Grigory Zaslavsky

The same Fokin

Another stage of "Sovremennik" opened with the premiere of "The Overcoat"

Sovremennik opened Another Stage. Not small, not new, but - Another. An unprepared passer-by will be very surprised when, behind the facade of the Sovremennik known to him, a little in the depths, he sees a real curtain. Behind the brown metal curtain are the glass doors leading to the theatre. The unique building was built according to the project of two famous people at once - architect Yevgeny Assa and theater designer Alexander Borovsky, at the same time the artist of the first performance that appeared on the Other Stage, Gogol-Fokine's "The Overcoat".

Inside - everything is the same theatrical and functional: white walls, with open, raw joints at the junction of blocks, somewhere the "quotes" of the brown curtain continue, somewhere - cables and blocks, secret springs of theatrical machinery come out. On all floors and in all nooks and crannies, a combination of white and brown, dark brown wood and brown metal is maintained. Some homeliness is "allowed" in one single place - on the wall that adjoins the hall, where under glass are multi-format and non-formal photographs of the Sovremennik actors.

The director of the investment company that built the Other Stage for Sovremennik says that, equipped with the latest theatrical technology, it cost about $4.5 million, and "at some point they simply stopped counting the money."

On Monday, the theater for the first time allowed journalists onto the Other Stage, and already on Tuesday they played the premiere of The Overcoat directed by Valery Fokin.

Galina Volchek managed to present her very tough concept of a new stage space, where it will be possible to experiment as you like and fail as loudly as you like, but it is impossible for random performances to appear or to be rented out to other theaters and even the most wonderful enterprises. So in the near future there will be one and only "Overcoat" in the poster of the Other Stage.

However, the names of the upcoming premieres are known: Kirill Serebrennikov is rehearsing The Naked Pioneer with Chulpan Khamatova based on the novel by Mikhail Kononov, staged by Ksenia Dragunskaya, another work is at the stage of “pronunciation”: based on the novel by Gary (Azhar), a performance famous in Moscow will be staged (it seems even more than in Ukraine) Andriy Zholdak. For the sake of such an occasion, Galina Borisovna promises to break her long-term forced silence as an actor and go on stage. According to Volchek, Zholdak did not convince her in any of his performances of the correctness of his own choice and the invitation of the infamous director to Sovremennik, however, in her opinion, there is something in it that makes one believe in the possibility of working together, and this something, she hopes, will emerge in this collaboration.

Well, now - about the "Overcoat".

A real theatrical beau monde gathered at the premiere - Mark Zakharov, Oleg Yankovsky, Alla Demidova, Lyudmila Maksakova, Gidon Kremer, etc.

When the guests finally sat down, the lights went out, and the backdrop turned into a screen with falling snow. The overcoat standing in the back of the stage stirred, began to turn, and a small dot above the collar turned into Bashmachkin's head. Parting his tails, he leaned out. Bald, lipless, sexless Gogol's hero. He went out, peed, denoting the existing floor, climbed back.

What he does inside is unknown.

Taking advantage of the pause, let's say that perhaps the last work of Valery Fokin on the stage of Sovremennik was just Gogol's The Inspector General, which has been going on for 20 years now. At the same time, this is Fokine's last work with Marina Neelova, who played (and continues to play) Marya Antonovna there.

I wanted to see another Fokine on the Other Stage. Moreover, Fokin, who recently headed the Alexandrinsky Theater, managed to combine his experimental talent with academic space and time on the imperial stage - in Gogol's The Inspector General, for which he was awarded the State Prize last summer.

On the Other Stage, Fokine is still the same, familiar from chamber experiments. Probably one of the first and best in this "series" of performances of the so-called instrumental theater was "Numer in a hotel in the city of NN". "Overcoat" - from the series.

The program says that the idea of ​​the project belongs to the famous photographer Yuri Rost. It probably occurred to him that Neelova could play Bashmachkin. Great idea! This can be seen in rare moments when a normal, human theater pecks through various "instrumental" tricks. But about half of this tiny hour-long performance of Neelov is not needed. Waiting out the “technical” pauses, filled with creaking and grunting familiar from Valery Fokin’s previous performances (composer - Alexander Bakshi) and, it seems, for the first time appearing in his work some kind of shady interruptions (their author is no less famous than Bakshi, Ilya Eppelbaum) , you think: interestingly, Yankovsky, Maksakova, Demidova or Kvasha would like to be in the place of Neelova now? In short, to what extent is such work interesting for an actor? Hard to say.

Here Bashmachkin circled around the stage, sat down, caught his breath, took out a feather, ran it through his gray hairs - it seemed like combing his hair. Funny. He began to circle again - and these pauses are no longer Bakshi, but in the hall they begin to fidget and cough.

A new overcoat comes out and pulls his hands to Bashmachkin, that is, the sleeves. Mimo is passing by. The hall is alive.

Neelova is unpredictable, despite the fact that you have known her for a long time. And since then - love. Eyes that no one else has. Expressing tenderness, fright before the metaphysical and transcendental phenomenon of the new overcoat, which first rushes past, then approaches, hugs, and Bashmachkin twists sideways, and then the overcoat gently takes the hero by the arm.

Either he tames the overcoat, or she tames him.

- Why do you offend me?

A great actor is unpredictable, the technique and director's "interventions" in his game, unfortunately, are predictable.

Black-clad musicians of the Sirin ensemble walk in orderly rows, like those dead who frightened the audience in the memorable “Numere ...”. The current ones are not scary. And they don't care at all.

Window openings swung open - they will certainly close with a roar. Waiting for it to pop. Bang.

In the finale, Bashmachkin will lie down in an old overcoat spread on the floor, like in a coffin. Who would doubt that.

After that, on the translucent backdrop, water begins to rise like a shadow, from the very floor to the very ceiling, denoting the specific horrors of the St. Petersburg floods and the futility of all things.

VM , October 6, 2004

Olga Fuchs

Marina Neelova played Akaky Akakievich

Yesterday, with a performance by Valery Fokin, the Sovremennik Theater opened the "Another Stage"

Almost any self-respecting theater has a small stage - a space for searches, experiments, "close-ups", the illusion of complete unity with the auditorium. Somewhere, without further ado, they are called small. Somewhere they come up with names (mostly "geographical", as if not claiming a special program) - "Under the Roof", "Attic of Satire" or "On the Fifth Floor". The latter is located just in Sovremennik and it is famous primarily for the fact that once Valery Fokin staged Shakespeare and Dostoevsky here with Konstantin Raikin, Elena Koreneva and Avant-garde Leontiev - performances-events, despite the small number of lucky spectators, performances - revelations.

It is not surprising that the Other Stage of Sovremennik opened with a performance by Valery Fokin, who recruited a team, as they say, without denying himself anything: the universally brilliant Marina Neelova in the role of Bashmachkin, our most famous "shadow player", artistic director of the puppet theater "Shadow" Ilya Eppelbaum, artist Alexander Borovsky, choreographer Sergei Gritsai, composer Alexander Bakshi and singers of the Sirin Ensemble. It is necessary to name them all (by the way, the performance was created jointly with the Meyerhold Center), because Gogol's inflamed and brilliant text ("ripples on the water" by Nabokov's definition) is translated almost completely into the languages ​​of the stage (plasticity, mysticism, theater of shadows and sounds) - be it the white nights of St. Petersburg, the chirping of a sewing machine, or the absolute harmony that reigned in the soul of Akaky Akakievich when he sat down to rewrite letters. Gogol's direct speech is a few phrases: they are the only ones that sound in the play.

The work of Ilya Eppelbaum will surely provoke future experts of some solid theater award to invent a new nomination for the shadow theater. Tailor Petrovich's bare heel on the pedal of a sewing machine, which grows to the scale of a heel, hand or tombstone, elegant table setting, the prospects of St. Petersburg streets or the final flood that washed away an orphaned overcoat - this shadow graphics is beyond praise.

