Russian dramaturgy went through a difficult and long haul development. The first plays appear in late XVII - early XVIII c., they rely on ancient rites and games, oral folk drama. to the most famous and popular works folk drama include "Tsar Maximilian", "Boat", which reflected the campaigns of Stepan Razin, Yermak; folk drama-farce "About the governor-boyar"; puppet comedy about Petrushka. At this time, in Ukraine and Belarus, the so-called school drama. Borrowing plots from church rituals, she affirmed the ideas of a centralized monarchy that were progressive at that time.
A scene from the play "Wolves and Sheep" by A. N. Ostrovsky at the Stanislavsky Moscow Drama Theater.
A scene from the play The Inspector General by N. V. Gogol at the Moscow Theater of Satire. 1985
A new stage in the development of Russian drama falls on the 30-40s. XVIII century, the era of the dominance of classicism. The largest representatives of this trend were A.P. Sumarokov (1717-1777) and M.V. Lomonosov (1711-1765). The dramaturgy of classicism preached lofty civic ideals. Love for the motherland, service to duty, the heroes of the classic tragedy put above all else. In the tragedies of Sumarokov "Khorev", "Sinav and Truvor" and others, the theme of exposing tyranny and despotism sounded. The Russian dramaturgy of classicism is largely based, both in theory and in practice, on experience. Western European culture. It is no coincidence that Sumarokova, whose plays became the basis of the Russian theater repertoire mid-eighteenth century, was called "northern Racine". In addition, exposing the vices of the "lower classes", bribe-taking officials, noble landowners who violated their civic duty, Sumarokov took the first steps towards creating a satirical comedy.
The most significant phenomenon in the dramaturgy of the second half of XVIII V. the comedies of D. I. Fonvizin (1745-1792) “Foreman” and “Undergrowth” became. Enlightenment realism is the foundation artistic method Fonvizin. In his works, he denounces not individual vices of society, but the entire state system based on serfdom. The arbitrariness of the autocratic power gave rise to lawlessness, greed and venality of the bureaucracy, despotism, ignorance of the nobility, the disasters of the people, who were crushed by the "burden of cruel slavery." Fonvizin's satire was evil and merciless. M. Gorky noted his great importance as the founder of the "accusatory realistic line" of Russian literature. In terms of the strength of satirical indignation, next to the comedies of Fonvizin, one can put Yabeda (1798) by V.V. Kapnist, exposing the bureaucratic arbitrariness and venality of officials, and I.A. court of Paul I. The traditions of Fonvizin and Kapnist found their further development in the dramaturgy of A. S. Griboedov, N. V. Gogol, A. V. Sukhovo-Kobylin, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, A. N. Ostrovsky.
First quarter XIX V. - complex and saturated with the struggle of various artistic movements period in the history of Russian theater. This is the time to overcome the canons of classicism, the emergence of new trends - sentimentalism, pre-romanticism and realism. The process of democratization of the entire Russian theater begins. During the period of the Napoleonic wars and the birth of Decembrism, the heroic-patriotic theme acquires special significance. Love for the Fatherland, the struggle for independence are the leading themes of the dramatic works of V. A. Ozerov (1769-1816).
First decade XIX V. the genre of vaudeville, a small secular comedy, is gaining great popularity. Its initiators were A. A. Shakhovskoy, N. I. Khmelnitsky, M. N. Zagoskin, A. I. Pisarev, A. S. Griboyedov. In their plays, written with a light, lively literary language, with witty couplets, there were vividly noticed features modern manners and characters. These features, which to a certain extent bring vaudeville closer to household comedy, will become decisive in the work of such vaudeville playwrights as D. T. Lensky, P. A. Karatygin, F. A. Koni and others.
The leading role in the history of Russian drama belongs to A. S. Pushkin and A. S. Griboyedov. They created the first realistic dramas. Pushkin's dramaturgy, his theoretical statements substantiate the principles of nationality and realism in Russian dramaturgy. In the comedy "Woe from Wit" by A. S. Griboyedov, its close connection with the liberation movement in Russia can be traced. It realistically depicts the struggle of two epochs - the "current century" and the "past century".
By the 30s. refers to the appearance of early plays by M. Yu. Lermontov - “Spaniards”, “People and Passions”, “ A strange man". Lermontov is the most major representative revolutionary romantic drama in Russian literature. His "Masquerade" is the pinnacle of the romantic tragedy of the first half of the 19th century. The theme of the fate of a lofty, proud mind, not reconciled with hypocrisy and hypocrisy, begun by Griboedov, finds a tragic conclusion in Lermontov's drama. The plays of Pushkin and Lermontov were banned for staging by the tsarist censorship. On the Russian stage of the 30-40s. there were dramas by N. V. Kukolnik and N. A. Polevoy, glorifying the wisdom and greatness of monarchical power. Saturated with false pathos, melodramatic effects, they did not remain in the theater repertoire for long.
The path of L. N. Andreev (1871-1919) was complex and contradictory. In his plays “To the Stars” (1906), “Sava” (1906), “Tsar-Hunger” (1908), the theme of rejection of the world of capital sounds, but at the same time the playwright does not believe in the creative power of the rebellious people, his rebellion is anarchic. The theme of impotence and doom of a person is heard in the drama The Life of a Man (1907). God-fighting motives, protest against an unjust and cruel world philosophical drama"Anatema" (1909).
