NG , January 26, 2015
Grigory Zaslavsky
"Two on a swing" at the Sovremennik Theater
There is something to remember
Galina Volchek, not for the first time, trusts her sense of modernity and returns to what once already brought fame to her, the actors, and the theater, which she has been directing since 1972. She first staged the play "Two on a Swing" in 1962. It was her first independent directorial work. Having gone through more than one change of actors and about 30 years of hire, the performance was filmed, and now it has returned to the stage with Chulpan Khamatova and Kirill Safonov in the lead roles.
Volchek is one of those who likes to "return to former lovers", in any case - to the plays that once deeply hurt her, were staged and were successful. This happens to directors, and in this case it’s not about the habit of “stamping” the same name dozens of times on different stages in Russia and abroad, but about returning to your favorite story with new thoughts, new experience, and not just with new actors . Although new actors very often just dictate a new decision.
"Two on a swing" is still called Volchek among the best performances. The “Ordinary Story”, which glorified her, especially “At the Bottom”, came out later. And "Two on a Swing" became one of the legendary productions of the early Sovremennik, or rather not even early, since maturity and, moreover, recognition came to them early. The premiere of the play by the then extremely popular American playwright William Gibson in the USSR allows us to somewhat reconsider our ideas about the Iron Curtain: now we imagine that the world has become more permeable and we will find out earlier than “once then”, what is happening in different parts of the world - in including in literature, in the theater… Gibson's play was released in the USA in 1958, at the same time it was staged and received a nomination for the Tony Award, and four years later the premiere came out in Moscow. The plays of the now popular Mark Ravenhill have been on our stages for longer.
The tubular design of the artist Pavel Kaplevich resembles the outer perimeter of the Pompidou Center, colored lanterns are invariably associated in our minds with sparkling New York advertisements. The two apartments are not fenced off from each other in any way, the light illuminates the left half - we are in the apartment of Gitel (Chulpan Khamatova), the right - the action takes place in Jerry's room (Kirill Safonov).
For Safonov, this is a debut on the stage of Sovremennik, although by the age of 40 he managed to play with Goncharov at the Mayakovsky Theater, and in the performances of Vladimir Mirzoev at the Stanislavsky Theater, and in Israel, at the Gesher Theater, but Volchek is not one of those who is burdened by the past of the actors she invites into her house.
Volchek knows how to light new stars, discover actors, but at the premiere, she, Chulpan Khamatova, was more interesting, more incendiary, more meaningful. Maybe Safonov really sings great, writes good poetry, takes great pictures and draws, about which there is a lot of information on the Internet, but the contagiousness in his game, the masculine principle so necessary for this role, what the late Vitaly Vulf pointedly called "irresistible male magnetism ”, was not in his game. It wasn't at the premiere. And one more circumstance "against" - it does not contain a riddle that would be interesting to solve, which would keep in suspense for three hours that the performance is on. In Gibson's play, I think, the weakness of a strong man would be more interesting, and in the performance of Safonov, the weakness of a weak one comes out, rushing between his ex-wife and the current relationship that helps him out.
The first exit is his, the first words in the performance are hers. He dials her number, the phone rings, she grabs the receiver: “Hello!”
Volchek is one of those who believe in some kind of transcendental and sensual nature of the theater, and also in something else, it is likely that strong feelings are very necessary in today's life, and if feelings are dormant in a person, the theater is able to wake them up. Gibson's play seems to be suitable for this, although in many ways it reflects the state of development of American psychoanalysis in the late 50s. I won’t say for sure about the theater, but psychoanalysis has definitely moved forward over the past years.
Gibson's play is built on emotional curves, and - it was not without reason that it was a success on Broadway - the author pays tribute to the spectacular phrases that often caused laughter from the premiere audience.
- Did you sleep with him? - with an interrogation, he approaches Gitel.
- He may be with me - yes, but I'm with him - definitely not.
Such recognizable American humor. Post-war jazz of the late 1940s - 50s accompanies the dialogues of the characters and very accurately responds to the changes in their moods and intonations.
But Volchek is a professional, she wins under any circumstances, in spite of, so to speak, everything. She arranges such a number of pegs and poles around the performance that do not allow disconnecting from the electric current launched by her. Here he goes into the shower, throwing his hat on the bed. She cautiously approaches her, sniffing the air like a dog or a cat.
Remember the movie Scent of a Woman? And then the smell of a man frees her from the previous strict rules and brings with it an excuse for a frivolous decision to go for rapprochement: “Birthday! What can you do! The sense of smell in the play Volchek becomes almost the main engine of all love movements.
Volchek knows how to put on memorable and spectacular, strong finals. In the play “Two on a Swing”, the final scene is the last telephone conversation of the characters, which Gitel has for a long time, sitting with his back to the audience, playing with one voice. When he turns around, tears are in his eyes ... Feelings, of course, are very important - both laughter and tears, without them - nowhere. Rights Volchek.
