Kingston performance in a snuffbox. The premiere of the play "kinaston" took place in the "snuffbox"

How I love the Snuffbox. This theater is one of the "five" of my favorites, which also include the theater. Vakhtangov, workshop of P. Fomenko, STI, theater in the South-West. I am ready to visit these theaters every day, however, the income of a pensioner does not allow this.

On Friday we went to the performance of "Kinaston" in the new building of the Snuffbox on Sukharevka.

Tickets, as usual, bought on the Internet. I always regret that not all theaters provide this service.
In the new building of the Snuffbox on Sukharevka (Malaya Sukharevskaya Square, building 5) we were for the first time.
Everyone who loved the basement at Chaplygin Street remembers that it was cramped and stuffy there. In the hall it was possible to see well the play of the actors only in the first three rows.

And here we are in the new "Snuffbox": a large new building located in the building of the business center, a bright lobby, spacious auditorium, the rows are arranged with a rise, so the view of the scene does not suffer.

All employees in nice uniforms gray color(to match the color of the theater itself), smart young people in the wardrobe, everything is stylish and very modern.

If there's anything to complain about, it's the buffet. Frustrates the lack of guilt. Only juices, waters and dubious pastries.

It would be necessary to make a buffet for the new Snuffbox, as in the old one.
In general, we did not stand for a cup of coffee.

Now about the performance itself.

Edward Kynaston is an English actor of the 17th century, known for playing female roles, because in those days women were forbidden to play in the theater.
An accidental quarrel with Charles II's young mistress Nell Gwyn leads the king to issue a Decree forbidding men to play female roles.
As a result main character loses his job. He does not succeed in playing male roles, that's what he says about this.
- I studied for 14 years until I killed all the male movements and intonations in myself!
Do women play women? But what is the game then?

Edward was brilliantly played by Maxim Matveev. I didn't even know he was that talented. Do you remember Lenin's phrase: "You must firmly remember that of all the arts, cinema is the most important for us"?
I never thought so. Only a theater where it is impossible to make duplicates, where the actor is one on one with us, the audience.

I never take pictures during the performance, I had to look for a photo of Maxim on the Internet.
He looks haggard.

It remains to be seen whether he lost weight for this role or has always been like that. Tolya mockingly said that Liza Boyarskaya did not feed him.
True, I found information that Maxim needed to lose weight to play the main role in the play "Kinaston".
But he will have to play in other performances, and in the cinema. What will he do? According to it, you can already study the anatomy of the human body.

However, the magnificent game of Maxim overshadowed his emaciated appearance.

Another one the main role given to Anna Chipovskaya.
She plays Kynaston's rival, Margaret Hughes. It is she who will be entrusted to play all the female roles that he played.
The finale, where Kynaston plays Othello and Margaret Hughes plays Desdemona, is one of the strongest scenes.

Anna is great on stage. Bravo to her!

Director Yevgeny Pisarev staged a wonderful performance.
Among those who pleased along with the main characters, our old love with my daughter is Vitaly Egorov. The best "Idiot" I have not seen in the theater. It is a pity that the performance was withdrawn from the repertoire. Apparently, a new performer with the same intensity of passions, with the same plastique, was not found in the theater. And Yegorov had already passed the age of Prince Myshkin.

In this production, he played the king.

To the left of Anna Chipovskaya is Mikhail Khomyakov, also dearly beloved by me. My nephew Roma was in the same class as his daughter, and sometimes we got tickets for performances with his participation.
I saw him in the role of Boris Kurochkin in “Overstocked Barrel”, “Enough Stupidity for Every Wise Man” (Mamaev), “At the Bottom” (Bubnov), “Idiot” (Totsky), “Running” (White Commander-in-Chief), “Two Angels , four people ”(Someone Strontsillov). Last performance love.

In this performance, he plays the owner of the theater in which Kynaston serves - Thomas Betterton.

And it is impossible not to mention the mistress of the king - Nell Gwyn performed by Anastasia Timushkova.
He plays superbly, before that I had not seen in the troupe of this theater.

In general, go and see. Spare no money. The performance is worth it.

"The most beautiful woman theater stage» in mid-17th century England, an actor was called Edward Kynaston. According to the laws of that time, all female roles in theatrical performances only men could play. Nobody could surpass Kynaston in this capacity - he was a real star by the standards of any time: handsome, incredibly talented, besides, he was notorious, wore a woman's dress and, according to rumor, was the lover of the Duke of Buckingham. Here's the role I'm not afraid to take on Maxim Matveev, and I must admit, brilliantly coped with it in the play "Kinaston" in "Snuffbox".

