One of the most prominent Russian playwrights is Alexander Ostrovsky. "Profitable place" ( summary works will be the subject of this review) is a play that occupies a prominent place in his work. It was published in 1856, but it was not allowed to be staged in the theater until seven years later. There are several notable stage productions of the work. One of the most popular is working with A. Mironov in one of the main roles.

time and place

The playwright Ostrovsky chose Old Moscow by the action of some of his famous works. “A profitable place” (a summary of the play should begin with a description of the morning of the main characters, since it is in this scene that the reader gets to know them and learns about their characters and social position) is a work that is no exception.

You should also pay attention to the time of events - the first years of the reign of Emperor Alexander II. It was a time when serious changes were brewing in society in the economic, political and cultural spheres. This circumstance should always be remembered when analyzing this work, as the author reflected this spirit of change in the narrative.

Introduction

A real master of describing and depicting the life and life of the middle class is Ostrovsky. “Profitable Place” (a brief summary of this new work of the writer must be divided into several semantic parts for the convenience of understanding the composition) is a play that reflects the basic creative principles of the playwright.

At the beginning, the reader is introduced to the main actors this story: Vyshnevsky, an old, sickly man, and his attractive young wife, Anna Pavlovna, who is somewhat coquettish. From their conversation it becomes clear that the relationship of the spouses leaves much to be desired: Anna Pavlovna is cold and indifferent towards her husband, who is very unhappy with this. He convinces her of his love and devotion, but his wife still does not pay any attention to him.

The plot of intrigue

witty social criticism Ostrovsky skillfully combined with subtle humor in his plays. "Profitable place", the summary of which must be supplemented with an indication of what served as the impetus for the development of the plot, is a work that is considered one of the best in the author's work. The beginning of the development of the action can be considered the receipt by Anna Pavlovna love letter from a middle-aged man who, however, was already married. A cunning woman decides to teach an unlucky admirer a lesson.

Appearance of other characters

Ostrovsky's plays are distinguished by the dynamic development of the plot, with an emphasis on ridiculing the social vices of the middle class. In this work, the reader is introduced to typical representatives urban bureaucracy, which are represented by Vyshnevsky's subordinates, Yusov and Belogubov.

The first one is already old for years, so he is experienced in record keeping, although his occupations are obviously not something outstanding. However, he enjoys the trust of his boss, which he is very proud of. The second is directly subordinated to him. He is young and somewhat inexperienced: for example, Belogubov himself admits that he is not very good at reading and writing. Nevertheless, the young man intends to arrange his life well: he aims for the head of the clerk and wants to get married.

In the scene in question, the official asks Yusov to petition for his promotion, and he promises him his patronage.

Characteristics of Zhadov

Ostrovsky's plays are known in Russian literature for the fact that they present a whole gallery of portraits of the era contemporary to the playwright. The author's image of Vyshnevsky's nephew turned out to be especially colorful.

This young man lives in his uncle's house, serves with him, but intends to achieve independence, as he despises the way of life of his family and environment. In addition, from the very first appearance, he ridicules Belogubov for his poor knowledge of reading and writing. The reader will also learn that the young man does not want to do menial clerical work under the command of Yusov.

For such an independent position, the uncle wants to drive his nephew out of the house, so that he himself would try to live for a small salary. Soon the reason for this behavior becomes clear: Zhadov informs his aunt that he intends to marry and live by his own work.

quarrel between uncle and nephew

"Profitable Place" is a play based on the idea of ​​confrontation between the young and the older generations. The author outlined this idea already in the first part of the work, when he outlined the fundamental difference in the life positions of Zhadov and his uncle's employees.

So, Yusov expresses dissatisfaction with his work and expresses the hope that Vyshnevsky will fire him for his neglect of the service. This emerging confrontation reaches its final point in the scene of an open conflict between an uncle and his nephew. The first does not want Zhadov to marry a poor girl, but the young man, of course, does not want to give in. A stormy quarrel takes place between them, after which Vyshnevsky threatens his nephew to break off family relations with him. He learns from Yusov that Zhadov's fiancee is the daughter of a poor widow, and convinces the latter not to marry her daughter to him.

New heroes

Ostrovsky skillfully depicted the clash of the old order and new trends in his works. “Profitable place” (an analysis of the play can be offered to schoolchildren as an additional task on the work of the playwright, since it is a landmark in his creative career) is a work in which this thought runs like a red thread through the narrative. Before the second act, it is directly voiced by Yusov, who expresses fear because of the courage and audacity of today's youth and praises Vyshnevsky's lifestyle and actions.

In the second act, the author introduces the reader to new characters - the widow Kukushkina and her daughters: Yulenka, who is engaged to Belogubov, and Polina, Zhadov's beloved. Both girls are unintelligent, too naive, and their mother thinks only about financial situation future spouses.

In this scene, the author brings the characters together for the first time, and from their conversation we learn that Polina sincerely loves Zhadov, but this does not prevent her from thinking about money. Zhadov, on the other hand, dreams of an independent life and is preparing for material difficulties, which he is trying to accustom his bride to.

Description of the Kukushkins

The author portrayed Kukushkina as a practical woman: she is not afraid of the protagonist's freethinking. She wants to accommodate her homeless women and assures Yusov, who warned her against marriage, that Zhadov behaves impudently because he is single, but marriage, they say, will fix him.

The venerable widow thinks very worldly in this respect, evidently from her own experience. Here, one should immediately note the fundamental difference between the two sisters: if Yulia does not love Belogubov and deceives him, then Polina is sincerely attached to her fiancé.

The fate of the heroes in a year

The main character in Ostrovsky's comedy "Profitable Place" Zhadov married for love a woman whom he adored, but who, in her development, was inferior to him. Polina wanted to live in satiety and contentment, but in marriage she knew poverty and poverty. She turned out to be unprepared for such a life, which, in turn, disappointed Zhadov.

We learn about this from the scene in the tavern, where a year later the main characters of the play converge. Belogubov and Yusov also come here, and from their conversation the reader learns that the first one is doing excellently, since he does not hesitate to take bribes for his services. Yusov praises his ward, and Zhadov is ridiculed for not breaking out into people.

Belogubov offers him money and patronage, but Zhadov wants to live by honest work, and therefore rejects this offer with contempt and indignation. However, he himself is very ill from unsettled life, he drinks, after which the sexual kicks him out of the tavern.

Family life

A true description of the petty-bourgeois life is present in the play "Profitable Place". Ostrovsky, the plot of whose works is distinguished by the authenticity of the depiction of the characteristic phenomena of social reality of the mid-nineteenth century, very expressively conveyed the spirit of his era.

The fourth act of the play is devoted mainly to family life Zhadov. Polina feels unhappy in a squalid environment. She feels her poverty all the more acutely because her sister lives in full prosperity, and her husband indulges her in every possible way. Kukushkina advises her daughter to demand money from her husband. There is a quarrel between her and the returned Zhadov. Then Polina, following the example of her mother, begins to demand money from her husband. He urges her to endure poverty, but live honestly, after which Polina runs away, but Zhadov brings her back and decides to go to her uncle to ask for a place.

