Ostrovsky, along with Chekhov, is recognized as one of the most sought-after Russian playwrights on the world stage. And for the Youth Theater “Guilty Without Guilt” is not the first appeal to the heritage of the classic - long years performances are sold out " Late love" and "Love Lace". Many people also remember Semyon Spivak’s play “The Thunderstorm,” staged a quarter of a century ago, which was a great success.

Famous St. Petersburg director Andrei Andreev is working on the production of the play “Guilty Without Guilt.” The main role - Lyubov Ivanovna Otradina/Elena Ivanovna Kruchinina - a famous image of the Russian repertoire - is played by the Honored Artist of Russia, leading actress of the Fontanka Youth Theater Ekaterina Untilova. In 1992, it was with Ostrovsky - with the role of Katerina in "The Thunderstorm" - that the creative path Untilova in Youth Theater and her stage life In Petersburg.

« Of course, this performance is being done, as they say, “for the actress.”", comments the director. - " A wonderful actress, who seemed created for roles “about love”. This is Ekaterina Pavlovna Untilova, whose performance of the role of Katerina in “The Thunderstorm” I was once very impressed with. And now, offering her new meeting with Ostrovsky in the role of Otradina/Kruchinina, I would like to continue the theme (as I understood it) that sounded for me in her role from the time she began working at the Youth Theater. In general, we are trying to implement artistic design Ostrovsky and make, as he intended, a funny melodrama.»

Ostrovsky himself writes about the play “Guilty Without Guilt”: “ This is almost my fiftieth original work and very dear to me in many respects: a lot of labor and energy was spent on finishing it; it was written after a trip to the Caucasus, under the impression of the enthusiastic reception that the Tiflis audience gave me. I wanted to show the Russian public that the author they revered did not rest on his laurels, that he still wanted to work and give her artistic pleasure. <…> This work was created unusually successfully: artistic considerations suddenly came into my head, accessible only to young forces, which at my age I did not dare to count on».

The play was first staged in 1884 at the Maly Theater, for which the author intended it. Otradina's role in different years played by great actresses of the Russian stage - Maria Ermolova, Maria Savina, Alisa Koonen. And today a brilliant benefit role attracts the most talented actresses famous theaters. Since 2014, the play “Guilty Without Guilt” with the Russian Academy of Sciences Larisa Luppian in leading role is on the stage of the St. Petersburg Theater. Lensovet.

According to the plot, famous actress Kruchinina agrees to tour in small town, with whom she has difficult memories of her youth. Unbroken by the betrayal of her beloved and the loss of her son, having achieved enormous fame, Kruchinina returns to hometown, where many unexpected twists of fate await her.

The melodramatic plot is written in the genre of comedy, the nature of which is emphasized by the game speaking names: Kruchinina - sad, Otradina - joyful, Neznamov - rootless, etc. However, this wonderful play has enough room for the directors’ imagination, and the Youth Theater’s interpretation is certainly capable of surprising even a sophisticated viewer.

Bring artistic ideas the director is assisted by a famous creative duo theater artists: the set design for the play was composed by Alexander Orlov, costumes by Irina Cherednikova.

In the ensemble with Ekaterina Untilova are wonderful artists: Russian Academy of Sciences Valery Kukhareshin (Muromov), Andrei Nekrasov (Grigory Neznamov, son of Kruchinina), Konstantin Vorobyov (Dudukin), Regina Shchukina (Korinkina), Alexander Cherkashin (Shmaga), Yuri Stashin /Alexander Konev (Milovzorov), Deputy Artist of Russia Natalia Dmitrieva (Galchikha), Anastasia Tyunina (Shelavina), Yaroslav Sokolov, Anton Svit, Ilya Sokolov and students of RGISI.

The performance is performed live musical accompaniment. At the piano - Andrey Pirog.

The director of the play is a famous Russian director, professor at RGISI, Z.D.I. Republic of Karelia Andrey Andreev. Graduate of GITIS (1973), class of the brilliant teacher M.O. Knebel.

From 1986 to 1996 there was artistic director St. Petersburg Youth Theater A.A. Bryantsev. During this period, he staged such iconic performances on the theater stage as “Woe from Wit” by Alexander Griboyedov, “Ondine” based on the play by Jean Giraudoux, “ A little prince"based on the story by Antoine De Saint-Exupery, "Equus" based on the drama by Peter Schaeffer, "The Catcher in the Rye" by Jerome Salinger.

He has staged productions in theaters in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Riga, Tashkent, Karelia, Samara, Chelyabinsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Norilsk and other cities in Russia and abroad. Among the notable works are the performances: “The Cabal of the Saint” at the Norilsk Polar Theater, “Scapen’s Plots” at the Pushkin Center, “The Master and Margarita” at the Petrozavodsk Republican Drama Theater, “Turandot” at the National Finnish Theater.