Novaya Gazeta, January 23, 2015
Elena Dyakova
Save Lawyer Ryan
"Two on a swing" - Chulpan Khamatova and Kirill Safonov
The play by William Gibson was Galina Volchek's first directorial work. The 1962 premiere lived on the Sovremennik stage for three decades.
That age is over. That country is over. The era of strong women is over, who still to tears, before howling into the pillow in the pre-final scene, wanted to be loved and protected - and made any sacrifices for this. Today's strong women are not in a hurry to lend a shoulder, to drag their beloved on themselves from the fire of self-criticism, from the bogs of "blah blah blah", from a protracted shootout with a personal inferiority complex. Yes, and learned.
The era of divorce-drama novels, chaotic bifurcation of marriages, polygons, autumn marathons has come to a new order of fairly strong families and very strong loneliness.
And it seems: in 2015, the heroine of Gibson's play, the paper soldier of great love, the ever-open donor artery of sympathy, is a completely unprecedented character. Then she was one in a thousand, as the touched hero claimed. Now they don't make them at all.
... But the lights of the big city, New York in the 1950s, flash again. A miracle flies in and a scarecrow in a mini with a lace frill: either a young Chaplin in a female form, or Audrey Hepburn, curled with a small demon, or an Italian circus tramp Juliet Mazina.
Her name is Gitel Moska. It's a stage name! She is a dancer. And an acrobat: because there is little work, take what they give. And sew a little more.
Pavel Kaplevich, the set designer of the new version of the play, made New York a “city-without-skin”. That is, without walls: steel structures, pipes of communications, wires outlined in chalk, neon tubes of advertisements hang in the void, denoting the skeleton of the apartment, the chest of space. Behind the scenes, the squeal of traffic, the screech of brakes, the murmur of the crowd. And in this steel chest, the heroine Chulpan Khamatova rushes about like a heart.
The story of Gitel Moska and true WASP, white Anglo-Saxon Protestant Omaha lawyer Jerry Ryan is simple. Jerry is running from a broken marriage, from a cold, beautiful wife, from working for a prosperous father-in-law firm. In fact, he is running away from a world rigidly structured by estates, families, incomes, work from 8.30 to 17.00 (after all, the 1960s had not yet begun!). He flees to New York, where he has no lawyer's license, no money, no family, no career. Disappears in the attic, on a bumpy couch bought from the Salvation Army for eight bucks. He feels sorry for himself, as very prosperous people know how to feel sorry for themselves after the first knockout.
And in the big city he meets this lawless, crazy comet. Absolutely not my circle! (One name for the 1950s is worth something: the Polish-Jewish surname Moskowicz, resolutely like a skirt, cut off to a flirtatious Italian pseudonym.) Completely beyond the rigid social code and etiquette of his former family. Completely lonely. Funny, ridiculous, compassionate, flirtatious, charming ... Ready to just take his troubles on myself!
By the way: Gitel and the viewer will know everything about Jerry's hellishly complicated relationship with his wife and father-in-law. Nothing about Gitel's past. At all. Until the final. Although the Polish-Jewish girl of the 1950s, completely alone in New York and in the universe, the past could be anything. Up to the rescue from the execution pit, the flight from the ghetto, the scar from the camp number on the hand.
But that's how they are both arranged ... If there was a scar: Jerry won't notice, and Gitel won't tell.
Moscow will go to this performance in a joint: and it will do the right thing. She will go to follow - two actions and almost three hours - a gesture, a wave of a chiseled leg, a batman at a tin stove, where, while the hostess was spinning, milk boiled and ran away in a vile way. Behind the acting game of Chulpan Khamatova and Kirill Safonov - very high quality. Behind the subtle facial expressions of the relationship between a man and a woman: taming and fighting, blindness and tenderness, arrogance and the highest intuitive accuracy of love. Watch how self-sacrifice relaxes the beloved, and weakness and vulnerability “gather” him and make him a man. Behind an endless chain, mother-of-pearl tints, transitions of moods and states - from music hall coquetry on the phone to the verge of life and death. Behind the love story: like this, childishly: “And what is he?” - "And what is she?"
And - once again - for the quality of acting. Light, colorful, virtuoso.
Sovremennik has always been a "theater for the people" (according to the old formula of Giorgio Strehler). And in the new version of the eternal performance, it remained so. The half-forgotten (perhaps a little dilapidated) Gibson's play, it turns out, is still alive in the 21st century. Our laughter and our participation are evidence of this.
Especially in the final. Gitel (of course, alone) sits on the bed, convulsively squeezing the pillow. On the verge of a sob, a scream, a half-life, a depression, a yellow house named after Blanche Dubois. He struggles to smile: he must live, he must live... Desperately, like a foal, he waves his curls to shake the tears from his eyes. The night sea of a big city rustles around her, as around a drowning woman.