The final

The play "Profitable Place" ends with an unexpectedly happy denouement. Ostrovsky, whose genre is mainly comedy, was able to show even in humorous sketches public vices modernity. In the last, fifth, act, Zhadov humbly asks for a job from his uncle, but in response, the latter, along with Yusov, begin to ridicule him for betraying his principles to live independently and honestly, without stealing or taking bribes. Infuriated, the young man declares that there are honest people among his generation, abandons his intention and announces that he will no longer show weakness.

Polina reconciles with him, and the couple leave Vyshevsky's house. The latter, meanwhile, is experiencing family drama: Anna Pavlovna's affair is discovered, and the offended husband arranges a scene for her. In addition, he is going bankrupt, and Yusov is threatened with dismissal. The work ends with the fact that Vyshnevsky suffers a blow from the misfortunes that befell him.

So, Alexander Ostrovsky (“Profitable place” to that prime example) in his works skillfully combined historical realities and sharp satire. The play we have retold can be offered to schoolchildren for a more in-depth study of the writer's work.

Plum. Theater Satyricon. Press about the play

Kommersant, March 15, 2003

"Profitable place" hurts again

Ostrovsky's play in "Satyricon"

Yesterday at the Moscow theater "Satyricon" there was a premiere of the play "Profitable Place" based on the play by Alexander Ostrovsky, staged by the artistic director of the theater Konstantin Raikin. Surprisingly, but true: until yesterday evening, Russian classics had never been played in this theater. And now the fortress of "Satyricon" has surrendered. Kommersant columnist ROMAN DOLZHANSKY believes that the surrender was extremely successful.

One did not have to be a theatrical prophet to predict that Ostrovsky in the "Satyricon" would manage both without ponderous historical everyday life, and without pretty old-fashionedness in acting or juicy savoring replicas. Hanging lace and sitting on the benches is not from the repertoire of the theater of Konstantin Raikin. However, of all the great comedies of Ostrovsky, "Profitable Place" is the least touching of antiquity or intricate Russian catchphrases. There is no time for splendor: it is about how real life literally twists the young man's arms and straightens his brains, and therefore makes him forget about the high bookish ideals of honor and dignity. How the simple need to feed a family forces yesterday's truth-teller to step on the throat of his own song and go to a rich relative to ask him for a bread bureaucratic place.

Whenever staged, "Profitable Place" will always be in tune with the time, unless thoughtlessly staged, but really taken to heart by Ostrovsky. Meyerhold in the 1920s staged at the Theater of the Revolution - the performance was included in all textbooks. In the 60s, Mark Zakharov staged satire at the Theater - it turned out so modern that after a few performances it was banned altogether. So the play by Konstantin Raikin also hits the sore spot. True, now the viewer is in a completely different place than she was at least 20 years ago. In this sense, we can say that the performance of "Satyricon" with the help of Ostrovsky sets up an important social experiment.

If at that time the audience mentally applauded only Zhadov, the accuser of vices, now the audience also applauds uncle Vyshnevsky, a bribe taker with the appearance of a modern governor, who is trying to teach his nephew the basics of everyday practicality. Time seemed to have taken out of Ostrovsky's play that single vertical of truth, on which the "progressive" spectator should have relied. But Konstantin Raikin acutely felt that this "Profitable Place" not only did not crumble, but, on the contrary, became tougher and more dramatic. Behind each of the characters, that very notorious "own truth" is revealed, which gives the main conflict of the play an almost existential character. And behind Zhadov there is also "his own fault": why did he get married if he chose the path of lonely opposition to the code of life. It turns out that everyone is equally doomed, and no one is to blame, except for the one who made a person the way he was, is and will be.

The discovery of this objective truth takes place at a high degree of theatrical emotion. In the assertive and nervous performance of "Satyricon", the dialogues of the characters turn into open and furious clashes. Stage designer Boris Valuev created a strict black-and-white environment for Ostrovsky: a white portal above the stage and a narrowing white rug on the playground lead to black nowhere. And more than simple props are hidden there - stools, tables, chairs, armchairs, sofas, and all of them are on wheels. In addition to purely technical convenience for the speed of changing scenes, these wheels allow the characters, dressed in gray-white-black colors by the artist Maria Danilova, to ride around the stage without getting up from their seats. It seems to be the simplest idea, but it surprisingly exactly corresponds to the rhythm of the performance set by the director, and partly sets it herself.

However, no ideas of the artists and the director's guesses would have looked so convincing if "Profitable Place" had not been so well played. All roles are made convex and catchy, and many are frankly grotesque, but no one interferes with each other on stage. This is the rare case when your observer is sincerely annoyed at the lack of newspaper space: almost every actor, not excluding the students of the Moscow Art Theater School involved in the performance, has something to say on the merits. And about two, Denis Sukhanov and Grigory Siyatvinda, one cannot but say.

Denis Sukhanov plays Zhadov without any romantic halo. This lanky, tousled young man with a harsh voice is even somehow unpleasant - just as people with loud principles are unpleasant for others. It is necessary, but it is very difficult to respect him, because Mr. Sukhanov does not ask for manifestations of sympathy and the scene of forced demolition plays not as a tragic defeat, but almost as insanity of reason. The fact is that it is not education and not the presence of conscience that separates him from the bureaucratic world, but something psychophysical. Therefore, it is not so much a conflict of interests or a clash of worldviews that is played in the "Satyricon" between Zhadov and others, but a mismatch of blood types.

Grigory Siyatvinda plays the old official Yusov, the most colorful of the entire bureaucratic brotherhood of Ostrovsky, almost without make-up - the thickness of the suit, a gray brush of a mustache and big glasses. He is hilariously funny both in the little things of walking or inarticulate sounds, and in the "program" drunken dance in a tavern. And the manifestoes of Yusov's position in life are crowned with phantasmagoria: the old man jumps onto chairs, the servants begin to march to loud music and take him, screaming, somewhere into the darkness. There is something Gogol or Sukhovo-Kobylin in these semi-hysterical breakthroughs into the void. And the performance itself ends fantastically: the chairs-tables suddenly slowly float up, and everyone is deprived of the last support, again without dividing into right and wrong.

Russian newspaper, March 17, 2003

Alena Karas

local dances

Konstantin Raikin staged the famous play by Ostrovsky in the "Satyricon"

In the NEW performance by Konstantin Raikin, you can make several discoveries at once. Raikin is one of the most lively and unpredictable personalities of the national theater. You can never say for sure what exactly he will do next time, what heights he will reach. In "Profitable Place" Raikin found himself as a subtle director and an excellent teacher. And although the first act is indescribably boring, and the actors sometimes scream so that even the microphones become embarrassed, several brilliant mise-en-scenes and roles make "Profitable Place" the highlight of the season.