According to the director of "Kinaston" Evgenia Pisareva, Maxim Matveev reacted to the role "with fanaticism", he himself was engaged in makeup, wig, plastic surgery and specially lost 12 kilograms - so in an unexpected way the intrigue with the sudden thinness of the artist that struck many was resolved. This "sacrifice" was not in vain: Matveev's first appearance on stage is impressive. Spectators enter the English theater of the Restoration era, to the performance "Othello" based on a play by Shakespeare. Matveev in the image of Desdemona in a white wig and a long blue dress is graceful, beautiful, feminine in every movement and gesture ... His hero in the play, as in life, will have to go through a difficult path - from universal adoration to falling and almost oblivion, from deliberate femininity to true courage. He will be able to overcome all the hardships of fate and emerge victorious in the end.

The play based on which the play was staged was written in 2003 by the popular American playwright Geoffrey Hatcher, originally called "Perfect female stage beauty". The playwright took as a basis a turning point in the life of both Kynaston himself and England as a whole. In 1660, King Charles II issued a decree according to which all female roles in the theater were to be performed only by women, and no one needed Kynaston. It turns out that it was then, in the middle of the 17th century, with the arrival of women in the theater that real intrigues also came there. However, both the play itself and the performance read by Evgeny Pisarev are to a greater extent the story of a man who is trying to determine who he is. Kynaston is an actor, a man whose trade is to portray women in public. When he is forbidden to continue his career, his professional identity is called into question. In addition, he is clearly bisexual, and it is also important for him to define who he is in a sexual sense.

The play was immediately staged on Broadway, where it was a success. In 2006 filmmaker Richard Eyre made a movie on it "Beauty in English", which, however, did not gain fame as a Broadway production. In Russia, the first translation of the play was made in 2007, it was offered to be staged by various directors, including Kirill Serebrennikov, but everyone refused. Yes, and Evgeny Pisarev did not decide on this production right away. " I was not sure of anything - not in the play, not in myself- admitted the director. - That's why I decided to make a performance not on my territory.(Evgeny Pisarev - artistic director of the Pushkin Theater - THR), but on the stage of a theater friendly to me.I tried not to offend either the feelings of the audience, or my own, or the feelings of the artists. For me, this is a story about human dignity.”.

As a result, "Snuffbox" received a performance that initially promises to be the hit of the season. Director Evgeny Pisarev, set designer Zinovy ​​Margolin and costume designer Maria Danilova managed to create on the stage the alluring and mysterious spirit of the theater . And the genre of "theater in the theater" is loved by the audience at all times. The performance turned out to be spectacular, provocative, with the maximum use of the technical capabilities of the new Snuffbox venue - the stage on Sukharevskaya, where you can instantly change the scenery. The audience is not given the slightest chance to get bored on the scenes with “talks”, while they literally “in the blink of an eye” move to another world, and the drama is replaced by real buffoonery. Well, some frivolity, the opportunity to see the half-naked Maxim Matveev "live", and not on the screen, adds spice to the production.

It is impossible not to note the more than successful selection of artists for the main roles. Appearance in a play Ani Chipovskaya, who played the role of the first actress of the English stage, Margaret Hughes, will attract more than a dozen of her fans to the theater. However, in Kinaston, in addition to her and Maxim Matveev, they also flashed Anastasia Timushkova as the king's mistress Nell Gwynn, and Vitaly Egorov in a deliberately parodic image of Charles II himself.

Popular artist, husband of Liza Boyarskaya showed himself a master of disguise

Yevgeny Pisarev's performance "Kinaston" will go down in the history of the theater by the fact that he discovered the artist - and this is a rare phenomenon. Moreover, the artist is well-known, in demand in the cinema and theater, who got into gossip columns due to life circumstances(married to Elizaveta Boyarskaya), although he never suffered from acting exhibitionism. Maxim Matveev is a handsome man. reputation too goodie has so far provided him with appropriate offers from the film industry and the theater: noble officers of word and honor, in a word, those positive men that make beautiful women suffer. But this time the hero of Matveev - historical figure, a popular English actor who lived in the 17th century: his fate formed the basis of Jeffrey Hatcher's play "Female stage beauty" (in the poster it appears as "Kynaston").