And again, she looks like Juliet Mazina, a wounded clowness. And her smile, plucked out of herself by the desperate effort of a strong, really very strong woman, is on the smile of Cabiria in the last frames of the classic film.
With the difference that here there is no screen between the actress and the spectator. And this painful smile is born before your eyes every time - in Moscow, on Chistoprudny Boulevard, in the winter of 2015.
Novye Izvestia, January 22, 2015
Olga Egoshina
Aberrations of love
"Two on a Seesaw" is back half a century later
Galina Volchek made her directorial debut with William Gibson's play in 1962, starring Tatyana Lavrova and Mikhail Kozakov. The performance became an event, the role of Gitel Moska was called one of the best in the repertoire of a great actress. And "Two on a Swing" remained on the playbill of the theater for almost forty years. Performers changed: Lilia Tolmacheva, Elena Yakovleva, Gennady Frolov, Alexander Kahun, Nikolai Popkov. Chulpan Khamatova and Kirill Safonov play in the new version of the play.
In pre-premiere interviews, Galina Volchek explained that she wanted to look at this love story with “today's eyes”. However, the play by William Gibson, alas, never crossed the boundaries of its time. Looking at the stage, the audience is definitely immersed in the old days of their grandparents, when $ 2.5 was a monstrous amount, in the speech of lawyers there were simply unbearable molasses and pathos, and the biggest threat for a girl was to go over at a party or sleep with someone who was not suitable for her. long-haired contemporary art aficionado…
The artist Pavel Kaplevich built on the stage a complex structure of intertwining pipes, creating a semblance of a skeleton of some kind of giant octopus city. Downstage are two couches (one is lovingly covered with a fluffy bedspread, the other is narrow and short, propped up by a suitcase on which Jerry stretches his too long legs). Near the beds are telephones, black and bright yellow. In Gitel's room there is also a mirror, where she often and not without pleasure looks, and a black mannequin with a tiny head; in the depths, a small gas stove is visible, on which the hostess warms her milk. In the course of the play, we will be told the cost of a luxurious mattress ($69), and the cost of an ice box that used to stand here (“I gave it away for free, but it’s definitely worth five dollars”).
Actually, the acquaintance of the characters begins with a phone call about a refrigerator for sale. It continues with talk about the state of the wallet, about the price of dinner and a ticket to the theater, about the price of soap (soap for $ 2.5 is crazy!). O'Henry also discovered a close relationship between cheap apartments, where they count cents and carefully cut the skin from potatoes, and angelic innocence. It is the inhabitants of cheap New York apartments that the Magi envy, and the lonely inhabitants will certainly get great love ...
Gitel Moska, the heroine of William Gibson, is just such an angel, a gentle angel with a stomach ulcer that sometimes bleeds, and with a burdensome habit of always readily responding to any request, willingly throwing open her door and her purse.
In the heroines of Chulpan Khamatova, this responsiveness, a childlike readiness to “dive” into a situation, without calculating the consequences, without trying to find any profit for themselves, is often found. An eccentric dancer (alas, deprived of real stage talent), her Gitel dances through life. Literally bursting onto the stage, from the first second to the very end she is in constant, almost feverish movement: either she crouches, or dances, or jumps on the bed, or decorates Jerry's apartment. Just like a ball, her mood jumps, responding literally to every word of her partner. Bewilderment is replaced by confusion, attempts to maintain equanimity - tears in the eyes. This Gitel has tears all the time somewhere very close. And you have to be completely thick-skinned to confuse the attack of pain that torments her insides with banal intoxication.
The heroines of Chulpan Khamatova have a rare property - to attract trouble. Having spoken beautiful words, Jerry, who overcame her spiritual crisis, will also leave her room and life, returning to his state, to his wife. During the last telephone conversation, he will thank Gitel for her uplifting influence (the playwright here poured so much molasses that would be enough for a dozen plays in excess). And Gitel will assure his Jerry that he gave her a lot, and she changed a lot under his influence. They touchingly and tenderly say goodbye forever. And then Gitel-Khamatova will again rush to dial his phone number, and then, like a mischievous child, she will quickly hang up and sit, staring at the tips of her shoes ...
Kommersant, January 29, 2015
Roman Dolzhansky
In "Contemporary" rocked "Two"
The Sovremennik Theater hosted the premiere of a new version of William Gibson's play Two on a Swing. For the first time the artistic director of the theater Galina Volchek staged it more than half a century ago, in the early 60s of the last century. It was her directorial debut - therefore, it is not surprising that throughout her directorial career, Volchek returned several times to the American melodrama about the romance of a dancer and a lawyer - two lonelinesses squeezed by the skyscrapers of New York (they were impressively embodied in the new version by the artist Pavel Kaplevich: we are like we see the inside of a huge city - its belly, entangled in wires and communications). And each time, Galina Volchek was looking for a new pair of actors who could tell this simple story, which today does not leave the hearts of the audience indifferent.
