me-Not cafe, where he insulted his young mistress, his boss, colleagues and got into a fight with best friend- waiter Dima. Having decided to really settle accounts with his hateful life, the hero calls his friends, inviting them to his own wake, but soon changes his mind and goes with Dima to the village - on a duck hunt, which he has been passionately dreaming of all this time.

Why it's worth reading: Viktor Zilov, combining the features of a notorious scoundrel and an infinitely attractive man, may seem to some to be the Soviet reincarnation of Lermontov’s Pechorin: “a portrait made up of the vices of our entire generation, in their full development.” A smart, thoroughbred and perpetually drunk member of the ITAE who appeared at the beginning of the era of stagnation engineers- engineer and technical worker. with energy worthy of better use, he consistently freed himself from family, work, love and friendship ties. Zilov's final refusal to commit self-destruction had implications for Soviet drama symbolic meaning: this hero gave birth to a whole galaxy of imitators - superfluous people: drunkards who were both ashamed and disgusted to join Soviet society - drunkenness in the drama was perceived as a form of social protest.

Zilov's creator, Alexander Vampilov, drowned in Lake Baikal in August 1972 - in his prime creative forces, leaving the world one not too weighty volume of drama and prose; which has become a world classic today" Duck hunting”, with difficulty overcoming the censorship ban, burst onto the Soviet stage shortly after the death of the author. However, half a century later, when there was nothing Soviet left, the play unexpectedly turned into an existential drama of a man in front of whom the emptiness of the structure opened up. mature life, and in a dream about a hunting trip, to where - “Do you know how quiet it is? You're not there, do you understand? No! You haven’t been born yet,” a cry was heard about paradise lost forever.

Staging

Moscow Art Theater named after Gorky
Directed by Oleg Efremov, 1978

Best Play Alexandra Vampilova is still considered unsolved. The closest thing to its interpretation was probably Vitaly Melnikov’s film “Vacation in September” with Oleg Dal in the role of Zilov. The performance staged at the Moscow Art Theater by Oleg Efremov has not survived, not even in fragments. At the same time, he accurately expressed time - the most hopeless phase of stagnation.

Artist David Borovsky came up with the following image for the performance: a huge plastic bag containing felled pine trees hovered above the stage like a cloud. “The motif of the conserved taiga,” Borovsky told critic Rimma Krechetova. And further: “The floor was covered with tarpaulin: in those places they wear tarpaulin and rubber. I scattered pine needles on the tarpaulin. You know, like the New Year tree on the parquet floor. Or after funeral wreaths..."

Zilov was played by Efremov. He was already fifty - and his hero’s melancholy was not a midlife crisis, but a summing up. Anatoly Efros admired his performance. “Efremov plays Zilov fearlessly to the extreme,” he wrote in the book “Continuation of the Theatrical Story.” - He turns it out in front of us with all its giblets. Ruthless. Playing in the traditions of the great theater school, he doesn’t just denounce his hero. He plays a generally good person, still able to understand that he is lost, but no longer able to get out.”

The one who was deprived of reflection was the waiter Dima, performed by Aleksey Petrenko, another the most important hero performance. A huge man, absolutely calm - with the calm of a killer, he hung over the other characters like a cloud. Of course, he had not killed anyone yet - except for animals on the hunt, which he shot without missing a beat, but he could easily knock out a person (after looking around to see if anyone was watching). Dima, more than Zilov, was the discovery of this performance: a little time will pass, and such people will become the new masters of life.

"Three Girls in Blue"

Play

Lyudmila Petrushevskaya, 1981

About what: Under one leaky roof, three mothers - Ira, Svetlana and Tatyana - while away the rainy summer with their constantly fighting boys. The unsettled nature of dacha life forces women to argue day and night about everyday life. A wealthy suitor who appears takes Ira to another world, to the sea and the sun, she leaves her sick son in the arms of her weak mother. However, heaven turns into hell, and now the woman is ready to crawl on her knees in front of the airport duty officer in order to return to her lonely child.