Kynaston - the role is not even for resistance, but for total demolition. Kynaston is not a man, although it is formally considered one. He is an artist who plays female roles in the English theater of the 17th century. Of course this historical fact requires clarification in details: both in Shakespeare and in others English theaters adult men played old women, but women and girls - teenagers, and until their voice broke. They were specially trained for such roles for a long time.

Kynaston was also prepared, and, apparently, excellently, if the audience is crazy about his Desdemona. Yes, and in his workshop, he is a star, a recognized legislator of incarnation on stage female images. In a word, Kynaston as a canon. And he got used to his heroines so much that in life he switched to the role of a woman. Coquetry, whims, outfits, promiscuity in relationships - the ladies' set is mastered and appropriated skillfully.

But ... acting fate is changeable and dependent on the will of the king. And King Charles II, returning from French emigration, where he had seen enough of another theater, ordered not only men, but also the fair sex to go on stage, - here the star of Kynaston set.

Maxim Matveev presents two different Kinastons to the public. In the first act, he is the spoiled king of the stage. But in this stardom and natural femininity of the hero, Matveev does not have a single stable stamp that usually conveys the behavior of transvestites: an inviting gait from the hip, capricious notes in a voice made like a woman, etc. The artist, who has lost a lot of weight (especially for the role threw off 20 kg) , does not exaggerate visual image your hero/heroine. Yes, he is graceful in his movements and gait, but only to the extent that the violation of the line of which is fraught with parody and vulgarity. He is spoiled, he is gullible, he is corrupt. But not about transvestites and homosexuals, of which there were no more in the theater of that time than in life, Pisarev's performance.

Photo: Moscow theater under the direction of O. Tabakov.

The main theme emerges sharply in the second part, where Kinaston is already different: broken, lost his job and former recognition. He is out of work, at the bottom of his life, among the suspicious rabble, losing human dignity, but because of all his strength he tries to maintain his professional dignity. No charm and former trace: Matveev plays a real drama. And here you can see the artist, his potential, previously undiscovered. Mastery is especially evident in the second act, in scenes of obscene dances, in scenes of rivalry with a real competitor (Anna Chipovskaya).

Taste and measure determine the performances of Yevgeny Pisarev at his Pushkin Theatre, and Kinaston on the stage of the new Snuffbox was no exception. Here - the laconicism of double and mass scenes, the installation of a subtle comedy and areal farce. Even Zinovy ​​Margolin's decoration in the form of a scaffold is not a sign of celebration and vitality, but rather of such an unsteady balance that, at someone's whim, can easily be broken: raised to a height or dropped to the bottom, from where they do not always return. Tragicomedy in clear proportions, strict graphics on several levels.

So, on the top suddenly there is a king (Vitaly Yegorov) - quite a democratic-secular-progressive, and his appearance is decoratively and mise-en-scenically arranged in such a way as if he had stepped off a card from a deck that had been shuffled. And that card turned out to be marked. The owner of the theater, where Kinaston "stars", performed by Mikhail Khomyakov, is simple and cynical: he has everything for sale, like a butcher's - today the public has a demand for men in skirts, and tomorrow he exchanges them for women's goods without further ado. And he's not a villain, but a sweet realist.

Photo: Moscow theater under the direction of O. Tabakov.

In addition to the two luminaries of the "Snuffbox" Khomyakov and Yegorov, as well as Kirill Rubtsov, who was invited from the Vakhtangov Theater, the actor's recruitment of the Tabakov College was called to "Kinaston" recent years; young artists - mostly in third roles or act as a demoniac crowd, as if torn from the paintings of Goya (the phantasmagoric costumes of Maria Danilova are very appropriate in these scenes). But... vaunted, having received carte blanche in the "basement" theater, not all of them organically fit into the ensemble. I would single out, perhaps, only one - Vasily Neverov, who drew attention with his game even in the graduation performance "In a Busy Place" (staged by Vitaly Egorov).

You can't get tickets to Kinaston, which proves once again that the performances of Pisarev, who knows how to make talented box office productions, have the widest audience. And he, and not fashionable directors, is called to correct fees in other theaters, including fashionable ones.

MOSCOW, 8 September. /corr. TASS Olga Svistunova/. The premiere of the play "Kynaston" based on the play by playwright and screenwriter Jeffrey Hatcher took place at the Moscow Theater under the direction of Oleg Tabakov. In the original, the play is called "Perfect Female Stage Beauty", which was embodied by the actor Maxim Matveev on the stage of the "Snuffbox".