One can argue for a long time about whether Gibson's play really managed to survive its time (in my opinion, it failed), but what does it have to do with it, if for the theater and director it has become a kind of tuning fork, a repertoire constant, and for theater chroniclers - something something like a living device capable of fixing the complex relationship of the theater stage with time.
"Two on a swing" of our time will be remembered primarily for the selfless acting work of Chulpan Khamatova - under the direction of the director, the actress created one of her best roles. It seems that her acting "apparatus" in the role of Gitel Moska shows some unimaginable records of variability and sensitivity. And there can be no talk of naive old-fashioned "swings" - here the latest generation computer is already in use: Khamatova, it seems, is able to change her psychophysical states several times during one phrase, and each finger of her outstretched hand can express a different emotion. She rises very high above the ordinary "loves - does not love", playing the birth of a woman from an absurd, awkward clowness, her whole life in a feeling, and - the end of this life-feeling in the finale. It remains to be hoped that Khamatova's partner Kirill Safonov, who is known to the audience mainly from popular television series, will eventually be able to match his partner at least a little - and then the performance will become a full-fledged duet.
Labor, January 30, 2015
Victoria Peshkova
Choking on love
With the play "Two on a Swing", the Sovremennik Theater became 53 years younger
Galina Volchek gave a second life to her very first work, which she carried out back in the years of the thaw: on the stage of Sovremennik - again Two on a Swing.
The play by William Gibson "Two on a Seesaw" became the directorial debut of a talented actress who has not yet turned 30. According to the unwritten rules of that time, at that age, it was absolutely “should not dare” to take on directing. For a woman, even more so. Volchek dared. Take the American (under the Iron Curtain!) play, where there is divorce, and sex, and cohabitation outside of marriage, but the struggle for the happiness of all progressive mankind, as well as the happy ending so dear to the human heart, are completely absent. Even for the young Thaw 60s, this was an act. That performance with Tatyana Lavrova and Mikhail Kozakov in the theatrical world is not called anything other than legendary. The thaw, as you know, quickly ended. However, "Two on a Swing" remained in the theater's repertoire. The performers changed, the halls invariably remained full.
And now, 53 years after that high-profile premiere, Galina Volchek again put the two on the swing of love and pain. Not in order to once again prove to his numerous opponents that the psychological theater is alive and still needed by the viewer. Loud manifestos are not at all in the style of Volchek. Yes, in fact, there is no longer a special need for them: the confrontation between the classic traditionalists and the radical reformers from the active phase little by little passed into the stage of protracted positional battles of local significance. And Volchek continues to live by the principle of "do what you must, and come what may." The artistic director of Sovremennik has not lost the gift of hearing Time. And it has recently been unwilling to compromise: either we remember that we have not only bodies that do not need anything but bread and circuses, but also souls that really have to work day and night, or we naturally disappear from the face of the earth. only as a civilization, but also as a biological species. And the highest and most hard labor of the soul (how can one disagree with Volchek) is the labor of love.
The black space of the stage is streaked with pipes, wires and cables - as if the skin had been flayed from the world: no walls protect a person from external intrusion - everything is permeable, everything is accessible. The artist Pavel Kaplevich literally constructs two personal vacuums out of nothing - a bed-phone-hanger - which the characters live to the limit. Gitel is a dancer who lacked the talent to become famous. Jerry is a lawyer who escaped from a well-fed life under the wing of his father-in-law. More than anything, they are afraid of what they need most - true love.
The couple, this time chosen by Volchek - Chulpan Khamatova and Kirill Safonov - seems strange, incompatible. The bewilderment lasts exactly until that second, until you realize how accurate this hit is in today's realities. A fragile, vulnerable woman, ready to console, encourage and inspire her fallen man, without any guarantees that, having risen to his feet, he will not leave her face to face with the world. And a man who is trying his best to disguise his inability to make decisions and be responsible for their consequences with the habits of an alpha male.
It seems that this was intended: the eternal spring of theatrical intrigue is a naive, almost childish “what if ?!” - only Khamatova twists, with micron accuracy measuring her Gitel's strength and weakness for the next round of the plot. Safonov, alas, is too predictable - in Jerry's throwing between his beloved, who returned his taste for life, and the ex-wife, who exists outside the play, with whom he intends to start everything from the beginning, the tragedy of the weakness of a strong man is not felt. However, then it would have been a hero not of our time.
On the stage of the Sovremennik Theater on January 23, another high-profile premiere took place - the play Two on a Swing. More than half a century ago, with the production of the same name, Galina Borisovna Volchek made her debut as a director. Her previous performance had existed on the stage of Sovremennik for about thirty years. In the theatrical world, her talented work made a splash. Tickets for Two on a swing flew then in the blink of an eye. Therefore, Volchek connected her entire further creative career with directing. And today the artistic director of the theater has again returned to the famous play by the American writer William Gibson. Although not a single performance has ever been resumed before. But returning to an old cult masterpiece does not mean repeating it.