In this difficult time of the crisis of consciousness of a certain part of the Russian intelligentsia, Gorky's plays "The Last" (1908), "Vassa Zheleznova" (first version, 1910) appear. They oppose pessimistic, decadent moods, speak of the doom and degeneration of the bourgeoisie.
Russian drama throughout the entire path of its development was an expression of the growth of self-consciousness, the spiritual power of the people. It has become a major phenomenon in the world theater culture and rightfully took pride of place in the world theater.
Play
Alexander Volodin, 1958
About what: Once in Leningrad on the occasion of a business trip, Ilyin suddenly decides to go into the apartment where, seventeen years ago, leaving for the front, he left his beloved girl, and - lo and behold! - His Tamara still lives in a room above the pharmacy. The woman never married: her student nephew, to whom she replaces the mother, and his eccentric girlfriend - that's her whole family. Wandering through the fear of misunderstanding, insincerity, quarrels and reconciliation, two adults eventually realize that happiness is still possible - "if only there was no war!"
Why you should read: The meeting of Ilyin and Tamara, stretched over five evenings, is not only a story about the late, restless love of the master of the Red Triangle factory and the foreman Zavgar- Garage manager northern village of Ust-Omul, but the opportunity to bring real, not mythical Soviet people: smart and conscientious, with broken destinies.
Perhaps the most piercing of Volodin's dramas, this play is filled with sad humor and lofty lyrics. Her characters always keep something under wraps: under speech clichés — “my work is interesting, responsible, you feel people need”- there is a whole layer of hard questions driven deep inside, connected with eternal fear, in which a person is forced to live, as if a prisoner in a huge camp called “homeland”.
Next to the adult heroes, young lovers live and breathe: at first, Katya and Slava look “unafraid”, but they instinctively feel the fear that eats the souls of Tamara and Ilyin. Thus, uncertainty about the very possibility of happiness in the country of "victorious socialism" is gradually transmitted to the next generation.
staging
Big Theatre of Drama
Directed by Georgy Tovstonogov, 1959
Zinaida Sharko as Tamara and Yefim Kopelyan as Ilyin in the play Five Evenings. 1959 Bolshoi Drama Theater named after G. A. Tovstonogov One can imagine a little the shock that this performance was for the audience, thanks to the radio recording of 1959. The audience here reacts very violently - laughs, worries, calms down. Reviewers wrote about Tovsto-Nogov's production: “Today's time - the end of the 50s - revealed itself with amazing accuracy. Almost all the characters seemed to come onto the stage from the streets of Leningrad. They were dressed exactly as the spectators who looked at them dressed. The characters, riding out from the back of the stage on the partitioned platforms of the sparsely furnished rooms, played right under the noses of the first row. This required the accuracy of intonations, absolute pitch. A special chamber atmosphere was also created by the voice of Tovstonogov himself, who delivered remarks (it is a pity that in the radio performance the text from the author is not read by him).
internal conflict performance there was a contradiction between the imposed Soviet stereotypes and the natural human nature. Tamara, performed by Zinaida Sharko, seemed to be peeking out from behind the mask of a Soviet social activist before throwing it off and becoming herself. According to the radio recording, it is clear from what inner strength and with an amazing richness of nuances, Charcot played her Tamara - touching, tender, unprotected, sacrificial. Ilyin (played by Efim Kopelyan), who spent 17 years somewhere in the North, was internally much freer from the very beginning, but he did not immediately manage to tell his beloved woman the truth, he pretended to be the chief engineer. In the radio performance in Kopelyan’s performance today, one hears a lot of theatricality, almost pathos, but he also has a lot of pauses, silence - then you understand that the most important thing happens to his hero precisely at these moments.
"In Search of Joy"
Play
Viktor Rozov, 1957
About what: The Moscow apartment of Klavdia Vasilievna Savina is crowded and crowded: four of her grown children live here and there is furniture that Lenochka, the wife of Fedya's eldest son, once a talented young scientist, now a successful careerist "from science," constantly acquires. ". Covered in rags and newspapers in anticipation of an imminent move to new apartment newlyweds, wardrobes, pot-bellied sideboards, couches and chairs become a bone of contention in the family: the mother calls her eldest son a “little tradesman”, and his younger brother, high school student Oleg, cuts "Lenochkin" furniture with a saber of his dead father - a war hero. Attempts to explain only worsen the situation, and as a result, Fedor and his wife leave native home, the remaining children assure Claudia Vasilievna that they have chosen a different life path: "Don't be afraid for us, mom!"
Why you should read: This two-act comedy was at first perceived as a "trifle" by Viktor Rozov: by that time the playwright was already known as the scriptwriter of Mikhail Kalatozov's legendary film The Cranes Are Flying.
Indeed, touching, romantic, irreconcilable to dishonesty, acquisitiveness, the younger children of Claudia Vasilievna Kolya, Tatyana and Oleg, as well as their friends and loved ones, constituted a strong group of “correct Soviet youth”, numerically superior to the circle represented in the play of “acquirers, careerists and townspeople." The schematic nature of the confrontation between the world of consumption and the world of ideals was not particularly disguised by the author.
