The image of strong people, the children of the sun, is bitter. Children of the Sun

“Children of the Sun” at the Maly Theater is, according to critic Maria Sedykh (“Itogi”), “one of the few performances in our theatrical horizon that you want to think about and talk about seriously.” This opinion is confirmed by a wide and polyphonic discussion of the performance, which unfolded after the premiere on October 15, 2008 and continued in the first months of this year. It cannot be said that this success was a complete surprise. A premiere in one of the most prestigious theatrical institutions in the country always attracts the attention of the public, in this case the interest was also guaranteed by the name of the director: Adolf Shapiro is a famous person, a true professional. However, the choice of the play was a surprise. Gorky was staged at the Maly Theater before, but the last performances of this author took place in the 80s and showed the spirit Soviet classics. Shapiro also staged Gorky in Moscow. His play "At the Bottom" in the "Snuffbox" is still a success. This play is a real classic, and no one disputes its quality. But "Children of the Sun"? The play includes precisely those components of Gorky's dramaturgy that are considered outdated or even unbearable today: sharp social conflicts, philosophical discussions about the duties of the Russian intelligentsia, (melo)dramatic love relationship, pathetic monologues directed directly at the audience. It is no coincidence that it may seem that this name has now practically disappeared with theater posters. What made the eminent figure of today's theater choose this play?

Let us recall the history of creation and the main lines of the themes of the play. Gorky wrote "Children of the Sun" in 1905 in the Peter and Paul Fortress, where he was under arrest for participating in protests against the events of January 9, "Bloody Sunday." The play is imbued with a premonition of revolutionary cataclysms, but despite its “bright” title, it is not a fiery greeting of future changes. Gorky, on the contrary, draws gloomy picture a society which, owing to the fragmentation of its social and cultural classes, is incapable of creating a better world. This concerns, first of all, the traditional alienation of the Russian intelligentsia from the “people” in Russian culture. In the center is the figure of the chemist Protasov, a scientist who, all his life in the laboratory, dreamed of making man the king of nature and was frightened of these "kings" in their concrete appearance, i.e. surrounded by his home and his family during the cholera riot. His proletarian employee, the locksmith Egor, whose “golden hands” the professor admires, turns out to be one of the instigators of the pogrom that takes place at the end of the play and threatens the death of Protasov and his family. This formidable symbol of Russian rebellion is accompanied by personal catastrophes. The veterinarian Chepurnoy commits suicide because Liza, Protasov's sister, rejected his love, and Liza, upon learning of his death, goes crazy. Everyone is far from each other, love relationships are usually unrequited and unhappy. Elena, Protasov's wife, does not receive any attention from her husband, who is fascinated by the invention of the homunculus. The artist Vagin loves her. For Protasov, the merchant Melania, who has fallen into the intelligentsia, also goes in vain. She adores some higher being in him. In the lower levels of society, relations are no more human. The maid Fima sells herself to a rich old man, and the locksmith Yegor, the class enemy of the professor, beats his wife almost to death. To Protasov’s arguments that “you can’t beat him,” he replies: “But they beat me ... and very much, and my wife, maybe not a person.” So, in the play "Children of the Sun" the word man does not sound proud and Protasov's words in final scene- "People should be bright and bright ... like the sun" - somehow consonant with the lyrical verses of crazy Lisa.

“It seemed to me that today this play will sound especially sharp,” Shapiro said in an interview with RIA Novosti. “I staged it as a performance-opposition to the cruelty that is spilled in the world.” The director's concept, however, is far from political agitation and introducing "relevant" problems into the themes of a hundred years ago: "I always try to avoid stupid and vulgar modernization, but I do not welcome everyday similarity either. I try to find the edge at the intersection of modernity and tradition.” Shapiro thus continues the tradition of the Maly Theater, known for its negative attitude to the so-called conceptual direction and its tendency to modernize the dramatic heritage. The classics, to which Gorky is included, are treated with care on this stage, conservatively in the best sense.

Judging by the reviews that are collected on the website of the Maly Theater (more than twenty in number), the director managed to create a performance that is rare in today's times and impresses. At the same time, the play caused extremely contradictory reactions from professional critics both in the assessment and in the interpretation of the subject matter. The first announcements of the theater about this project caused bewilderment: "Children of the Sun" in the Maly, staged by Shapiro? Alla Sheveleva, a critic of the Arkado online magazine, opens her review with the words: “Civil and social pathos are not in fashion today. Especially in the form in which Maxim Gorky offered to explain to his heroes. In the further course of the argument, the reviewer convinces us that Shapiro did not in any way try to resurrect the textbook Gorky on the stage of the Maly Theater, i.e. leading writer of the Soviet era. But other critics - although they remained in the minority - understood the theatrical event in this way. “The once topical play ... now seems to be a dense anachronism,” says Marina Davydova (“Izvestia”), and Maya Odina (“Afisha”) echoes her: “Whatever the replica is a slogan, whatever the scene, then love ... From I want to run away from the Maly Theater from deep boredom - such clumsy, senseless and endless play Gorky seems now. On the reverse, i.e. Viktor Kozhemyako, critic of Pravda, reacted with an unconditionally positive assessment, but, in essence, with the same tendency: “Gorky’s artistic genius is belittled in every possible way ... To see how great he really is, it is enough to come to this performance of the Maly Theater.” The author has no doubt that the founder of socialist realism was returned to the Russian audience on the stage of the Maly Theater and that this Gorky is an eternal and unshakable monument (“Classics are classics.”)