Why it's worth reading: The play continues to amaze contemporaries of “Three Girls” to this day by how accurately it captures the era of “late stagnation”: the range of everyday concerns of a Soviet person, his character and the type of relationships between people. However, in addition to external photographic accuracy, the inner essence the so-called scoop.

Leading a dialogue with Chekhov’s “Three Sisters,” Petrushevskaya’s play initially presents its “girls” as three variations on the theme of Chekhov’s Natasha. Like Chekhov’s bourgeois Natasha, Petrushevskaya’s Ira, Svetlana and Tatyana constantly care about their children and wage a war for the dry rooms of a dilapidated dacha near Moscow. However, the children for whom mothers argue are, in fact, no one needs them. The play is permeated by the weak voice of Ira Pavlik’s sick son; the boy's world is full fairy tale images, in a bizarre form reflecting the realities of his frightening life: “And when I was sleeping, the moon flew to me on its wings,” no one hears or understands the child in this play. The “moment of truth” is also connected with his son - when, realizing that he could lose him, from a “typical Soviet person” Ira turns into a person capable of “thinking and suffering”, from Chekhov’s Natasha into Chekhov’s Irina, ready to sacrifice something For others.

Staging

Theater named after Lenin Komsomol
Director Mark Zakharov, 1985

This play was written by Lyudmila Petrushevskaya at the request of the chief director of the Lenin Komsomol Theater Mark Zakharov: he needed roles for Tatyana Peltzer and Inna Churikova. The censorship did not allow the performance to pass for four years - the premiere took place only in 1985; On June 5 and 6, 1988, the play was filmed for television. This recording still produces great results today. strong impression. Set designer Oleg Sheintsis blocked the stage with a translucent wall, behind which silhouettes of branches are visible; on foreground a table with a bouquet of dried flowers on it, and endless laundry going on in a tin basin placed on a stool; There were squabbles around, flirting, confessions. Each was ready to get into the other’s life, and not just get in, but thoroughly trample around there. But this is only superficial participation: in fact, no one really cared about each other. The old woman Fedorovna (Peltzer) mumbled, indifferent to the fact that there was a sick child lying behind the wall. Svetlana (actress Lyudmila Porgina) instantly became agitated in a fit of hatred towards the intellectual Irina and her son: “He’s reading! You’ll finish reading!” And Irina herself - Inna Churikova looked at everything with huge eyes and remained silent as long as she had the strength.

Recognized master stage effects, Zakharov built several reference points in the performance, calibrated like a ballet. One of them is when the dacha boyfriend Nikolai kisses Irina and she, out of surprise, does an almost clown somersault. At that moment Churikova almost falls from her chair, falls on Nikolai’s shoulder, immediately jumps away from him and, throwing her knees high, makes her way to the door to see if her son saw the kiss.

Another scene is the tragic climax of the play: Irina crawls on her knees behind the airport employees, begging to put her on the plane (at home the child was left alone in a locked apartment), and hoarsely, annoyingly, she doesn’t even scream, but growls: “I may not make it in time!” In the book "Stories from My own life“Lyudmila Petrushevskaya recalls how once at a performance at that moment a young spectator jumped out of her chair and began tearing out her hair. It's really very scary to watch.

Tomorrow marks the 220th anniversary of his birth Alexandra Griboedova. He is called a one-book writer, meaning, of course, "Woe from Wit". And yet, with this single book he had a serious influence on Russian drama. Let's remember him and other Russian playwrights. About writers who think in characters and dialogue.

Alexander Griboyedov

Although Griboedov is called the author of one book, before the play “Woe from Wit” he wrote several more dramatic works But it was the comedy of Moscow morals that made him popular. Pushkin wrote about "Woe from Wit":"Half the verses should become proverbs." And so it happened! Thanks to easy language Griboedov's play became the most cited work of Russian literature. And, even though two centuries have passed, we repeat these biting phrases: “Pass us above all sorrows and lordly anger and lordly love.”

