The legendary performance, which began the history of the Taganka Theater, and which laid the foundation for the signature Taganka style: direct appeal to the audience, convention of action, detachment from the image, "live" music and zongs - short rhythmic songs that you want to sing along with.

The plot of the performance is conveyed in a few words. The gods descended to earth are looking for at least one kind person. But, as it turns out, even in the soul of a good person, evil exists and from time to time prevails. These deep and serious thoughts are presented in a light, elegant, sometimes satirical form.

The basis for the plot of Bertolt Brecht's play was the duality of our material world: good impulses turn into cruel actions, the desire to do good causes pain, "the anger of fate", in the words of T. Mann, becomes "far-sighted kindness." Yes, the gods give Shen Te a gift, but a kind person must pay for it with the awareness of the truth about the world order and mental suffering, the need to be tough and sometimes cruel in order to survive and give others the opportunity to live. Shen Te is a product of the world of duality, there is no other way for her but to live according to its laws, she does not have enough strength to break the rules of the game. This is where the ironic and condescending attitude of the gods to her comes from, this is where their demand for "regulations" for the appearance of the "shadow" hypostasis of Shen Te - Shui Ta's cousin, comes from.

What conclusion should the viewer draw from Brecht's parable? The world is twofold and, therefore, cruelty should be taken for granted? Suffering and pessimism remain for a person? No. Bertolt Brecht, Yuri Lyubimov and the actors of the Taganka Theater propose to think and understand that only reason and tight control of the manifestations of their "shadow", cruel beginning will help maintain a balance between good and evil. Reason and intellect are the only human weapons in the world of duality. This is the call of the gods and the declaration of the author.

The play-parable about the need to affirm goodness by the power of reason will be modern and timely as long as the material world exists. That is why for almost 50 years the performance that united the theater of thought of B. Brecht and the theater of form by Y. Lyubimov, which has become the hallmark of the Taganka Theater, has not left the stage.

Director - Yuri Lyubimov

Music - Boris Khmelnitsky, Anatoly Vasiliev

The performance includes artists:

Maria Matveeva, Alexey Grabbe, Anatoly Vasiliev, Galina Trifonova, Ivan Ryzhikov, Larisa Maslova, Dmitry Vysotsky, Vladislav Malenko, Timur Badalbeyli, Anastasia Kolpikova, Tatyana Sidorenko, Felix Antipov, Polina Nechitailia and Sergey Kuvarzina, others.

The duration of the performance is 2 hours 45 minutes.

B. Brecht worked on a parabolic play about a good man for a total of twelve years. The original idea dates back to 1930 - at that time the play was supposed to be called "Goods love" ("Die Ware Liebe" - in German this combination is ambiguous, it can be understood by ear and as "True love"). In 1939, in Denmark, Brecht returned to an old sketch containing five scenes. In May 1939, the first version was completed in Liding (Sweden). Two months later, in July, Brecht began reworking the first scene, followed by a radical reworking of the text of the entire play. A year later, the playwright returned to her, hoping to complete the work in April 1940. But on June 11, he wrote in his diary: “Once again, I, together with Greta, word for word - I revise the text of The Kind Man from Sichuan”. In August, Brecht begins to doubt the central spring of his drama: has he shown clearly enough "how easy it is for a girl to be kind, and how difficult it is for her to be evil." Six months later, the last poems were written that were included in the text of the play: "Song of Smoke", "Song of the Eighth Elephant", "Tercet of the Gods Flying on a Cloud". Yet Brecht did not consider the work complete. “You cannot be sure that the play is ready until you try it out at the theater,” he remarked. Finally, in April 1941, Brecht, already in Finland, stated that the play was completed.

According to Brecht, he got the impetus to write the play after reading an article in the newspaper.

Basically, Brecht retained the originally conceived plot, but objectified the water-bearer's story, turning his explanations into a fabulous dramatic action. Thus, the play, originally conceived as an everyday drama, took the form of a dramatic legend, a fantastic parabola play. Brecht dramatized the anecdotal incident in Sichuan, presenting it as if from the point of view of Wang the water carrier. For the correct perception of the parabola, the viewer must assimilate this naive-poetic point of view.

The first performance took place on February 4, 1943 in Zurich (Switzerland). Director - Leonhard Steckel, artist - Theo Otto. Some time later, the play was staged by another Swiss theater in Basel, premiered on March 10, 1944. Director - Leonhard Steckel, artist - Eduard Guntzinger, composer - Fru. The role of Shen De was played by Friedl Wald. Only more than eight years later, the story of the German Kind Man (premiered on November 16, 1952) began in Frankfurt am Main. The play was staged by director Garry Prokvitsa as a dramatic fairy tale, the artist is the same Theo Otto, who participated in the creation of the Zurich play. Otto erected a series of tall red poles on the stage, on which square wicker mats slid to delimit a variety of stages. The role of Shen De was successfully performed by Solveig Thomas, Vana was played by Otto Rowel, Jan Sun by Arno Assman, the barber by Ernstwalter Mitulski. Theatrical criticism, noting the artistic integrity of the performance and the original interpretation of a number of roles, in particular Van the philosopher and the ominous comic barber, recognized the Frankfurt performance as one of the most significant theatrical events in the postwar years.

The most famous performances of other theaters in West Germany:

Wuppertal, 1955 Director - Franz Reichert, artist - Hanna Jordan. Cast: Shen De Sigrid Marquard, Vana - Horst Tuppert. The gods and the barber were in masks in this performance.

Schleswig, 1955 - a performance sponsored, oddly enough, by the Evangelical Academy. Director - Horst Gnekov, artist - Rudolf Sojka. As Shen De Ilselore Mene.

Hanover, 1955 Director - Kurt Erhardt, artist - Ernst Rufer. As Chen De Marilen von Betmann. In the last performance, the critics noted the well-known eclecticity of the design (the combination of a conventional bamboo panorama with a naturalistic drainpipe where the water-bearer Van sleeps) and Bethmann's non-Brechtian play, which was so naturally imbued with the affectionate kindness of Shen De that she could not go over to the severity of her cousin.

An event in the theatrical life of Germany was the sensational production of "The Kind Man" at the Munich theater "Kammerspiele", the premiere took place on June 30, 1955. The director of the play is Hans Schweikart (critic V. Kijaulein wrote evilly in "Municher Merkur" that Schweikart was so moved by what was happening on the stage, which sometimes forgot to move the action further), the artists - Kaspar Neer, whose design combined lyricism and naked convention (at the back of the stage - the roofs of houses, over which stylized clouds floated - and a cloud carrying the gods descending from the grates to open to the viewer thick ropes), and Liselotte Erler (suits). The role of Shen De was played by Ernie Wilhelmy, Jan Sun - Arno Assman (who played the same role in Frankfurt), the mother of Jan Sun - the famous actress Teresa Riese, one of the best performer of the role of mother Courage, Vana - at that time already seventy-year-old Paul Bildt (it was one of the last and best roles of a major German actor who died in 1957). The production was consulted by Brecht (see the report of the newspaper "Abendzeitung" of April 3, 1955), who arrived in Munich with Helena Weigel. Controversy erupted in the press around the play: "Munchener Merkur" condemned the "agitational" nature of Brechtian drama and the production of "Kammerspiele", other newspapers refuted this preconceived point of view, noted the high poetry of the play-parabola, the heartfelt play of Ernie Wilhelm, Allgeme June) and the work of a director and artist (Bayerisches Yolksecho, July 8).