In contrast to such obviously simplified concepts, the already cited Alla Sheveleva asserts that Shapiro “found a completely new approach”, and this opinion, despite the difference in points of view in particular, is shared by most critics. First of all, they praise the high artistic level of the performance. Grigory Zaslavsky (" Independent newspaper”) clearly describes the strong effect of the actors’ performance on the audience of the premiere: “Three and a quarter hours is a lot in modern times, but when the performance ends, the hall applauds for another seven minutes, many standing. The hall listens to kilometers of text with sincere interest.” Almost all the actors are good, simply wonderful, the author declares, what happens on the stage, which only in rare cases succeeds: “there is born and dies the whole world". Vasily Bochkarov's performance as an armchair scientist is brilliant. He - in the description of the critic Anna Gordeeva (Vremya Novostey) - "moving around the rooms with a quick step (now he won’t have time to run, and something in the test tubes will explode!)" - perfectly denotes this scientific obsession with himself and absolute blindness. ( For the performance of the other actors, see the extensive excerpt from Natalia Kaminskaya's review in the box.)

The main holiday of the performance is the acting ensemble

The inhabitants of the Protasovs' house live by their human inclinations and weaknesses, not knowing that a hurricane of change is already howling behind the walls. Only the sister of the protagonist Liza foresees trouble, but she is ill for some reason. mental illness, and her forebodings give off a decadent obsession, very fashionable at the beginning of the 20th century. Lyudmila Titova perfectly conveys this ill health - she has a strange tense plasticity, a concentrated "unseeing" look.

Generally main holiday this performance took place, and it is called "acting ensemble". Here they play meaningfully, deeply and confidently, with the most accurate details, with delicious details. In alliance with professional, intelligible direction, the artists of the Maly are able to deliver real pleasure to the viewer. Evgenia Glushenko - Melania Chepurnaya, the one who is in love with a scientist, wonderfully plays the naive ardor and sincere delight of the nouveau riche in front of people of mental labor. She is drawn to this house, where it is warm, beautiful and carefree. Melania is funny, vulgar, but also terribly lonely, and this human intelligibility makes her sympathetic.

Ludmila Polyakova works luxuriously as a nanny. That's who also senses trouble, but at his own, troublesome, common people's level, which in this house is decidedly not considered by anyone. Viktor Nizovoy plays the veterinarian Chepurny, unhappily in love with Liza, and we have before us the drama of a strong, quite earthly, but torn unbearable burden human feelings. And Gleb Podgorodinsky (artist Vagin) with inimitable grace plays a representative of bohemia. Gorky put into his mouth obviously mocking texts, endless declarations of love, full of prettiness and literary archaisms. But with the actor, this is also humanized, colored by understandable confusion and loneliness. But the worker Egor is truly terrible, Alexander Korshunov from the very first scene makes you feel both drunken dope and the explosive senseless energy of this representative of the proletariat, so dear to Protasov's heart. The scene is good when, with Jesuit stupid persistence, he sends the beautiful and noble Elena Protasova (Svetlana Amanova) to his wife, who has caught cholera.

Natalia Kaminskaya: New board on old accounts. "Culture", 10/22/2008
http://www.maly.ru/repertuar/detisolnca/detisolnca.html.

Few critics noted the unexpected closeness of the play's tone to Chekhov's dramaturgy. Shapiro discovered this "Chekhovian" potential in the play "Children of the Sun" by the method of that careful psychological work on each role, the roots of which go back to the tradition of Chekhov and Gorky working together in the Moscow Art Theater. This approach to Gorky's material is expressed by the well-known depoliticization of the topic and the softening of pathos and acute conflicts. Klara Saeva (Interfax) believes that Gorky here is already unrecognizably adapted to Chekhov's dramaturgy: “Shapiro creates on stage in idyllic conditions family drama with many actors, tragic and comic - without sharp intrigues and passions, without aggression. The author rightly notes that "Gorky is not staged like that," but talking about "idyllic conditions" is clearly an exaggeration. By shaking his tone, Shapiro opens up a new approach for today's public, close to its mood not for pathos, but for a more observant, curious attitude towards life on stage, albeit historically remote and "strange". But this does not exclude the lively sympathy of the audience for this life. A. Sheveleva characterizes the director's work on Gorky's text with the following words: “Where the author has an anguish, he has bitterness. For fiery civil monologues, he finds a confessional intonation. The action rests on an extremely subtle, virtuoso acting game." Thus, the viewer not only evokes sympathy for individual characters, but also a general “premonition of a catastrophe”, which determines the atmosphere of the performance.

