Go to the "Backyard": traditional Abdulov cabbage gardens revived in Lenkom

"Til", "Mayhem", "Juno and Maybe", "Wake up and Sing", "Mad Day, or the Marriage of Figaro" — once these performances by Mark Zakharov were reverberating all over the world. On the director's birthday, the entire troupe of his theater took to the stage to honor the memory of the master. Thanks to the memories of his daughter, Lenkom actress Alexandra Zakharova, the revived theatrical tradition has become a personal celebration for everyone present. The details are in the Izvestia report.

It was pouring, it was pouring all over Moscow

Despite the pouring rain, people gathered at the central doors of the Lenkom Theater on October 13. They went to the music that the artists zealously played: they invited them to the "Back Streets" that Alexander Abdulov had invented back in the late 1980s. At one time, actors, musicians and friends of the theater gathered there to sing world-famous arias from Mark Zakharov's plays in an informal atmosphere by the lanterns, drink tea from thermoses and give happiness to the audience who were sitting on roofs and trees, because there was always a full house in the courtyard.

Decades later, the new artistic director of Lenkom, Vladimir Pankov, revived the tradition. And I chose the most appropriate time — Mark Zakharov's 92nd birthday.

— The theater is, first of all, a celebration. And it is no coincidence that this concert takes place on Mark Anatolyevich's birthday. The most important thing for me was to preserve the spirit of the Backyard, which was once created by Alexander Abdulov," Pankov told Izvestia.

The spirit hovered in the corridors and narrow alleys of the theater and was fully revealed in the courtyard, where vociferous artists in construction clothes and guitars at the ready entertained the audience, despite the cold, wind and rain.

— From an acting point of view, this is a desire to pay tribute to the memory and respect of Mark Zakharov. In my opinion, we wouldn't exist without him. This is not only a tribute to memory, but also a desire to show that the theater is alive. Back then, Backyards was just a concert. Abdulov invited his friends, satirists, writers, and now, according to Pankov's idea, the entire troupe participates and does it for free, just like 30 years ago," actor Ivan Agapov told Izvestia.

I'll go on stage with a horse.

One evening, the entire troupe took the stage, and the narration was led by the actress and daughter of Mark Zakharov, Alexandra. She appeared on stage with a white horse. The noble animal waited sedately until it was led away from the pillar of light, and Zakharova began her story.

— He changed the look of this building, became everything to the theater and its artists. But it was my mother who read all the plays, all the scripts. My mom raised him. And then me at the same time," the actress shared from the stage.

Scenes from Zakharov's brilliant performances flashed by in a string of life events. There are also many paintings from the production "Til", "Dialogue at the TV" by Vladimir Vysotsky performed by Dmitry Pevtsov, a scene with the director from the play "Choria", played by Pavel Kapitonov and Alexander Karnaushkin, "The Song of Mozart" by Bulat Okudzhava performed by Sergei Stepanchenko.

And every time Alexandra Zakharova returned to the microphone. She told how her father was threatened with suspension from the profession, how his two performances were simultaneously removed from the repertoire, how he found future stars of Lenkom in different cities of our vast Homeland, how he raised his daughter.

When Zakharov brought the rock band "Araks" to the theater, actress Tatiana Peltzer said: "How glad I am that the theater will have its own jazz orchestra." But jazz would be too calm music for Zakharov. Lenkom broke the dramatic patterns with guitar riffs and drum parts to the heart-rending parts of rock operas.

The director brought an unknown Oleg Yankovsky from Saratov and directed Avtograd XXI on him, revealed the talent of Nikolai Karachentsov, Armen Dzhigarkhanyan, Dmitry Pevtsov. The latter, along with the young artists of the troupe, showed the audience the famous Figaro dance from "The Marriage of Figaro", and at the end even sat down in a longitudinal split in front of the amazed audience.

Maxim Averin read the famous "Prologue" by Yevgeny Yevtushenko, and Anna Yakunina, in an elegant black dress with a snow-white hat in her hands, read excerpts from an interview with Inna Churikova, another Lenkom diva. As the voice of a new generation, the great actress found herself back on her native stage through her own reflections on her profession, age and thirst for life.

"There is no past time in the universe. The past tense was invented by small-minded people." Mark Zakharov wrote this phrase in one of his plays. And his daughter wants him to go down in history not only as a director, but also as a philosopher. The entire Lenkom troupe is back on stage, but without Zakharov. In the hall there is the voice of Andrei Voznesensky and the immortal verses "You will wake me up at dawn", which are forever connected with the piercing singing of Nikolai Karachentsov from the rock opera "Juno and Maybe". In the center of the troupe is Alexandra Zakharova, stealthily wiping away tears.