Paraphrasing the textbook "we all came out of Gogol's "Overcoat", we can say that Fokine's "Overcoat" came out of St. Petersburg - a ghost town, a city of charm, a killer city (hence the final bow to Pushkin's "The Bronze Horseman"). in the light of a lantern of soft snow in the prologue gradually leads to srystic dizziness, as if you were doing a slow somersault in open space. In the middle of this snowy haze, the silhouette of an overcoat is suddenly revealed, and above the collar is a small wrinkled head of a sexless creature. The overcoat gives him warmth, peace and elevates him in his own eyes

(all this is played literally). It huddles in an overcoat, fusses, smacking its lips, with its letters, and even wipes its feet before, so to speak, Climbing into an overcoat. From there, the creature rushes like a bullet to the department, tapping out some syncopated rhythm with worn-out heels, painfully comes to its senses after running around the city, carefully - like a Stradivarius violin - extracts a quill pen from its bosom, and combs the gray fluff on its head ... And the letters become in Bashmachkin's brain in a harmonious round dance and sing like birds of paradise.

Make-up ("hemorrhoidal complexion"), a wig (an egg-shaped bald head-gray hair), a baggy tailcoat (at one point - a conductor's tailcoat in front of an invisible but harmonious orchestra of letters), the gait of a half-crushed grasshopper make Marina Neelova absolutely unrecognizable. Only a few scenes allow you to recognize her unique style. When her voice sounds with the plaintive threat of an offended child. Or when a new overcoat hugs her like a man, like a father, like no one has ever hugged Bashmachkin, and he (a) clings to the overcoat physically, but - you can see in his eyes - he does not dare to believe his happiness. But he will believe in the bitterness of loss immediately, like a backhand blow. Neyolova is an ideal actress in any direction (at least, she did not give reasons to say otherwise), and for Fokine she is an ideally obedient actress, who accurately embodied his plan - the gutta-percha phantom of an eerie handsome Petersburg. But perhaps for the first time in the history of the theater, the main character in the "Overcoat" is not Bashmachkin, but Petersburg.

Novye Izvestia, October 6, 2004

Olga Egoshina

Neelova - Bashmachkin

The famous actress tried on Gogol's "Overcoat" on the new stage of Sovremennik

The Sovremennik Theater opened its new hall, called the Other Stage, with the play The Overcoat by Valery Fokin, who once started his directorial career in this theater. The most unusual thing in the production is that the main and only role - Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin - was played by the famous Marina Neelova.

“I am interested in the border between the real and the unreal,” Fokin himself defines his directing method. “It is a state of consciousness that is difficult to put into words. This is not a sleepy state and not a drug. I am interested in this middle, when the dream is not over yet, but the dawn is already coming. Obsessive sounds, ragged rhythm, the play of objects chasing the heroes - all these signature tricks of the Fokine theater are easily recognizable in the new production of Gogol's "The Overcoat". Having started rehearsals, the director categorically stated: “I don’t want to delve into the unfortunate story of an official who was hunted down by colleagues.” Outside the brackets were all the everyday details so lovingly written out by Gogol. For example, a description of the choice of the name of the hero, when the parent hesitates between Mokkiy, Sossius, Khozdazat, Trifiliy, Dula and Varakhasy, before naming her son after his father Akaky Akakievich. Colleagues in the department and the tailor Petrovich with his round snuffbox and his wife, who wears a cap, fell out and were forgotten. The director was not interested in the old mistress and a significant person, confused by the received general rank. In a word, all those features, details and details that make up Gogol's own humor and life, originality and personality, were crossed out and discarded by the director. A plastic backdrop flaunts on the stage, on which a round dance of white snowflakes is drawn by the projector (artist Alexander Borovsky). Otherworldly voices remained from the characters. And shadow paintings made by Ilya Epelbaum (tailor Petrovich is depicted as a giant shadow of a sewing machine, and a very important person is depicted as a silhouette of a palace). Finally, black figures scurry across the stage, depicting infernal forces in dozens of metropolitan productions.

In Gogol's prose, the director is mainly interested in features that make him related to Andrei Bely: phantasmagoric, empty, blizzard Petersburg, in which a character without gender and age is drowned and lost. Not quite a person, but some kind of incomprehensible creature. He is played by Marina Neelova.

On an empty stage, in front of a lilac backdrop, a monument, there is a giant overcoat. From a huge collar appears a small gray head with a touching tuft of gray hair on the side. Puffy cheeks, pointed ears, a slightly upturned nose and round eyes. Gradually, a strange figure in an old baggy uniform is released from the folds of the fabric. He looks around in silence for a long time, settles down. Taking out a quill, he rolls his eyes. And in a thin voice he begins to sing: “Mi-and-and-and-losive sovereign!”. Marina Neelova is absolutely unrecognizable in Bashmachkino. Other hands are dry, fussy. Other eyes are small, round, faded. This is no longer a masterpiece of make-up art. And the real acting magic of transformation. A rasping voice with some bewildered intonations of Cheburashka, an incomprehensible creature who turned out to be unknown where at the disposal of invisible forces. "Why do you offend me?" - addressed not to specific people (they are not on stage). This unfortunate downtrodden official, with a feather in his hands, questions the very universe.

Valery Fokin left in the performance small islands of textbook text among the long plastic sketches of Bashmachkin and his overcoats.

The old overcoat-shelter gently hid its owner in its depths. A new overcoat - a cavalier overcoat, a seductive overcoat - victoriously paces around the stage, easily embraces Akaky Akakievich, firmly gives him a hand to lean on. And then fantastic projects arise in a gray-haired head: but you can take a walk along the embankment ... And even to the palace ... The voice stops in fright, Bashmachkin looks around - has anyone overheard freedom-loving dreams ?! But a happy romance with an overcoat ends in disaster. And now, like an animal in a hole, this Bashmachkin crawls into his old fur overcoat, which will become his coffin. And a voice from above will explain that "Petersburg was left without Akaky Akakievich, as if he had never been in it." According to Fokine, heaven is to blame for the death of Bashmachkin, so the entire Gogol story of the avenging ghost is crossed out. The performance ends in mid-sentence, leaving a feeling of a bold experiment, approaching some great work. And in it, perhaps, interest in space will merge with interest in people, and dreams will make room for the sake of reality.

Results, October 12, 2004

Alla Shenderova

Homo overcoat

With a performance by Valery Fokin with Marina Neelova as Akaky Akakievich, the Sovremennik Theater opened its Other Stage

The "Overcoat" has the fate of all noisy projects. It was conceived in such an original way, the participants talked about it so much and with pleasure that you anticipate something unusual in advance.

At first, the spectacle not only does not deceive, but also exceeds all expectations: a small bald head with tufts of gray hair hatches out of a huge two-meter overcoat, then a wrinkled face with whitish blind eyes turns around - not Marina Neelova, but the triumph of acting reincarnation, multiplied by a masterpiece of make-up art.

The strange music of Alexander Bakshi is heard in the refined performance of the ensemble "Sirin", the space designed by Alexander Borovsky shimmers and shimmers with all shades of gray, and on the backlit screen flicker the ominous shadows of St. Petersburg, invented by Ilya Eppelbaum. In a word, the best forces of modern theater demonstrate the richness of their possibilities. No discord - all in a strict ensemble. The prima of this ensemble is Marina Neelova. Her external drawing is virtuoso, like a ballet part: every movement, every gesture of a pen or a foot, every modulation of her voice and two perfected grimaces - tenderness and horror are developed.

For the first few minutes, you eagerly look at this wonderful world, where not theatrical, but truly melting snow is sweeping, where a humanoid moth lives in an overcoat - the revived character of the brilliant cartoon by Norshtein. And then suddenly there is indifference.

This is what happens in childhood, when you spend a long time and painstakingly equipping a doll’s home, making sure that everything is “real”: doll forks and spoons, a doll floor lamp. And finally the house is finished. You look at all the little things with satisfaction and ... you feel disappointed: what to do next with this little world, how to make it come to life ?!