The first production in the GDR was the "Folkstheater" in Rostock (April 1956), staged by Brecht's student Benno Besson in the ascetic design of Willy Schroeder, with Kete Reichel as Shen De. Critics noted that as Shoy Da, she was somewhat grotesque, reminiscent of Chaplin, but she played the girl with tremendous cordiality (Deutsche Kommentare, Stuttgart, 1956, May 26). Her success was explained not only by the fact that she passed the Brechtian school of acting, but also by the deep lyricism of her performance (Nazionalzeitung, Basel, June 8). The Berlin Ensemble staged The Kind Man after Brecht's death. Director - Benno Besson, artist - Karl von Appen, with the participation of the same Kete Reichel. In this performance (premiered on September 5, 1957), the social essence of the drama was emphasized - for example, in a picture of a tobacco factory, the entire stage was covered with a high prison bar. The performance in Leipzig (1957–1958, director - Arthur Jopp, artist - Bernhard Schroeder, as Shen de Gisela Morgen) was sustained in the style of a conventional theater and enjoyed considerable success. From 1956 to 1962, the play was staged in ten theaters in the GDR.

The Kind Man has a great stage history outside Germany as well. Three years before the Frankfurt production, a play was staged by American students at Kerneggie College of Fine Arts in Pittsburgh (1949, translation by E. Bentley, director - Lawrence Kappa). It was followed by student performances at the universities of Minnesota and Illinois. The New York performance at the Phoenix Theater (1957, artist - Theo Otto) with Uta Hagen in the title role (according to the critic's opinion, she "caught the poster nature of the role and only after the disappearance of the gods gave vent to feelings") gained great fame. Set by the same Theo Otto, the play was staged in London in 1956. Director - George Devine. As Shen De - Peggy Ashcroft. Brilliant - according to the unanimous assessment of progressive critics - was the performance of Milan's "Piccolo Teatro". Premiere in February 1958. Director - famous George Strehler, artist - Luciano Domiani. The performer of the main role is Valentina Fortunata, in the role of Van - Moretti. In this performance, the stage was almost completely empty, only a few hints of a house or a tree replaced the scenery, and the gods descending on a cloud were dressed in bright silk clothes, like theater generals, with long white beards (see G. Singer's review in “ Frankfurter Allgemeine, February 28, 1958).

In France, The Kind Man was first shown in the Hebrew language by the Hakameri Theater from Tel Aviv (Israel) on tour in Paris (1957–1958). Later, in 1960, the play was staged in Paris by the National Folk Theater (TIP). The premiere took place in December. Translated by Genevieve Cerro and Jeanne Stern.

Director - Andre Steiger under the direction of Jean Vilar, artist - Andre Ackar. Performers - Michel Nadal (Chen De) Maurice Garel (Yang Sun), Gilles Léger (Van). This performance became a milestone in the history of one of the best theaters in France. In the program produced by the theater, each scene was accompanied by morality. For example, to scene VIII: "Why not rise above others if they bend their backs?" or to scene X, the last one: "If the world is unjust, the only thing that is fair is to change it." The press unanimously noted the significance of the play and performance. A critic of the Lettres Francaises newspaper of December 1, 1960 wrote: “... André Steiger, with all possible care, revealed for the viewer the true meaning of the play and was able to find means of expression as close as possible to those that Brecht considered the best for performing his drama. Steiger did this with deep understanding, trying not to copy, imitate, not mechanically apply ready-made recipes, but to find the very spirit of Brechtian aesthetics. " Jean-Albert Cartier wrote in Beaux-Arts on January 20, 1961: “André Ackar has kept the sets and costumes in a wonderful brown tint. Its share in the success of the performance is great ”.

One of the last striking stage incarnations of The Kind Man is the play staged at the Institute for the Study of Theater Arts at New York University (premiered on March 10, 1963) under the direction of Gert Weimann, who was formerly an assistant to such masters of the German theater. as G. Grundgens and B. Barlog. The roles were successfully performed by: Shen De Diana Bart and Natalie Ross, Vana - David Frank and Eric Tavares, Ian Suna - Bill Berger and Frank Savino.

In the countries of people's democracies (Budapest, Warsaw, Belgrade, Ljubljana), the play "The Kind Man" has been performed by numerous theater groups.

The most significant of the Soviet productions of The Kind Man was that of the Leningrad Academic Theater. Pushkin. Premiere - June 1962, Russian text by Y. Yuzovsky and E. Ionova, verses translated by E. Etkind. Director - R. Suslevich, artist - S. Yunovich. The role of Shen De was played by N. Mamaeva, who, according to the unanimous opinion of the reviewers, found an accurate, laconic drawing of her role and with great naturalness moved from the kind Shen De to the cruel Shoy Da. N. Pesochinskaya in the article “Two people from Sichuan” noted: “All the stage behavior of N. Mamaeva is based on the fact that the actress consistently puts before the viewer question after question, forcing them to think deeply about their decision ... The magnificent plastic, accurate and economical selection of stage funds. The details in Mamaeva's play (both when we face the affectionate Shen De and when the decisive and insolent Shoy Da) nowhere overshadow the typical, the main thing. The feeling of the truth of life never betrays the artist "(Leningradskaya Pravda, 1962, August 21). The director and actress have found an interesting solution for the performance of the songs. The artists G. Kolosov (Shu Fu), E. Karjakina (landlord Mi Ju), V. Tarenkov (Wang), A. Volgin (Yang Song), E. Medvedeva (Mrs. Yang Song), V. Kovel (widow Shin), V. Yantsat, K. Adashevsky, G. Soloviev (gods), Y. Svirin (carpenter Lin To),

The work of the director and artist was noted as an achievement of Soviet theater culture. “The play The Kind Man from Sichuan,” wrote R. Benyash, “has its own consistency and integrity. She especially manifested itself in the form of the performance. The talented scenery of S. Yunovich delights with the organic correspondence to the nature of the work and the strict nobility of the concept. Nothing extra on stage. Horns and simple unplaned boards. Economical, but accurate in mood color. A lonely bare tree, a piece of cloud against a muted background. Unmistakably balanced symmetry that creates a sense of unbiased truth. And on the stage, an oddly uninhabited, unkind world appears, where a person who is eager to do good is forced to buy this right by the evil he has done. One of the most tragic paradoxes of Brecht "(Izvestia, 1962, October 3).

In the Academic Theater of Russian Drama of the Latvian SSR named. Jan Rainis (Riga) “The Kind Man” was directed by P. Peterson in 1960. Noting a number of the performance's merits, critics pointed to the desire of its authors for external effects that were contraindicated to Brecht. Songs were also interpreted in a non-Brechtian way: “... the performer of the role of the groom put into the song the feeling of a desperate person who had lost everything. He clenched his fists, rotated his pupils, threw himself on the ground, his groans came from the very depths of his soul, he seemed to demand that the audience sympathize with him, because he did not manage to rob Shen De and her well-wishers. All this is a sharp disagreement with Brecht ... "(A. Latsis, B. Reich, Soviet theater and Brecht's legacy. -" Literature and Life ", 1960, September 25).