Outstanding was main character— 15-year-old dreamer and poet Oleg Savin: his energy, inner freedom and feeling dignity they got in touch with the hopes of a thaw, with dreams of a new generation of people who would reject all types of social slavery (this generation of uncompromising romantics began to be called “pink boys”).
staging
Central Children's Theater
Directed by Anatoly Efros, 1957
Margarita Kupriyanova as Lenochka and Gennady Pechnikov as Fyodor in the play In Search of Joy. 1957 RAMT The most famous scene of this play is the one in which Oleg Savin cuts furniture with his father's sword. So it was in the performance of the theater-studio "Sovremennik", released in 1957, and from the film by Anatoly Efros and Georgy Natanson "A Noisy Day" (1961), this is what first of all remained in the memory - maybe because in both productions Oleg played young and impulsive Oleg Tabakov. However, the first performance based on this play was released not at Sovremennik, but at the Central Children's Theater, and in it the famous episode with a saber and dead fish, a jar with which Lenochka threw out the window, was, although important, but still one of many.
The main thing in the performance of Anatoly Efros at the Central Children's Theater was the feeling of polyphony, continuity, fluidity of life. The director insisted on the significance of each voice of this populous story - and immediately led the viewer into a house crammed with furniture, built by the artist Mikhail Kurilko, where the exact details pointed to the life of a large friendly family. Not a denunciation of philistinism, but the opposition of the living and the dead, poetry and prose (as critics Vladimir Sappak and Vera Shitova pointed out) - this was the essence of Efros's view. Alive was not only Oleg performed by Konstantin Ustyugov - a gentle boy with a high, excited voice - but also the mother of Valentina Sperantova, who decided to have a serious conversation with her son and softened the forced harshness with her intonation. This Fedor of Gennady Pechnikov is very real, despite everything, he loves his pragmatic wife Lenochka very much, and another lover - Gennady Alexei Shmakov, and classmates who came to visit Oleg. All this is perfectly audible in the radio recording of the performance, made in 1957. Listen to how Oleg pronounces the key phrase of the play: "The main thing is that there is a lot in the head and in the soul." No didactics, quiet and enduring, rather for yourself.
"My poor Marat"
Play
Alexey Arbuzov, 1967
About what: Once upon a time there was Lika, she loved Marat, she was loved by him, and Leonidik also loved her; both guys went to war, both returned: Marat - Hero Soviet Union, and Leonidik without a hand, and Lika gave her hand and heart to "poor Leonidik." The second title of the work is “Do not be afraid to be happy”, in 1967 it was named the play of the year by London critics. This melodrama is a story of meetings and separations of three heroes growing up from episode to episode, who were once united by war and blockade in cold and hungry Leningrad, stretched over almost two decades.
Why you should read: Three lives, three fates of war-stung Soviet idealists who are trying to build a life according to the propaganda legend. Of all " Soviet fairy tales"Alexey Arbuzov, where the heroes were necessarily rewarded with love for their labor exploits," My poor Marat "is the saddest fairy tale.
Soviet myth“live for others” is justified for characters who are still teenagers by the losses and exploits of the war, and Leonid’s remark: “Never betray our winter of forty-second ... yes?” - becomes them life credo. However, “days pass”, and life “for others” and a professional career (Marat “builds bridges”) do not bring happiness. Lika manages medicine as an "unliberated head of the department", and Leonidik ennobles morals with collections of poems, published in a circulation of five thousand copies. Sacrifice turns into metaphysical longing. At the end of the play, 35-year-old Marat proclaims a change of milestones: “Hundreds of thousands died so that we would be unusual, obsessed, happy. And we - me, you, Leonidik? .. "
Strangled love here is equal to strangled individuality, and personal values are affirmed throughout the course of the play, which makes it a unique phenomenon in Soviet drama.
staging
Directed by Anatoly Efros, 1965
Olga Yakovleva as Lika and Lev Krugly as Leonidik in My Poor Marat. 1965 Alexander Gladshtein / RIA Novosti The reviewers called this performance a “stage study”, a “theatrical laboratory”, where the feelings of the characters of the play were studied. “On the stage, it is laboratory clean, precise and concentrated,” wrote critic Irina Uvarova. Artists Nikolai Sosunov and Valentina Lalevich created a backdrop for the performance: three characters looked at the audience seriously and a little sadly from it, looked as if they already knew how everything would end. In 1971, Efros filmed a television version of this production, with the same actors: Olga Yakov-leva - Lika, Alexander Zbruev - Marat and Lev Krugly - Leonidik. The theme of a scrupulous study of characters and feelings was further strengthened here: television made it possible to see the eyes of the actors, gave the effect of a spectator's presence in the close communication of these three.
One could say that Marat, Lika and Leonidik at Efros were obsessed with the idea of getting to the bottom of the truth. Not in a global sense - they wanted to hear and understand each other as accurately as possible. This was especially noticeable in Lika-Yakovleva. The actress seemed to have two game plans: the first - where her heroine looked soft, light, childish, and the second - appeared, as soon as Lika's interlocutor turned away: at that moment, a serious, attentive, studying look of a mature woman glared at him. “All real life is a Meeting,” wrote the philosopher Martin Buber in I and You. According to him, the main word in life - "You" - can be said to a person only with his whole being, any other attitude turns him into an object, from "You" into "It". Throughout the performance of Efros, these three spoke to the other "You" with all their being, most of all appreciating each other's unique personality. This was high voltage their relationship, which even today it is impossible not to get carried away and to which one cannot but empathize.