“This is a quiet, gentle and lyrical performance about“ Chekhov’s people ”and a ruined meaningless life,” says Yevgenia Shmeleva (“New News”), but the director was not satisfied with this result, the critic adds, the production is an attempt to “get through to the deaf-blind-mute intelligentsia.” And this attempt, according to critics, "failed in the bud." Gorky's maxims once inspired, today it is impossible to listen to them without a smile. Similar doubts about the actual effectiveness of the performance are expressed in other reviews. Marina Davydova ("Izvestia") believes that the conflicts described in "Children of the Sun" belong to the distant past. Trend modern life"not in the isolation of the educated class from the people, but in the blurring of all and all social boundaries." If the intelligentsia disappears, it will not be because it will be swept away by the hurricane of revolution, but because it will voluntarily agree to "serve the tastes and needs of an aggressive and ubiquitous plebs." Thus, it turns out that - despite the irrelevance of the conflicts asserted by the critic - there is still some common denominator in the behavior of the Gorky and today's intelligentsia. It consists in the weakness, spinelessness, opportunism of the country's cultural elite. Several sharply polemical remarks in our selection of reviews pertain to this topic. Grigory Zaslavsky (Nezavisimaya Gazeta) points out that in "Children of the Sun" all these scientists and artists, and all their relatives, are "meaningless, aimless, cowardly people." And such representatives of the intelligentsia have remained until our days. The critic is not even afraid to cite with approval the words of Lenin, who called the intelligentsia "the master of the nation." “Unpleasant, of course, but what can you do?! - right." According to the writer Lev Anninsky (Izvestia), Children of the Sun sound “deep and powerful” right now, when the role of science is again being questioned and “ Orthodox grace"displaced all "chemistry-physics" from the forefront of culture. Natalia Kaminskaya (“Culture”) vigorously argues with those who declare the play irrelevant: “Is (the topic) really irrelevant, if the entire history of the Russian intelligentsia can be viewed both as a series of dazzling breakthroughs of the spirit and with the same success as a consistent chain of social and spiritual bankruptcies ? According to the criticism, the second of these interpretations is more suitable for the current moment. be born today new Alexey Maksimovich, he would not write about the storm outside the walls of the house, but "about the viscous swamp of the so-called stable existence." Kaminskaya, however, at the end of her review, expresses an idea that slightly softens her sharp judgment about the crisis state of today's culture: “If the theater still presents a certain strict account to its intellectual labor proletarians, then these same proletarians still exist. Which is somewhat reassuring."

This judgment can be attributed not only to the performance itself, but also to the entire complex of critical reviews about Children of the Sun at the Maly Theater. Together they represent interesting conversation, in which, with few exceptions, not stereotypes of one or another ideological direction are expressed, but individual opinions based on personal impressions in auditorium and formulated with the experience of professionals. I personally liked in particular those reviews in which the authors openly admit to a certain confusion, indecision in understanding their experiences. Maya Folkinstein (10 Strastnoy Boulevard) talks about her thoughts at the moment when the lights in the auditorium come on. She comes to the realization that Protasov's call to always remain people, "light and bright as the sun," is addressed not only to the rioters, "but also to us, the audience." At first, such a frank apart is embarrassing. But then, according to her, “you realize all the accuracy, and most importantly, the timeliness of the almost preachy message of the creators of the play.”

The production of "Children of the Sun" at the Maly Theater and the reviews on it indicate that even in conditions of cultural stagnation it is possible to produce high-quality theatrical performances; at the same time, they testify to the presence of the same high-quality professional criticism, which is capable of revealing the multi-valued potential of such an event. Adolf Shapiro said in an interview before the premiere: "The task of the theater is to bring a person out of a state of spiritual static into a state of spiritual dynamics." In "Children of the Sun" he apparently succeeded in such a mobilization of the viewer. For readers and admirers of Maxim Gorky, this production is a reason for joy, it marks the next stage in the process of discovering the “unknown Gorky”.

The play tells about an intelligent family in a period of turbulent social change. The chemist Pavel Fedorovich Protasov is far from life and the people. He lives by his experiences, believing that it is science that will bring happiness to people. He does not delve into politics or domestic affairs. Such a stranger in the world of passions and everyday life. His wife Elena Nikolaevna suffers from the fact that her husband does not pay attention to her at all. In order to somehow have fun and distract from her problems, she arranges meetings with the talent of a director. different people and then see what happens. Along the way, the woman drives Vagina to a passionate frenzy. This artist-reasoner needs it (as well as fame) in order to satisfy ambitions.

In a conversation with the mechanic Egor, this proletarian who constantly beats his wife on business and without, Protasov looks complete idiot. Protasov will not be able to understand why the embittered talented master will then strangle him. The drunkard Yakov Troshina Protasov also wants to instruct to live correctly.