Why did "Woe from Wit" become the only famous work Griboedova? Griboyedov was a child prodigy (he graduated from Moscow University at the age of 15), a man talented in all respects. Writing was not his only occupation. Griboyedov was a diplomat, a talented pianist and composer. But fate had in store for him short life. The writer was only 34 years old when he died during an attack on the Russian embassy in Tehran. In my opinion, he simply did not have time to create other great works.

Alexander Ostrovsky

Alexander Ostrovsky grew up in Zamoskvorechye and wrote about the morals of the Zamoskvoretsky merchants. Earlier
The writers were somehow not interested in this important part of society. Therefore, during his lifetime Ostrovsky was called pathetically "Columbus of Zamoskvorechye".

At the same time, pathos was alien to the author himself. His heroes are ordinary, rather petty people with their own weaknesses and shortcomings. What happens in their lives is not great trials and misfortunes, but mainly everyday difficulties that are a consequence of their own greed or pettiness. And Ostrovsky’s heroes speak not pretentiously, but somehow truly, in the speech of each hero his psychological characteristics are expressed.

And yet the author treated his far from ideal characters with strange love and tenderness. However, the merchants did not feel this love and were offended by his works. So, after the publication of the comedy "Our people - we will be numbered", the merchants complained against the author, the production of the play was banned, and Ostrovsky was placed under police surveillance. But all this did not prevent the writer from forming a new concept of Russian theatrical art. Subsequently his ideas were developed Stanislavsky.

Anton Chekhov

Anton Chekhov- playwright, popular not only in Russia, but throughout the world. At the beginning of the 20th century Bernard Show wrote about him: "In the galaxy of great European playwrights, the name of Chekhov shines like a star of the first magnitude". His plays are staged in European theaters, and the author is called one of the most filmed writers in the whole world. But Chekhov himself did not foresee his future fame. He said
to his friend Tatiana Shchepkina-Kupernik:“They will read me for seven, seven and a half years, and then they will forget.”

However, not all contemporaries appreciated Chekhov's plays deservedly. Tolstoy, for example, although he had a high opinion of Chekhov’s stories, even called him “Pushkin in prose,” he could not stand his dramatic works, which he did not hesitate to inform the writer about. For example, Tolstoy once told Chekhov: “Still, I can’t stand your plays. Shakespeare wrote badly, and you are even worse!” Well, not the worst comparison!

Critics spoke about the lack of action and drawn-out plots in Chekhov's plays. But this was the author’s intention; he wanted his dramatic works to be similar to life. Chekhov wrote: "... after all, in life, not every minute they shoot themselves, hang themselves, declare their love. And not every minute they say smart things. They eat more, drink, drag around, say stupid things. And now it is necessary for this to be visible on stage. We need to create such a play , where people would come, leave, have lunch, talk about the weather, play vint, but not because the author needs it, but because this is what happens in real life.” Stanislavsky was very fond of Chekhov for this realism of the play. However, the writer and the director did not always agree on how this or that play should be staged. For example, "The Cherry Orchard" Chekhov called it a comedy and even a farce, but on stage it became a tragedy. After the production, the author angrily declared that Stanislavsky had ruined his play.

Evgeny Schwartz

In many plays Evgeny Schwartz turns to creativity Hans Christian Andersen and even makes him a kind of hero of his works. Schwartz, like the famous Danish storyteller, writes fantastic magical stories. But behind the fairy-tale shell of his plays they hide serious problems. Because of this, his works were often banned by censorship.

The play is especially indicative in this regard. "The Dragon". The beginning is like in any ordinary fairy tale: in the city there lives a Dragon, who every year chooses a girl as his wife (a few days later she dies in his cave from horror and disgust), and here is the glorious knight Lancelot, who promises to defeat the monster. Oddly enough, the residents do not support him - they and the Dragon are somehow more familiar and calm. And when the Dragon is defeated, his place is immediately taken by the former burgomaster, who establishes no less “draconian” orders.

The dragon here is not a mythical creature, but an allegory of power. How many “dragons” have replaced each other throughout world history! And in the quiet inhabitants of the town there also lives a “dragon”, because with their indifferent obedience they themselves call upon themselves new tyrants.