"Duck Hunt"
Play
Alexander Vampilov, 1967
About what: Waking up in a typical Soviet apartment on a heavy hangover morning, the hero receives a mourning wreath as a gift from friends and colleagues. Trying to unravel the meaning of the prank, Viktor Zilov restores the pictures in his memory last month: a housewarming party, his wife leaving, a scandal at work and, finally, yesterday's booze at the Forget-me-not cafe, where he insulted his young mistress, his boss, colleagues and got into a fight with best friend- waiter Dima. Deciding to really settle scores with a disgusted life, the hero calls his acquaintances, inviting them to his own wake, but soon changes his mind and goes with Dima to the village - on a duck hunt, which he has been dreaming about all this time.
Why you should read: Victor Zilov, combining the features of a notorious scoundrel and an infinitely attractive man, may seem to someone to be the Soviet reincarnation of Lermontov's Pechorin: "a portrait made up of the vices of our entire generation, in their full development." Appeared at the beginning of the era of stagnation, a smart, thoroughbred and eternally drunk ITEA member engineers- engineering and technical worker. with energy worthy of a better application, he consistently rid himself of family, work, love and friendship ties. The final refusal of Zilov from self-destruction had for the Soviet drama symbolic meaning: this hero spawned a galaxy of imitators - extra people: drunkards who were both ashamed and disgusted to join the Soviet society - drunkenness in the drama was perceived as a form of social protest.
The creator of Zilov Alexander Vampilov drowned in Baikal in August 1972 - in the prime of his creative powers, leaving the world one not too weighty volume of dramaturgy and prose; now a world classic duck hunting”, with difficulty overcoming the censorship ban, broke onto the Soviet stage shortly after the death of the author. However, half a century later, when there was nothing left of the Soviet, the play unexpectedly turned into an existential drama of a man, before whom the emptiness of the arranged, mature life, but in a dream about a hunting trip, to where - “Do you know how quiet it is? You're not there, do you understand? No! You have not yet been born, ”a cry was heard about a forever lost paradise.
staging
Gorky Moscow Art Theater
Directed by Oleg Efremov, 1978
A scene from the play "Duck Hunt" at the Gorky Moscow Art Theater. 1979 Vasily Egorov / TASS Best Play Alexandra Vampilova is still considered unsolved. Vitaly Melnikov's film "Vacation in September" with Oleg Dal in the role of Zilov came closest to her interpretation. The performance, staged at the Moscow Art Theater by Oleg Efremov, has not been preserved - even in fragments. At the same time, he accurately expressed the time - the most hopeless phase of stagnation.
The artist David Borovsky came up with the following image for the performance: over the stage, like a cloud, a huge plastic bag hovered, in which there were felled pine trees. “The motif of the preserved taiga,” Borovsky told critic Rimma Krechetova. And further: “The floor was covered with tarpaulin: in those places they walk in tarpaulin and in rubber. He scattered pine needles over the tarpaulin. You know, like from the New Year tree on the parquet. Or after funeral wreaths…”
Zilov was played by Efremov. He was already fifty - and the longing of his hero was not a midlife crisis, but a summing up. Anatoly Efros admired his game. “Efremov fearlessly plays Zilov to the limit,” he wrote in the book “Continuation of the theatrical story”. - He turns it inside out in front of us with all the giblets. Ruthlessly. Playing in the traditions of the great theatrical school, he does not just denounce his hero. He plays a person who is generally not bad, still able to understand that he is lost, but already unable to get out.
The one who was deprived of reflection was the waiter Dima, performed by Aleksey Petrenko, another the most important hero performance. A huge man, absolutely calm - with the calmness of a killer, he hung over the rest of the characters like a cloud. Of course, he has not yet killed anyone - except for animals on the hunt, which he shot without a miss, but he could well knock out a person (after looking around to see if anyone sees). Dima, more than Zilov, was the discovery of this performance: a little time will pass, and such people will become the new masters of life.
"Three Girls in Blue"
Play
Lyudmila Petrushevskaya, 1981
About what: Under one leaky roof, three mothers - Ira, Svetlana and Tatyana - while away the rainy summer with their always fighting boys. The disorder of country life forces women to swear day and night on the basis of everyday life. A wealthy boyfriend who has appeared takes Ira to another world, to the sea and the sun, she leaves her sick son in the arms of her weak mother. However, heaven turns into hell, and now the woman is ready to crawl on her knees in front of the airport duty officer in order to return to the child left alone.
Why you should read: The play still amazes contemporaries of Three Girls by how accurately it captures the era of “late stagnation”: the circle of domestic concerns of a Soviet person, his character and type of relationship between people. However, in addition to external photographic accuracy here the inner essence of the so-called scoop is also subtly touched upon.