Together with the artist Boris Valuev and the elegant costumes of Maria Danilova, he created a space suitable more for a dance than a dramatic performance - laconic, with a large free surface, on which, easily sliding, the actors dance their bizarre dances, and with them chairs, tables, furniture on wheels. Everything floats and sways in search of a profitable place, and this ship waltz makes one's head spin, inexorably subordinating the living space to itself. It seems that the image of this endless sliding, the rhythm of a rollicking, reckless, eccentric dance was born in Raikin earlier than all the other details of the performance. Actually, all the characters of the performance express themselves through dance, each in a different way. The servants are dancing in Vyshnevsky's house (Yuri Lakhin is perhaps the only monumental and motionless face of the performance, the master of life), dragging tables and chairs behind them. Hot Zhadov is dancing, and in his "dances" the arrogant arrogance of the young proud man, who despises any kind of servility, is replaced by the gait of a driven horse - a frantic enumeration of legs around its own axis. With dance changes come profound changes and psychological states. Raikin the director, following Raikin the actor, adopted Meyerhold's credo - for him the movement of character is equal to the movement as such, and therefore each change in feeling and thought corresponds to a change in gesture. When the young Denis Sukhanov - Zhadov, filled with a sense of boundless freedom, widely waving his legs and arms, dances his eccentric waltz, resonating about dignity on the go, it seems that his no less eccentric head of hair - a mop of unruly hair - waltzes with him. A sort of arrogant and spoiled "major", whose sermons are not paid for either by knowledge or experience. Perhaps only - an innate sense of truth. All further changes in his dance and character are unexpected. And therefore especially valuable.

But we digress from the main "dancer" - the old official in Vyshnevsky's office, Akim Akimych Yusov. Plays it - and this showed the mischief, humor and pedagogical courage of Raikin - Grigory Siyatvinda. A young black actor, who over the past two seasons has managed to get involved in many different projects, danced the role of Yusov with extreme temperament and intelligence. Small, with a solid belly, he does not walk, but rolls around the stage. A cunning opportunist who has risen from the very bottom, has never graduated from any university and stands firm on that - a kind of favorite character in Russian life, a homespun type who has been proving for centuries that even without any science and enlightenment one can comfortably settle in the world. It was for him, Yusov - Siyatvindy, that Raikin came up with the dance hit of the whole performance. Young officials, led by the sycophant Belogubov, who is celebrating a good bribe, beg the old man to "take a walk." The old man would like to, but the incorruptible Zhadov, who is sitting at the next table, confuses him. Suddenly the music began to play, and all doubts - to the side, he no longer belongs to himself. He did not yet understand what was the matter, and his eye swam in a kind of blissful languor; in self-forgetfulness they will throw off their frock coat - and "went." In Ostrovsky's wonderful catchphrase, the actor discerned a phantasmagoric dance, not even a dance, but a moan and ecstasy of an ugly and wildly expressing soul, a moan earnest and incredible.

From this dance of Siyatvinda, Raikin's performance is gaining real momentum, becoming an artistic event. And although the actors will still scream and wave their arms immoderately, and although the "satiricon" rough excitement will take its toll more than once, the performance from this moment begins to take you entirely. Glafira Tarkhanova will dance her no less expressive dance in the performance. What a strange coincidence happened on the Moscow drama stage: for the second time in a row, the performance reminds us of the great roles of Maria Babanova - about Tanya in the play of the same name by Arbuzov and Polina in "Profitable Place", directed by Vsevolod Meyerhold. In Konstantin Raikin's new play, Polina (like Tanya at RAMT) is "danced" by a debutante - his student from the Moscow Art Theater School.

In her game, like that of Sukhanov and Siyatvinda, it is clear what kind of theater Raikin dreams of. About the theater, in which the feeling is extremely and accurately expressed in gesture.

Newstime, March 17, 2003

Dina Goder

Truthful and capricious

Konstantin Raikin staged "Profitable Place" in "Satyricon"

No, after all, Konstantin Arkadievich does not need to be a director. After all, he is fine. An artist comes out - you can't take your eyes off. He manages his theater wisely: if ten years ago, the Satyricon was perceived only as a stage on which, stomping and cackling, crowds of faceless youth rush, now its repertoire is full of good performances, and actors bright appeared. Raikin talks about the theater in an interesting way; for students at the Moscow Art Theater School, he is one of the most attentive and beloved teachers. Well, what does he care about?

Raikin could not stand it, he put on "Profitable Place". And as if he threw his theater back for those ten years. Again, young people rush around the stage, portraying numerous servants and it is not clear why moving furniture on wheels back and forth. Again, all the artists are screaming non-stop, straining their veins, waving their arms and bulging their eyes. And all as one, including the Satyricon prime ministers, look provincial and untalented. Not a single monologue will be said in simplicity - everyone runs back and runs after each phrase. The director's clichés are piled one on top of the other: a love explanation began - and a waltz began to play, and the sofa on which the lovers were sitting began to spin ... But the most important thing is that it is absolutely incomprehensible why this performance was staged, what they wanted to tell the world? But they obviously wanted something, otherwise they would not have made a program in the form of a Russian thousand-ruble note with the Yaroslavl Kremlin, high-ranking Vyshnevsky would not have looked like a noble banker in an expensive elegant suit, and the main character, a young truth-seeker who does not want to live with bribes, would not have walked in a modern light coat. (True, it is not clear what other costumes mean: tailcoats, top hats, hats with feathers, floor-length dresses and bureaucratic uniforms, but this is no longer important.)

Probably, "Profitable Place", one of Ostrovsky's main plays about the ugliness of the "old world" and the impossibility of preserving ideals, would have looked much better in the early 90s, but even now it could be somehow modernized. This is not. Playing Zhadov, Denis Sukhanov, the famous Satyricon Chanticleer, again prances, waves his red curls and endlessly resonates, first with a nonchalant air, and then - depicting nervousness, indignation and deep moral torment. A charming student of the Moscow Art Theater School-Studio Glafira Tarkhanova, who plays Polinka, screams and grimace all the time, thinking that this is how childish spontaneity looks at the beginning of the plot, and bitchiness at the end. I am not talking about others. However, all claims are attributed to the director. What do you want to do if the director believes that in the finale the main character should go to the forefront and angrily throw right into the hall: “I will wait for the time when the bribe-taker will be more afraid of the public court than the criminal court”! Admire his civil position? Applaud? Well, the audience, though somewhat confused, but obediently applauds.

"Satyricon" is a new theater, and its audience is rich, but also new - gullible and inexperienced. It is here that the audience whispers in excitement, not knowing how the story of Romeo and Juliet will end. As usual, if in a performance it is difficult to understand what exactly should be considered the main thing, the audience chooses the most interesting for itself. In Profitable Place, her main interest is not in denunciations of bribe-takers, but in stories about the upbringing of brides. About how they should lure promising suitors, and after the wedding be capricious, demanding more and more new gifts. Just during the scene of whims in the hall, my neighbor's cell phone rang from behind. Almost without lowering her voice, she told me that she was sitting in the theater and how she liked everything here. And then for a long time she twittered about shopping.