Fokin did not come up with any "further" - apparently, he was too carried away by honing the details. The chrysalis Akakiy Akakiyevich, circling around the stage, squeaking a few phrases, begging the formidable shadow of the tailor to mend his old greatcoat, sits down on a chair and falls asleep. Charming little letters dance across the screen, forming the cherished word "overcoat". But the hall is tired of being touched and looks indifferently at how the new overcoat appears by itself, even more majestic than the former and clearly feminine - at first it coquettishly dodges Akaky Akakievich, then graciously gives him a sleeve and regally lets him into his cozy inside.

On the face of Neelova, all the same grimaces are replaced as at the beginning. It seems that the director has chained her into such a rigid external score that the viewer does not manage to feel if anything is going on inside her character. And that is why the hall, like Bashmachkin, plunges into some kind of vegetative dormancy.

Strange, however, it turns out: when Akaky Akakievich, returning from the tailor, cradles his leaky overcoat - it is a pity for her, "sick", lying on the stage like a dead weight. But when the ominous shadows take away the new overcoat behind the screen, Bashmachkin squeaks to them: "I am your brother!" moths slammed your eyes.

Who knows why, but Gogol's "The Overcoat" joked on Fokine in the same way as on Akaky Akakievich: she beckoned, seduced and sailed away.

Culture, October 14, 2004

Natalia Kaminskaya

Model "unisex"

"Overcoat". Another stage of the Sovremennik Theater

Anticipating the premiere, the director of the play, Valery Fokin, remarked in an interview: "Marina Neelova can play anyone, even Akaky Akakievich." Who would doubt that! Neelova's male role list was opened not by Bashmachkin, but by Count Nulin, whom she read charmingly - she played in the television version of director Kama Ginkas. In general, this idea - to give one of the most original actresses of our time to play the hero of the very thing from which, according to Dostoevsky, all Russian writers who followed Gogol came out - seemed grandiose. And with all the originality, it is completely logical. There is a fragile humanity in Neelova's talent, the theme of insecurity, which causes piercing compassion, is her theme. The ability for instant transformation, fearless willingness to change appearance, not be afraid to be unrecognizable and ugly is also her property.

Valery Fokin's performance "The Overcoat" opened at the Sovremennik Theater "Another Stage", a stylish, ultra-modern, transforming space, the very appearance of which seeks experiment or, at least, non-traditional forms of theatrical expression. In the future, Chulpan Khamatova is promised here, and then even Galina Volchek herself, whose acting incarnation we have not seen for a very long time and will be waiting for her with special impatience. For those who know the actress Volchek also know what the highest class is.

In general, it turns out that the "Other Stage", chamber in size, thinks its epicenter is a major actor's personality, placed in "new forms". But is this really the case in Fokine's "Overcoat"? I'm afraid they are quite the opposite. There are many, many forms, a whole performance can be made up of these forms alone. The work of the artist Alexander Borovsky is a full-fledged visual composition. The back acts as a shadow theater screen. Gigantic silhouettes of the Singer sewing machine swim and swim, and the bare foot of the tailor Petrovich impudently presses on the carved pedal. Moving transparent quarters of St. Petersburg. Top hats, tailcoats, bottles and glasses are jumping - participants in that same ill-fated party, returning from which poor Bashmachkin lost his new overcoat. The overcoat (and, of course, there are two of them: the first is red and tattered, the second is black and chic) ​​walks along the stage on its own, being a kind of semantic variation of Major Kovalev's nose. Everything is clear - a fetish, the meaning of life, the ultimate dream. Not poor Akaki, at the cost of starvation and vegetation, brought her to the light of day with the help of Petrovich, but She manages his tiny life. However, and death. Inside the old, red-haired one there is some kind of frame, thanks to which you can dive into matter, as into a small dwelling, raise your bald head above its powerful shoulders, curl up at the foot and, finally, lie down in it, like in a domina. For a short (about an hour) performance, the small titular adviser is constantly surrounded by large objects distorted in size and unknown sounds - either terrible claps and blows, or "people's talk and horse top", or some kind of chorale (music by Alexander Bakshi). Whoever says that all this is not the figurative world of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, let him throw a stone at me. But who's to say that horses don't eat oats, and the Volga doesn't flow into the Caspian Sea?

And now imagine a completely different theater: old-fashioned, patriarchal, not advanced. On a huge stage - the gloomy vaults of St. Petersburg, dark glows, dim light. And the evil wind howls, and flakes of cotton wool fall, and so on and so forth. And in the center is a great artist playing the unfortunate titular adviser and squeezing noble tears of compassion from the viewer's eyes. You say, a common place? Certainly. But what has changed in V. Fokin's performance compared to him? Only new technologies have replaced the old ones. The contrast between the miserable, but still personal, individual world of Bashmachkin and the hostile masses of the big world remained just as straightforward. And the point here is not at all the quality of the work of the set designer, worthy of all praise, but the director's intention.

Say, the point, in the end, is the artist playing Bashmachkin? That's it. The artist should be the whole point! In Marina Neelova, who is able to literally turn her soul inside out with her acting. And if in the cold, to the millimeter, graphically adjusted director's design for this property of hers, a worthy place would be found, oh, what a grandiose Akaki Akakievich would have turned out! It's a small, thin face with baby eyes. These pens, folded into a pinch, as if accustomed to take little by little, collect crumbs. This gait - with bent knees, with dragging shoes, as if trampled and sliding off the foot. This dreamy immersion in the rewriting of stationery - Neelova plays these scenes as if in the hands of the hero is not a quill pen, but a painter's brush. This self-absorption, this state of a snail, cautiously looking out of the shell ... Of course, in Neelova's place, another (or another) would have played worse in such a performance. And yet there is some ... animation in it. The artist drew, the actor voiced. By the way, V. Fokin left the actress a minimum of material for "voicing". It is known that the timid Akaki Akakievich used to keep silent the phrase: "My overcoat ... that one ..." However, Neelova was asked not to speak practically at all, but for the most part to make certain sounds resembling inert speech.

"Overcoat" in Sovremennik was clearly sewn on actress Marina Neelova. But the model turned out to be universal. And do not even say that it is from someone else's shoulder. Since this overcoat is able to walk around the stage completely autonomously, it’s as if someone’s warm human shoulder is useless to her.

Izvestia, October 6, 2004

Artur Solomonov

Worse than being alone

Marina Neelova plays Bashmachkin

The premiere of "The Overcoat" at the Sovremennik Theater is perhaps the most long-awaited this season. Not only fans of the actress wanted to see Neelova in the role of Bashmachkin, but also everyone who was more or less interested in theater. With this performance, "Sovremennik" opens "Another Stage", and Valery Fokin fulfills his dream: he wanted to stage "The Overcoat" for a very long time. However, it is better for Neelova's fans to go to the "Overcoat" with some apprehension: the actress in this role is completely unrecognizable.

Silence, snow. The overcoat stands in the center of the stage, like a throne. A gray-haired head hatches from it. No, this, of course, is not Neelova. Either an old man who is several centuries old, or a brownie, or a revived stump. Bashmachkin emerges from the overcoat and returns to the overcoat: she is both the womb and the coffin. It seems that the head moves separately from the body, travels along the greatcoat - from top to bottom, up again. Tiny painful eyes are not yet open. The creature sniffs. Then it will open its eyes, try to see, hear, speak. Nothing will work.

And around Petersburg, terrible, chic, which does not care about Bashmachkin, which awkwardly combs her hair with a goose quill, hardly puts sounds into words, and words into sentences. "Mi-mi-merciful sovereign," it bleats. Happened. But more often muttering: "e-oh-y." Petersburg is in the play of shadows: here Bashmachkin bought a new overcoat, and on the white wall the silhouettes of a glass, a candlestick, a jug of wine swirled. Joy, music. Petersburg - in the formidable voice of the chief, rushing from somewhere above. Bashmachkin turns to him, as to God, with his eyes fixed upwards. Petersburg - in the violence of the shadows of gentlemen in camisoles and hats over a lucky man in an overcoat. In the sound of blows, groans, the exclamation "the overcoat is mine!"