In 1963 the play was staged in Moscow by the theater school named after A. B.V.Shchukin. Directed by Y. Lyubimov. The play is a great success. It combined a thoughtful and respectful attitude towards the stage principles of Brecht with the Vakhtangov tradition of bright semi-improvisational entertainment. True, in some cases - for example, in the interpretation of the role of the barber Shu Fu, this spectacle manifested itself in external effects that were not correlated with the concept of the performance as a whole.

Konstantin Simonov in his article "Inspiration of Youth" ("Pravda", 1963, December 8) wrote: in this sense, in the best traditions of the Vakhtangovites ”.

The main city of Sichuan province, which summarizes all the places on the globe and any time in which a person exploits a person, is the place and time of the play.

Prologue. For two millennia, the cry has not stopped: it cannot go on like this! No one in this world is able to be kind! And the worried gods decreed: the world can remain as it is if there are enough people who can live a life worthy of a human being. And to check this, the three most prominent gods descend to earth. Perhaps the water-carrier Wang, who first met them and treated them with water (by the way, he is the only one in Sichuan who knows that they are gods), is a worthy person? But his mug, the gods noticed, had a double bottom. The good water carrier is a swindler! The simplest test of the first virtue - hospitality - frustrates them: in none of the rich houses - not with Mr. Fo, not with Mr. Chen, not with the widow Su - can Wang find a place for them to sleep. There is only one thing left: to turn to the prostitute Shen De, because she cannot refuse anyone. And the gods spend the night with the only kind person, and the next morning, having said goodbye, they leave Shen De the order to remain the same kind, as well as a good payment for the night: after all, how to be kind when everything is so expensive!

I. The gods left Shen De one thousand silver dollars, and she bought herself a small tobacco shop with them. But how many people in need of help turn out to be close to those who are lucky: the former owner of the shop and former owners Shen De - husband and wife, her lame brother and pregnant daughter-in-law, nephew and niece, old grandfather and boy - and everyone needs a roof over their heads and food. “Rescue a small boat / Immediately goes to the bottom. / After all, there are too many drowning people / Greedily grabbed the sides.

And here the carpenter demands one hundred silver dollars, which the previous hostess did not pay him for the shelves, and the landlord needs recommendations and surety for the not very respectable Shen De. “My cousin will vouch for me,” she says. "And he will pay for the shelves."

II. And the next morning Shoy Da, Shen De's cousin, appears in the tobacco shop. Having decisively chased away the unlucky relatives, skillfully forcing the carpenter to take only twenty silver dollars, Prudently making friends with the policeman, he settles the affairs of his too kind cousin.

III. And in the evening in the city park Shen De meets the unemployed pilot Sun. A pilot without an airplane, a postal pilot without a mail. What can he do in the world, even if he read all the books about flying in a Beijing school, even if he knows how to land an airplane, as if it's his own bottom? He is like a crane with a broken wing, and he has nothing to do on the ground. The rope is ready, and there are a lot of trees in the park. But Shen De doesn't let him hang himself. To live without hope is to do evil. Hopeless is the song of a water carrier selling water in the rain: “Thunder is thundering, and the rain is pouring, / Well, I sell water, / And water is not for sale / And it is not drunk in any. / I shout: “Buy water!” / But nobody buys. / In my pocket for this water / Nothing gets! / Buy water, dogs! "

Yi Shen De buys a mug of water for his beloved Yang Sun.

IV. Returning after a night spent with his beloved, Shen De first sees the morning city, vigorous and giving fun. People are kind today. The old men, the carpet merchants from the shop opposite, lend the lovely Shen De two hundred silver dollars - there will be something to pay off the landlord in six months. For a person who loves and hopes, nothing is difficult. And when Ms. Yang, Sun's mother, says that they promised her son a job for a huge sum of five hundred silver dollars, she happily gives her the money she received from the elderly. But where to get another three hundred? There is only one way out - to turn to Shoy Da. Yes, he is too cruel and cunning. But the pilot must fly!

Sideshows. Shen De enters, holding the mask and costume of Shoy Da, and sings the "Song of the helplessness of the gods and good people": "The good in our country / Kind cannot remain. / To get with a spoon to a cup, / Cruelty is needed. / The good are helpless, but the gods are powerless. / Why do not the gods declare there, on the air, / What time to give to all good and good / The opportunity to live in a good, kind world? "

V. Clever and prudent Shoy Yes, whose eyes are not blinded by love, sees deception. Yang Sung is not afraid of cruelty and meanness: let the promised place be someone else's, and let the pilot who will be fired from him have a big family, let Shen De part with the shop, except for which she has nothing, and the old people lose their two hundred dollars and lose their homes , - just to get what you want. This cannot be trusted, and Shoy Da seeks support in a wealthy barber who is ready to marry Shen De. But the mind is powerless where love works, and Shen De leaves with Sun: “I want to leave with the one I love, / I don’t want to ponder if this is good. / I don't want to know if he loves me. / I want to leave with the one I love. "

Vi. Yang Sung and Shen De are getting ready for the wedding in a small, cheap restaurant on the outskirts. The bride is in a wedding dress, the groom is in a tuxedo. But the ceremony still does not begin, and the bonza glances at the clock - the groom and his mother are waiting for Shoy Da, who is to bring three hundred silver dollars. Yang Song sings "The Song of the Saint's Day Never": "On this day they take evil by the throat, / On this day, all the poor are lucky, / Both the owner and the farm laborer / Walk to the tavern together / On Saint's Day, Never / Skinny drinks at a fat man's house ... / We can no longer wait. / That is why they must give us, / People of hard work, / Saint's Day Never, / Saint's Day Never, / The day when we will rest.

“He will never come again,” says Ms. Yang. Three are sitting, and two of them are looking at the door.

Vii. On a cart near a tobacco shop Shen De's meager belongings - the shop had to be sold in order to repay the debt to the old people. Barber Shu Fu is ready to help: he will give his barracks to the poor, whom Shen De helps (you still can't keep goods there - it's too damp), and will write a check. And Shen De is happy: she felt in herself a future son - a pilot, "a new conqueror / Inaccessible mountains and unknown regions!" But how to save him from the cruelty of this world? She sees the little son of a carpenter looking for food in the garbage can, and swears that she will not rest until she saves her son, at least his one. It's time to turn into a cousin again.

Mr. Shoi Da announces to the audience that his cousin will not leave them without help in the future, but from now on the distribution of food without reciprocal services stops, and in the houses of Mr. Shu Fu there will be someone who agrees to work for Shen De.

VIII. The tobacco factory that Shoy Da set up in the barracks employs men, women and children. Overseer - and cruel - here is Yang Song: he is not in the least sad about the change of fate and shows that he is ready to do anything for the interests of the company. But where is Shen De? Where is the kind person? Where is the one who, many months ago, on a rainy day, in a moment of joy, bought a mug of water from a water carrier? Where is she and her unborn child that she told the water carrier about? And Song would also like to know this: if his ex-fiancée was pregnant, then he, as the father of the child, can claim to be the owner. And here, by the way, is her dress in the knot. Had a cruel cousin killed the unfortunate woman? The police come to the house. Mr. Shoy Da will face trial.