New "Two on a swing"
The current production of Two on a Swing at the Sovremennik Theater is a completely new staging of Gibson's work. The work turned out to be sincere and subtle. The psychology of the main characters is shown very deeply, it was Galina Volchek who relied on acting. Today, the play about love is more relevant than ever. After all, the situation in the world is heating up every day. Therefore, the need to love and be loved is felt especially acutely. Brilliant actors Kristina Orbakaite and Kirill Safonov take part in the new version of the play Two on a Swing in Sovremennik. For all connoisseurs of theatrical art, a new dramatic production is a luxurious gift. You can buy tickets for the performance Two on a swing on our website. But you should hurry, because there are many people who want to see the performance.
Plot
The play takes place in the middle of the twentieth century, in the city of New York. The plot of the production Two on a swing is a poignant story of love and loneliness. In a big city, two people meet, a man and a woman - the dancer Gitel and the lawyer Jerry. In the big city, the characters feel very lonely, they both run from their problems. Instantly there is their mutual attraction. The heroine is emotional and open, and the main character is a more closed person. Jerry is having a hard time getting divorced from his wife, and the viewer can only guess what problems the dancer Gitel is running from. He feels like his ideal world has collapsed like a house of cards. Jerry and Gitel are trying to understand not only their attitude towards others, but also try to understand themselves deeper. Lonely man and woman quickly fall in love with each other. But do they have a future together? Answers to this question will be received by all viewers who will be able to buy tickets for the performance Two on a Swing in Sovremennik. The passionate and eccentric performance will win the hearts of the audience with its excellent acting and its subtlest psychologism.
The creators of the play
Early September dusk. The street noise comes through the open windows of both rooms. Gitel's room is empty. Jerry is sitting on the couch in his room with a cigarette in his mouth, running his finger along the page of the phone book lying on the floor near his feet. Jerry is in his early thirties; he is very tall with an attractive appearance. There is a hidden sadness in him, and under it - an even deeper hidden anger. He is dressed modestly, even casually, but in this squalid setting his costume seems almost exquisite. The bed on the couch has not been made, there is a typewriter on a stool, some clothes are thrown on top, an elegant open suitcase is lying on the floor that has not been swept for a long time, in the corners, near the baseboards, there is an accumulation of garbage and cobwebs.
Finding the right number in the book, Jerry dials it. The phone rings in Gitel's room. After the fourth ring, Jerry hangs up. At the same time, in Gitel's room, you can hear the key turning in the lock. Gitel runs in with a grocery bag in his hand, rushes to the phone, grabs the receiver.
Gitel(out of breath): Yes, hello! (pause) Oh, damn! (hangs up)
Gitel is swarthy and thin, it is difficult to determine how old she is. She, perhaps, cannot be called pretty - she has too peculiar appearance. She is nervous, rude, but with a special charm, which she owes to her indestructible cheerful energy. She is wearing flat shoes, a wide multicolored skirt, a sweater, and all this is not to her face and sits somehow awkwardly. Her movements are impetuous and tensely fussy, like a bird on the ground. Gitel and Jerry, each in his own place, go about their business. Jerry, putting the suitcase on the couch, takes out clothes - a great jacket, a great suit, a great coat - and hangs them on a hanger - a round stick, fixed across the corner. When he puts his shoes under the hanger, one end of the stick slides off the support and all things fall on his head.
Jerry: Wu, s-dog! (he dumps everything on the floor and goes into the kitchen, from where he brings a wooden block, a hammer and nails. Somehow he nails the block and, putting the stick back in place, begins to hang things up again - this time the stick is holding.)
Meanwhile, Gitel with a grocery bag goes to the kitchen, on the way he stops in front of a mannequin and critically looks at the flashy bright bodice pinned on it. He stands motionless for a few seconds, then with his free hand he breaks off the collar and attaches it in a new way. Stepping back, he looks at his work, disgust on her face.
Gitel: What an abomination! (She throws the pins on the floor and goes into the kitchen; she can be seen pouring the milk into a saucepan and putting it on the gas stove. She puts the rest of the purchases on the shelf and in the refrigerator.)
Jerry, having finished with the hanger, looks at the phone thoughtfully, then sits down on the couch and, having looked in the phone book, dials the number. The phone rings in Gitel's room.
Gitel(runs to the phone after the second ring, when Jerry is about to hang up): Yes, hello?
Jerry(his tone is exquisitely polite, but, quite apart from what he says, there is a dispassionate irony in it): Gitel Moska, please.
Gitel: I'm listening to. Who is this?
Jerry: This is Jerry Ryan. I saw you among the as yet unidentified persons at Oscar's yesterday. We are from the same city, we once met, although it cannot be said that we were on a short footing ...
Gitel: Yes Yes?