Newspaper, March 17, 2003

Artur Solomonov

Ostrovsky was converted

"Satyricon" presented to the public "Profitable Place" by A. Ostrovsky. The artistic director of the theater Konstantin Raikin acted as the director.

“Lord, how relevant Ostrovsky is!” - some spectator whispered when on the stage the desperate protagonist, having parted with the illusion of living honestly, tried to become an ordinary person: it’s normal to take bribes, to support his wife on them. And then after all, what happened: he loves his wife - he has no strength, but he feeds her only with phrases about honesty, duty and nobility. It did not work out - the wife was still starving.

The spectator who informed God that Ostrovsky is relevant is right. Money is like an element that determines actions, impulses, influencing basic instincts. And one more thing: when maxims were uttered from the stage that the husband is obliged to support his wife, that if the family is in poverty, there is no one else's fault, except for the husband, the audience took them for granted. Not a laugh. The absolute solidarity of the audience with these statements was felt. If such a collision were presented somewhere, say, in Berlin, then, apart from a polite interest in "their manners", it would not cause anything. And as for the power of money and how life makes a person first bend, then break, and then also proves that this should not have been done, it is quite universal.

Zhadov (Denis Sukhanov) - downright spring breeze. Fresh, naive, fidgety. He sits at the table - immediately knocks on it with his fingers. If he sees his beloved aunt, he will kiss her. When he starts talking about morality, he gets excited. Moralizing chicken. And in the scenes with his beloved Polinka, he turns into a dove. Well, what else to say? You just wait for his eyes to open and you can admire how he will then crow and coo. And “they raise his eyelids” collectively: his wife Polinka (Glafira Tarkhanova), and her mother (Anna Yakunina), and uncle (Yuri Lakhin), and the old official Yusov (Grigory Siyatvinda). Their efforts will be crowned with success.

A profitable place is what the protagonist proudly refuses. What he eventually crawls to on all fours. The idea of ​​a “profitable place” drives the play. Here are two girls who dream of changing their location: to leave their mother's house for their husband's house. Preferably, a profitable husband. Here are the officials ranting about places and places.

The relationship of irony and pathos is the most intriguing moment of the performance, and it seems that this relationship is not always subject to the director. Of course, this is how it should be: Zhadov, declaiming something about kindness, beauty and honesty, should evoke conflicting feelings: “well, you fool”, “he’s right, whatever one may say”, “life will break his horns, and actually it’s a pity”, “there is a lot of pride and honesty, but God did not give mind”, etc. Zhadov's uncertainty is quite artistic. That is, this vagueness of the position leads to a clearer formulation of the question.

Meyerhold, having staged "Profitable Place", reduced the presence on the stage of the so-called signs of everyday life to a minimum. This was supposed to save Ostrovsky from the label “everyday writer”, expose the passions of the characters and prevent them from perceiving the totality of things - here is a bedside table, a drawer, there is a key to it, here is a table, a chair that matches his tone, and it’s not like this today, and it won’t end tomorrow - as something oppressing the heroes, determining not only their way of life. Thus, the heroes, as it were, were freed from the burden of the past and the notorious influence of the environment. And then the reasons for the lack of freedom and pygmy characters had to be looked for deeper. In the performance of "Satyricon" everyone is allowed to say their word, everyone is right, and from "everyday life" - only sofas, chairs, tables on wheels, which instantly disappear, appear, and in the final they are completely pulled somewhere up. The play, which speaks of the power of things and money, is sparingly furnished, and the scenery is deliberately poor. That is, we go deeper. It's not about bribes and money, it's not about the desire to dress your wives beautifully - these are particulars. We are talking about the law of life that drives Ostrovsky's essentially cruel plays, where the happy and strong are right. Where “the truth is good, but happiness is better”, and “wolves and sheep” simply change places, new predators replace the old ones, and this is the essence of all reforms.

Ostrovsky's non-pathetic presentation of these truths, the falsely happy endings of some of his plays, artistic harmony, which can be mistaken for the harmony of the life he depicts - all this is also in "Profitable Place". And in the play "Satyricon". Raikin refused to take the side of Zhadov, who looks like a parody of Chatsky (who himself is almost a parody), and the side of those who personify the age-old way of life. He shortened some scenes, added a few today's words, let time go faster. And he left it to the public to decide on whose side it is and whether it is necessary to take sides in this dispute, and whether there is a dispute at all.

March 2003

Grigory Zaslavsky

Bribes are smooth

The theater "Satyricon" played the premiere of "Profitable Place"

Nimble armchairs and sofas, which easily and silently leave their seats and circle around the stage like brave dancers, are like a live cat in the theater - it is believed that a cat can disrupt the performance: against its natural background, any game turns into falsehood. In the new performance of the Satyricon Theater there is nothing on the stage but chairs, tables and two sofas put on wheels (scenography Boris Valuev). They move as if alive, easily and freely, demanding the same freedom from the artists, that is, a special, natural skill. Any superfluous acting movement turns into a tune, betrays the fakeness of what is happening.

Not everyone succeeds.

In order not to talk about the shortcomings of the performance, let's talk about successes. So, let's talk about male roles. In "Satyricon" there are many good, already well-known young actresses (we will immediately name Vdovina, Butenko, Steklova), but in "Profitable Place" the director of the play Konstantin Raikin took a certain risk, having released on stage students (and students) of the Moscow Art Theater School, where he teaches them acting skills. But, it seems, he hurried: students who are entrusted with big roles are still lost on big stage, sometimes they simply do not have enough voice and therefore they do not speak - they shout.

They shout monotonously loudly, on the same note. However, there are no more colors in the speech of some actors who have already completed their education - this is Anna Yakunina in the role of Felisa Kukushkina; she screams like a market girl. Probably, the director demanded such a similarity from her. Probably, in the market a saleswoman can scream exactly like this, with an open white sound, but in the theater such an uncolored scream soon tires.

However, we were going to talk about luck. The best thing about this performance is in the roles played by the male half of the troupe in the Satyricon, traditionally stronger (in other cases, strongly supported by the talent and experience of the artistic director Konstantin Raikin, but in Profitable Place he acts only as a director): Aristarkh Vladimirych Vyshnevsky - Yuri Lakhin, Vasily Nikolaevich Zhadov - Denis Sukhanov, Akim Akimych Yusov - Alexey Yakubov(in another composition, this role is played by Grigory Siyatvinda).

Sukhanov, who has just received "Idol" as a budding young actor, will now certainly be a contender for other, quite mature nominations and awards. With slightly tousled hair, in disheveled feelings, his Zhadov seems to have descended into the Russian viscous life of a cockerel Chanticleer, whose romanticism has not yet fermented in the blood.