"The premiere screenings were held on Wednesday and Thursday, and both evenings were sold out," the press service of the Tabakov Theater told TASS, adding that the series of premiere screenings will continue on September 21 and 22.

About the play

The play "Kynaston" (in the original "Perfect female stage beauty" - approx. TASS) was written by Jeffrey Hatcher in 2003. She talks about Edward Kynaston - an outstanding English actor of the Restoration. Then, in the 17th century, women were forbidden to play on stage, and all female roles were performed only by men. The best among them on the London stage was Edward Kynaston.

But overnight everything changed - Charles II issued a decree according to which now only women could play their roles in the theater. Kinaston was not needed, forgotten, but still the actor found strength in himself and returned to the stage already in a male role.

Hatcher's play was a success on Broadway and was filmed. In Russia, it was staged for the first time on the stage of the Oleg Tabakov Theater artistic director Pushkin Theatre, directed by Evgeny Pisarev. The scenography was made by Zinovy ​​Margolin, the costume designer was Maria Danilova. Cast: Maxim Matveev, Anya Chipovskaya, Kirill Rubtsov, Mikhail Khomyakov, Vitaly Egorov, Evgenia Borzykh, Artur Kasimov.

"Absolute Experiment"

“It started for me as an absolute experiment,” director Yevgeny Pisarev admitted to TASS. - I was not sure of anything: neither in the play, nor in myself, so I decided to make a performance not on my own territory - in the Pushkin Theater, but on the stage of a theater that was friendly to me - in the "Snuffbox".

Pisarev said that the play was translated into Russian in 2007. It was offered to be staged by various directors, in particular, Alexander Morfov, Kirill Serebrennikov, but everyone refused. "At first I wasn't going to stage it either, but now I think I've matured for this play and took the risk of staging it," Pisarev continued.

“I tried not to offend either the feelings of the audience, or my own, or the feelings of the artists,” said the director. “I was not interested in the provocativeness of this play. For me, this is a story about the dignity of a person. close. But both there and there one must live with dignity."

According to the director, he is "happy that he directed Kinaston." "I am very glad that Misha Khomyakov, Vitaly Yegorov, Anya Chipovskaya have interesting roles", - he said.

As for Maxim Matveev, he, in the words of the director, "treated the role of Kynaston with rabid fanaticism." “Maxim deliberately lost 20 kilograms, he himself was engaged in makeup, wig, plastic surgery. It seems to me that he is growing into a large, real artist, and handsome and good artist- a rarity," Pisarev said.

Is it easy to play a woman

“In fact, I lost weight for this role not by 20, but by 12 kilograms,” Maxim Matveev entered into a dialogue. And when asked who is easier to play - a man or a woman, he answered that in any case, you need to play yourself.

“In each image, the actor is looking for something of his own, and this does not depend on the gender of the character,” the actor believes. “It’s not about sexuality, but about the idea. The material itself is interesting, it’s interesting to be silent in the performance, to think, to find something new ".

Matveev said that he was on the staff of the Moscow Art Theater named after Chekhov, and in the "Snuffbox" he worked as a guest artist. "The artistic director is the same, Oleg Pavlovich Tabakov," Maxim remarked with a smile.

In the Moscow Art Theater, he plays in "The Ideal Husband", in "Karamazov", " Last victim", and in the Snuffbox he is busy in The Devil, Wolves and Sheep, and now also in Kynaston.

In the cinema, he played about 40 roles, the most recent work is Vronsky in Karen Shakhnazarov's History of Vronsky.

“After Vronsky, it’s hard for me to understand in which film I would be interested in acting, in which story to join. I have the same feeling now in the theater. After such fertile material as Kynaston, it’s hard to understand what manifestations I myself will be interested in later," the actor said.

First responses

"Kinaston" is just beginning its stage life, and the first viewers are willing to share their emotions, - Ekaterina Strizhkova, head of the literary and artistic part of the Oleg Tabakov Theater, told TASS. - Met two young people. They turned out to be father and son. I ask: "How did you get to the play?" And the father replied that his wife and daughter had been the day before, and they advised.

The first audience impressions are already cited in the "Kynaston" program. "The performance was held in one breath. I'm still impressed! Thank you!", appears in one of the responses. The author of another review advises: "Everyone should go! But I warn you, 18+, however, everything is very beautiful and within limits!"

Most of those who have watched "Kinaston" praise the performance. "Super performance! Bravo!" - write the audience. And they applaud, in direct and figuratively the words.