IX. In the courtroom, Shen De's friends (Wang the water carrier, the old couple, grandfather and niece) and Shoi Da's partners (Mr. Shu Fu and the landlady) are waiting for the meeting to begin. At the sight of the judges who entered the hall, Shoy Da faints - these are the gods. The gods are by no means omniscient: under the mask and costume of Shoy Yes, they do not recognize Shen De. And only when, unable to withstand the accusations of the good and the intercession of the evil, Shoy Da takes off his mask and tears off his clothes, the gods see with horror that their mission has failed: their kind man and the evil and callous Shoy Da are one face. It is impossible in this world to be kind to others and at the same time to oneself, it is impossible to save others and not to destroy oneself, one cannot make everyone happy and oneself with all together! But the gods have no time to understand such complexities. Really give up the commandments? No never! To accept that the world needs to be changed? How? By whom? No, everything is okay. And they reassure people: “Shen De did not die, she was only hidden. A kind person remains among you. " And to the desperate cry of Shen De: "But I need a cousin" - they hurriedly answer: "Just not too often!" And while Shen De in despair stretches out his hands to them, they, smiling and nodding, disappear above.

Epilogue. The final monologue of the actor before the audience: “O my venerable audience! The end is bad. I know that. / In our hands, the most beautiful fairy tale suddenly got a bitter denouement. / The curtain is down, and we stand in confusion - we have not found a solution. / So what's the deal? We're not looking for benefits, / So there must be some right way out? / For the money you can't imagine - what! Another hero? And if the world is different? / Or maybe other gods are needed here? Or without gods at all? I am silent in alarm. / So help us! Correct the trouble - and direct your thought and mind here. / Try to find good for good - good ways. / Bad end - discarded in advance. / He must, must, must be good! "

Retold T.A. Voznesenskaya.

FROM THE HISTORY OF THE PERFORMANCE
Premiere: April 23, 1964
The play-parable in 2 acts
director Yuri Lyubimov

From the "Good man ..." everything was not allowed

Tales of the old batter

When the students sang Zong of Sheep:

The rams are marching in a row
The drums are beating

and the second zong especially:

The authorities walk along the road ...
Some corpse on the road.

“Eh! Yes, this is the people! "

I mounted these two zones, they are different for Brecht. The audience began stamping their feet and shouting: “Re-rit! Re-rit! Re-rit! " - and so for about five minutes, I thought the school would fall apart.

I frightened everyone and I was the first to frighten Yuzovsky - he was one of the translators of "The Good Man ...". At one time he was worked hard - like a cosmopolitan: he was kicked out of his job ... And he spoke very figuratively about this: “The phone died first,” no one called.

And then he was so scared that he pressed me into a corner, all pale, shaking: “You don't understand anything, you are a crazy person, you know what they will do to you - you have no idea! If you don’t remove these zongs, then at least remove my name from the poster so that it would not be seen that this is my translation! ... ”This made a very strong impression on me: a person older than me, very respected - and such fear. Shostakovich was also frightened by the authorities - he was mortally afraid of them.

And Zakhava was just extremely upset. He was afraid that this was anti-Soviet, that the school would be closed. And he didn't like it ... Although it was strange. Before that, I showed the pulpit a passage for forty minutes, and the pulpit clapped, which happens not so often. It means that they felt something. But when I showed everything, the reaction was to close the show.

Then work began inside the school and decided: "to close the performance as anti-popular, formalistic" - signed by Zakhava. But, thank God, there was a good review in The Week - and I was waiting for it to come out. Zakhava called the newspaper and said that the school did not accept this performance and that the review should be removed. But he called late, the press was already in progress. And at this time, a long meeting on the study began, I was summoned.

But they warned me that printing was already in progress, and said:

Can you stall for time?

I say:

How can I pull?

Well, while they are typing. Take the whole thing out there for a little longer.

In my opinion, Natella Lordkipanidze worked there. Then there was a break for a smoke, and they brought me a hot issue of the newspaper. And when the meeting began, I began to read. They pulled me back: "they are working on you, and you are reading something."

Sorry, - and let the "Week" go through the hands of those working on it. Then they again began to say:

Now you are reading, you have to study, not read.

In short, the newspaper came to Zahava, in a circle. He says:

What do you all read there? What is there? And someone says:

Yes, here they praise him, they say that it is interesting, wonderful. It turns out that we are wrong in working out ...

This was the room where the party bureau met in the school, a class of some kind. There were fifteen or twenty people there. But they, the poor, came because they could not refuse. There was even someone from the theater. There were the highest ranks: Tolchanov, Zakhava, and Cecilia (Mansurova). Zakhava was against, Tolchanov supported Zakhava:

We went through this.

And I said:

That's it! You passed by, that's why you're stuck in the swamp of your realism.

Yes, this is no realism, but just monkey labor.

After all, it turned out that the performance was shown to the public, as is customary, and Moscow is Moscow - it’s not clear how they knew it, but, as always happens, you cannot keep it. They broke down the doors, sat on the floor. There were twice as many people in this small hall at the Shchukin school as there were seats, and they were afraid that the school would collapse.

I remember the first time I was amazed when they called us all together - there was also Ruben Nikolayevich - to close the Sovremennik. And all "The Naked King" was sorted out: who is the naked king, and who is the prime minister - it was under Khrushchev. And they figured it out so much that they closed the meeting, because they could not understand - if Khrushchev is a naked king, then who is the prime minister? So Brezhnev? The associative nonsense drove them to the point that they got scared and covered up this meeting, the Sovremennik's trial. But they wanted to close the theater with our hands so that we could condemn.

And I had the same thing - the first study was at the department. My colleagues did not want to release "The Kind Man ..." and did not want to count it as a graduation performance for students. And only then a favorable press appeared, and the workers of the plants "Stankolit", "Borets", the intelligentsia, scientists, musicians were invited to the performance - and they very much supported me. They hoped to strangle me with the hands of the workers, but they liked "Kind Man ...", there were a lot of song-songs, the guys performed them very well, the workers clapped and congratulated those who wanted to close the performance, they said: "Thank you, very good performance!" - and they somehow drooped. And at that time a good article by Konstantin Simonov appeared in Pravda.

Here. Well, I fought back very hard. So who has some fate. And my fate is this: all the time I fought back.

And yet, I think that then Brecht was not really completely done, because the students did not realize, that is, they just did as I said. After all, this performance was hammered in by me with a crutch, because my ligaments were torn. And then, there were bandits on my course, in the literal sense, who wrote denunciations against me - if to tell the truth - that I teach them not according to the Stanislavsky system. Because I hammered the rhythm with a crutch - I tore my ligaments and walked with it.

They were building a new Arbat. I was pushed by a dump truck, and I rolled into a pothole and tore my ligaments in my leg. And so I used crutches to rehearse. And every time I thought: "Let them go ... I will spit, and I will no longer go to this filthy School!" Here's the truth. This is true. The rest is all embellished strongly.