And life does not tolerate a romantic interpretation. A century and a half ago, Ostrovsky's inventions are heard as the most topical and actual truth of life. And the point here, of course, is not the almost imperceptibly carried out editing of the text, its correct release from obsolete details. And it is not in the ability to send individual remarks “to the word”, bypassing the partner, to send to the hall (the hall “catches” each such word, and waits, is already looking for the next publicistic speech).

Good, of course, Ostrovsky. The choice of the play is accurate, and, it must be admitted, the choice of the theater turned out to be accurate (in the sense: the theater chooses the play, the play chooses the theater). It is time to suspect Raikin of a deliberate provocation, since the Satyricon speaks to the public in its language and about its affairs and concerns. The audience understands, but is not offended, since Ostrovsky himself testifies in the finale to her rightness and victory.

It is not Vyshnevsky who regrets that he took bribes and for the sake of passion he took more than what was necessary, sufficed over the edge. It is not Yusov who is playing back, abandoning his soft philosophy, according to which both wolves can be fed and sheep are safe (a kind of view on the ideal structure of Russia, by the way - similar to what was once expressed by G.Kh. Popov). Zhadov comes and asks, or rather, begs to return his uncle's favor and a profitable place to boot. What can be resentment?!

It can be seen that among the male actors, Denis Sukhanov received the most attention and participation from the director, who came out better than the rest, fully armed with talent and skill: the result was a character, not a mask, like many others in this boring, albeit very long performance ( three hours with one intermission).

The program states that Ostrovsky’s comedy is offered to the public in the “stage edition of the theatre” and therefore, perhaps, the theater can be left with the right to present what is happening as a struggle of one real hero with masks, a struggle that distorts the hero himself and makes him crawl on his knees in the final and ask to be accepted into the “masks”, to agree with his right to become his own among his own.

But even in the edited form, Ostrovsky's play assumes a slightly different format and some volume for other heroes. And it is something, the volume is lacking.

So Yusov’s wonderfully composed dance-dance, with circling around the stage on two chairs, with the transformation of an old official into a coachman, when his comrades and sex are happy to portray four dashing horses (like other witty invented scenes) remains in memory as a kind of “number ", special effect. Like the final flight of all chairs, sofas and tables, which suddenly break away from their familiar and well-worn places, and just freeze in the air. However, the laureate is responsible for this focus international competitions Roman Tsitelashvili.

Vedomosti, March 18, 2003

Oleg Zintsov

Give or take

In the "Satyricon" they played a performance about the dangers of bribery

The program for the new play "Satyricon" is made in the form of a 1000-ruble note. The banknote is stamped: "A. N. Ostrovsky. Profitable place. Comedy." Actually, the program says almost everything about Konstantin Raikin's production: both about the claim to relevance, and about how this relevance is comprehended. The only thing missing is a slogan in the spirit of the Ministry of Taxes and Duties: "It's time to get out of the shadows."

Down with the routine, of course: Maria Danilova dressed Ostrovsky's heroes in costumes that were not particularly modern, but clearly not museum-like, but something in between: here are fashionable bloomers, but old-fashioned hats with feathers. Boris Valuev rolled chairs and sofas on wheels onto the empty stage - not exactly like in Ikea, but not like in great-grandmother's dacha; rather from a furniture store middle class. In the finale, all the furniture will slowly float up into the air and hang over the stage: the image is bright and accurate. But besides this focus, there is nothing to remember about the "Profitable Place", according to a strict account.

One can, however, say that the performance is played rhythmically and smartly, as is customary in the Satyricon. That is, the actors run a lot and shout loudly, telling a story about the fact that it is not good to take bribes, but oh, how difficult it is to live in good conscience. At other moments it seems that they want to play Ostrovsky here as Gogol, at others you remember the program "Full House, Full House". A couple of scenes with the participation of the widow of a collegiate assessor Kukushkina (Anna Yakunina) are quite ugly, but in general - not horror what it is.

Aleksey Yakubov, in the role of official Yusov, honestly fulfills the role of an old jester (Grigory Siyatvinda plays in a different cast). Yuri Lakhin portrays the hardened bribe-taker Vyshnevsky in a manner that can perhaps be called traditional. The ironic and temperamental Denis Sukhanov, in the role of the idealist Zhadov, roosters like he is finishing the role of Chauntecleer from the recent Satyricon musical about the life of a chicken coop. The pretty student of the Moscow Art Theater School-Studio Glafira Tarkhanova, judging by the ruined role of Polinka, is still too early to go out in public.

Generally speaking, there is no agreement among the comrades on the stage, but they remember one thing firmly: "Profitable Place" is a terribly topical plot.

The relevance of this play, however, has not changed since the moment of its first publication in 1857, so it is somehow strange to discuss it. If you want to see something else in what is happening on the stage artistic sense, then we have to admit that of the three today's roles of Konstantin Raikin - the head of the theater, the actor and director - the last, alas, is the least interesting. "Profitable Place" is one of those performances in which any scene can be played the way the director came up with, or it can be completely different, but in the overall picture this will not change anything at all. Describing this premiere from the point of view of theatrical language (ideas, staging techniques, acting tasks, etc.) can be about as successful as talking about the properties of the "ordinary powder" from the advertisement for "Ariel": it is clear that it erases worse than a miracle remedy , but there is nothing to add to this. Except perhaps for the fact that Raikin's Ostrovsky is by no means a "singer of Zamoskvorechye", but downright a bold ruler of satire.

But here the name of the theater obliges.

Izvestia, March 18, 2003

Marina Davydova

From the "Profitable place" - to the quarry

The famous play by Ostrovsky was staged in the "Satyricon"

Perhaps because of the theater's Latin name, but rather because of the very nature of Raikin's talent - dynamic, truffaldinist and closely tied to the Western European comedy tradition - Russian classics have never been staged on the Satyricon stage before. Now, after staging "Profitable Place" we can say with confidence that in vain. Ostrovsky goes to the "Satyricon" and goes to the "Satyricon" no less than Goldoni, Molière and Shakespeare put together.

I only beg you - do not wait for arguments about how Ostrovsky's text about profitable places, careerism, the loss of youthful ideals, the unscrupulousness of officials, etc. resonates with the current situation. Doesn't resonate. Of course, in Russia they still take bribes, wives still cheat on their husbands, and small children still pee in their pants. So what? If we take a closer look at the situation of the play, we will find that our socio-economic morality is separated from the morality of Ostrovsky's time by a bottomless abyss.

Russian legislation distinguished between two types of bribery - bribery and extortion. In the first case, the official took money for what, according to his conscience and according to the law, he had to do. In the second - for what it was impossible to do. Covetousness was mercilessly punished, bribery was looked through through the fingers. So the officials from "Profitable Place" who are thrown in the face by the words of the idealist Zhadov drenched in bitterness and anger are bribe-takers. Among these civil servants, as follows from Ostrovsky's text, strict corporate morality reigns and there are high ideas of honor. The story of one of the characters about a case of direct fraud on the part of a certain clerk is perceived by Zhadov's main antagonist Yusov as a monstrous shame for the entire bureaucratic caste. Now tell me, hand on heart: where do we have a) such highly moral officials, 19th century, after the death of Nicholas I, a whole generation of such idealists really arose in Russia).