It seems that our viewers have a growing longing for the actor, for powerful and passionate acting work. For a long time no one says - go and look at such and such an actor. Advised to go to the directors.

Marina Neelova will certainly have great success in the role of Bashmachkin. It is common knowledge that almost all great roles are written for male actors: asking from the stage "to be or not to be?" is their prerogative. Therefore, it happens that major actresses play male roles: this was done, for example, by Sarah Bernhardt, who played Hamlet. However, Bashmachkin was never considered a tidbit for actors: the choice of a woman for this role was due to the fact that in the structure created by Fokine, the character had to lose all signs - not only sexual, but also social, and whatever, become a symbol of absolute loneliness. This is not a small person, not a big one, and not even an average one: it sometimes seems that this is not a person at all.

The performance turned out to be less than we would like, "human" - I do not stutter about "too human". However, from the anti-sentimental Fokine one could well expect such a Gogol, who, as Rozanov claimed, had "masks and hari instead of faces."

Valery Fokin, methodically and stubbornly exploring the subconscious and otherworldly in his performances, staged, perhaps, one of his best performances. Mysticism is graphic, metaphors are powerful and understandable. Nothing superfluous, absolute knowledge of their capabilities, mastery of skill: there is something to look at young directors, who so violently and sometimes importunately scatter their finds and finds. In this performance - artistic asceticism and a sense of proportion. And Gogol, and Neelova, and the director - no one was hurt: a happy symbiosis.

What Bashmachkin lives on stage is worse than loneliness. It is rather an unfulfilled attempt to live, the impossibility of "humanizing". And, if we judge the work according to its laws, there is no contradiction between the idea and the embodiment, Fokine shows us that Gogol who is close to him.

It is no coincidence that the posthumous story of Akaky Akakievich, described by Gogol, is not in the play. This world is already "other", Akaki Akakievich is already a ghost.

A being, not yet born, is wandering around the stage, muttering, embracing with an overcoat, only scratching at the door of life. Or - a long-dead, shriveled mummy. And to sympathize with her, love or regret - it does not work. At least for me. When it says: "I am your brother," you involuntarily think: well, what kind of "brother" is it to me? And then the viewer becomes in solidarity with those St. Petersburg officials, with the snowy and cold St. Petersburg, which did not notice Akaky Akakievich. And the devil (not in the article about Gogol, be it mentioned) knows what the problem is here - in directing or in the public. As one of the heroes of Dostoevsky said, "a person's face sometimes prevents people inexperienced in love from loving him."

Petersburg Theater Magazine, No. 39, February 2005

Kristina Matvienko

Change of fate

N. Gogol. "Overcoat". Sovremennik Theatre, Another stage. Director Valery Fokin, artist Alexander Borovsky

There is a chair on an empty tablet. A shapeless greatcoat is draped over it, the gray weight of which is clearly fraught with a secret. Which one - it will become clear after a short and expressive pause, with which, as if off the beat, the performance about Gogol's overcoat and its modest inhabitant will begin.

Valery Fokin, together with Marina Neyelova, composed such a clear and convex choreography in its expressiveness that an involuntary comparison with a drama ballet is the first thing that comes to mind. Of course, the repeatedly described rhymes with animation by Yuri Norshtein are also a legitimate comparison. But this is mainly the merit of the artist, who instead of a backdrop put a vertical computer screen on the stage, on which an endless whirling of gray, white snowflakes spins, forming a vague haze into fantastic pictures. Whirlwinds, dust, space. Petersburg, at last, on an ordinary winter evening.

The ballet precision of Neelova and the director is obvious. Appearing for the first time from the neckline of a huge, grotesque greatcoat, the actress strikes the imagination with the change that has taken place. From a beauty with a plump, as if cracked mouth, which enchanted Soviet cinema with its sensuality, a sexless monster was made in an egg-shaped wig and with wrinkles traced by a make-up artist. In a word, attraction. About the bitter fate of Akaky Akakievich, such magic not only makes you forget, but somehow pushes it aside.

Further, the whole short, polished performance of Neelov will lead his freak through the most amazing metamorphoses - and each will be a brilliant, essentially clown number. Which, in general, is not without meaning - Neelova deliberately makes Bashmachkin look like Chaplin: the eversion of the legs in huge shoes and the deft handling of the cane. Instead of a cane, Bashmachkin has a pen. The creature creaks to itself, now in the air, now on paper, sighing and muttering the words of a message to “your honor”, ​​and in the ringing silence of the performance, broken only by the choirs of the Sirin group, this calligraphy looks like an example of acting self-forgetfulness. In The Overcoat, the character of Marina Neelova is as terrible as it is pathetic. And in the actress equally self-sacrifice and high love for herself in the role.

Even the final voluntary nailing into the coffin - it will be the very overcoat that is animated, which produces a comic and frightening effect at the same time - is a kind of attraction. Beautiful, of course, and impressive, and the meaning is correct, logical. A cock's cry - and Bashmachkin, who quickly went through all nine circles of hell in Fokine's dynamic performance, dies. Darkness and hymns for the dead crown this spectacular life and death of Gogol's hero.

The performance of "The Overcoat" is smooth and effective in every gesture. Thanks to the actress ecstatically existing in a smart and precise direction, he is passionate in his own way. But here is what is strange, and maybe legal. Where the animator Norshtein truly touches with his humanity - even when it comes to the Hedgehog in the Fog, not to mention the Old Man and his sea - the theater loses. In the small and comfortable space of the newly built Other Stage (the appearance of another theatrical space, tailored in a completely European way, cannot but rejoice), some other story is being played. The hero in it is Bashmachkin, the text is Gogol's, and the story is different. She suits the audience sitting in the hall, a ticket to which costs a thousand rubles. But here she does not go to the "Overcoat". There were all so poor, and Gogol describes the hardships of his hero so cruelly that, in general, it is not a shame to write about money.

Change of motivation is not the last thing. For Gogol, the social background is also important. Bashmachkin, oh, how interested, where to get seventy rubles. An amazing thing is art: the hall is ready to sob when the hero of Marina Neyolova asks in amazement, childishly unhappily - where can he still get those same seventy missing for his overcoat. Another thing is surprising - the Russian theater today is the last thing interested in how the current Bashmachkins live. This is our main difference from today's European theater, that's a shame.

But it is warm in the Moscow hall, while in St. Petersburg it is wet and cold. There is no overcoat.

Ticket price:
Parterre 950-1450 rubles

Director and author of the staging - Anton Kovalenko
Scenography and costumes - Oleg Golovko
Lighting designer - Maria Belozertseva
Musical arrangement - Alena Khovanskaya, Sergey Egorov, Anton Kovalenko
Choreographer - Oleg Glushkov
Assistant director - Natalia Koltsova, Lyudmila Sushkova

Actors and performers:
Akaki Akakievich Bashmachkin -
Hostess in Bashmachkin's apartment; wife of Grigory Petrovich -
Grigory Petrovich; Alarm clock -
Officials - Valery Malinin,

Mkhatov's "The Overcoat", staged by the young director Anton Kovalenko, is really a staging of Gogol's work, without any deviations from the text. Moreover, connoisseurs of creativity will find in the performance all the familiar details that make up the indescribable flavor of a great literary work.

"The Overcoat" is the story of a little man, in modern terms, a simple office worker. In the performance, by the way, no hints of modernity are left. And the details of the costumes, and interior items - everything tells us about Gogol's times. According to the director, "The Overcoat" does not need any artificial modernization.

Juicy and colorful Gogol's style, his colorful language, original metaphor are transferred to the production untouched. Moreover, the director emphasizes them in every possible way, allowing the viewer to fully enjoy them. The role of Akaky Akakiyevich Bashmachkin is played by Vanguard Leontiev, revealing new facets of this image - so familiar to us, not aging over the years and never ceasing to touch human hearts.

The duration of the show The Overcoat is one and a half hours. There is no intermission in the production.

Performance Overcoat - video

On our website you can buy tickets to the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater at a bargain price and with free delivery in Moscow. Do you want to spend an unforgettable evening at the theater? Make sure to purchase tickets in advance.