Commoners veterinarian Chepurnoy and his sister Melania Kirpicheva, who buried her old rich husband, are comic characters. In addition, both of them are passionately and desperately in love. The simple-hearted fool Melania loves the owner of the house, Protasov. All her love ends with a shameful explanation with Protasov. The educated "bestial doctor" Boris Chepurnoy is in love with Protasov's sister Lisa. His skeptical outlook on life and loss of purpose in life lead to tragic ending- suicide.

While dramas are brewing around, the Protasov family frown in disgust and wait for the moment when everything will somehow pass by itself and a serene life will come.

The only "live" character trying to figure everything out is Lisa. She fears the future as she senses a gulf separating her environment from common people who lives in poverty and ignorance. She strives to explain that millions of people are angry and this anger will soon break out. But no one listens to her, everyone just treats.

The nascent capitalist merchant Nazar Avdeevich and his son are constantly trying to buy land from Protasov, as well as use the knowledge of the intelligentsia to enrich themselves. Nazar Avdeevich actively adapts the chemist Protasov to make beer bottles.

The finale of the play is still talking about a crowd of brutal lumpens who have risen against the “children of the sun”, who are far from the life and problems of the workers.

(No ratings yet)

Other writings:

1. Comparing the work of a writer on a novel and a play, Gorky noted that “when writing a novel, the writer uses two methods: dialogue and description. The playwright uses only dialogue. He, so to speak, works with a bare word ... ". Indeed, in any work of art (except for a dramaturgic) one can Read More ......
2. scenic, theatrical art is built on a person and on a word, and in comedy and drama, the word has a much more weighty and impressive meaning than in a novel, in a story. M. Gorky Gorky's statement, given in the epigraph, testifies to his attitude towards the language Read More ......
3. Before Sunrise The autobiographical and scientific story “Before Sunrise” is a confessional story about how the author tried to overcome his melancholy and fear of life. He considered this fear to be his mental illness, and not at all a feature of talent, and tried to overcome himself, Read More ......
4. Descendants of the sun A little boy. Gentle, sad child. He loves mother, father and nature. For now, he sleeps in his bliss. And it's growing. And he sees dreams, pure, joyful dreams about a future in which he will become a great man. No one knew who Read More ......
5. Before Sunset The action takes place after the First World War in a large German city. In the mansion of seventy-year-old Matthias Clausen, a well-groomed gentleman, secret commerce adviser, his anniversary is celebrated. A festive atmosphere reigns in the house, many guests have arrived. The legal adviser is respected by all Read More ......
6. A little sun in cold water Journalist Gilles Lantier, now thirty-five, is depressed. Almost every day he wakes up at dawn, his heart pounding with what he calls the fear of life. He has an attractive appearance interesting profession. Read More ......
7. Song about petrel Grey-haired sea plain. Above it, the wind gathers clouds. In the space between the clouds and the sea, the Petrel bird soars. It looks like black lightning. Sometimes he touches the waves with his wing, then quickly rises to the clouds and screams. This is a cry Read More ......
8. At the bottom, the piece contains, as it were, two parallel actions. The first is social and everyday and the second is philosophical. Both actions develop in parallel, not intertwined. There are, as it were, two planes in the play: external and internal. External plan. In an overnight stay owned by Read More ......

Gorky Maxim

Children of the Sun

Gorky A.M.

Children of the Sun

CHARACTERS:

Pavel Fedorovich Protasov.

Lisa, his sister.

Elena Nikolaevna, his wife.

Dmitry Sergeevich Vagin.

Boris Nikolaevich Chepurnoy.

Melania, his sister.

Nazar Avdeevich.

Misha, his son.

Egor, locksmith.

Avdotya, his wife.

Yakov Troshin.

Antonovna, nanny.

Fima, the maid.

Lusha, the maid.

STEP ONE

Old bar house. Large, semi-dark room; in its left wall there is a window and a door overlooking the terrace; in the corner is a staircase upstairs where Lisa lives; at the back of the room there is an arch, behind it is a dining room; in the right corner - the door to Elena. Bookcases, heavy, antique furniture, expensive publications on the tables, portraits on the walls scientific naturalists. Someone's bust is whitening on the closet. At the window to the left - large round table; Protasov is sitting in front of him, leafing through some pamphlet and watching a flask with some liquid heat up on an alcohol lamp. Roman is busy on the terrace under the window, muffled and dejectedly singing a song. This singing worries Protasov.

Protasov. Listen, janitor!

Roman (in the window). What?

Protasov. Would you leave... huh?

Novel. Where?

Protasov. In general ... you bother me a little ...

Novel. And the owner ordered ... fix it, he says ...

Antonovna (enters from the dining-room). Look, dirty trick... came here...

Protasov. Shut up old lady...

Antonovna. Not enough space for you in your rooms...

Protasov. Please don't go there... I smoked there...

Antonovna. And now you're going to let loose here... Let me at least open the door...

Protasov (hurriedly). Don't, don't! Oh, you... old woman!... I'm not asking you... You can persuade the janitor to go away... otherwise he bellows...

Antonovna (at the window). Well, what are you doing here? Leave!

Novel. But what about ... the owner ordered ...