When Mark Zakharov staged this play at the end Soviet thaw, entrusting the role of Zhadov to Andrei Mironov, the situation was completely different. The idealists of the post-Stalin conscription had not yet died out, but stagnation was already looming on the horizon, and the bureaucratic world of Ostrovsky was perceived as the embodiment of Soviet ghouls again raising their heads. There was someone and against whom to fight. Now you can't find ardent, naive young men even in the brightest light, and bribery, next to the initial plunder of capital, seems, as Comrade Bender would say, "a child's game of a rat."

Correctly realizing that a head-on collision of two worlds that do not exist today would look like an unnecessary anachronism and that the black-and-white interpretation in relation to the play of the brilliant author (if anyone else doubts that Ostrovsky is a genius, put these doubts out of your head) is simply stupid, Raikin went to another , in an "ambivalent" way. He entrusted the role of Zhadov to Denis Sukhanov, an artist, as it is now clear, of considerable talent and a very wide range, but rather negative than sunny Mironov's charm. As for the officials, they are not terrible in the performance and not even disgusting. Yusov is a darling, and that's all, Zhadov's uncle Aristarkh Vyshnevsky (Yuri Lakhov) is a tragic figure. The finale of the play is colored by Ostrovsky in truly Shakespearean tones. The bureaucratic career and personal life of Vyshnevsky had just collapsed, and it was at this moment that his sensible nephew came to him to ask for a lucrative post.

The duality is exacerbated by the way Raikin invented female characters. The wife of the protagonist Polinka (Glafira Tarkhanova) is a naive girl, rejoicing at a new hat, like a child with a rattle. Encouraging such a person to live in honest poverty is like telling first-graders not to ride on merry-go-rounds. Polinka's mother is not a hypocritical philistine, but a normal concrete woman who knows how much a pound is dashing, who raised two children and rebuffs Zhadov's idealism as she has the right. Considering that at the same time she washes the floors in Zhadov's apartment, pulling up the hems of her own dress high (for the servants, no money), the position of the protagonist becomes very vulnerable. main nerve performance is not a conflict between an honest person and dishonest people, but a confrontation between a maximalist and realists. Unwillingness to live by a lie and the inability to live by the truth alone. Seen in this way, Ostrovsky's "Profitable Place" begins to look a lot like "The Misanthrope" dear to the heart of Raikin Moliere, and the nervous, curly and plastic Zhadov (Sukhanov every time runs out onto the stage as if he was about to dance " Swan Lake") - to Alceste with a Russian soul. And there can be no generational conflict here. Such freaks are not found in generations.

Played "Profitable Place" is also very Moliere - bold (sometimes too bold) colors, with a very gone to Moliere, although not always going to Ostrovsky's burlesque and some kind of valiant enthusiasm. There are no special directorial and scenographic frills in the performance (there are even obvious failures, like Vyshnevsky's wife screaming in a voice that is not her own and extras running around the stage senselessly), but you will certainly find here the signature Satyricon quality factor, intelligent interpretation and several well-played roles. Among them, one should especially note Alexei Yakubov, who perfectly plays the temperamental quickie Yusov (one can only guess how good Grigory Siyatvinda, who plays with him in turn, is good in this role). If you think that this is not enough, then you have not been to the theater for a long time.

In place of the "Satyricon" I would now rush to the Russian classics at full speed. From the "Profitable Place" - to the quarry.

Capital Evening Newspaper, March 17, 2003

Gleb Sitkovsky

Ostrovsky on wheels

In "Satyricon" they played Ostrovsky's "Profitable Place" staged by Konstantin Raikin.

Ever since the theater named “Satyricon” started up in Maryina Roshcha, Raikin has strictly observed one iron and at the same time golden rule: either you are a director or an actor. If you are staging a play, then you are strictly forbidden to enter the stage. The performances in which the satirikinovsky artistic director acts have a happy fate - every single one is sung by critics and, every year, they participate in all sorts of important theater festivals. The director's fate of Konstantin Arkadievich has not been so successful until now, although any critic will confirm to you that this director is skillful and inventive, no worse than others. The director Raikin does not aim at the rulers of thoughts, but above all he appreciates chic, luxury, panache on the stage. The main thing is that the suit sits, and that's it.

How, then, will some voluntary watchman of the classical heritage, with a sort of frivolous life position, be horrified to grab onto Ostrovsky? Moreover, earlier in the "Satyricon" they did not even think of taking on domestic classics: it is a rare case on the theater poster! - you will not find a single Russian author at all.

Ostrovsky was let in on the stage of the Satyricon, but they treated him harshly, although correctly. They busily erased charming anachronisms like “confection” and clerks’ “please, sir” from the characters’ speech, dressed them up in modern fashion (costume designer Maria Danilova) and forbade the ladies, sitting by the window, to blow on a saucer of tea.

Raikin loves the actors on the stage to move, and, if it were his will, he would probably completely forbid Ostrovsky's characters to sit down. But since it was impossible to do this, together with the stage designer Boris Valuev, the director created furniture on wheels, and this idea itself gave birth to many very inventive mise-en-scenes. For example, during the drunken dance of Yusov (Grigory Siyatvinda), all the visitors of the tavern, sitting at the tables, begin a rapid rotation around the motionless figure of a drunken official.

Raikin tried to update the plot of the play as much as possible and bring it closer to modern life, which, in general, was not difficult. The smartly dressed spectators were sympathetic to the words that “nowadays it is customary to live in luxury”, and the wives in the audience looked meaningfully at their husbands when the prudent widow Kukushkina (Anna Yakunina) taught her daughters: sharpen so that you get money. The noble poverty of Zhadov (an excellent work by Denis Sukhanov) at first arouses far less sympathy from the public than the dexterous resourcefulness of the opportunist Belogubov (Sergey Klimov), who managed to find himself a “profitable place”. Cynical modern society has long been convinced that a new wife's hat is more important than many lofty words about honesty and morality. The traditional satyricon spectator is considered to be very wealthy, and for sure some of those who came to the performance occupy the very profitable places that bring considerable income to the bureaucracy. Raikin is not something that would shame the public. Just hold up a mirror. The audience loves it.