Current page: 15 (total book has 40 pages) [accessible reading excerpt: 27 pages]

Font:

100% +

The collection "Mirgorod" was in many ways a continuation of the first - "Evenings on a farm near Dikanka". It refers to the theme of the stories. So, the writer develops the same themes here: the life and life of Ukrainian peasants and Cossacks (“Viy”, “Taras Bulba”), the life of the small estate nobility (“Old-world landowners”, “The Tale of how Ivan Ivanovich quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich”) . In the manner of Gogol, the desire for a vivid description of the pictures of Ukrainian nature is preserved. The reader finds here elements of fantasy, purely Gogol's slyly ironic humor. Giving the collection "Mirgorod" the subtitle "Tales that serve as a continuation of" Evenings on a farm near Dikanka ", the author, as it were, emphasized their relationship. But at the same time, Mirgorod differs significantly from Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka. The third collection of stories testifies to the fact that in Gogol's work the realistic method of depicting reality prevailed, which replaced the romanticism of "Evenings on a Farm ...". The stories of "Mirgorod" reflect life in typical characters, emphasizing in them the most significant from the social and psychological points of view. Such are Khoma Brut and Sotnik (“Viy”), Afanasy Ivanovich and Pulcheria Ivanovna (“Old-world landowners”), Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich (“The Tale of how Ivan Ivanovich quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich”). Fiction in "Mirgorod" (the story "Viy") is not an end in itself, but serves as a means of expressing life's truthful circumstances and characters: for example, the unclean forces in the story "Viy" are subordinate to the aristocratic elite of the village and oppose the people. Undergoes changes in Mirgorod and Gogol's humor. It becomes sharper, sharper, often turning into satire. It is here that Gogol's humor begins to sound like "laughter through tears", testifying to the writer's deep understanding of the essence of the contradictions of the reality surrounding him. The writer sees that life's contrasts are not accidental, but have a social nature. The characters of the Mirgorod landlords and officials are the product of a certain way of life. The inhabitants of Mirgorod cannot go beyond this way of life, and this is the tragedy of their position. The stories included in this collection were first published as a separate edition, and in 1842 they were republished as part of the third volume of the lifetime Collected Works of the writer. A year before his death, in 1851, Gogol began preparing the second edition of his works, but managed to get only the first volume ready for publication. From the stories of the collection "Mirgorod" in 1851, he edited only the story "Old World Landowners". Four stories of the collection "Mirgorod", also consisting of two parts (two stories in each part), included: in the first part of the story "Taras Bulba" and "Old World Landowners", in the second part - "Viy" and "The Tale of how Ivan Ivanovich quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich.

With the release of Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka in 1831, Gogol became famous in literary circles. In St. Petersburg, these are, first of all, the writers of Pushkin's entourage, whom he gets to know personally, and actively writes. Among his addressees are Pletnev, Pushkin, Zhukovsky. Gogol proudly writes to A. Danilevsky that "almost every evening" he communicates with Pushkin and Zhukovsky. He also meets with P. A. Vyazemsky, V. F. Odoevsky. In the following year, 1832, Gogol, while on his way home in Moscow, met M. P. Pogodin, the Kireevsky and Aksakov families, M. N. Zagoskin, M. S. Shchepkin, M. A. Maksimovich, and I. Dmitriev, O. M. Bodyansky. Gogol does not hesitate to consolidate his acquaintance with the "patriarch of poetry" I. I. Dmitriev, sending him several letters in which he respectfully calls him "High Excellency" and reports his poverty. Gogol discusses the problems of literature with the SP. Shevyrev, N. M. Yazykov; he is aware of the affairs of the courtiers, as if casually informing Danilevsky about his acquaintance with the ladies-in-waiting S. A. Urusova and A. O. Smirnova-Rosset, calling them by their household names.

The year 1833 turned out to be difficult for Gogol, the year of unfulfilled and partially fulfilled plans. Conceived: "General History and General Geography", the comedy "Vladimir of the Third Degree", the novels "The Terrible Hand", "Notes of a Mad Musician", "History of Ukraine", the almanac "Troychatka" (together with Pushkin and Odoevsky). Work has begun on the comedy "Grooms", the stories "Portrait" and "The Nose". Work was completed only on "The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich", which he read to Pushkin at the very end of the year.

“It will soon be a year, no matter how I write,” Gogol complains in a letter to Maksimovich in early July. And two months later he explains the reason for this in letters to Pogodin and the same Maksimovich. “What a terrible year for me this 1833! God, how many crises! Will there be a beneficent restoration for me after these destructive revolutions? How much I started, how much I burned, how much I quit! This is Pogodin - in September. In November, Maksimovich: “If you knew what terrible upheavals happened to me, how much everything inside me was torn to pieces. God, how much I have burned, how much I have suffered! Gogol is looking for a place in life, certainty of views and writes literally with the blood of his heart.

In 1834, Gogol's articles were published in the "Journal of Public Education": "A plan for teaching general history", "A look at the compilation of Little Russia", "On Little Russian songs", "On the Middle Ages", articles were written "The Last Day of Pompeii", "Life ". Gogol is actively and purposefully preparing for his lectures on history at St. Petersburg University. However, Gogol's lectures on history at St. Petersburg University, where he was assigned as an adjunct professor, were not successful. Sharing his impressions of his lectures with M. Pogodin, Gogol notes that he sees each of his “mistakes” in lectures already “in a week”. And it was not a matter of poor preparation: he gave his lectures an "artistic finish", did not meet with "review", "sympathy" from "sleepy listeners"; not a single, as he says, "student being" understands him, does not listen, no "bright truth" captivates anyone: he reads "decidedly alone" "at the university here." Students are “colorless people like St. Petersburg”. And then Gogol stops the "artistic decoration", begins to read "in fragments", retaining only the general "system", and a year later he leaves the university.

In 1834, Gogol completed his work on the stories Notes of a Madman, Portrait, and Nevsky Prospekt. In 1834, in the second part of the almanac "Housewarming", "The Tale of how Ivan Ivanovich quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich" was published. By the mid-1830s, when the main works of Gogol were written or conceived, his fundamental positions were determined in relation to most of the humanities and fields of activity - to history, architecture, painting, oral folk art, literature, even geography. He greedily absorbed information, summarizing it in various ways. The most unexpected headings appeared in his notebooks: "Cattle breeding", "Hay", "Grain farming", "Fishing", etc. No wonder that by this time the thirty-five-year-old writer was an encyclopedically educated person.

The last cycle of stories, compiled by Gogol from the works of 1832-1842, was called "Petersburg" by researchers, although the last two - "Carriage" and "Rome" - are not "Petersburg" in terms of subject matter, and the other three are "Portrait of ”, “Notes of a Madman” and “Nevsky Prospekt” - were previously published in the collection “Arabesques”. In addition, the collection includes the stories "The Nose" and "The Overcoat". These seven stories were included by Gogol in the third volume of the Collected Works of 1842. In 1842, preparing for the publication of the Collected Works, Gogol combined in the third volume the stories of different years, which had already been published during 1834-1842 in various editions. In total, the third volume included seven stories, of which one ("Rome") was not completed. They were often called Petersburg stories. Basically, these stories are devoted to depicting the life of the capital's nobility and officials. In the stories, Gogol sympathetically draws images of "little people" - St. Petersburg officials and sharply satirically portrays the nobility and high officials. The social orientation of these stories is expressed very clearly. That is why Belinsky called them "maturely artistic" and "distinctly conceptualized." "Petersburg Tales" is connected by the theme of depicting the inner emptiness and insignificance of the personality with its apparent, external, ostentatious significance. Regulars of the "pedagogical" "Nevsky Prospekt" visit it in order to flaunt sideburns or the "Greek beautiful nose". The insignificance of their interests is conveyed in the same expressions that the reader will find in the story “The Nose”: “Little by little, everyone who has completed quite important homework joins their society; somehow: they talked with their doctor about the weather and about a small pimple that jumped up on their nose, they learned about the health of their horses and their children ... ”, etc. In the image of the artist Piskarev, the problem of creativity was put forward by Gogol, although it was not central. The main conflict and the death of Piskarev stand there outside the problem and the sphere of art: a romantically inclined young man cannot withstand a collision with the filth and vulgarity of life. But, strictly speaking, with a character and outlook on life, a person of a different profession could have been in Piskarev's place. In this edition, the flogging scene and other places excluded by the writer under censorship pressure are restored in their original versions, taking into account their subsequent editing by the writer. The whipping scene was shortened and rendered in an allegorical, allegorical manner. A. S. Pushkin called "Nevsky Prospekt" "the most complete" of Gogol's works.