Antonovna. Go, go! After you do...

Novel. Well, all right... (He leaves with a roar.)

Antonovna (grouchily). You'll suffocate someday... There, they say, cholera is coming. The general's son too ... but he does not know what he is doing, only you let in unpleasant smells ...

Protasov. Wait, old woman... I'll be a general too...

Antonovna. You will walk the world. The house burned down on its chemistry with physics.

Protasov. Physics, old woman, not physics... And please leave me alone...

Antonovna. There this one came... Yegorka...

Protasov. Call him here...

Antonovna. Pashenka! Tell him, the villain, what is he doing? Well, yesterday again he beat his wife with a mortal battle.

Protasov. Ok I'll say...

(Liza inaudibly descends the stairs, stops in front of the closet, quietly opens it.)

Antonovna. Yes, you - threaten ... I, they say, will give you!

Protasov. I'll scare him! Don't worry, old woman, go...

Antonovna. Must be strict. And then you talk to all people like gentlemen ...

Protasov. Well, it will, old woman! Elena - at home?

Antonovna. Not yet. As she went after breakfast to Vagina, she has not been since that time ... Look - you miss your wife ...

Protasov. Old woman, don't talk nonsense! I will get angry.

Lisa. Nanny! You're stopping Pavel from doing...

Protasov. Yeah... are you there? Well?

Lisa. Nothing...

Antonovna. It's time for you, Lizonka, to drink milk.

Lisa. I know:

Antonovna. But about Elena Nikolaevna, I’ll still say: if I were in her place, I would purposely make up an affair with someone ... There is no attention to a woman ... It can be seen that he ate porridge, a cup on the floor ... And there are no children ... what same pleasure to a woman? Well, she and...

Protasov. Old woman! I'm getting angry... go away! What ... resin!

Antonovna. Well, well ... fierce! Don't forget about Yegorka... (He walks.) There's milk in the dining room, Lizonka... And the drops - did you drink?

Lisa. Yes Yes!

Antonovna. That's it... (Goes into the dining room.)

Protasov (looking around). Amazing old lady! Immortal as stupidity... and just as intrusive... How are you, Liza?

Lisa. Good.

Protasov. That's wonderful! (Sings.) It's wonderful... it's wonderful...

Lisa. And the nurse is right, you know?

Protasov. I doubt. Old people are rarely right... The truth is always with the newborn. Lisa, look, here I have simple yeast.

Lisa. The nanny is right when she says that you pay little attention to Elena ...

PROTASOV (with chagrin, but gently). How you interfere with me - you and the nanny! Is Lena dumb? After all, she herself could tell me ... if I did something ... somehow not in the right way, and ... in general there ... But she is silent! What's the matter?

(Yegor comes out of the dining room, a little drunk.) Aha - here is Yegor! Hello Egor!

Egor. Good health.

Protasov. You see, what's the matter, Egor: you need to arrange a small brazier ... with a lid ... such a cone-shaped lid, and at the top of its round hole, coming out like a pipe ... understand?

Egor. Understand. Can.

Protasov. I have a drawing... where is it? Come here...

(He leads Egor into the dining room. Chepurnaya knocks on the door from the terrace,

Lisa opens the door to him.)

Chepurnaya. Hey, at home? Good afternoon!

Lisa. Hello...

Chepurnoy (wiggles his nose). And a colleague at home, as you can smell...

Lisa. Where are you from?

Chepurnaya. But from practice. The maid's tail was crushed by the door to the dog of the wife of the manager of the Treasury, - so I treated that dog's tail, and they gave me three karbovanets for this, - here they are! I wanted to buy you sweets, but I thought: perhaps it’s embarrassing to treat you with dog money, and I didn’t buy it.

Lisa. And well done ... sit down ...

Chepurnaya. However, from this brew the smell is of dubious pleasantness. Colleague, it's already boiling!

Protasov (running out). No need to boil! Well, what is it?! What didn't you say, gentlemen?

Chepurnaya. Yes, I said that it boils ...

Protasov (disappointedly). But - understand: I do not need at all to boil!

(Egor exits.)

Lisa. Who knew that, Paul?

Protasov (grunts). Mm ... damn! .. Now I have to again ...

Egor. Pavel Fyodorovich, give me a ruble...

Protasov. Rublevka? Yep... now! (Searching in all pockets.) Liza, you don't have any?

Lisa. No. Nanny has...

Chepurnaya. And I have too ... here are three!

Protasov. Three? Give me, please... Here,

Egor, three, is it all the same?

Egor. Okay... let's settle... Thank you! Farewell...

Lisa. Pavel, the nanny asked you to tell him... did you forget?

Protasov. What to say? Oh yes! Um... yes! Egor, you... sit down, please! Here... Maybe you'll tell yourself, Liza? ... as if you are beating your wife? Excuse me, Yegor...

Yegor (gets up from his chair). Beau...

Protasov. Yes? But, you know, it's not good... I assure you!

Yegor (sullenly). What's good...