Leading a dialogue with Chekhov's "Three Sisters", Petrushevskaya's play initially presents her "girls" as three variations on the theme of Chekhov's Natasha. Like the petty-bourgeois Natasha at Chekhov’s, Ira, Svetlana and Tatyana at Petrushevskaya’s are constantly caring for their children and waging war for the dry rooms of a dilapidated dacha near Moscow. However, children, for the sake of which mothers quarrel, in fact, are not needed by anyone. The play is permeated by the weak voice of the sick son of Ira Pavlik; the boy's world is full fabulous images, in a bizarre form reflecting the realities of a life that frightens him: “And when I was sleeping, the moon flew to me on wings,” - no one hears and understands the child in this play. The “moment of truth” is also connected with the son - when, realizing that he could lose him, from the “typical Soviet man Ira turns into a person capable of “thinking and suffering”, from Chekhov’s Natasha into Chekhov’s Irina, ready to sacrifice something for others.
staging
Theater named after Lenin Komsomol
Directed by Mark Zakharov, 1985
Tatyana Peltzer and Inna Churikova in the play "Three Girls in Blue". 1986 Mikhail Strokov / TASS This play was written by Lyudmila Petrushevskaya by order of the chief director of the Lenin Komsomol Theater Mark Zakharov: he needed roles for Tatiana Peltzer and Inna Churikova. Censorship did not miss the performance for four years - the premiere took place only in 1985; On June 5 and 6, 1988, the performance was filmed for television. This record still produces very strong impression. Stage designer Oleg Sheintsis blocked the stage with a translucent wall, behind which silhouettes of branches are visible; in the foreground is a table, on it is a bouquet of dried flowers, and in a tin basin, hoisted on a stool, there is an endless washing; squabbles were arranged around, flirted, confessed. Each was ready to get into the life of another, and not just get in, but thoroughly trample there. But this is only a superficial participation: in fact, everyone did not care deeply about each other. The old woman Fedorovna (Peltzer) mumbled her own, indifferent to the fact that a sick child lies behind the wall. Instantly inflamed in a fit of hatred for the intellectual Irina and her son Svetlana (actress Lyudmila Porgina): “He reads! Read up!” And Irina herself - Inna Churikova looked at everything with huge eyes and was silent as long as she had the strength.
A recognized master of stage effects, Zakharov built several reference points, adjusted like a ballet. One of them is when Nikolai's summer boyfriend kisses Irina, and out of surprise, she does an almost clown somersault. Churikova almost falls off her chair at that moment, leans on Nikolai's shoulder, immediately bounces off him sharply and, throwing up her knees high, makes her way to the door to see if her son saw the kiss.
Another scene is the tragic culmination of the performance: Irina crawls on her knees behind the airport employees, begging to be put on the plane (the child was left alone at home in a locked apartment), and hoarsely, hoarsely, does not even scream, but growls: “I may not be in time!” In the book "Stories from my own life» Lyudmila Petrushevskaya recalls how once at a performance at that moment a young spectator jumped up from her chair and began to tear her hair out. It's really scary to watch.
Continuing the analysis started in previous issues theater poster, "Theater." decided to calculate what share in total performances of Moscow and St. Petersburg are staging of the works of this or that author, and to understand some general principles repertory policy of both capitals.
1. Repertory leader of Moscow and Peter Chekhov. There are 31 Chekhov productions on the Moscow playbill, 12 in St. Petersburg. Classical plays are in the greatest demand (in Moscow there are as many as five Cherry Orchards and five Seagulls), but prose is also in use: Three Years, Lady with a Dog , "The Bride", etc. Often directors combine several humorous stories- as it is done, for example, in the performance of the theater Et Cetera "Faces".
2. Chekhov is slightly inferior to Ostrovsky: in the Moscow poster there are 27 of his plays, in the St. Petersburg - 10. "Mad Money", "Forest", "Sheep and Wolves" are especially popular. However, upon closer examination, it is not Ostrovsky, but Pushkin, who is on the second line of the rating in St. Petersburg: in St. Petersburg there are 12 Pushkin productions against Ostrovsky's 10 productions. Dramas, prose, and original compositions are used - like "BALBESY (Pushkin. Three Tales") or "Don Juan and Others".
3. The third place in both capitals is occupied by Shakespeare (18 productions in Moscow and 10 in St. Petersburg). In Moscow, "Hamlet" is in the lead, in St. Petersburg - "Love's Labour's Lost".
4. Gogol - in percentage terms - is also revered equally. There are 15 productions in Moscow, 8 in St. Petersburg. Naturally, "Marriage" and "Inspector General" are in the lead.
5. The fifth line in Moscow is occupied by Pushkin (in the poster - 13 productions based on his works), and in St. Petersburg the fifth point is shared by: Tennessee Williams and Yuri Smirnov-Nesvitsky - a playwright and director who stages his own plays: "The Yearning of the Soul of Rita V.", "At the ghostly table", "Windows, streets, gateways", etc.
6. Starting from this point, the repertoire policy of both capitals diverges noticeably. The sixth place in the Moscow rating is occupied by Dostoevsky (there are 12 productions in the playbill), the most popular " Uncle's dream". In St. Petersburg, Dostoevsky shares the sixth line with: Vampilov, Schwartz, Anui, Turgenev, Neil Simon and Sergei Mikhalkov. The names of all the listed authors appear in the St. Petersburg poster three times.