The incredible incident described by Gogol in the story "Nose" - the disappearance and return of Major Kovalev's nose, as if again "returns the reader to the fantasy of Evenings ..." However, the author here does not at all seek to assure the reader of the authenticity of the event: he calls it "unusually strange", "incomprehensible", "supernatural". And the very “supernatural” of the event does not consist in the participation of otherworldly forces, but in the displacement of ordinary, everyday ideas of people. In other words, the plot of the story "The Nose" is based on exaggeration and the grotesque as artistic means of revealing typical, real content. Indirectly, this theme is also reflected in Mirgorod. Emphasizing the complete lack of will of Ivan Nikiforovich, the author notes: “I confess, I don’t understand why it is so arranged that women grab our noses as deftly as if they were holding a teapot handle? Either their hands are made that way, or our noses are no longer good for anything. And despite the fact that Ivan Nikiforovich's nose was somewhat similar to a plum, however, she (Agafya Fedoseevna - L.K.) grabbed him by this nose and led him along like a dog. The story "The Nose" echoes the "Notes of a Madman" in another way. Showing the impersonality of a person in the bureaucratic world, Gogol in "Notes of a Madman" brings people's thoughts and feelings closer to the "thoughts" and "feelings" of dogs in terms of their primitiveness and limitations. In the story "The Nose", the satirical method of humanizing animals is not the leading one, although it is used. Refusing to place Major Kovalev's announcement about the disappearance of the nose, the official motivates this as follows:

“… Last week… an official came in the same way as you just came, brought a note… And the whole announcement was that a black-haired poodle had run away. Seems like what's going on here? And a libel came out: this poodle was the treasurer, I don’t remember any institution. In the story "The Nose" the leading theme is the loss and return of the external significance of the individual, with its invariable internal insignificance. Major Kovalev remained the same petty and vulgar person throughout the melodramatic, fantastic story played out with him. In his inner insignificance, he resembles Pirogov. However, Gogol goes further in his new story: he claims that the major's nose can exist "by itself", if he only has a uniform and a proper rank. Thus, despite the seeming improbability, the story has a deep realistic basis: in a sharply grotesque manner, Gogol exposes servitude, careerism, the insignificance of the life of bureaucracy and, in general, wealthy classes. The image of an officer, a nobleman who wants to improve his material affairs with a successful marriage, was typical of that time. It is depicted with great expressiveness, for example, in the well-known painting by the Russian artist P. A. Fedotov “Major’s Matchmaking”.

The story "The Nose" has a rather complicated creative history. Taken, apparently, from anecdotes common at that time, the story of Major Kovalev in the original version turns out to be simply his dream. In the future, Gogol strengthened its satirical and social sound. The story was written in 1833-34 and even in its original version was rejected by the publishers of the Moscow Observer magazine M.P. Pogodin and SP. Shevyrev, opponents of realism in literature. In a new edition in 1836, the story was published in A. S. Pushkin's journal Sovremennik, who found a lot of "original" in it. Under pressure from censorship, Gogol was forced to make corrections to the text of the original version of the story, as well as to the text of 1842 (when publishing the Collected Works). The senior police officers (chief police chief) were replaced by junior ones, the bailiff’s sharp remark about the majors dragging around “all sorts of obscene places” was removed, the place where it says that the private bailiff takes bribes with heads of sugar was excluded, finally, the scene of the major’s explanation with moved with her nose from the Kazan Cathedral to Gostiny Dvor (originally Gogol intended to transfer this scene from the Orthodox to the Catholic Church). Significant changes in the preparation of the story for reprinting in 1842 underwent its end. Gogol singled out a special final chapter, which gave the story greater harmony and completeness. V. G. Belinsky wrote about the last edition: “The “Nose” is an arabesque, carelessly sketched with a pencil of the great master, significantly and for the better changed in its denouement.” In the final version, the irony and satirical orientation of the story are strengthened. Subsequently, this text of the story was completely restored according to the draft manuscript of the author. But already in its early version, the story was highly appreciated by V. G. Belinsky, who noted that its protagonist was typical for those conditions of Russian reality. “Are you familiar with Major Kovalev? he wrote. - Why did he interest you so much, why does he make you laugh so much with an unrealizable incident with his ill-fated nose? Because he is not Major Kovalev, but Major Kovalev, so that after meeting him, even if you meet a hundred Kovalev at once, you will immediately recognize them, distinguish them among a thousand.

Tale "Portrait" occupies a special place in the work of Gogol. This is the only story that is entirely devoted to the problem of art. The first part of the story, in which the main events and conflicts unfold, has undergone the most significant processing. In a new version, the story appeared in 1842 in the Sovremennik magazine. Gogol wrote to the publisher of the magazine P. A. Pletnev in March 1842: “I am sending you my story “Portrait”. It was published in Arabesques, but don't be afraid of that. Read it. You will see that only the canvas of the old story remains, that everything is embroidered on it again. In Rome, I redid it completely, or, better, wrote it again, as a result of the comments made in St. Petersburg.

Gogol has in mind here Belinsky's remarks. – However, the critic was dissatisfied with the second edition of the story. He is largely right, especially in his negative assessment of the second part of the story, where Gogol interprets the essence of art from a religious point of view, considering it as a divine revelation. But Belinsky rightly asserts that Gogol's great talent is visible in this story too: “'Portrait' is an unsuccessful attempt by Mr. Gogol in a fantastic way. he writes. “Here his talent falls, but even in the fall he remains a talent. The first part of this story is impossible to read without enthusiasm.

Tale "Overcoat" was a program not only for Gogol's St. Petersburg stories, but also for the entire subsequent evolution of Russian classical literature. Gogol develops here with great depth and strength the theme of the "little man", put forward in "The Stationmaster" by A. Pushkin.

The tragedy of the titular adviser Akaky Akakiyevich Bashmachkin is not only that he stands on the lowest rung of the social ladder, that he is deprived of the most ordinary human joys, but, mainly, that he does not have the slightest glimmer of understanding of his own terrible situation. The soulless state bureaucracy turned him into a machine gun. In the image of Akaky Akakievich, the very idea of ​​a person and his essence turns into its opposite: it is precisely what deprives him of a normal human life - meaningless mechanical rewriting of papers - becomes for Akaky Akakievich the poetry of life. He enjoys this rewriting. Countless blows of fate made Akaky Akakievich insensitive to the ridicule and mockery of his superiors and colleagues. And only if the bullying crossed all boundaries, Akaki Akakievich briefly says: “Leave me, why are you offending me?”. And the narrator, whose voice often merges with the voice of the author, notices that other words were used in this question: "I am your brother." Perhaps in no other story does Gogol emphasize the ideas of humanism with such force. At the same time, the author's sympathy is on the side of the "little people", crushed by the burden of life. The story sharply satirically depicts "significant persons", dignitaries and nobles, through whose fault the Bashmachkins suffer. The plot of the story is revealed in two events - in the acquisition and loss of Akakiy Akakievich's overcoat. But his purchase of a new overcoat is such a grandiose event in his dull, monotonous and poor life that the overcoat eventually acquires the meaning of a symbol, the conditions for the very existence of Bashmachkin.