Grigory Gorin

Grigory Gorin searched and found sources of inspiration in all world literature. He easily replayed the plots of the classics. The writer saw the death of Herostratus, followed the adventures of Thiel, lived in the house that Swift built, and knew what happened after the death of Romeo and Juliet. Is it a joke to finish writing Shakespeare? But Gorin was not afraid and created a wonderful love story between representatives of the Montague and Capulet clans, which began... at the funeral of Romeo and Juliet.

Gorin reminds me of his own hero - Baron Munchausen from the film Mark Zakharova. He also travels in time, communicates with the classics and does not hesitate to argue with them.

Its genre is tragicomedy. No matter how funny it is to listen to the witty dialogues of the characters ( great amount Gorin’s phrases are divided into quotes), you almost always read the end of the play with tears in your eyes.

And the poet, the world's greatest playwright, William Shakespeare, was born in 1564 in the city of Stratford, located north of London. William's father, John Shakespeare, was a successful artisan, and his family lived in abundance. In addition to his main activity as a glove manufacturer, John was actively involved in city government. William's mother, Mary, was the daughter of a poor nobleman from the ancient Arden dynasty.

William Shakespeare studied at a free provincial school, graduating in 1580. From this time it began adult biography Shakespeare. Having received secondary education, the young man did not strive to continue his studies. For some time he helped his father, and when he turned 18, he got married. His chosen one was Anne Hathaway, who lived nearby, the daughter of a landowner, who was eight years older than William. Thus, Shakespeare's biography received a happy continuation. did not embarrass anyone, the young people lived in complete understanding, they had three children.

By the age of twenty, young Shakespeare had discovered his poetic talent. William wrote day and night, and the plays that came out of his pen looked like quite mature works; they were readily accepted by theaters in Stratford and even London. In 1593, Shakespeare's biography was replenished with new pages; William wrote the poem "Venus and Adonis", which immediately became a kind of bestseller of that time and was subsequently published eight times. At the same time, the young playwright entered the Burbage Theater, where he began working as an actor and at the same time writing plays. In addition, he discovered his ability to direct, and he began staging his own performances.

During theatrical activities William Shakespeare came under the patronage of the Duke of Southampton, thanks to which he quickly became rich. There is an opportunity to buy own house, which was done in 1597. In two next year Shakespeare's popularity as a playwright and poet increased sharply. The following page was written into Shakespeare's biography. City printing houses barely had time to print his works, trying to satisfy the growing demand of the population for books by the talented author. The growing popularity of the poet turned out to be another surprise for him: the Heraldic Chamber gave Shakespeare a certificate for the right to own his own coat of arms. Thus, the son of a simple artisan overnight became a titled gentleman.

After some time, Shakespeare moved to London and there became a co-owner of the theatrical enterprise "The King's Men". The most successful period in the life of the actor, poet and playwright William Shakespeare was from 1585 to 1610. This is the time of the creation of a number of immortal creations: "Othello", "Hamlet", and "Macbeth". And, of course, the amazing drama "Romeo and Juliet", written in 1595.

At the age of 45, which was successfully replenished with new pages, I felt sharp deterioration health. Frequent attacks of malaise were accompanied by a complete loss of strength. This could not but affect creative activity, and gradually William stopped working on the manuscripts. In 1613, the playwright, anticipating his imminent death, returned to his native Stratford. His health worsened, and on April 23, 1616, William Shakespeare died.

Now you know a short biography of Shakespeare.

Continuing the analysis begun in previous issues theater poster, "Theater." decided to calculate what share in total number performances in Moscow and St. Petersburg are productions of the works of one or another author, and to understand some general principles repertoire policy of both capitals.

1. Repertoire leader of Moscow and St. Petersburg Chekhov. There are 31 Chekhov productions on the Moscow playbill, and 12 in St. Petersburg. Most in demand classic plays are used (in Moscow there are as many as five “The Cherry Orchards” and five “The Seagulls”), but prose is also in use: “Three Years”, “The Lady with the Dog”, “The Bride”, etc. Often directors combine them together some humorous stories- as it was done, for example, in the Et Cetera theater play “Faces”.