7. After Dostoevsky, Bulgakov follows in Moscow (11 productions), the most popular is The Cabal of the Hypocrites. And in St. Petersburg there are a number of first-class, second-class, and it is not known to what class of attributed authors. The works of Wilde, Strindberg, Mrozhek, Gorky, Molière with Schiller, Lyudmila Ulitskaya and the "Achaean" Maxim Isaev are found in the poster as often as the works of Gennady Volnokhodets ("Drink the Sea" and "Architect of Love"), Konstantin Gershov ("Nos- Angeles”, “Funny in 2000”) or Valery Zimin (“The Adventures of Chubrik”, “Shush! Or the stories of Filofey the cat”).
8. Following Bulgakov in Moscow, Alexander Prakhov and Kirill Korolev follow, who themselves stage what they compose. Jokes are jokes, and in the Moscow poster there are 9 (!) performances of each of these authors. Among the plays of the Queen are "Riding a Star", "This World Is Not Invented by Us", "Until the End of the Circle, or the Princess and Rubbish". Peru Prahova belong to: “Eaves for conversation”, “My dog”, “Jester bird”, “Let everything be as it is ?!”, “Happy birthday! Doctor" and other plays. In St. Petersburg, the eighth and, as it turns out, the last line of the rating is occupied by about fifty authors, the name of each of which appears in the poster once. Among them: Arbuzov, Griboedov, Albert Ivanov (“The Adventures of Khoma and the Gopher”), the creative duet of Andrei Kurbsky and Marcel Berquier-Marinier (“Love in Three Together”), Arthur Miller, Sukhovo-Kobylin, Brecht, Shaw, Grossman, Petrushevskaya, Alexei Ispolatov (“The village was driving past a peasant”) and many more names, among which, upon closer examination, one can notice as many as two works by the authors new drama: "Apple Thief" by Xenia Dragunskaya and "Locust" by Bilyana Srblyanovich.
9. The ninth line in Moscow is shared by Schwartz, Moliere and Williams - each of them has 7 names in the poster. "Tartuffe" and "Glass menagerie" are in the lead.
10. The following are those authors whose names are found in the Moscow poster 6 times. This is the absurdist Beckett and the creative union of Irina Egorova and Alena Chubarova, who combine writing with the performance of the duties, respectively, of the chief director and artistic director of the Moscow Komedian Theater. Playwright girlfriends specialize in life wonderful people. From their pen came plays that formed the basis of the productions “More than a theater!” (about Stanislavsky), "Sadovaya, 10, then - everywhere ..." (about Bulgakov), "A room with four tables" (also about Bulgakov), as well as the play "Shindra-Bindra", which turns out to be a fairy tale about Baba Yaga upon closer examination , scientific cat and shepherd Nikita.
Outside the top ten, in descending order, in Moscow remained: Vampilov, Saroyan, box office Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt and the purely intellectual Yiannis Ritsos, an elderly Greek playwright who penned modern reworkings of ancient dramas. Alexander Volodin, Boris Akunin, Yevgeny Grishkovets, Gorky, Rostan and Yuly Kim have 4 mentions each. It is amazing that they are inferior to Ray Cooney (!), as well as Wilde and Kharms - 3 mentions each. The names of Vajdi Muawad, Vasily Sigarev, Elena Isaeva, Martin McDonagh and Mikhail Ugarov are mentioned twice in the Moscow poster - as well as the names of classics like Sophocles, Beaumarchais and Leo Tolstoy.
The Center for Drama and Directing and the Theater remained outside the scope of this repertoire research. doc and "Practice" - they simply did not send their repertoire to the editors of the reference book that collected the data " Theatrical Russia". But even with their participation, the picture would not have changed much.
In the repertoire of two Russian capitals there is very little Russian new drama and practically no high-quality modern Russian prose. As for foreign authors the last two or three decades - from Heiner Muller to Elfriede Jelinek, from Bernard-Marie Coltes to Sarah Kane, from Botho Strauss to Jean-Luc Lagarce, then they should be looked for in the poster at all during the day with fire. A significant part of the Moscow and St. Petersburg posters is filled not so much with box-office translated plays - which would be at least somehow explainable, but nothing to anyone speaking names and titles like Dialogue of Males by Artur Artimentiev and Alien Windows by Alexei Burykin. So there is a feeling that the main and only repertory principle of the capital's theaters is the principle of a vacuum cleaner.
When compiling the material, the data provided by the reference book "Theatrical Russia" were used.
4 chose
Tomorrow marks 220 years since the birth of Alexandra Griboedova. He is called the writer of one book, meaning, of course, "Woe from Wit". And yet, with this one book, he had a serious influence on Russian dramaturgy. Let's remember him and other Russian playwrights. About writers who think in characters and dialogue.
Alexander Griboyedov
Although Griboedov is called the author of one book, before the play "Woe from Wit" he wrote several more dramatic works. 
But it was the comedy of Moscow customs that made him popular. Pushkin wrote about "Woe from Wit":"Half of the verses should be proverbial." And so it happened! Thanks to easy language Griboyedov, this play became the most quoted work of Russian literature. And, even though two centuries have passed, we repeat these biting phrases: "Bypass us more than all sorrows and master's wrath, and lordly love.