Jerry: …probably because I'm too long-legged. Height - one hundred eighty-seven centimeters. (after waiting, he adds for clarification) And a red beard ...
Gitel: Ah, you are the one in the beret who was silent all evening!
Jerry: I did not find a beret in stores that could tell jokes. Yesterday I accidentally heard that you want to sell a refrigerator, maybe I'll come and see?!
Gitel: On the refrigerator?
Jerry: For starters, at least on him.
Gitel: But it's not a refrigerator, it's a glacier, just an ice box.
Jerry: All the better. Saving electricity is a fine example of American practicality. I can be with you in...
Gitel: So I already gave it away!
Jerry(after a pause; this unexpectedness overturned his plans): That's it! Not very kind of you.
Gitel: I just helped some little guy carry him home. I have no idea who he is. Sophie sent it, and I gave it away just to get rid of that stupid box. Why didn't you tell me yesterday?
Jerry: Yesterday I decided that in this life I have nothing more to do.
Gitel: I'm sorry, what?
Jerry: And today I changed my mind and start a new life. In short, today is a great day. First, I decided to visit you.
Gitel: What to do when I already gave it away ...
Jerry: It's clear.
Pause. Both are waiting.
Yes. Well thanks, sorry.
Gitel: Please, but...
Jerry hangs up.
Fu, damn! (also hangs up)
Jerry sits in gloomy thought, then pulls out a pack of cigarettes, but it's empty. He goes to the window to throw it away, on the way he bruises his foot on the couch and kicks it viciously; the couch hits the wall. The stick on which the clothes hang jumps off the support and everything falls to the floor.
Jerry: Wow, dog! (grabs a stick, wants to break it on his knee, the stick only bends and, slipping out of his hands, hits him on the head with one end. Again he grabs the stick, again tries to break it, but cannot, throws it on the floor and, accidentally stepping on the end of the stick, he hits her with his other foot and almost falls. Struggling with a stick, he rushes about the room, not knowing how to get rid of it, and his rage is ridiculous, but suddenly he beats his fist on the window pane with a flourish. This is no longer funny - the glass shatters to smithereens (Stops and sullenly contemplates his fist, his room, his inner state. Slowly moving away from the window, he stumbles over the telephone standing on the floor. Looking at it thoughtfully, picks it up and dials the number)
Gitel starts taking off his shoes. But at this time, milk boils in the kitchen. She jumps up and runs to the kitchen, but halfway through, she is stopped by the ringing of the phone.
Gitel: Wow! (doesn't know what to do, then rushes to the phone and picks up) Wait, I'm boiling in there! (rushes to the kitchen, turns off the gas and returns) The milk has run out, the whole stove has flooded, damn it. Yes, hello!
Gitel sits with his eyes closed and his pipe pressed to his forehead.
Gitel puts the receiver to his ear.
Hello, is anyone there?
Jerry: No.
Gitel: A?..
Jerry hangs up.
Hey! (looks at the phone, then puts it down and, waving his hand in annoyance, goes into the kitchen. He dilutes the hot milk in the saucepan with cold from the bottle; stopping on the threshold, takes a sip or two and suddenly runs to the phone)
Jerry(walks around the room; noticing the blood on his fingers, wraps his hand in a handkerchief; he is full of self-hatred): Well, a worm with a broken heart, start a new life, fight for yourself! (looks around the bare room and sarcastically replies to himself) And where to start it and what to fight with? With the Sunday supplements of The New York Times. (pushes the suitcase off the couch, lies down on his stomach and, one by one, begins to pull out the newspapers accumulated there from under the couch, throwing them aside)
Gitel(on phone) Sophie? Oscar at home?.. Listen, this friend of his yesterday, long, in a beret... what is his phone number?.. Listen, baby, I don’t know where you keep your brains, but still try to move them, because, probably , Oscar has it written down somewhere! ..
Jerry(his legs hang from the couch, he pulls himself forward and knocks his head against the wall. He gets up and looks at the couch dejectedly): If a person is longer than the couch, you need to change the person. (puts a suitcase on the couch and, lying down again, pulls out the last sheets of newspaper)
Gibson William
two on a swing
Act one
Picture one
Both rooms
Early September dusk. The street noise comes through the open windows of both rooms. Gitel's room is empty. Jerry is sitting on the couch in his room with a cigarette in his mouth, running his finger along the page of the phone book lying on the floor near his feet. Jerry is in his early thirties; he is very tall with an attractive appearance. There is a hidden sadness in him, and under it - an even deeper hidden anger. He is dressed modestly, even casually, but in this squalid setting his costume seems almost exquisite. The bed on the couch has not been made, there is a typewriter on a stool, some clothes are thrown on top, an elegant open suitcase is lying on the floor that has not been swept for a long time, in the corners, near the baseboards, there is an accumulation of garbage and cobwebs.