Protasov. You understand? So why are you fighting? This is an atrocity, Yegor... this must be left to you... You are a human being, you are a rational being, you are the brightest, most beautiful phenomenon on earth...

Yegor (smiling). I?

Protasov. Well, yes!

Egor. Barin! And you would ask first why I beat her?

Protasov. But - understand: you can not beat! A man shouldn't, can't beat a man... it's so clear, Yegor!

Yegor (with a smile). And they beat me ... and very much ... If you say about my wife ... maybe she is not a person, but - hell ...

Protasov. What nonsense! What is hell?

Yegor (resolutely). Farewell! And I will beat her ... until she stands before me like grass before the wind, I will beat her! (Goes to the dining room.)

Protasov. Listen, Egor! You said it yourself... gone! And, it seems, he was offended ... How stupid it turned out ... This nanny is always ... arranging something ... ridiculous! (With annoyance, he goes behind the curtain.)

Chepurnaya. Colleague spoke very convincingly!

Lisa. Dear Pavel... he is always funny!

Chepurnaya. I would, you know, that Yegor for a forelock and a stick!

Lisa. Boris Nikolaevich!

Chepurnaya. And what? Well, sorry if it's rude. But he reasoned correctly: he was beaten, so he can beat! I continue: you should still beat him ...

Lisa. I beg you... why do you say that, why?

Chepurnaya. Yes, all punitive laws are built on the same logic!

Lisa. You know how I dislike, how I fear everything rough... and you always, as if on purpose, tease me! Wait... This locksmith... he gives me a feeling of fear. He's so... dark... and those huge hurt eyes... I think I've seen them before... then, there, in the crowd...

Chepurnaya. Eh, don't remember! Well his...

Lisa. Is it possible to forget about it?

Chepurnaya. What's the point?

Lisa. Where blood has been spilled, flowers will never grow...

Chepurnaya. And how they grow!

Liza (gets up and walks around). Only hatred grows there... When I hear something rough, sharp, when I see red, a dreary horror rises in my soul, and immediately this brutal, black crowd, bloody faces, pools of warm red blood on the sand rise before my eyes. ...

Chepurnaya. Well, again you will agree to a fit ...

Lisa. And at my feet - a young man with a broken head ... he crawls somewhere, blood flows down his cheek and neck, he raises his head to the sky ... I see his cloudy eyes, open mouth and teeth stained with blood .. ... his head falls face down in the sand ... face ...

My grandfather collected a home library. It contained many collected works of the classics and Soviet writers. They stood in even rows on the shelves, thick books in dark bindings, with embossed spines... Sometimes there were books with bright covers among them. So one day my attention was attracted by the book "Children of the Sun". It had a red cover with a similar design

It was interesting for me to read "Childhood", "In People", the stories of Maxim Gorky, but this book "did not go", it fell into my hands too early :)

Recently I took Gorky's plays from the library and plunged into his work of 1900-1905.
The play "Children of the Sun" was written in January - February 1905 in the Peter and Paul Fortress, where M. Gorky was imprisoned after his arrest in the case of January 9, "Bloody Sunday".
It was behind bars that the writer came up with a story about the chemist Pavel Protasov, who lives in the world of science and is captivated by lofty ideas about the purpose of the intelligentsia, not noticing the tragicomic discord in his own family and its environment.
You read and it seems that the characters are "not of this world." Talk about lofty goals, but they do not understand ordinary life at all.
Main character- chemist Pavel Protasov, a scientist who dreamed all his life in the laboratory walls to make man the king of nature:
I see how life grows and develops, how, yielding to the stubborn searches of my thought, it reveals before me its deep, its wonderful secrets. I see myself as the master of many things; I know man will be the master of everything! Everything that grows becomes more complex; people are ever increasing their demands on life and on themselves... Once upon a time, under a ray of the sun, an insignificant and shapeless piece of protein flared up to life, multiplied, formed into an eagle and a lion and a man; the time will come, from us, people, from all people, a majestic, slender organism will arise to life - humanity! Humanity, gentlemen! Then all its cells will have a past full of great conquests of thought - our work! The present is free, friendly labor for the enjoyment of labor, and the future - I feel it, I see it - it is beautiful. Humanity is growing and maturing. This is life, this is the meaning of it!
The fear of death is what prevents people from being brave, beautiful, free people! It hangs over them like a black cloud, covers the earth with shadows, ghosts are born from it. He makes them stray off the straight path to freedom, off the broad road of experience. He encourages them to make hasty ugly guesses about the meaning of being, he frightens the mind, and then thought creates delusions! But we, we, people, children of the sun, the bright source of life, born of the sun, we will overcome the dark fear of death! We are children of the sun! It is it that burns in our blood, it is it that gives rise to proud, fiery thoughts, illuminating the darkness of our bewilderment, it is the ocean of energy, beauty and soul-intoxicating joy!
Beautiful, sublime, but what is the reality?
His sister Lisa faced real life, in front of her eyes, a student was crushed in unrest. She was treated in the hospital for shock, but she did not fully recover ... She says to her brother:
You are all blind! Open your eyes; what you live by, your thoughts, your feelings, they are like flowers in a forest full of dusk and decay ... full of horror ... You are few, you are invisible on earth ...
Millions, not hundreds, are visible on the earth... and hatred is growing among the millions. you intoxicated beautiful words and in your thoughts, you don’t see it, but I saw how hatred broke out into the street and people, wild, embittered, exterminated each other with pleasure ... One day their anger will fall on you ... For what? For alienation from them, for inattention to their hard, inhuman life! Because you are well-fed and well-dressed... Hatred is blind, but you are bright, it will see you!
Protasov - how big child. He is passionate about the creation of a homunculus, does not solve any housing and financial problems. When the householder invites him to become the manager of a chemical factory, he is indignant: "technical chemistry does not interest me!" He does not think on what means he will support his wife and sister. Protasov does not pay any attention to his wife Elena, only when his friend, the artist Vagin, says: "I love your wife", something happens between them serious conversation:
Elena . I feel like you don't need me. I didn't play any role in your life. You are distant and alien to me. Who am I to you? You never asked how I live, what I think ...
Protasov. Didn't ask? But... I don't have time to talk, ...how about my work? After all, either work or think about you ...