Before that, as a teacher, I put on small excerpts with various students. With Andrei Mironov I staged Schweik - Lukash the Lieutenant, where he was drunk, his debate with Schweik. Even then, I had a theory: it is imperative to make a passage for a student - about fifteen minutes - so that he could appear, so that he would be hired. Therefore, you need to make it fun and interesting.

And this was the legend of the school - he was accepted into all theaters with this passage, except for Vakhtangov. I was even surprised, I say to Ruben Nikolaevich:

Why, Ruben Nikolaevich, did you not accept him? - but he somehow answered so evasively.

Just as I did an excerpt from Chekhov with Volkov, with Okhlupin - now famous artists. Why I remember, because here too they began to work on me at the department, that Chekhov should not be put on like that. I was staging a story about a doctor who comes to a patient - he sees only whims - and a child dies in his house.

I even did one act of "Days of the Turbines" there. I did excerpts two or three from Fear and Confusion. .. ". After “The Good Man ...” I no longer taught.

I read the translation of Yuzovsky and Ionova in the magazine. And it seemed to me very interesting, difficult and strange, because I knew little about Brecht. I just didn't know much.

This was an unusual drama for Moscow. Brecht was played very little, and Moscow did not know him well. I had not seen the Berliner Ensemble and was completely free of influence. This means that he did it intuitively, freely, without the pressure of the traditions of Brecht. I read, of course, about him, his works, his all kinds of instructions. But all the same, it's good that I haven't seen a single performance. Then I saw "Arthur Wee", and "Galileo", and "Coriolanus", "Mother" in Brechtian style, then, "Purchase of Copper" is such a debatable performance. Very interesting. I even wanted to stage it.

And because I did not see anything Brecht, I was clean and it turned out to be a Russian version of Brecht. The performance was as my intuition and my instinct told me. I was free, I did not imitate anyone. I think that after all I brought them a new drama at the school: I mean Brecht. Because it seemed to me that the very construction of Brechtian drama, the principles of his theater - undoubtedly the theater of the political, would somehow make students see the world around them more and find themselves in it, and find their own attitude to what they see. Because without this one cannot play Brecht. Then, I still managed to break the canon in the sense that usually the diploma will be surrendered in the fourth year, and I persuaded to allow my students to pass the diploma in the third year. It was very difficult to do, I needed to convince the pulpit. They allowed me to show a fragment for thirty or forty minutes, and if they are satisfied with this fragment, they will allow me to make a diploma.

And now they even give it to my students quite calmly, already Sabinin puts on diploma performances one by one, and they are all professors, associate professors. And I was some kind of ordinary teacher, I received a ruble per hour. They took them to train as drivers - I even thought to earn money by teaching - three rubles per hour. And when I was offered Taganka after this "Good ..." Why, in general, you are offering me three hundred rubles, and I jokingly earn six hundred rubles both in the cinema, on television, and on the radio, and you say so: here your salary will be three hundred rubles ", - I immediately got into a conflict with superiors. I presented them with thirteen points of restructuring the old theater.

Moscow is an amazing city - everyone there knows everyone by rumors. A rumor spread that an interesting performance was being prepared. And since everyone is bored, and diplomats too, since something is interesting, it means there will be a scandal. As my late friend Erdman used to say, “if there is no scandal around the theater, then this is not a theater”. So, in this sense, he was a prophet in relation to me. And so it was. Well, it's boring, and everyone wants to come and see, and they know that if it's interesting, it will be closed. Therefore, the performance could not begin for a long time, the audience rushed into the hall. These diplomats sat down on the floor in the aisle, a firefighter, a pale director, a rector of the school ran in and said that “he will not permit, because the hall could collapse. In the hall, where there are seats for two hundred and forty people, there are about four hundred - in general, there was a complete scandal. I stood with a lantern - there was a very bad electrician, and I myself stood and drove the lantern. In the right places, he flashed the portrait of Brecht. And I drove everything with this lantern and shouted:

For God's sake, let the play continue, what are you doing, because the play will be closed, no one will see it! Why are you stomping, don't you really understand where you live, idiots!

And yet I calmed them down. But, of course, everything was recorded and reported. Well, and closed after that.

They saved the honor of the uniform. It ended badly, because the rector Zakhava came and began to correct the performance. The students did not listen to him. Then he called me. I had there a conditional tree made of planks. He said:

The performance will not work with such a tree. If you don’t make the tree more realistic, I cannot admit it.

I say:

I am asking for a hint on how to do this. He says:

Well, at least these strips, seal the barrel with cardboard. We have no money, I understand. Draw the bark of the tree.

Can I put ants on the trunk?

He got mad and says:

Leave my office.

So I fought. But the young students still obeyed me. Well, some people went to complain about me, to the department, that I was destroying the traditions of Russian realism and so on and so forth.

It was interesting to me, because I set new tasks for myself all the time. It seemed to me that sometimes Brecht was too edifying and boring. Suppose the scene of the factory is staged by me almost papomimically. There is a minimum of text. And Brecht has a huge text scene. I re-edited the play a little, greatly reduced it. I made one zong for Tsvetaeva's text, her love poems:

Yesterday I looked into my eyes

Equalized with the Chinese state,

I unclenched both hands at once,

Life fell out like a rusty penny ...

And the rest were all Brechtian, although I took several other zongs, not for this play.

There were almost no decorations, they later remained the same, I took them from school to the theater when Taganka was formed. There were two tables at which the students studied - from the audience - there was no money, we made the decorations ourselves: I was together with the students.

But there was still a portrait of Brecht on the right - the artist Boris Blank painted very well. And he himself looks very much like Brecht - just as if they were twins with Brecht. Then, when the portrait became old, he tried to rewrite it several times, but all the time it came out badly. And we kept this portrait all the time: they sewed it up, darned it, tinted it up. And so he lived for 30 years. All the new ones that Blank tried to do did not work - fate.

I did a lot of plastic, rhythm, and the students thought that this was to the detriment of Stanislavsky's psychological school. Unfortunately, Stanislavsky's system in school programs was very narrowed, he himself was much broader, and reducing the system only to a psychological school greatly impoverishes the craft, reduces the level of skill.

While discovering Brecht's drama, I also looked for new methods of working with students - I staged a graduation performance in my third year so that they could meet with the audience and play for a whole year. And they have practically been learning to talk to the public this whole year. Because Brecht without dialogue with the audience, in my opinion, is not possible. This, in general, helped in many respects to the development of the entire theater, because then these were new techniques for the school and for students.

A new form of plastics, the ability to conduct a dialogue with the audience, the ability to go out to the audience ... The complete absence of the fourth wall. But there is nothing particularly new here. Everyone now understands the famous Brechtian alienation effect in their own way. Entire volumes have been written about him. When you seem to be from the outside ... Out of character.

In Diderot's "Paradox of the Actor", in a sense, the same idea, but only in Brecht it is still equipped with a very strong political coloring, the position of the artist in society. The "paradox about the actor" is reduced to a double, or something, stay, dual sensations of the actor, his duality on stage. And Brecht still has a moment when the actor's position outside the image, as a citizen, his attitude to reality, to the world is very important to him. And he finds it possible that the actor at this time, as it were, went out of the way and left him aside.