Why did "Woe from Wit" become the only famous work Griboyedov? Griboyedov was a child prodigy (he graduated from Moscow University at the age of 15), a man who was talented in every way. Writing was not his only occupation. Griboyedov was a diplomat, a talented pianist and composer. But fate has prepared for him a short life. The writer was only 34 years old when he died during an attack on Russian embassy in Tehran. In my opinion, he simply did not have time to create other great works.
Alexander Ostrovsky
Alexander Ostrovsky grew up in Zamoskvorechye and wrote about the customs of the Zamoskvoretsky merchant class. Earlier 
writers were somehow not interested in this important part of society. Therefore, Ostrovsky, even during his lifetime, was pathetically called "Columbus of Zamoskvorechye".
At the same time, pathos was alien to the author himself. His heroes are ordinary, rather petty people with their own weaknesses and shortcomings. In their lives, not great trials and misfortunes occur, but mostly everyday difficulties that are the result of their own greed or pettiness. And the heroes of Ostrovsky speak not pretentiously, but somehow for real, in the speech of each hero his psychological characteristics are expressed.
And yet the author strange love and tenderly treated his far from ideal characters. However, the merchants did not feel this love and were offended by his works. So, after the publication of the comedy "Our people - let's get along", the merchants complained about the author, the production of the play was banned, and Ostrovsky was placed under police surveillance. But all this did not prevent the writer from forming new concept Russian theatrical art. Subsequently, his ideas were developed Stanislavsky.
Anton Chekhov
Anton Chekhov- a playwright, popular not only in Russia, but throughout the world. At the beginning of the 20th century Bernard Show wrote about him: "In the galaxy of great European playwrights, the name of Chekhov shines like a star of the first magnitude". His plays are staged in European theaters, and the author is called one of the most filmed writers in the world. But Chekhov himself did not imagine his future glory. He said 
to my friend Tatyana Shchepkina-Kupernik:"They will read me for seven, seven and a half years, and then they will forget."
However, not all contemporaries appreciated Chekhov's plays deservedly. Tolstoy, for example, although he had a high opinion of Chekhov's stories, even called him "Pushkin in prose", could not stand his dramatic works, which he reported to the writer without hesitation. For example, Tolstoy once said to Chekhov: "Still, I can't stand your plays. Shakespeare wrote badly, and you are even worse!" Well, not the worst comparison!
Critics spoke of the lack of action and lengthy plot in Chekhov's plays. But this was the intention of the author, he wanted his dramatic works were like life. Chekhov wrote: "... after all, in life, they don’t shoot every minute, hang themselves, declare their love. And smart things are not said every minute. They eat more, drink, drag, talk nonsense. And now it is necessary that this be seen on stage. We need to create such a play where people would come, go, dine, talk about the weather, play vint, but not because the author needs it, but because it happens in real life." For this realism of Chekhov's play, Stanislavsky was very fond of. However, the writer and director did not always agree on how this or that play should be staged. For example, "The Cherry Orchard" Chekhov called it a comedy and even a farce, but on stage it became a tragedy. After the performance, the author angrily declared that Stanislavsky ruined his play.
Evgeny Schwartz
In many plays Evgeny Schwartz turns to creativity Hans Christian Andersen and even makes him a kind of hero of his works. Schwartz, like the famous Danish storyteller, writes fantastic magic stories. But behind the fabulous shell of his plays are hiding serious problems. Because of this, his works were often banned by censors.
Particularly significant in this respect is the play "The Dragon". Start like any other ordinary fairy tale: a Dragon lives in the city, who every year chooses a girl as his wife (a few days later she dies in his cave from horror and disgust), and here is the glorious knight Lancelot, who promises to defeat the monster. Oddly enough, the inhabitants do not support him - they are somehow more familiar and calmer with the Dragon. And when the Dragon is defeated, his place is immediately taken by the former burgomaster, who starts no less "draconian" orders.
The dragon is here mythical creature but an allegory of power. How many "dragons" have succeeded each other throughout world history! And the "dragon" also lives in the quiet inhabitants of the town, because by their indifferent obedience they call themselves new tyrants.
Grigory Gorin
Grigory Gorin searched for and found sources of inspiration in all world literature. He easily replayed the plots of the classics. The writer saw the death of Herostratus, followed the adventures of Thiel, lived in the house that Swift built, and knew what happened after the death of Romeo and Juliet. Is it a joke to finish Shakespeare? But Gorin was not afraid and created wonderful story love between representatives of the Montecchi and Capulet families, which began ... at the funeral of Romeo and Juliet.
Gorin reminds me of his own hero - Baron Munchausen from the film Mark Zakharova. He also travels in time, communicates with the classics and does not hesitate to argue with them.
His genre is tragicomedy. No matter how funny it is to listen to the witty dialogues of the characters (a huge number of Gorin's phrases were dispersed into quotations), you almost always read the end of the play with tears in your eyes.
What are your favorite playwrights?
Tomorrow marks 220 years since the birth of Alexandra Griboedova. He is called the writer of one book, meaning, of course, "Woe from Wit". And yet, with this one book, he had a serious influence on Russian dramaturgy. Let's remember him and other Russian playwrights. About writers who think in characters and dialogue.