Culture, March 20, 2003

Natalia Kaminskaya

Dancing on the pulpit

"Profitable place" in "Satyricon"

The director, who today has begun to stage plays by A.N. Ostrovsky (at least those where social accents are especially clearly placed), is like a man who has grabbed a tiger by the tail. Holding on is scary, letting go is even scarier. A little closer to modernity and you fall into vulgar sociologism. If you leave everything as it is, they will ask: where is the directing? Meanwhile, collisions, and even just texts, are on the verge of a foul in their momentary relevance. "Profitable Place" was not staged in Moscow for a long time. Passages from the stage of the Satyricon sound for contemporaries well, just in the forehead. Frankly and almost indecently. Here’s a quick one: “A person who didn’t know how or didn’t have time to make a fortune will always envy a person with a fortune ...”, “We don’t have public opinion ... Here’s public opinion for you: if you’re not caught, you’re not a thief”, “Decent people don’t force wives work, for this they have servants ... "The indecency of the quoted lines is not even in the fact that literal social truth-womb sticks out of them, but in the fact that it, vile, still occupies the mind of a modern Russian every day. If we talk about "high", then it, romantic, as always with Ostrovsky, lies in the truth-lover, this time in Zhadov, and in his wife Polinka, who was bucked from the poverty of existence, but in the end she remained with her beloved man.

Romanticism, however, in the director's transcription by Konstantin Raikin "receives a great deal in the face." But the vulgar common sense in the person of the terry corrupt official Vyshnevsky gets no less.

All these arguments, flying out from under the pen, however, put the author of the notes himself into some bewilderment. Why would you, sitting in a Moscow theater in 2003, begin to think about social matters that have already been vulgarized twice (first by the Soviet ideology, then, let's say, pre-capitalist)?

Hey Raikin! Ah yes, the Satyricon with his eternal craving for the show, with his dances, with frank acting comedy, with his undisguised desire for pleasure for the public, with lines of foreign cars at the spectator entrance, with steep ticket prices, etc!..

The most amazing thing is that this performance has all the "generic signs" and direction of Raikin, and general aesthetics Satyricon. But you endure a certain shock from the hall not at all from "how" Ostrovsky's word was said, but from "what" we were told. Official Vyshnevsky at Yu. Lakhin should not at all author's note"a decrepit old man with symptoms of gout." Before us is a strong man with a brutal haircut, dressed in an almost modern suit and speaking with almost the current intonations of the owner of life. All the men in this performance, including Zhadov, look almost contemporaries. But it is precisely this "almost" that produces a striking effect. Could Satyricon's Vyshnevsky drive up to his house in a brand new Bentley? Nearly! Does Zhadov D. Sukhanova look like a modern young idealist (where are these idealists, show me this man!)? Nearly.

The director, together with the actors, from the very beginning leaves a certain gap between classic heroes and their modern prototypes, between the socio-moral dilemmas of Ostrovsky's world and their current comedic projection. However, do they represent a comedy, gentlemen? In the tavern, the seasoned official Yusov - A. Yakubov, who took a fair amount of alcohol and was pushed by the sycophant Belogubov (S. Klimov), starts dancing. Plastic Yakubov makes dance miracles, so loved on this stage. But this dance is rude, ugly, as if something dark, crushed and initially mediocre kicked out of this "teacher of life" in a moment of drunken prowess. And again - the gap between the ephemeral freedom of the actor and the powerful squalor of his character. Polinka, Zhadov's young wife, is played by a student of the Moscow Art Theater School with a beautiful Moscow Art Theater last name Tarkhanova. He plays brightly, recklessly and quite in a satyriconian way (studies on the course of K. Raikin) spectacularly. The transformation of an enthusiastic girl into a demanding bitch happens abruptly. Sending her husband to ask her uncle for a profitable job, this Polinka ugly and hysterically screams, in one second she reminds of her origin. Her mother Kukushkina - A. Yakunina in the performance is rude in a variety way and looks like the ubiquitous characters of Elena Stepanenko. We could also talk about episodes and colors in which the sense of proportion and taste goes off scale. But for some reason I don't want to. The mere fact that Zhadov is played by D. Sukhanov, yesterday's rooster Chauntecleer, a young man with an eccentric face of Mercutio, an obviously non-heroic role, but not a neurotic, rather a character of theatrical fantasies, speaks of the seriousness of the director's statement. This Zhadov is not funny. And not sorry. And it doesn't look like a winner. When he decides to ask his uncle for a place, he writhes and howls, as if from physical pain. In the house of Vyshnevsky is a figure broken in half. And then he comes to the ramp and, sadly looking into the hall, throws his famous phrase: "I will wait for the time when the bribe-taker will be more afraid of a public trial than a criminal one." The hall explodes with applause. The same hall that joyfully neighs over simple witticisms and applauds every dance number.

These "a parte" - generally something unimaginable. Raikin in all seriousness allows their artists in the theater in 2003! Throw their maxims to the public Vyshnevsky and Yusov. Some attempt at confession is made by Zhadov. What is it, really? Where did we go? In the era of "theatre-department", "theatre-tribune"? Let them throw a stone at me, but that seems to be the case. O. Tabakov, at the risk of not selling tickets, brings two great scientists to the stage, solving the issue of the atomic bomb. A. Ponomarev puts on a play about a woman Tanya, who finds happiness in a utopian, but some kind of social idea. And K. Raikin decides to throw sacramental phrases about social good and evil into the hall. Returning to Profitable Place, I dare say that Zhadov's final escapade is very far from both vulgar sociologism and helpless attempts at actuality. This performance by Raikin is a bitter, sometimes hooligan, conscious and absolutely sincere statement. With a theatrical "almost" separating fiction from reality. But also with an absolutely conscious feeling of this reality, in which there is not enough air.

Results, March 25, 2003

Marina Zayonts

Didn't wait

Konstantin Raikin staged Alexander Ostrovsky's play "Profitable Place" at the Satyricon Theater

Konstantin Raikin, the right word, never ceases to amaze. Just calm down that you already understand everything about him, just like he once did - and he will present you with something that does not fit into any framework. Others at his age will long rest on their laurels, but he still does not let up, rushes forward somewhere, into the unknown.

Most often, directors, having achieved something in the profession, sit down on their skate - and well, drive. And this happens with critics: some thought comes to mind, and you rush about with it, beloved, like with a written bag, protecting it from assassination with all your might. The statement that actors do not need to direct, just one of these, loved to tears. And why, in fact? For some, it may not be necessary, but for some it is just right. Here Raikin, probably because he is not quite a director, but is still studying (and, by the way, he is not at all ashamed of this fact), with each subsequent performance he discovers something new in himself, mastering the profession not with a swoop, but thoroughly.

Ostrovsky in the direction of Raikin certainly was not expected. Here everything should be alien to him: moralizing, unhurried rhythm, all these signs of "deep antiquity", tea from a saucer and endless conversations around and around. And Raikin is an impatient man, with a mad temperament, a lover of tricks, games, movements - what does this “Profitable Place” to him, where did it jump out from? Why he undertook to read and re-read it, the general public does not know, but one thing is clear: he read it and was unspeakably surprised - it sounds modern! The guess, as they say, is not deep. Once, in the 60s, in Mark Zakharov's famous performance of the Theater of Satire, she sounded like a discovery that shook both the public and the authorities to their foundations. There, Andrey Mironov's Zhadov did not resist bribe-taking officials, he, a rebel-idealist, resisted the entire Soviet system - at least it seemed so. But now, putting on a performance about general corruption is like running after newspaper journalism with your pants up. Where is the news, please?