2. Ostrovsky is slightly inferior to Chekhov: the Moscow playbill has 27 of his plays, and the St. Petersburg playbill has 10. Particularly popular are “Mad Money”, “Forest”, “Wolves and Sheep”. However, upon closer examination, it is not Ostrovsky, but Pushkin who is in second place in the rating in St. Petersburg: there are 12 Pushkin productions in St. Petersburg versus 10 productions by Ostrovsky. Dramas, prose, and original compositions are used - like “The Goonies (Pushkin. Three Tales”) or “Don Guan and Others.”

3. Shakespeare takes third place in both capitals (18 productions in Moscow and 10 in St. Petersburg). In Moscow, Hamlet is the leader, in St. Petersburg - Love's Labour's Lost.

4. Gogol - in percentage terms - is also revered equally. There are 15 productions in Moscow, 8 in St. Petersburg. The leaders, naturally, are “Marriage” and “The Inspector General”.

5. The fifth place in Moscow is occupied by Pushkin (the playbill includes 13 productions based on his works), and in St. Petersburg the fifth position is shared by Tennessee Williams and Yuri Smirnov-Nesvitsky, a playwright and director who stages his own plays: “The Longing of the Soul of Rita V.”, “At the ghostly table”, “Windows, streets, gateways”, etc.

6. From this point on, the repertoire policies of both capitals diverge noticeably. Dostoevsky occupies sixth place in the Moscow ranking (there are 12 productions on the playbill), the most popular is “ Uncle's dream" In St. Petersburg, Dostoevsky shares sixth place with: Vampilov, Schwartz, Anuy, Turgenev, Neil Simon and Sergei Mikhalkov. The names of all the listed authors appear three times in the St. Petersburg poster.

7. After Dostoevsky in Moscow comes Bulgakov (11 productions), the most popular is “The Cabal of the Holy One.” And in St. Petersburg whole line first-class, second-class and unknown to what class authors belong. Works by Wilde, Strindberg, Mrozhek, Gorky, Molière and Schiller, Lyudmila Ulitskaya and the “Achaean” Maxim Isaev are found in the poster as often as works by Gennady Volnohodets (“Drink the Sea” and “The Architect of Love”), Konstantin Gershov (“Nose- Angeles", "Funny in 2000") or Valery Zimin ("The Adventures of Chubrik", "Shoot! Or the Stories of Filofey the Cat").

8. Following Bulgakov in Moscow are Alexander Prakhov and Kirill Korolev, who themselves stage what they write. Jokes aside, the Moscow playbill includes 9 (!) performances by each of these authors. Among Korolev’s plays are “Riding a Star,” “This World Was Not Invented by Us,” “Until the End of the Circle, or The Princess and the Rubbish.” Prahova's pen includes: “Cornice for Conversation”, “My Dog”, “Jester Bird”, “Let everything be as it is?!”, “Happy Birthday! Doctor" and other plays. In St. Petersburg, the eighth and, as it turns out, last line of the rating is occupied by about fifty authors, the name of each of whom appears in the poster once. Among them: Arbuzov, Griboyedov, Albert Ivanov (“The Adventures of Khoma and the Gopher”), creative duet Andrei Kurbsky and Marcel Berquier-Marinier (“Love for Three”), Arthur Miller, Sukhovo-Kobylin, Brecht, Shaw, Grossman, Petrushevskaya, Alexei Ispolatov (“A Village Went Past a Peasant”) and many more names, among which, upon closer examination, one can notice two works by the authors of the new drama: “The Apple Thief” by Ksenia Dragunskaya and “Locust” by Biljana Srbljanovich.

9. Ninth place in Moscow is shared by Schwartz, Moliere and Williams - each of them has 7 names on the poster. “Tartuffe” and “The Glass Menagerie” are in the lead.