Alexander Griboyedov
Although Griboyedov is called the author of one book, before the play "Woe from Wit" he wrote several more dramatic works. But it was the comedy of Moscow customs that made him popular. Pushkin wrote about "Woe from Wit":"Half of the verses should be proverbial." And so it happened! Thanks to Griboedov's easy language, this play has become the most quoted work of Russian literature. And, even though two centuries have passed, we repeat these biting phrases: "Bypass us more than all sorrows and master's anger, and master's love."
Why did "Woe from Wit" become Griboedov's only famous work? Griboyedov was a child prodigy (he graduated from Moscow University at the age of 15), a man who was talented in every way. Writing was not his only occupation. Griboyedov was a diplomat, a talented pianist and composer. But fate has prepared for him a short life. The writer was only 34 years old when he died during an attack on the Russian embassy in Tehran. In my opinion, he simply did not have time to create other great works.
Alexander Ostrovsky
Alexander Ostrovsky grew up in Zamoskvorechye and wrote about the customs of the Zamoskvoretsky merchant class. Earlier 
writers were somehow not interested in this important part of society. Therefore, Ostrovsky, even during his lifetime, was pathetically called "Columbus of Zamoskvorechye".
At the same time, pathos was alien to the author himself. His heroes are ordinary, rather petty people with their own weaknesses and shortcomings. In their lives, not great trials and misfortunes occur, but mostly everyday difficulties that are the result of their own greed or pettiness. And the heroes of Ostrovsky speak not pretentiously, but somehow for real, in the speech of each hero his psychological characteristics are expressed.
And yet the author treated his characters far from ideal with strange love and tenderness. However, the merchants did not feel this love and were offended by his works. So, after the publication of the comedy "Own people - let's get along", the merchants complained about the author, the production of the play was banned, and Ostrovsky was placed under police supervision. But all this did not prevent the writer from forming a new concept of Russian theatrical art. Subsequently, his ideas were developed Stanislavsky.
Anton Chekhov
Anton Chekhov- a playwright, popular not only in Russia, but throughout the world. At the beginning of the 20th century Bernard Show wrote about him: "In the galaxy of great European playwrights, the name of Chekhov shines like a star of the first magnitude". His plays are staged in European theaters, and the author is called one of the most filmed writers in the world. But Chekhov himself did not imagine his future glory. He said to my friend Tatyana Shchepkina-Kupernik:"They will read me for seven, seven and a half years, and then they will forget."
However, not all contemporaries appreciated Chekhov's plays at their true worth. Tolstoy, for example, although he had a high opinion of Chekhov's stories, even called him "Pushkin in prose", could not stand his dramatic works, which he reported to the writer without hesitation. For example, Tolstoy once said to Chekhov: "Still, I can't stand your plays. Shakespeare wrote badly, and you are even worse!" Well, not the worst comparison!
Critics spoke of the lack of action and lengthy plot in Chekhov's plays. But this was the author's intention, he wanted his dramatic works to be like life. Chekhov wrote: "... after all, in life, they don’t shoot every minute, hang themselves, declare their love. And smart things are not said every minute. They eat more, drink, drag, talk nonsense. And now it is necessary that this be seen on stage. We need to create such a play where people would come, go, dine, talk about the weather, play vint, but not because the author needs it, but because it happens in real life." For this realism of Chekhov's play, Stanislavsky was very fond of. However, the writer and director did not always agree on how this or that play should be staged. For example, "The Cherry Orchard" Chekhov called it a comedy and even a farce, but on stage it became a tragedy. After the performance, the author angrily declared that Stanislavsky ruined his play.
Evgeny Schwartz
In many plays Evgeny Schwartz turns to creativity Hans Christian Andersen and even makes him a kind of hero of his works. Schwartz, like the famous Danish storyteller, writes fantastic magical stories. But behind the fairy-tale shell of his plays, there are serious problems. Because of this, his works were often banned by censors.
Particularly significant in this respect is the play "The Dragon". The beginning is like in any ordinary fairy tale: a Dragon lives in the city, who every year chooses a girl as his wife (a few days later she dies in his cave from horror and disgust), and here is the glorious knight Lancelot, who promises to defeat the monster. Oddly enough, the inhabitants do not support him - they are somehow more familiar and calmer with the Dragon. And when the Dragon is defeated, his place is immediately taken by the former burgomaster, who starts no less "draconian" orders.
The dragon here is not a mythical creature, but an allegory of power. How many "dragons" have succeeded each other throughout world history! And the "dragon" also lives in the quiet inhabitants of the town, because by their indifferent obedience they call themselves new tyrants.
Grigory Gorin
Grigory Gorin searched for and found sources of inspiration in all world literature. He easily replayed the plots of the classics. The writer saw the death of Herostratus, followed the adventures of Thiel, lived in the house that Swift built, and knew what happened after the death of Romeo and Juliet. Is it a joke to finish Shakespeare? But Gorin was not afraid and created a wonderful love story between representatives of the Montecchi and Capulet families, which began ... at the funeral of Romeo and Juliet.
Gorin reminds me of his own hero - Baron Munchausen from the film Mark Zakharova. He also travels in time, communicates with the classics and does not hesitate to argue with them.
His genre is tragicomedy. No matter how funny it is to listen to the witty dialogues of the characters (a huge number of Gorin's phrases were dispersed into quotations), you almost always read the end of the play with tears in your eyes.