The news is how Raikin handled the play without being in the least tempted by its topical surface. There are no detailed decorations befitting Ostrovsky. The stage is practically empty (scenographer Boris Valuev), only chairs, stools, sofas and armchairs are set on wheels, and their rapid movement determines the dashing, violent rhythm of the whole performance. Raikin removed all signs of the times from the text, dressed the characters (with the help of Maria Danilova) if not in modern costumes, then not in old ones, and our contemporaries showed up on stage painfully familiar, temperamental, assertive, aggressively rude. Sometimes they go to the forefront and speak directly to the audience about the sore. Here, for example, Vyshnevsky (Yuri Lakhin), Zhadov's uncle and his main opponent, throws at the public, counting on understanding: "What smart girl would think about marrying a rich man?" - and the audience, laughing, applauds. And at the same time, there is no social anguish, who among us does not know that everyone takes it. Officials, even under the tsar, even under Soviet rule, even under wild capitalism, take bribes and will take them. Comedy, and more. And the program says so: a comedy, and a lot of funny things on stage, but only the drama in the finale turns out to be serious. This guy, Zhadov, who came to ask for a place, got into trouble, from which it is not yet known how he will get out, and it is a pity for him. But - which is completely unexpected - and Vyshnevsky, who was punished for bribery and other outrages of service, is a pity almost more. He, who buys for money, if not the love of his wife, but at least affection, lost his position, could not endure public shame, he could not survive loneliness.

In Raikin's "Profitable Place" there are no right and wrong. The director peered into the fate of each and sympathized with each. Here Zhadov is not an example to follow, and his opponents are by no means scoundrels. Here is an uncle, having learned that the unlucky nephew intends to marry a dowry, immediately reaches into his pocket for money. And Belogubov (Sergey Klimov), a stupid but successful rival in his career, very sincerely, as if apologizing for his well-being, is trying to help. And old Yusov (Aleksey Yakubov or - in a different cast - Grigory Siyatvinda), who so desperately danced a gypsy on chairs moving around, is not a monster at all, but is somewhat similar to Chekhov's Firs, who stubbornly clings to the old rules like a child. Because without money, as without women, it is impossible to live in the world, no. And you may not like it as much as you like, but marrying a girl you can’t provide for is also, you know, not a man’s act - you don’t need much intelligence. Zhadov, who was perfectly played by Denis Sukhanov, may not have a lot of mind, but his feelings are over the edge. A disheveled, cocky young man, having read good books, knows little about life, he has only ideals in his mind. And trouble happened - not to books, to his wife Polinka rushed for support.

FROM female roles special story. Who would have thought that Raikin would delve into psychology in such detail and carefully and pull out subtle and completely implicit motives of behavior from the depths of human nature. There is certainly no one to know. Polinka, who until now has been presented to everyone as a downtrodden, naive fool, performed by Glafira Tarkhanova, a second-year student at the Moscow Art Theater School, is not only not shy, she jumped over everyone in terms of temperament, sometimes she showed too much temperament. Or here is mother Kukushkina. More than one generation of artists painted her with caustic satirical colors, and Anna Yakunina - completely different. Her Kukushkina, of course, is a baba, but you can understand her. She raised two daughters without a husband, thought about their future, and got married. She came to Polina to teach life, Zhadova began to shame, and in the meantime she tucked up the hem and began to wash the floor - to help her daughter.

It became clear that Raikin is also a good teacher. They did not expect this either: for a long time they stubbornly insisted on the theater troupe that it only serves the main star. Konstantin Arkadievich was upset, offended and stubbornly tried to prove that his actors were talented. It also succeeded. He is generally born to win, otherwise he is simply not interested in living.

Piece by A.N. Ostrovsky's "Profitable Place" has always attracted not only the attention of the audience, but also the attention of censorship. The very first production in 1857 was banned on the day of the premiere. Director of the Maly Theater S.A. Chernevsky on that day wrote in the repertoire ledger: “The announced comedy“ Profitable Place ”was canceled by prohibition.” According to critic R. Dolzhansky, this is due to the fact that Ostrovsky is in tune with any time: “Meyerhold staged at the Theater of Revolution in the 1920s - the play was included in all textbooks. In the 60s, Mark Zakharov staged satire at the Theater - it turned out so modern that after a few performances it was banned altogether. At the end of the Brezhnev era, Mikhail Tsarev, a student of Vsevolod Meyerhold, also turns to the social problems of the play. His acting experience in performances based on the works of A.N. Ostrovsky (“There is Enough Simplicity in Every Wise Man”, “Guilty Without Guilt”) was also reflected in the production of “Profitable Place”.

The play is based on a typical Russian drama conflict between society and the individual, who does not want to live by unjust laws. As a "life writer" A.N. Ostrovsky was interested in how strong a person is in the struggle for moral ideals, especially if this person is placed in conditions of extreme material need. The hero of the play Zhadov (Vladimir Bogin), the nephew of the rich man Vyshnevsky (Mikhail Tsarev), faces the world of money-grubbing, lies and untruth. He discovers depravity and debauchery at every step. First of all, in the behavior of his uncle and his assistants, who ridicule the desire young man to live on "one salary", without bribes, "with a clear conscience".

In the performance of the Maly Theater based on Griboyedov's play "Woe from Wit" by V.G. Bogin has already managed to convey in the image of Chatsky a passionate desire for transformation and the painful despair that the hero experiences, not finding understanding for his “young”, lonely thoughts. Zhadov marries Polina (Elena Tsyplakova), the daughter of a bourgeois Kukushkina (Olga Khorkova), in the hope that the youth and naivety of his chosen one will allow her to teach cutting edge ideas. As a result, their family is on the verge of poverty, while Polina's sister Julia (Elena Doronina) walks in silks and new clothes, thereby causing envy. The rhythm of the performance is quite complex, the comic elements are gradually replaced by the growth of a depressing, gloomy atmosphere. In the play, the voices of women constantly sound: this is Polina’s sister, who slyly lured recognition from Belogubov, and Kukushkin, whose “tyranny” due to the expression of O. Khorkova acquired grotesque proportions, this, of course, is Vyshnevskaya, performed by N. Kornienko, defending her own honor in front of slandered by her old husband. A whole gallery unfolds before the viewer female characters, which unites not only different age groups, but, more importantly, psychological various portraits. At the end of the play, Zhadov decides to ask his uncle for a profitable job, which, of course, indicates his defeat. But what is behind this? What will be the sacrifice that he is ready to make in the name of his ideals, and does moral dignity necessarily coexist with poverty? M. Tsarev's statement leads to these questions rather than answers them.