Lord, as soon as you start to remember, a whole chain of associations immediately follows. Boris Vasilich Shchukin, my teacher, died with the book The Paradox of the Actor. When his son came to him in the morning, he was lying dead with Diderot's book open. In this connection, I also remembered a book that I had read as a young man: “Actress” - by the Goncourt brothers. There is a very good observation: when she stands in front of a deceased loved one, a loved one, she experiences deep grief, and at the same time she catches herself on the terrible thought: “Remember, this is how you have to play such things on stage”. This is a very interesting observation. I started to study to be an actor and then I myself often caught myself doing something similar.

Working with students, I have always shown a lot, always looking for mise-en-scene expressiveness. And he developed precisely the drawing, both psychological and external. I was very careful about the expressiveness of the body. And all the time he taught them not to be afraid to go from external to internal. And often the correct mise-en-scène then gave them a true inner life. Although, of course, their tendency was to do the opposite: to go from internal to external? This is the main commandment of the school: to feel, to feel the life of the human spirit inside. But I also believe that the main thing is the life of the human spirit, only we need to find a theatrical form so that this life of the human spirit can manifest itself freely and have an impeccable form of expression. Otherwise, it turns the actor into an amateur. He cannot express his feelings, he lacks the means: no diction, no voice, no plasticity, no sense of himself in space. I believe that even now the actor is taught to understand the director's intention very poorly. All the main conflicts between the actor and the director are due to the fact that the actor has little interest in the whole idea. But the director is also obliged to make a general explication of his idea. And we know the brilliant explications of Meyerhold, Stanislavsky, Vakhtangov.

Maybe I am reaching a paradox, but I think that any famous performance in the history of theater can be described very accurately how it was made, how it was solved: light, scenography, plastic. I can tell you some performances that made a strong impression on me. I remember all the mise-en-scenes, I remember the interpretation of the roles, the plastic of the same Olivier in Othello. Just as we all remember Chaplin's plasticity, his cane, bowler hat, gait.

There were Chaplin contests, where Chaplin himself took eighth place.

That is, I love this kind of theater. And that’s why I’m reaching the limit when I say that I don’t see much difference in the work of a choreographer and in the work of a director. Only a good choreographer is listened to, and dramatic artists endlessly discuss with the director. Is it something

fashionable - I don't understand. They unquestioningly give themselves in hand in television, on radio, in cinema. But this is where they can finally take their heart out, argue, debate, talk about collective creativity all the time, and so on - this is in the theater. So they are taking revenge. It's like in the wonderful film "Orchestra Rehearsal" by Fellini, there is always a struggle between the conductor and the orchestra. The orchestra is constantly provoking the conductor, testing his strength, and the conductor seeks and tries to put the orchestra in place, testing the level of the orchestra. This is such a mutual examination of each other. This is what happens when an actor and a director always meet - this is happening, a game. But up to a certain limit. Because someone has to take the conductor's baton and start conducting.

"Good man ..." had a huge resonance. And they all reached out. Poets and writers came. We also managed to play "The Kind Man ...", despite the ban of the department, and in the House of Cinema, in the House of Writers, with physicists in Dubna. They played five times at the Vakhtangov Theater. We were allowed because the performance was going on with such success, besides, my classmate and an old friend from the school; even at the Second Moscow Art Theater, Isay Spektor was the commercial director of the theater, a practical person, and the Vakhtangov Theater was on tour at that time. And the doors were broken there. And I was sent to play an away play, although there was another performer in it. And I did not see how these performances went on the Vakhtangov stage. I came to the last one, in my opinion. And only then they told me that Mikoyan was there and said the phrase: “Oh! This is not an educational show, this is not a student show. It will be a theater, and a very peculiar one. " So you see, the Politburo member figured it out.

For the first time in my life, I very accurately formulated my thirteen points to the Department of Culture, which is necessary for me to create a theater. I understood that the old theater would grind me up, turn me into minced meat - nothing would remain. I will be mired in the squabbles of the old troupe. I understood that everything had to be done all over again, to start from scratch. And so I gave them these points, And they thought for a long time whether to approve me or not.

I brought students from this course with me ... Even two informers who wrote about me that I was destroying Stanislavsky's system. And not because I am so noble. I just didn't feel like bringing in two artists again and wasting time. The students were very different. It was not an idyll that the teacher and good students rehearse in rapture.

How did I stage The Kind Man ...? - I literally hammered the rhythm with a crutch, because I tore my ligaments in my leg, and I could not run and show, and I worked with a crutch. It was very difficult to get an understanding of the form. The students felt that something was wrong, that is, they were not taught the way I worked with them.

Having received permission to take "The Kind Man ..." and ten people from the course to the theater, I realized what I needed. I removed the entire old repertoire, leaving only one play for Priestley, because she was more or less making preparations, although I did not like the performance.

We could not play "The Good Man ..." every day, although he was sold out. And so I immediately launched two projects - first the unsuccessful "Hero of Our Time", then I realized that he was not helping me - and immediately launched "Antiworlds" and "Ten Days ...".

Then I was fond of Andrei Voznesensky, his poems and began to make "Antiworlds" as a poetic performance, which then went on for a very long time. And then the audience of Moscow made me happy. Firstly, many people told me that the viewer would not come to Taganka - he came. He came to the "Good ...", he came to the "Fallen. .. ”, he came to“ Ten days ... ”, he came to“ Antiworlds ”. And in this way I bought time. The Soviet authorities always give a year at least ... once they appointed, they left alone for a year. They just had such rhythms of life that let them work for a couple of years, and then we'll see. And somehow I turned around very quickly. In a year I passed the rapids and received a repertoire: "Good ...", "Ten days ...", "Antiworlds", after a long struggle "The Fallen. .. "remained in the repertoire - already four performances, and

i could lean on them. True, I did not think that they would start working on me so quickly. Already "Ten days ..." the authorities took it this way ... although the revolution, the fifth or tenth, but with displeasure. But they were nevertheless discarded by success - like a revolutionary theme and such a success. Well, and the press ... Pravda chided, but, in general, approved. And only then they began, scolding the "Master", saying: "How could a person who put on 'Ten Days ...' - and so it was with me all the time - how could this person who put on this and that, put this mess?" - "House ...", suppose, or Mayakovsky and so on.

R. S. You see, my son, those rulers still gave Dad a year for promotion, and Tsar Boris changes his prime ministers four times in one year!

Without date.

When everything was ready and it was possible to appoint a premiere, it somehow coincided that Lenin's birthday, and the next - Shakespeare's birthday, our day ... And I began to proclaim that only thanks to the XX Congress such a theater could appear. But until the XX Congress - no. And when they began to forget the XX Congress, I found myself without a life buoy and began to drown.

But he did not drown to the end. And I agree with the way Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa explained it: “I was very worried about your fate, Yuri Petrovich, until I realized that you were Kuzkin. And when I realized that you are Kuzkin to some extent, I stopped worrying. "

They had a golden wedding, and there was such a very elite audience, scientists, academicians, and everyone said something so solemn - a golden wedding, Anna Alekseevna sat with Pyotr Leonidovich, and I brought a golden poster "The Master and Margarita" - in the same place a poster was made by chapters, and I gave a commentary about Pyotr Leonidovich to each chapter.