Sister Liza is afraid of life, afraid of her own fear and over and over again refuses the veterinarian Chepurny. Tormented by the rejection of his love, he "leaves for the Mogilev province" - Commits suicide... Upon learning of this, Lisa goes crazy...

Protasov is sent for a doctor, but the doctor himself runs to hide - an angry crowd is chasing him, a "cholera riot" has begun in the city
Locksmith Yegor, whose "golden hands" Protasov admires, turns out to be one of the instigators of the pogrom, b rushes at Protasov and grabs him by the collar:
Yep... a chemist! Gotcha? ...Guys! Chief stained... Medicines makes!
The courage of Elena, who was not afraid to shoot Yegor, and the janitor, who hit the Buyans on the heads with a board, saved Protasov .
And also Merchant Melania, who has fallen into the intelligentsia, walks after Protasov in vain. She adores some higher being in him, "You are my dear child... my beautiful child..."
In the lower levels of society, relations are no more human. The maid Fima sells herself to a rich old man, and the locksmith Yegor beats his wife with mortal combat. To Protasov’s arguments that “you can’t beat him,” he replies: “But I was beaten ... and very much, and my wife, maybe not a person.”

... The play is imbued with a premonition of revolutionary cataclysms. The word "man" in it does not sound proud. Gorky painted a gloomy picture of a society in which the connection between classes is broken and they are not able to create a new one. better world.
I came across a clipping from an old Soviet-era newspaper about a 1960 performance.

Pavel Fedorovich Protasov.

Lisa, his sister.

Elena Nikolaevna, his wife.

Dmitry Sergeevich Vagin.

Boris Nikolaevich Chepurnoy.

Melania, his sister.

Nazar Avdeevich.

Misha, his son.

Egor, locksmith.

Avdotya, his wife.

Yakov Troshin.

Antonovna, nanny.

Fima, housemaid.

Lusha, housemaid.

Novel.

Doctor.

Old bar house. Large, semi-dark room; in its left wall - a window and a door overlooking the terrace; in the corner - a staircase to the top, where Lisa lives; at the back of the room there is an arch, behind it is a dining room; in the right corner - the door to Elena. Bookcases, heavy, antique furniture, expensive publications on the tables, portraits of learned naturalists on the walls. Someone's bust is whitening on the closet. By the window to the left is a large round table; sitting in front of him Protasov, leafing through some pamphlet and watching how sausages are heated on an alcohol lamp with some kind of liquid. On the terrace under the window fiddling Roman and muffled, dejectedly sings a song. This singing worries Protasov.

Protasov. Listen, janitor!

Novel (in the window.) What?

Protasov. You would have gone ... huh?

Novel. Where?

Protasov. Actually... you're bothering me a little...

Novel. And the owner ordered ... fix it, he says ...

Antonovna (Entering from the dining room.) Look, dirty guy... came here...

Protasov. Shut up old lady...

Antonovna. Not enough space for you in your rooms...

Protasov. You, please don’t go there… I smoked there…

Antonovna. And now you’ll let go of the frenzy here ... Let me at least open the door ...

Protasov (hurriedly.) Don't, don't! Oh, you… old woman!.. I’m not asking you to… You can persuade the janitor to leave… otherwise he’ll mumble…

Antonovna (to the window.) Well, what are you doing here? Leave!

Novel. But what about ... the owner ordered ...

Antonovna. Go, go! After you do…

Novel. OK… (Exits with a roar.)

Antonovna (grouchily.) You will suffocate someday... There, they say, cholera is coming. The general's son too... but he doesn't know what he's doing, you only let in unpleasant odors...

Protasov. Wait, old woman... I'll be a general too...

Antonovna. You will walk the world. The house burned down on its chemistry with physics.

Protasov. Physics, old woman, not physics... And please leave me alone...