And, having lost his overcoat, he dies. “And Petersburg was left without Akaky Akakievich, as if he had never been in it. A creature disappeared and disappeared, protected by no one, dear to no one, not interesting to anyone, not even attracting the attention of a natural observer who does not miss putting an ordinary fly on a pin and examining it through a microscope; a creature that dutifully endured clerical ridicule and descended into the grave without any emergency, but for whom, nevertheless, even at the very end of his life, a bright guest flashed in the form of an overcoat, enlivening for a moment a poor life ... ". During his lifetime, Akaky Akakievich could not even think of any resistance or disobedience. And only after death does he appear on the streets of St. Petersburg in the form of an avenger for his ruined life. Akaky Akakievich settles his scores with a "significant person", taking away his overcoat. This fantastic ending of the story not only does not lead away from the main idea, but is its logical conclusion. Of course, Gogol is far from calling for an active protest against the existing order. But he expressed his sharply negative attitude towards them quite definitely. The Overcoat made a huge impression on both readers and literary circles. V. G. Belinsky, who got acquainted with the story even before publication, wrote: "... The new story, The Overcoat, which has not yet been published anywhere, is one of Gogol's deepest creations." The story "The Overcoat" left a deep mark in Russian literature. In the mid-1840s, a whole trend arose around the Sovremennik magazine, headed by Belinsky, which received the name "natural school". Turgenev, Goncharov, Herzen, Panaev, Nekrasov, Dal and other writers included in it presented works in which the fundamental social problems of the era were posed: the struggle to break through serfdom, the defense of the oppressed peasantry and the “little man”. The theme of "The Overcoat" is directly continued and developed by F. Dostoevsky's novel "Poor People" (1846). But as the social meaning of the story deepened, the protagonist became more typical, the need for this subtitle disappeared. In the first edition, the hero did not yet have a name. Then he received the name Akakiy (gentle in Greek). The surname Tishkevich was then changed to Bashmakevich, and in the final version - Bashmachkin. After a major revision, the story was published in 1842 in the third volume of the Collected Works of the writer. Under the pressure of censorship, Gogol changed some places in it. The mention of blasphemy of Akaky Akakievich during delirium, harsh words addressed to the general was removed. These places have been restored in the present editions. The well-known Russian critic and publicist A. I. Herzen (1812–1870) called The Overcoat a “colossal work”, and the famous Russian writer F. M. Dostoevsky, in an interview with the French critic M. de Vogüe, said that all Russian realist writers "We left Gogol's "Overcoat".

Tale "Diary of a Madman". Gogol had the idea to title it "Notes of a Mad Musician", where, along with "Nevsky Prospect" and "Portrait", he wanted to depict the fate of a creative person - a theme characteristic of romantics. Having shown in the image of Poprishchin the position of a small Russian official, Gogol, as it were, brought the problem down from heaven to earth - from romance to the social truth of realism. In subsequent reprints, the places seized by censorship were restored: Poprishchin’s statement that in Russia “only a nobleman can write correctly”, a comparison of a chamber junker with a dog Trezor (in favor of a dog), a mention of “bureaucratic fathers” who are “mother, father, God will be sold for money, ambitious, Christ-sellers”, mentions of the order and “sovereign emperor”. The callousness and automatism of the behavior of officials, satirically shown in the story The Nose, is also preserved in the Notes of a Madman. Belinsky, who praised the story highly, described it "as a psychic history of illness presented in poetic form." Poprishchin, in Notes of a Madman, is concerned that the Earth could land on the Moon and crush the human noses that are there.

“... The moon itself is such a delicate ball that people cannot live in any way, and now only noses live there. And that is why we ourselves cannot see our own noses, for they are all in the moon. And when I imagined that the earth was a heavy substance and could, having sown, grind our noses into flour, then such anxiety seized me that, putting on stockings and shoes, I hurried to the hall of the State Council in order to give an order to the police not to allow the earth to sit down. to the moon".

A short story by Gogol "Stroller" stands out from other stories of Gogol. It is based on a bright case, reminiscent of a joke. However, here too Gogol appears as a great artist. The story was not written for the sake of a spectacular ending. In it, on a few pages, but very convexly, the life of the county town and its inhabitants, as well as the empty, empty life of army officers, is drawn. To some extent, "The Carriage" echoes the "Dead Souls" (although it cannot be compared with them in terms of the breadth of the depiction of reality). The image of Chertokutsky can be put in line with the images of landowners from the poem "Dead Souls": for example, in a line with Nozdrev, the same as Chertokutsky, a reveler, a gambler, a money changer and a liar. "Carriage" was very highly appreciated by Belinsky. He wrote that this is "a masterful humorous essay, in which there is more poetic life and truth than in many pounds of novels of our other romantics ...". Thematically, the story differs from the stories of the St. Petersburg cycle. It depicts the life and life of the province, not the capital. On this basis, some researchers attribute the "Carriage" to the stories of the "Mirgorod" cycle. In fact, the description of the southern town in "The Carriage" is very reminiscent of the description of Mirgorod in "The Tale of how Ivan Ivanovich quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich." In addition, if we exclude "The Carriage" from the third cycle of stories, then the remaining stories ("Nevsky Prospekt", "The Nose", "Portrait", "The Overcoat" and "Notes of a Madman") can rightfully be called Petersburg. However, Gogol himself included the story in the third volume of his works in 1842, along with the St. Petersburg stories. This volume ended what Gogol had written in prose up to Dead Souls (the last, fourth, volume included dramatic works). The story was first published separately in 1836 in the first volume of the Sovremennik magazine published by A. S. Pushkin, who spoke approvingly of it in one of his letters: “Thank you, thank you very much Gogol for his Carriage,” he wrote. Despite the “light”, anecdotal nature of the story, the censorship removed a number of places in it in which the writer negatively depicted officers. V. G. Belinsky gave a high assessment to the story. He wrote: “It expressed all the ability of Mr. Gogol to grasp these rare features of society and capture these shades that everyone sees every minute around him and which are accessible only to Mr. Gogol alone.” A. P. Chekhov spoke about the story as a magnificent work of art: “Sheer delight, and nothing more,” he said about the “Carriage”.

Adjacent to the cycle of "Tales" "Rome", published in 1842 under the title "A Passage". The story is conceived as an extensive narrative: and apparently not finished. According to the plot, this is a story about the passion of a young Roman prince with a young Albanian girl Annunziata. It contains a number of magnificent descriptions of the outfit and appearance of the girl, an image of Paris, where the young prince lives in luxury for some time, as well as Rome, which has lost its former greatness. Returning after a four-year wild life in Paris to Italy in connection with the death of his father, the hero was left without funds. His outlook on life, on his homeland, is changing. “Where is the huge ancient Rome?” - he asks, trying to understand the reasons for the rise, greatness and fall of his homeland - Italy and Rome. The story contains a magnificent description of Italian nature, urban landscapes, paintings by great artists. The young man would like to resurrect the former greatness of Rome: he is looking for and cannot find a way to this revival. Apparently, the young prince considers Italy as a country bypassed by fate; “the Mediterranean Sea was left empty; like a shallow river bed, bypassed Italy has become shallow. He now seems shortsighted to the behavior of today's youth and politicians, mired in carelessness and laziness. Sometimes the hero saw the pattern of the death of his fatherland; he saw the "embryos" of his revival. He tried to study his people and constantly, continuously searched for Annunziata. He saw a young girl at the carnival, but he could not meet her. The story ends with the fact that the young prince, struck by the divine, majestic view of Rome and its environs, "forgot himself, and the beauty of the Annunziata, and the mysterious fate of his people, and everything that is in the world."