Since 1981 he has been teaching at RGISI (formerly LGITMIK). Since 1987, he has been directing courses at the acting and directing departments.
For the Youth Theater this is not the first collaboration with Andrei Andreev - the theater has had great success for seven years. years go by his performance “Tartuffe” based on the play by Jean Baptiste Moliere.

Stage director: Honored Artist of the Republic of Karelia Andrey Andreev
Stage movement: Igor Kachaev
Production designer: Honored Artist of Russia, laureate State Prize Russia Alexander Orlov
Costume designer: Irina Cherednikova
Lighting designer: Denis Dyachenko
Musical arrangement: Andrey Pirog

Kukhareshin and Untilova are the main stars of this performance, but other artists are not minor roles Photo from the website of the Youth Theater on Fontanka. Photo by Yulia Kudryashova

“Guilty Without Guilt” at the Youth Theater on Fontanka: A benefit performance for everyone

There are no small roles or small actors in the new production of Ostrovsky's play

The production of Ostrovsky’s play “Guilty Without Guilt” at the Youth Theater on Fontanka was conceived as a gift for the anniversary of actress Ekaterina Untilova. There had to be a benefit performance. This is how it turned out. Not just one - every actor involved in a new performance can confidently consider it their benefit performance.

Classics as a plot for a series

This is generally distinguishing feature All Molodezhny productions have no small roles or small actors. Each, even episodic, character has its own story, its own characteristic, memorable features. So potential beneficiaries may want to consider whether they want to share the glory. And this is not an easy task for an actor - not to pull the blanket over yourself, especially if the performance was conceived as a benefit performance. In the case of Ostrovsky’s play, nothing of the kind happened - the “hero of the occasion” generously shared the “blanket”, and the result was a performance in which every actor was a premier.

Again, we need to remember the playwright - Ostrovsky’s plays are good and that’s why they are probably so in demand in any era, because every artist has something to play in them. And to play with brilliance and taste. Someone, of course, may say: old. Where is the topic of the day, where is the relevance? As it turns out upon closer examination, everything is in place. Fortunately, there really is no politics, but as for the “topic of the day” - very much so.

Take, for example, the play “Guilty Without Guilt” - it’s just a serial plot. An insidious lover who exchanges his feelings for an advantageous marriage, a child lost in infancy, an unhappy mother who unexpectedly finds wealth, success and eventually finds her son seventeen years later. A story for all times - you can turn it into a Mexican, Indian, or Russian series. Well, that’s all they do, it’s just that the action is transferred to our time. The result is a multi-episode television soap designed for an unassuming viewer. That’s why they film it somehow, and play in it the same way. Because the interests of the creators of such series are far from creative, but purely material. Well, let them “sculpt” - the money, as Ranevskaya once said, will run out, but the shame will remain.

As for the theater, the situation is completely different.

Forward to Stanislavsky!

So director Andrei Andreev, who staged Ostrovsky’s play at the Youth Theater on Fontanka, did not modernize it, flirt with the public and descend to the “serial” level, but created an absolutely classic performance. In this he was helped by production designer Alexander Orlov, who created a restrained world in which a black curtain flies and a real piano plays. This classic picture supports the overall atmosphere. Where respect for the audience and respect for the actors involved in the play come first.

As a result, there is a return from both. The actors play an unpretentious story, which is unlikely to evoke empathy in anyone today, with such dedication that it cannot find a response in auditorium she just can't. But the response, of course, is not to all these passions with betrayal and a lost child, but specifically to acting.

Moreover, we must not forget that Ostrovsky wrote a comedy, and it is much more difficult to make an audience laugh than to make them cry. And now the insidious traitor Murov (Valery Kukhareshin) jumps like a dragonfly, having secretly given away his own son foster parents. The rich man Dudukin (Konstantin Vorobyov), a lover of theater and especially actresses, is rubbing around behind the scenes with “noble intentions.” Without embarrassment, actress Korinkina (Regina Shchukina) schemes against her competitor. Hero-lover Milovzorov (Yuri Stashin) “stars”, drinks last actor Shmaga (Alexander Cherkashin) with his catchphrase: “An actor’s place is in the buffet.” Everyone here is a beneficiary with their own comedic role.

Ekaterina Untilova in the role of Otradina/Kruchinina and Andrei Nekrasov, playing her lost son Neznamov, are responsible for the melodramatic component. And Untilova in her role is dignity itself. And Nekrasov in his own way is almost Hamlet.

Well, all together they form a single ensemble of great masters, creating a performance where everything is simple, understandable, not cluttered with new-fangled stage effects, and at the same time not descending to an enterprise level, when they try to entertain the viewer by any means necessary. And if you want to see the theater as it was seen in the times of Ostrovsky and Stanislavsky, then “Guilty Without Guilt” is just the case.