Antonovna. There this one came ... Yegorka ...

Protasov. Call him here...

Antonovna. Pashenka! Tell him, the villain, what is he doing? Well, yesterday again he beat his wife with a mortal battle.

Protasov. Ok I'll say…

(Lisa quietly descends the stairs, – stops in front of a closet, quietly opens it.)

Antonovna. Yes, you - threaten ... I, they say, will give you!

Protasov. I'll scare him! Don't worry, old woman, go...

Antonovna. Must be strict. And then you talk to all the people just like the gentlemen ...

Protasov. Well, it will, old woman! Elena is at home?

Antonovna. Not yet. As she left after breakfast to Vagina, she has not been since that time ... Look - you miss your wife ...

Protasov. Old woman, don't talk nonsense! I will get angry.

Lisa. Nanny! You're stopping Pavel from doing...

Protasov. Yeah... are you here? Well?

Lisa. Nothing…

Antonovna. It's time for you, Lizonka, to drink milk.

Lisa. I know…

Antonovna. But about Elena Nikolaevna, I’ll still say: if I were in her place, I would purposely make up an affair with someone ... There is no attention to a woman ... It can be seen that he ate porridge, a cup on the floor ... And there are no children ... what a pleasure for a woman? Well, she and...

Protasov. Old woman! I'm getting angry... go away! What ... resin!

Antonovna. Well, well ... fierce! Don't forget about Egor... (Going.) There is milk in the dining room, Lizonka ... And drops - saw?

Lisa. Yes Yes!

Antonovna. Something... (Goes into the dining room.)

Protasov (looking around.) Amazing old lady! Immortal as stupidity... and just as intrusive... How are you, Liza?

Lisa. Good.

Protasov. That's wonderful! (Sings.) It's wonderful...it's wonderful...

Lisa. And the nurse is right, you know?

Protasov. I doubt. Old people are rarely right ... The truth is always with the newborn. Lisa, look, here I have simple yeast.

Lisa. The nanny is right when she says that you pay little attention to Elena ...

Protasov (angrily, but gently.) How you interfere with me - you and the nanny! Is Lena dumb? After all, she herself could tell me ... if I did something ... somehow not in the right way, and ... in general there ... But she is silent! What's the matter? (Yegor comes out of the dining room, a little drunk.) Aha - here is Egor! Hello Egor!

Egor. Good health.

Protasov. You see, what's the matter, Egor: you need to arrange a small brazier ... with a lid ... such a cone-shaped lid, and at the top of it - a round hole coming out like a pipe ... understand?

Egor. Understand. Can.

Protasov. I have a drawing... where is it? Come here…

(He leads Egor into the dining-room. Chepurnaya knocks on the terrace door, Liza opens it for him.)

Chepurnaya. Hey, at home? Good afternoon!

Lisa. Hello…

Chepurnaya (wiggles his nose.) And a colleague at home, as you can smell ...

Lisa. Where are you from?

Chepurnaya. But from practice. The maid of the wife of the manager of the Treasury Chamber crushed the tail with the door - so I treated that dog's tail, and they gave me three karbovanets for this - here they are! I wanted to buy you sweets, but I thought: perhaps it’s embarrassing to treat you with dog money, and I didn’t buy it.

Lisa. And well done ... sit down ...

Chepurnaya. However, this brew smells of dubious pleasantness. Colleague, it's already boiling!

Protasov (running out.) No need to boil! Well, what is it?! What didn't you say, gentlemen?

Chepurnaya. Yes, I said that it boils ...

Protasov (sadly.) But - understand: I don’t need it to boil at all!

(Egor exits.)

Lisa. Who knew that, Paul?

Protasov (grunts) Mm ... damn! .. Now I have to again ...

Egor. Pavel Fedorovich, give me a ruble...

Protasov. Rublevka? Yep... now! (Looks in all pockets.) Lisa, don't you?

Lisa. No. Nanny has...

Chepurnaya. And I have too ... here are three!

Protasov. Three? Give me, please... Here, Yegor, three, is it all the same?

Egor. Okay… let's settle… Thank you! Farewell…

Lisa. Pavel, the nanny asked you to tell him... have you forgotten?

Protasov. What to say? Oh yes! Hm... yes! Egor, you… sit down, please! Here ... Maybe you yourself will say, Lisa? .. (Lisa shakes her head.) You see, Egor... I have to tell you... that is, it was the nanny who asked... the point is that you... seem to be beating your wife? Excuse me, Egor...

Egor (gets up from chair.) Beau…

Protasov. Yes? But, you know, it's not good ... I assure you!

Egor (sullenly.) What's good…

Protasov. You understand? So why are you fighting? This is an atrocity, Yegor... this should be left to you... You are a human being, you are a rational being, you are the brightest, most beautiful phenomenon on earth...

Egor (grinning.) I?

Protasov. Well, yes!

Egor. Barin! And you would ask first why I beat her?

Protasov. But - understand, you can’t beat ’ A man shouldn’t beat a man, he can’t beat ... it’s so clear, Yegor!