These stories were originally published in various publications. The story "Portrait", "Nevsky Prospekt" and "Notes of a Madman" were first published in 1835 in the collection "Arabesques". "The Nose" and "The Carriage" were published in 1836 in A.S. Pushkin's magazine Sovremennik. The Overcoat was completed in 1841 and first published in the third volume of the Collected Works of Gogol in 1842. The seventh, unfinished story "Rome", was first published in 1842 in the magazine "Moskvityanin". All seven "Petersburg" stories, published for the first time in different editions, were combined by Gogol in the third volume of the Collected Works of 1842. At the same time, the stories "Carriage" and "Rome" do not thematically adjoin the specified cycle, although the author himself considered it necessary to combine them in one volume. Therefore, Gogol's stories, included in the third volume of his Collected Works of 1842, can to some extent conditionally be called St. Petersburg. The stories of N.V. Gogol testify to a certain creative evolution of the artist. This evolution was mainly determined by the changes that took place in the writer's artistic method. In his creative method, Gogol moved from romantic to realistic forms of depicting reality. Accordingly, the means of artistic representation have also changed. VG Belinsky spoke very well about the evolution of Gogol's work. He noted that in "Evenings ..." "comic" prevails, that there "everything is light, everything shines with joy and happiness"; in “Arabesques” and “Mirgorod” “Gogol from comedy” turns to “humor”, which “already makes only simpletons or children laugh”, and people who have looked into the depths of life look at his paintings with sad reflection, with heavy longing ... " . The evolution of the artistic method, determining the means of representation, in turn, itself depended on the deepening of the writer's view of the surrounding reality. Gogol tries to determine the causes of social contradictions and conflicts and naturally turns to realism. This is the innovation of Gogol the artist. As Belinsky rightly remarked, Pushkin and Gogol provided new "criteria for judging the fine." “Pushkin and Gogol, these are the poets about whom one cannot say: “I have already read!”, But whom the more you read, the more you gain ...”.

A number of small epic sketches and excerpts date back to the 1830s. "Nights at the Villa" written in connection with a specific event - the illness and death of Count I. M. Vielgorsky, "Terrible Hand" And "The lantern was dying", “The rain was continuous” (excerpts from 1833), an excerpt from the story “Miners” (1834), as well as sketches "Semyon Semyonovich Batyushek" (1835), "Girls of Chablov" (1839).

* * *

Most of Gogol's stories have a clear social, ethical or psychological concept, fixed in the system of artistic images. In Petersburg Tales, the ethical and psychological artistic concept of the stories The Nose, Nevsky Prospekt, and Carriage emphasizes the idea of ​​the priority of the inner content of the personality, which determines its significance or insignificance, regardless of its external forms. The socio-artistic concept was fixed by Gogol in the stories "Notes of a Madman", "Portrait" and "Overcoat", which depict the tragic death of a person in a hostile environment.

Gogol, who eschewed politics and open interference in public affairs, at the same time was never a neutral writer. He knew the artistic value of his work and did not forgive a frivolous attitude to writing or mediocrity. And it was "Petersburg Tales" that was the highest level of artistic maturity, the frontier, which opened up a feature that was then characteristic of his subsequent work, which brought him both glory and suffering - conscious conceptuality.

"The Overcoat" is one of the oldest performances of the Sovremennik Theatre. It is based on the famous work of the same name by N.V. Gogol directed by Valery Fokin. However, the performance is full of surprises and goes beyond the textbook version. In the play "The Overcoat" in Moscow, the viewer will be able to look at Gogol's character with different eyes and see completely new features in his character.

The performance "The Overcoat": the revival of the classics in a new reading

For the first time the play "Overcoat" on the "Other Stage" Sovremennik was shown in 2004. The staging by Valery Fokin made quite a stir and impressed the capital's audience with an extraordinary approach to the classic work.

First of all, the reincarnation of the famous and brilliant actress Marina Neelova, who in this production played not just anyone, but Gogol's "little man" Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin, was a surprise.

Her role in the play "The Overcoat" in Sovremennik is characterized by a heartbreaking reincarnation. And it's not about makeup and costumes, but about an amazing immersion in the role of an actress. A woman playing a male role is something new for Sovremennik.

Fokin transferred the action of the play to our time. Bashmachkin is an unattractive "little man" who is not noticed by others. To draw attention to himself, he orders a chic overcoat at the tailoring shop.

But can a rich wrapper change the life of a hero? "Overcoat" 2019 will again amaze the public's imagination and make you think about many relevant and vital issues.

The performance "Overcoat" on a completely new stage

Sovremennik's "Another Stage" is a radically different hall with innovative technologies and a host of technical capabilities. The performance is filled with incredible dynamics. On a huge screen located in the background, “live” pictures rush before the viewer like a whirlwind: quarters of St. Petersburg, the sound of a Singer typewriter, tailcoats, top hats, giant silhouettes.

All this visual charm is flavored with the beautiful music of the composer Alexander Bakshi. The general idea of ​​the director made it possible to realize the most complicated idea. Marina Neelova masterfully transforms and in just an hour, during which the performance lasts, she manages to play both quiet happiness, and understanding of the dilapidation of the house-overcoat, and wild horror from the need to build a new house. And by the end of the production, the viewer clearly understands that unbridled emotions and sincere feelings always take precedence over even the most prudent mind.

How to buy tickets for "The Overcoat" at the Sovremennik Theater

If you want to see the famous Gogol story in a new interpretation and a modern ideological frame, you need to buy tickets for The Overcoat in advance. In our agency you can do it easily:

• go to the site;
• choose a performance and decide on the seats in the auditorium;
• pay for your order online.

Our site is the most convenient and modern resource with an intuitive interface and active professional information support. You can order tickets for the performance "The Overcoat" with delivery in Moscow and St. Petersburg, take advantage of discounts for companies of more than 10 people, get comprehensive information about this or other events. Do not deny yourself the pleasure of seeing a performance that is absolutely different from the textbook "The Overcoat" and enjoy the magnificent performance of Marina Neelova.

The screen is snowing. Snow is falling, as if being sucked into a funnel, and a two-meter overcoat, piled up in the middle of the site, seems to be this same funnel. The snow is slow and trembling, like in Norshtein's cartoons. Suddenly, from behind the collar of the overcoat hatches, swaying on a thin neck, a head - a bald old crown with a pair of gray feathers. Puppet glass eyes look around the empty stage, and the head disappears into the depths of the overcoat. After some time, below, between the floors, as in the opening of a curtain, the old man himself appears, writes out circles on half-bent ones: “Khe-he-he.” He sits down on a clerical bench, takes out a pen from his bosom, combs the hairs on his head with it. Displays on paper, tunes in: "Mi-mi-mi ... Mi-la-steve gas-padin ..."

Marina Neyolova plays Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin in a play based on Gogol's The Overcoat. Almost a year ago, this "Overcoat" opened a new, in fact, theater - Another stage of the Moscow "Sovremennik", built for innovation. Valery Fokin was invited as the first innovator, whose Meyerhold Center is engaged in such experiments. The idea to let Neelova play Bashmachkin belongs to her friend Yuri Rost, and this is a great idea - it has been known about her for a long time, and the performance was expected.

Neelova's gift for travesty - a gift of comic nature - is supported by her tragic strict temperament: a rare combination of qualities. She does not fall into a rage for a second, she does not go over in a single gesture, playing not her age - it is worth remembering both of her roles in the “Sweet Bird of Youth”, an aging film star and a bride who has shrunken to term. Bashmachkin performed by Neelova is a grandiose attraction. It is impossible to recognize a great actress in a tiny old man who saves strength for every movement, there is not a single gap between her and the role.

Fokin's gift, in turn, lies in the ability to bewitch, confuse the viewer with a mystical haze of sighs, deafening screams, shadows flickering on the walls. The "Overcoat", you see, was pulled by the floors in different directions. Neelova really wants to play the very story of the unfortunate Bashmachkin, to live it to the pine coffin, but Fokin is not a professor in the matter of psychology and human stories. In his work, as usual, dark figures roam the galleries above the heads of the audience, shadows darting across the screen, the artists of the Sirin ensemble by Andrey Kotov are singing, and Alexander Bakshi is weird with sounds and noises. The old red overcoat, which at the beginning served as Bashmachkin's home, turns into a coffin at Fokine in the finale. But a truly Fokine (and Gogol) theme should begin where the performance ends - behind the coffin, when a dead man appears at the Kalinkin Bridge, grabbing passers-by by the collars. The parties could come to a consensus when they stopped the performance at the twentieth minute - then one could continue to dream about him, as about Norshtein's "Overcoat", telling friends: "Brilliant beginning!"