Finding the right number in the book, Jerry dials it. The phone rings in Gitel's room. After the fourth ring, Jerry hangs up. At the same time, in Gitel's room, you can hear the key turning in the lock. Gitel runs in with a grocery bag in his hand, rushes to the phone, grabs the receiver.
Gitel(out of breath): Yes, hello! (pause) Oh, damn! (hangs up)
Gitel is swarthy and thin, it is difficult to determine how old she is. She, perhaps, cannot be called pretty - she has too peculiar appearance. She is nervous, rude, but with a special charm, which she owes to her indestructible cheerful energy. She is wearing flat shoes, a wide multicolored skirt, a sweater, and all this is not to her face and sits somehow awkwardly. Her movements are impetuous and tensely fussy, like a bird on the ground. Gitel and Jerry, each in his own place, go about their business. Jerry, putting the suitcase on the couch, takes out clothes - a great jacket, a great suit, a great coat - and hangs them on a hanger - a round stick, fixed across the corner. When he puts his shoes under the hanger, one end of the stick slides off the support and all things fall on his head.
Jerry: Wu, s-dog! (he dumps everything on the floor and goes into the kitchen, from where he brings a wooden block, a hammer and nails. Somehow he nails the block and, putting the stick back in place, begins to hang things up again - this time the stick is holding.)
Meanwhile, Gitel with a grocery bag goes to the kitchen, on the way he stops in front of a mannequin and critically looks at the flashy bright bodice pinned on it. He stands motionless for a few seconds, then with his free hand he breaks off the collar and attaches it in a new way. Stepping back, he looks at his work, disgust on her face.
Gitel: What an abomination! (She throws the pins on the floor and goes into the kitchen; she can be seen pouring the milk into a saucepan and putting it on the gas stove. She puts the rest of the purchases on the shelf and in the refrigerator.)
Jerry, having finished with the hanger, looks at the phone thoughtfully, then sits down on the couch and, having looked in the phone book, dials the number. The phone rings in Gitel's room.
Gitel(runs to the phone after the second ring, when Jerry is about to hang up): Yes, hello?
Jerry(his tone is exquisitely polite, but, quite apart from what he says, there is a dispassionate irony in it): Gitel Moska, please.
Gitel: I'm listening to. Who is this?
Jerry: This is Jerry Ryan. I saw you among the as yet unidentified persons at Oscar's yesterday. We are from the same city, we once met, although it cannot be said that we were on a short footing ...
Gitel: Yes Yes?
Jerry: …probably because I'm too long-legged. Height - one hundred eighty-seven centimeters. (after waiting, he adds for clarification) And a red beard ...
Gitel: Ah, you are the one in the beret who was silent all evening!
Jerry: I did not find a beret in stores that could tell jokes. Yesterday I accidentally heard that you want to sell a refrigerator, maybe I'll come and see?!
Gitel: On the refrigerator?
Jerry: For starters, at least on him.
Gitel: But it's not a refrigerator, it's a glacier, just an ice box.
Jerry: All the better. Saving electricity is a fine example of American practicality. I can be with you in...
Gitel: So I already gave it away!
Jerry(after a pause; this unexpectedness overturned his plans): That's it! Not very kind of you.
Gitel: I just helped some little guy carry him home. I have no idea who he is. Sophie sent it, and I gave it away just to get rid of that stupid box. Why didn't you tell me yesterday?
Jerry: Yesterday I decided that in this life I have nothing more to do.
Gitel: I'm sorry, what?
Jerry: And today I changed my mind and start a new life. In short, today is a great day. First, I decided to visit you.
Gitel: What to do when I already gave it away ...
Jerry: It's clear.
Pause. Both are waiting.
Yes. Well thanks, sorry.
Gitel: Please, but...
Jerry hangs up.
Fu, damn! (also hangs up)
Jerry sits in gloomy thought, then pulls out a pack of cigarettes, but it's empty. He goes to the window to throw it away, on the way he bruises his foot on the couch and kicks it viciously; the couch hits the wall. The stick on which the clothes hang jumps off the support and everything falls to the floor.
Jerry: Wow, dog! (grabs a stick, wants to break it on his knee, the stick only bends and, slipping out of his hands, hits him on the head with one end. Again he grabs the stick, again tries to break it, but cannot, throws it on the floor and, accidentally stepping on the end of the stick, he hits her with his other foot and almost falls. Struggling with a stick, he rushes about the room, not knowing how to get rid of it, and his rage is ridiculous, but suddenly he beats his fist on the window pane with a flourish. This is no longer funny - the glass shatters to smithereens (Stops and sullenly contemplates his fist, his room, his inner state. Slowly moving away from the window, he stumbles over the telephone standing on the floor. Looking at it thoughtfully, picks it up and dials the number)
Gitel starts taking off his shoes. But at this time, milk boils in the kitchen. She jumps up and runs to the kitchen, but halfway through, she is stopped by the ringing of the phone.