I also needed to make a speech, and I said that it was not surprising that I was Kuzkin, but that Pyotr Leonidovich had to be Kuzkin in this country in order to survive, it’s amazing. Anna Alekseevna was very offended:

How can you, Yuri Petrovich, call Pyotr Leonidovich Kuzkin?

And suddenly Pyotr Leonidovich got up and said:

Shut up, rat (He always called her that.) Yes, Yuri Petrovich, you are right, I am Kuzkin too.

P. S. Kuzkin is the hero of the wonderful story by B. Mozhaev, something like a seamstress in the Russian manner.

Honestly, this is a performance after which not a single critic will ever discount the Pushkin Theater. The first powerful work after the death of Roman Kozak, who headed the theater from 2001 to 2010 and set a course for a "serious" theater.

The premieres that came out in the theater before The Kind Man ... were by no means bad. All of these were high-quality productions, but - to be honest - with an entertaining message, mostly comedy. In this context, the tragic performance by Bertolt Brecht for the Pushkin Theater is a major milestone in history.

PLOT

In search of a good man, the gods descend to earth. In the main city of Sichuan province, no one wants to accept them for the night, except for the prostitute Shen Te. In gratitude, the gods give Shen Tie some money - with it she buys a small tobacco shop. And then begins what is usually called "the road to hell is paved with good intentions." People take advantage of Shen Te's kindness. Business at the shop is going very badly. To save herself from ruin, the girl dresses in a man's suit and pretends to be her cousin Shui Ta, a cruel and calculating businessman.

Shui Ta is tough in business, refuses to everyone who turns to him for help, and, unlike Shen Te, the "brother" is doing well. In a chain of fast-paced events, Shui Ta forces numerous freeloaders to work for Shen Te and eventually opens a small tobacco factory. It all ends with Shui Ta being accused of murdering his cousin. Gods take it upon themselves. This is short.

ABOUT THE TIME

Brecht wrote the play for 11 years - from 1930 to 1941. Although the site is designated as the Chinese province of Sichuan, Brecht explains in a remark that this can happen anywhere on the globe, "where man exploits man."

Meanwhile, the following is happening in the world:

Benito Mussolini puts forward the idea of \u200b\u200ba corporate state, that is, the idea of \u200b\u200bthe state as the power of corporations, representing and harmonizing the interests of all segments of the population (as opposed to parliamentary democracy as the power of parties). Fascist ideology originated in Italy in the late 1910s, the Italian Fascist Party came to power and established the dictatorship of Mussolini in 1922.

The Spanish Civil War begins. As historians write, it was a test of the battle between fascism and communism. While the republicans turned to the USSR for military assistance, the nationalists were helped by Italy and Germany. The Comintern began recruiting people into the anti-fascist international brigades.

The Second World War begins.With the coming to power of the National Socialist Workers' Party headed by Adolf Hitler in 1933, Germany began to ignore all the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles - in particular, it was restoring conscription and rapidly increasing the production of weapons and military equipment. October 14, 1933 Germany withdraws from the League of Nations and refuses to participate in the Geneva Conference on Disarmament. On July 24, 1934, Germany attempts to implement the Anschluss of Austria.

On March 7, 1936, German troops occupy the Rhine Demilitarized Zone. Great Britain and France do not offer this effective resistance, limiting themselves to a formal protest. On November 25 of the same year, Germany and Japan conclude the Anti-Comintern Pact on a joint struggle against communism. Italy joins the pact on November 6, 1937.

Between 1939 and 1945, about 40 million people die in Europe - 2 million Western Europeans, almost 7 million Germans, and more than 30 million Eastern Europeans and Soviet citizens.

AUTHOR

Bertolt Brecht - German poet, prose writer, playwright, also known as a theater reformer and revolutionary. His work has always caused a lot of controversy, any premiere was accompanied by scandals. Nevertheless, Brechtian theory of the epic theater turned the theater of the 20th century.

Brecht contrasted his theory to "psychological" theater ("theater of experience"), which is associated with the name of KS Stanislavsky.

What's the point?

A mix of drama and epic.

The principle of distancing that allows the actor to express his attitude towards the character.

The destruction of the so-called fourth wall separating the stage from the auditorium, and the possibility of direct communication between the actor and the audience (the latter has become very firmly established in European theatrical culture).

Performance as a form of reflection of reality, including political.

Refusal to recreate the environment, conditional design, only the main signs of place and time.

The action is often accompanied by inscriptions projected onto the curtain or backdrop of the stage.

Music as an effective element that reinforces the text (zongi).

Ragged rhythm as a "protest against the smoothness and harmony of ordinary verse."

The performance as a vocation to build a new world.

Plays are the main legacy of Brecht, which made him world famous. He wrote them on the topic of the day and, according to him, dreamed of the time when the world around him would change so much that everything he wrote would be irrelevant. Alas. The Kind Man from Sichuan (translation version of The Kind Man from Sezuan, German Der gute Mensch von Sezuan) is a play completed in 1941 in Finland, one of the most striking incarnations of the theory of epic theater. It was originally called Die Ware Liebe and was conceived as a household drama.

Brecht dedicated "The Kind Man ..." to his wife - actress Elena Weigel, the main role was intended for her.

QUOTES

“Your world is cruel! There is too much need. Too Much Despair! You reach out to the poor man, and he pulls it out! You help a lost person - and you disappear yourself! .. Probably there is some kind of falsity in your world. "

“Kind people / In our country they cannot stay kind for long, / Where the plates are empty, eaters are constantly fighting. / Ah, the commandments of the gods / Do not help when there is nothing to eat. / Why the gods do not come to our markets, / And do not open the cornucopia with a smile, / And do not allow us, having refreshed ourselves with bread and wine, / From now on to be friendly and kind to each other? "

“I saw the need, / And wolf's rage filled my heart. Then / I realized that transformation is inevitable - my mouth / Became a wolf's mouth, kind words / They burned my tongue, but all the same / I wanted to be the “angel of the outskirts”. From pleasure / I could not refuse to help. Just one / Happy smile - and I was already floating in the clouds. / Judge me, but know - these crimes / I committed to help my neighbors, / To love my beloved and / To save my own son from poverty. / I'm sorry, but to fulfill divine plans / I, just a person, is beyond my power. Help!"

PRODUCER

Yuri Butusov graduated from the shipbuilding institute. In 1996 he graduated from the directing department at the Academy of Theater Arts in St. Petersburg. He staged his first performances with friends-actors: Konstantin Khabensky, Mikhail Porechenkov, Mikhail Trukhin. He made his debut at the Lensovet Theater in 1997 with the play "Woyzeck" based on the play by Georg Buchner, including songs by Tom Waits. Today Butusov is the chief director of the Lensovet Theater, and he also puts on performances not only on the leading stages of Russia, but also in Norway, Bulgaria, and South Korea.

Winner of the national theater award "Golden Mask", the highest theatrical award of St. Petersburg "Golden Soffit", theatrical prize named after KS Stanislavsky, "The Seagull" prize.