10. Next come those authors whose names appear 6 times in the Moscow poster. This is the absurdist Beckett and creative union Irina Egorova and Alena Chubarova, who combine writing with acting as, respectively, the chief director and artistic director of the Moscow Komediant Theater. Playwright Friends specialize in the lives of remarkable people. From their pens came the plays that formed the basis for the productions “More than Theater!” (about Stanislavsky), “Sadovaya, 10, then everywhere ...” (about Bulgakov), “A room with four tables” (also about Bulgakov), as well as the play “Shindry-Byndra”, which turns out to be a fairy tale about Baba Yaga upon closer examination , the learned cat and the shepherd Nikita.

Outside top ten, in descending order, the following remained in Moscow: Vampilov, Saroyan, box-office success Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt and the purely intellectual Yannis Ritsos, an elderly Greek playwright whose pen is responsible for modern adaptations ancient dramas. Alexander Volodin, Boris Akunin, Evgeniy Grishkovets, Gorky, Rostand and Yuliy Kim each have 4 mentions. It is amazing that they are inferior to Ray Cooney (!), as well as Wilde and Kharms - 3 mentions each. The names of Vazhdi Muawad, Vasily Sigarev, Elena Isaeva, Martin McDonagh and Mikhail Ugarov are mentioned twice in the Moscow poster - as are the names of classics like Sophocles, Beaumarchais and Leo Tolstoy.

The Center for Drama and Directing and the Theater were left outside the scope of this repertoire study. doc and “Practice” - they simply did not send their repertoire to the editor of the directory that collected the data “ Theater Russia" But even with their participation the picture would not have changed much.

In the repertoire of the two Russian capitals there is very little Russian new drama and practically no high-quality modern Russian prose. As for foreign authors of the last two or three decades - from Heiner Müller to Elfriede Jelinek, from Bernard-Marie Coltes to Sarah Kane, from Botho Strauss to Jean-Luc Lagarce, then you should definitely look for them in the playbill during the day. A significant part of the Moscow and St. Petersburg playbills is filled not so much with box-office translated plays - which would be at least somehow explainable, but no one cares speaking names and titles like “Dialogue of Males” by Arthur Artimentyev and “Alien Windows” by Alexey Burykin. So one gets the feeling that the main and only repertoire principle of the capital’s theaters is the principle of a vacuum cleaner.

When compiling the material, we used data provided by the directory “Theatrical Russia”

Russian drama has gone through a long and difficult path of development. The first plays appear at the end of the 17th century. early XVIII c., they rely on ancient rituals and games, oral folk drama. To the most famous and popular works folk drama include “Tsar Maximilian”, “Boat”, which reflected the campaigns of Stepan Razin and Ermak; folk drama-farce “About the governor-boyar”; puppet comedy about Petrushka. At this time, the so-called school drama. Borrowing themes from church rituals, she affirmed the ideas of a centralized monarchy that were progressive at that time.

Scene from the play “Wolves and Sheep” by A. N. Ostrovsky in Moscow drama theater named after K. S. Stanislavsky.

A scene from the play “The Inspector General” by N.V. Gogol at the Moscow Satire Theater. 1985

A new stage in the development of Russian drama occurred in the 30-40s. XVIII century, the era of the dominance of classicism. The largest representatives of this trend were A.P. Sumarokov (1717-1777) and M.V. Lomonosov (1711-1765). The dramaturgy of classicism preached high civic ideals. The heroes of the classicist tragedy placed love for the Motherland and service to duty above all else. In Sumarokov’s tragedies “Khorev”, “Sinav and Truvor” and others, the theme of denunciation of tyranny and despotism was heard. Russian classicist dramaturgy is largely based, both in theory and in practice, on the experience of Western European culture. It is no coincidence that Sumarokov, whose plays became the basis of the repertoire of the Russian theater mid-18th century c., called “northern Racine.” In addition, exposing the vices of the “lower classes,” bribe-taking officials, and noble landowners who violated their civic duty, Sumarokov took the first steps toward creating a satirical comedy.