Gitel: Wow! (doesn't know what to do, then rushes to the phone and picks up) Wait, I'm boiling in there! (rushes to the kitchen, turns off the gas and returns) The milk has run out, the whole stove has flooded, damn it. Yes, hello!
Gitel sits with his eyes closed and his pipe pressed to his forehead.
Gitel puts the receiver to his ear.
Hello, is anyone there?
Jerry: No.
Gitel: A?..
Jerry hangs up.
Hey! (looks at the phone, then puts it down and, waving his hand in annoyance, goes into the kitchen. He dilutes the hot milk in the saucepan with cold from the bottle; stopping on the threshold, takes a sip or two and suddenly runs to the phone)
Jerry(walks around the room; noticing the blood on his fingers, wraps his hand in a handkerchief; he is full of self-hatred): Well, a worm with a broken heart, start a new life, fight for yourself! (looks around the bare room and sarcastically replies to himself) And where to start it and what to fight with? With the Sunday supplements of The New York Times. (pushes the suitcase off the couch, lies down on his stomach and, one by one, begins to pull out the newspapers accumulated there from under the couch, throwing them aside)
Gitel(on phone) Sophie? Oscar at home?.. Listen, this friend of his yesterday, long, in a beret... what is his phone number?.. Listen, baby, I don’t know where you keep your brains, but still try to move them, because, probably , Oscar has it written down somewhere! ..
Jerry(his legs hang from the couch, he pulls himself forward and knocks his head against the wall. He gets up and looks at the couch dejectedly): If a person is longer than the couch, you need to change the person. (puts a suitcase on the couch and, lying down again, pulls out the last sheets of newspaper)
Gitel(writing down): Sixty-nine... What?.. Yes, yes, yes, terribly interesting, goodbye. (without hanging up, presses the lever and immediately dials the number)
The phone rings in Jerry's room.
Jerry(raises his head, looks at the phone in disbelief, and, only after waiting for the second ring, picks up the phone; carefully): Yes?
Gitel(quickly and a little nervously): Look, I've been thinking about this glacier. Perhaps this is what you can do: I will go with you to this fellow, he lives nearby, if you offer him a dollar or two, he will surely give it back with pleasure, but this thing costs a good five ...
Jerry, leaning on his elbow, listens thoughtfully to her.
Hello, are you listening? Will you come with me?
“Two on a Swing” is a special performance not only for the Sovremennik Theater, but also for its leader, Galina Volchek. It was with this production that her directing career began many years ago. It's hard to believe, but more than half a century has passed since then! But it turns out that during this time little has changed in human relations. People still lack warmth and kindness.
About the play "Two on a swing"
"Two on a Swing" is not a repetition of a fifty-year-old performance. This is a completely new show. The story of a huge city that personifies loneliness is still in the spotlight. About human relationships and feelings that get tangled as quickly as a swing swings. It's just that it's told in a different way. As required by modern society, tired of aggression and pain.
Actors and director
Galina Volchek is a director who needs no introduction. During her life, she staged dozens of performances that became the golden fund of Sovremennik and theatrical classics. The most “fresh” among them are “The Gin Game”, “Murlin Murlo”, “Three Sisters”, “Hare. Love story" and others. Galina Borisovna puts her soul into each of her works, paying special attention to the selection of actors who could convey feelings, emotions, moods as she sees them herself.
There was not even any doubt about who would play the main female role in the play "Two on a Swing" - no one could "reincarnate" in Gitel better than Chulpan Khamatova. But they were looking for a new Jerry for a long time - in the end, Galina Volchek decided to invite Kirill Safronov.
When the performance had already been introduced into the repertoire and the premiere screenings had died down, Chulpan Khamatova decided to take a sabbatical. And then a very unexpected replacement took place - Kristina Orbakaite took her place, in which Volchek managed to discern acting talent. In 2018, "Two on a Swing" is a performance by two actresses at once, despite the fact that there is only one female role in it.
How to buy tickets for the play "Two on a Swing"
It doesn't matter how many months or years have passed since the premiere - the performances staged by Galina Volchek in Sovremennik are always sold out. Needless to say, it was, is and will be very difficult to buy tickets for Two on a Swing. We are ready to help you avoid queues at the box office and communication with scammers offering an “extra ticket” at exorbitant prices. Turning to our company, each client can count on:
- support of a personal manager who will help you choose the best places in any price category and answer all your questions;
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- discounts when buying more than 10 tickets at the same time.
Also, discounts are provided for those who have become regular customers from a regular customer! We especially appreciate and love such people, and we are always ready to present them with pleasant surprises.
Needless to say, the premiere of the play "Two on a Swing" excited the theatrical world of Moscow. Critics, experts and just the audience expected a lot from the production - and all these expectations really came true! But is it possible to trust the reviews and testimonials? After all, this touching story needs to be “felt” for yourself!