Anna VETLINSKAYA,

Internet magazine "Interestant"

We offer tickets for Guilty Without Guilt in Vakhtangov, to the small hall. Pyotr Fomenko's cheerful comedy in two acts has never left anyone indifferent. The events of the play unfold in a modest family, where a noble maiden, not deprived good manners- Lyubov Otradina earns money by sewing to feed herself and her child. She dreams of her baby's father marrying her. Actually, Guilty without guilt in Vakhtangov is a melodrama based on Ostrovsky's story.

Murov, the father of Otradina’s child, cannot tell his mother about his intention to marry a modest girl, without a dowry. During his next visit to Lyubov, Murov tells her about this, and when he learns that Shelavin’s friend is coming to see her, he hides from her. This strange behavior for Otradina is subsequently explained by the fact that she recognizes her failed husband in a friend’s wedding photo. And the child dies. This is the first action play Guilty Without Guilt.

In the second act, events unfold seventeen years later. Master Dudukin patronizes actors, among whom there are many pretty actresses. While he is waiting for the return of the talented actress Kruchinina, he is told about the scandal that Neznamov created, and that they are now asking the governor not to kick him out of the city.

At this point in Without the guilt of the guilty the secrets of history are revealed. Kruchinina tells how she became ill after learning that her child was dying. Having lost consciousness, she did not come to her senses for a long time, and when she woke up, she was told that her son was no more. The intrigues, lies and hypocrisy discussed in performance Guilty without guilt, are clearly marked in

The essence of the production. And Neznamov, recognized as an illegitimate child, spent a difficult childhood and youth, wandering and suffering exile. And he developed a bad character.

Neznamov, having met Kruchinina, scolds her for standing up for him, arguing that he will now be laughed at. But she tells him that he is simply used to feeling guilty, and, in fact, he simply has not met kind and selfless people in his life. There are touching moments in comedy Guilty without guilt. If you buy tickets to the play Guilty Without Guilt, then you can do this with us in advance.

Next, Kruchinina keeps trying to find her son. She does not believe that he died, because she did not see the boy dead. And then one day Dudukin gathers guests at his estate. Everyone gathers and warns the guests that it is better not to talk about children in front of Krucinia.

However, when everything was going well, Neznamov gets up and says a toast dedicated to mothers who abandoned their children. He angrily adds that such mothers are easily bought off with gold, which reminds the child all his life that he was abandoned. And then Kruchinina realizes that this is her son. She rushes to him, sees on his neck the medallion that she put on when he was still a baby.

Everyone was amazed, and Neznamov immediately asked where his father was. To which Kruchinina replied that she did not know. And he adds that the young man is smart and talented, and his father is not worthy to know him, but she will give him her last name and the opportunity to receive a decent education.

The plot of the play can be called melodramatic. The famous provincial actress Elena Kruchinina (formerly Otradina) seventeen years later comes to her hometown, with which she has bitter memories: the collapse of love, the loss of her son. In the city of her youth, she gives several performances and takes an active part in fate young actor Grigory Neznamov, unaware of who he is...

Production group:

• Stage director - National artist Russian Federation Alexander Zykov (Novosibirsk)
• Production designer- Honored Artist of the Russian Federation Mikhail Mokrov (St. Petersburg)
• Costume designer- Nika Velegzhaninova (St. Petersburg)
• Choreographer- Marina Shtarker (Krasnoyarsk)
• Lighting designer- Denis Solntsev (St. Petersburg)
• Musical arrangement- Victor Stribuk
• Assistant directors- Olga Nazarenko, Marina Tomilovskaya

MODERN CLASSICS: A LOOK THROUGH THE CENTURIES.

Director, People's Artist of Russia Alexander Zykov
(“Two angels, four people”, “...A plague on both your houses!”,
“And this one fell out of the nest...”), did not modernize the play
A.N. Ostrovsky. He put his new performance in the tradition of the author.

Why is the play “Guilty Without Guilt” relevant, according to the creator of the play and the actors playing the main roles?

Alexander Zykov, director:
- Yes, the melodrama “Guilty Without Guilt” tells a story that happened a long time ago, but the feelings that its characters experience still excite the audience. The characters sculpted by Ostrovsky are authentic, alive, and not at all outdated for us. In a word, these characters are always modern,
how contemporary cruel romances are at all times.

Galina Zorina (in the play - Elena Ivanovna Kruchinina):
- The play has a piercing theme of motherhood, which worries every woman. All mothers worry about their children and wish them happiness. These feelings were relevant both in late XIX century - when the play was written by Ostrovsky - and now.
Therefore, everything that my heroine experiences will certainly find a response in the hearts of mothers. Although love, mercy and compassion are characteristic of every woman.

Anna Bekchanova (in the play - Lyubov Ivanovna Otradina):
- I think my heroine bears little resemblance to modern young girls. Unlike her, they build their own happiness. And Otradina, due to her gentle character and selfless heart, has enormous blind patience and faith in people. At the same time, he remains inactive and lives with expectations. The only thing that is similar is that we are all, to one degree or another, dependent on circumstances. And this is not our fault...