The most significant phenomenon in dramaturgy of the second half of the XVIII V. became the comedies of D. I. Fonvizin (1745-1792) “The Brigadier” and “The Minor”. Enlightenment realism is the basis of Fonvizin’s artistic method. In his works he denounces not individual vices of society, but the whole political system based on serfdom. The arbitrariness of autocratic power gave rise to lawlessness, greed and corruption of the bureaucracy, despotism, ignorance of the nobility, and the misfortunes of the people, who were suppressed by the “burden of cruel slavery.” Fonvizin's satire was evil and merciless. M. Gorky noted his enormous importance as the founder of the “accusatory realistic line” of Russian literature. In terms of the strength of satirical indignation, next to Fonvizin’s comedies one can place “The Yabeda” (1798) by V. V. Kapnist, exposing bureaucratic arbitrariness and corruption of officials, and I. A. Krylov’s joke-tragedy “Podschipa” (“Trumph”, 1800), ridiculing courtyard of Paul I. The traditions of Fonvizin and Kapnist found their way further development in the dramaturgy of A. S. Griboedov, N. V. Gogol, A. V. Sukhovo-Kobylin, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, A. N. Ostrovsky.

First quarter of the 19th century - complex and rich in the struggle of various artistic movements period in the history of Russian theater. This is the time of overcoming the canons of classicism, the emergence of new directions - sentimentalism, pre-romanticism and realism. The process of democratization of the entire Russian theater begins. During the period of the Napoleonic wars and the birth of Decembrism special meaning acquires a heroic-patriotic theme. Love for the Fatherland, the struggle for independence are the leading themes of the dramatic works of V. A. Ozerov (1769-1816).

In the first decades of the 19th century. The genre of vaudeville, a small secular comedy, is gaining great popularity. Its founders were A. A. Shakhovskoy, N. I. Khmelnitsky, M. N. Zagoskin, A. I. Pisarev, A. S. Griboyedov. In their plays, written lightly, lively literary language, with witty couplets, there were vividly noticed features of modern morals and characters. These features, which to a certain extent bring vaudeville closer to domestic comedy, will become decisive in the work of such vaudeville playwrights as D. T. Lensky, P. A. Karatygin, F. A. Koni and others.

The leading role in the history of Russian drama belongs to A. S. Pushkin and A. S. Griboedov. They created the first realistic dramas. Pushkin's dramaturgy and his theoretical statements substantiate the principles of nationality and realism in Russian drama. In the comedy “Woe from Wit” by A. S. Griboyedov, its close connection with the liberation movement in Russia can be traced. It realistically depicts the struggle between two eras - the “present century” and the “past century.”

By the 30s. refers to the appearance of early plays by M. Yu. Lermontov - “The Spaniards”, “People and Passions”, “ A strange man" Lermontov is the most major representative revolutionary romantic drama in Russian literature. His "Masquerade" is the pinnacle of the first romantic tragedy half of the 19th century V. The theme of the fate of a high, proud mind, not reconciled with hypocrisy and hypocrisy, begun by Griboedov, finds a tragic conclusion in Lermontov’s drama. The plays of Pushkin and Lermontov were banned from production by the tsarist censorship. On the Russian stage of the 30-40s. There were dramas by N.V. Kukolnik and N.A. Polevoy, glorifying the wisdom and greatness of monarchical power. Saturated with false pathos and melodramatic effects, they did not remain in the theater repertoire for long.

The path of L.N. Andreev (1871-1919) was complex and contradictory. In his plays “To the Stars” (1906), “Sava” (1906), “Tsar Famine” (1908), the theme of rejection of the world of capital is heard, but at the same time the playwright does not believe in the creative power of the rebellious people, their rebellion is anarchic. The theme of man's powerlessness and doom is heard in the drama “A Man's Life” (1907). It is imbued with godless motives and protest against an unjust and cruel world. philosophical drama"Anatema" (1909).

During this difficult time of crisis of consciousness of a certain part of the Russian intelligentsia, Gorky’s plays “The Last” (1908) and “Vassa Zheleznova” (first version, 1910) appeared. They oppose pessimistic, decadent sentiments and speak of the doom and degeneration of the bourgeoisie.

Throughout its entire development, Russian drama has been an expression of the growth of self-awareness and spiritual power of the people. It has become a significant phenomenon in the world theatrical culture and rightfully took an honorable place in the world theater.