Signs of the director's style:a penchant for the genre of tragedy, eccentricity, deliberation, sensuality, audacity, hysteria combined with a philosophical search. Experiments with theatrical form. Always a brutal soundtrack, a mix of pop, rock and jazz hits.

The scandal around Yuri Butusov:In the spring of 2012, Butusov had an acute conflict with the then chairman of the Committee on Culture Dmitry Meskhiev, who was trying to ban the director from working in other cities and abroad. Butusov threatened to leave the theater, he was supported by the theatrical community, and Meskhiev soon resigned.

Alexander Matrosov, performer of the role of Wang:“Butusov is a man of utmost honesty with himself. We all have so much time for ourselves. But he is not. He never flirts, spreads what is. He does not pity either you or himself. This is his strength and wisdom. At this stage of life - to hell with him, with this word - Butusov is my idol. "

Alexander Arsentiev, performer of the role of Young Sun:“I worked together with Yuri Nikolaevich only on one performance, and all these notions about a tyrant are a great theatrical myth. Yuri Nikolaevich is very vulnerable, just crystal inside. He is a very educated, gifted director with an interesting mindset. And, what is most important for me, Yuri Nikolaevich is a creative person with a big heart. Everything that he does, he does, mentally spending. "

“Theater is a convention. The general agreement is that there, on the stage, there can be castles, fields, another time, space - whatever. Magic arises when we all begin to believe in these proposed circumstances. We are all united by a common desire for truth. It seems to me that in Yuri Nikolaevich this is the most important thing - the ability to discern the truth. Moreover, everything can be turned upside down on stage: a woman can play a man, old - young, young - old. Everything that happens in Butusov's performances is true. "

5 REASONS TO WATCH THE PERFORMANCE:

Decisive and uncompromising director's statement. Not at all about the social motivation of revolutions and the injustice of society. But about how bad the world is in general.

Great acting work, especially Alexandra Ursulyak (performer of the roles of Shen Te and Shui Ta).

Detachment from the era and place.

The fierce frankness with which the director reveals the terrible truth to the viewer: there is no hope and there will not be.

Critics saw only one "drawback" in the performance. Thus, he was accused of "imperfect ensemble". The reason is that most of the actors are used to playing comedies. It was difficult for them to readjust.

Alexander Matrosov, performer of the role of Wang: “For the artists who are involved in it, this performance has changed consciousness. We have grown both as people and as professionals. If we take the Pushkin Theater as a phenomenon, I think we were ready for such a performance, since it happened. As athletes take their record, so do we. After “Kind Man…” you can't play badly. Even Evgeny Alexandrovich Pisarev noticed that we were different. This is a set bar, and we are already starting from it. "

Alexandra Ursulyak, performer of the roles of Shen Te and Shui Ta: “This performance is a precedent and a serious statement. But this does not mean that the Pushkin Theater was green, and now it suddenly turned red. It doesn't work that way. You cannot create something good on bad soil. And our theater has always been good. We have a wonderful troupe, hard-working, real. I think that it is pleasant and interesting for any director to work with us. Yuri Nikolaevich we are very field

Alexander Arsentiev,performer of the role of Young Sun: “Nothing just happens. Roman Efimovich Kozak set a serious direction for the theater, and Evgeny Aleksandrovich Pisarev picked him up. And, apparently, for such a performance as “Kind Man…” the time has come, and we “matured”: we became older, more experienced. But no one set the task for the troupe to take the heights. To be honest, we didn't expect to be successful at all. We thought it was another experiment. But everything turned out the way it happened. The performance was created by touch, on a whim. It was as if we were weaving a web that you can blow on and it will break. Therefore, any detail in the play and a healthy atmosphere inside is important for the “Kind Man ...” ”.

WHAT CHANGED?

Butusov refuses criticism and social pathos. He basically removed any hints of a revolt against the regime and focused not on the political component of Brecht's play, but on the universal one.

Butusov came up with a plastic "feature" for each character: the landlord Mi Tszyu (Irina Petrova) moves sideways, Mrs. Shin (Natalya Reva-Ryadinskaya) constantly waves her hands, the water seller Wang becomes a cripple with cerebral palsy.

God-fighting challenge. Brecht wrote a play-a challenge to society.

Butusov did not include all the zongs in the performance, he refused from openly moralizing ones, including the final one. Brecht ended the play with the lines: "The bad end has been discarded in advance - it must, must, must be good."

MUSIC

The music in Butusov's performance is a full-fledged participant in the action (according to Brecht). Igor Gorsky's chamber ensemble of soloists "Pure Music" performs works by composer Paul Dessau. The sound is sharp, expressive, disturbing. And it's ubiquitous. Even when no zongs sound, the ensemble continues to play.

Zongs are the anchor points of the director's concept. They sound in German (again, according to Brecht - the removal of the author). The interlinear is shown as a creeping line on a special screen.

PAINTER

Alexander Shishkin is a constant collaborator of Butusov. One of the most popular, productive and successful Russian theater artists. He works mainly with directors of his generation - with Yuri Butusov, Viktor Kramer, Andrey Moguchy, etc. Winner of the theater awards "The Seagull" (2002), "Crystal Turandot" (2004), "Golden Mask" (2008), Stanislavsky Prize (2009).

Along with theatrical work, Alexander Shishkin continues to be an easel artist. He is engaged in both traditional painting and unusual digital, creating huge, very oil-like works using a computer (in 2003, his exhibition was held at the festival of Russian art in Nice). Shishkin's track record also includes performances: he organized big events in Turin ("Parade of Urban Creatures") and in Helsinki ("Pillar Incubator").

The scenery for The Kind Man from Cezuan is sparse and symbolic. Before the viewer - a picture of the end times. The stage is bare, the backdrop is a brick wall that serves as a video screen - portraits of heroes and modern video art are projected onto it. Planks and bags are scattered everywhere, an old rusty bed stands in the corner. There is a door, but it leads nowhere. In one scene, bare dry trees descend from the grate.

The light is muted all the time. The costumes are laconic and extremely simple.

Difficulty of rehearsals

Theatrical circles are legendary about how difficult it is to rehearse with Yuri Butusov. Some are sure that there is no more gloomy and taciturn director in the whole country. On this score, the performers of the main roles in "The Good Man ..." express the exact opposite opinion.

Alexandra Ursulyak, performer of the role of Shen Te and Shui Ta: “Yuri Nikolaevich is a wonderful director, one of the brightest in our time. But there are situations when the director must overcome the actor's fear, the artist's unwillingness to work, or misunderstanding. Then Butusov uses more aggressive methods. Sometimes he himself says: "I come into conflict with the artist." An uncomfortable situation for him is something like soil on which something can grow. We tried to be attentive to him in order to feel and understand the coordinate system in which he exists. The further we went into work, the more we felt the warmth from him. Yuri Nikolaevich is very restrained, never demonstrates his attitude. But personally, what I feel is enough for me. It is not necessary to say everything out loud. He is silent, it's true. But he also knows how to explain, believe me. And if he doesn’t say something, then there is intent in that too. And sometimes his silence simply means that everything is fine. Because when it’s bad, he speaks right away. ”