Guile is not love: Ostrovsky's comedy was played to fanfare at the Satire Theater

Director Vladimir Gerasimov, the son of the artistic director of the Satire Theater, took over Alexander Ostrovsky's witty classic about money, power and human passions. The new reading does not transfer the action to our days, carefully preserving the author's language, time and place. The main role is played by Evgeny Gerasimov himself. The audience is promised a performance in the style of an area theater with elements of buffoonery and farce, with live music, bright costumes and unusual makeup. And they even let me take pictures. Izvestia was among the first viewers to appreciate the idea of the directors.

Intense passions

Alexander Ostrovsky's comedy tells the story of merchant life, where dexterity and enterprise become weapons in the struggle for a place in the sun. The action takes place at an inn. The owners are a married couple Vukol Ermolaevich and Evgeniya Mironovna. They can pick up, heat, and rob. In a word, it's a lively place. Under a plausible pretext, with a smile, lawlessness is being committed at the inn. And the intoxicated guests are ready for the widest gestures. Money is the main yardstick in the life of this family. And the love that the owner's wife, Eugene, famously sells. For her kind heart and big eyes, visiting merchants and landlords are ready to risk their lives. And only Vukol Ermolaevich's sister Anna seems to be from another world. She is disgusted by this concentration of human vices. She's looking for real high feelings.

In Evgeny Gerasimov's acting record, "In a Lively Place" is the tenth title in the theater's repertoire. Recently, a rare premiere has gone without the name of the People's Artist of Russia.

—Ostrovsky is the most relevant author for the Satire Theater, because he is more modern than many current playwrights," says Evgeny Gerasimov. — Every word resonates nowadays. "In a lively place" is one of the early works of Alexander Nikolaevich. Ostrovsky is often mistakenly considered a writer of everyday life. For us, his work is broader and deeper. In the play, the characters experience intense passions, which allows them to embody vivid, grotesque acting images.

Realizing the workload and responsibility of Evgeny Vladimirovich, director Vladimir Gerasimov involved several cast members for the role of Vukol Besudny. The innkeeper is also played by Honored Artists of Russia Igor Lagutin and Andrey Ankudinov. Everyone has their own drawing of the role, their own temperament.

Lyubov Koziy and Yanina Studilina play the cheerful, vicious wife of the owner in the queue.

— This is not my first experience working with Ostrovsky: I play Glafira in the play "Wolves and Sheep", Anna Pavlovna in "A Profitable place", but the comedy "In a lively place" is not so often staged, so it was very interesting, — said Yanina Studilina.

Charming scoundrels

According to Lyubov Koziy, the play contains characters with different characters, and they all want love. The only question is who is trying to achieve it and in what way: someone is ready to step over morality and principles, and someone is not; some are fighting for their feelings, while others find it easier to surrender to the first person they meet who is ready to pay.

—Ostrovsky wanted people to see these vices and think about how to see the light in this darkness and keep the good in themselves,— Lyubov Koziy believes.

And it's difficult to do this: evil is charming, and only strong people can resist it, whom you can't find in a hot place during the day with fire. One of the charming scoundrels is the merchant's son Pyotr Martynych the Wayward, played by Ivan Fedotov. He's drunk all the time. Having fun and smashing dishes. And he boasts that in his estate, Kurchavine, he amuses himself by harnessing girls to sleighs in the summer and driving them around the village.

Another charming hero who justifies his dishonor by permissiveness is the landowner Pavlin Ippolitovich Milovidov (played by Roman Kern). Annushka, performed by Moryana Anttonen-Shestakova, is responsible for the pure, immaculate, untouched by time in the play. She is in love with Milovidov, and he, believing the slander, is chasing after another in front of his beloved.

Production designer Alexander Dekun built a real inn out of planks and logs with a glowing sign "In a lively place." He filled the space with household utensils and old merchant-style furniture. Hunting trophies are placed around the house — stuffed bears, wolves, ducks and even crows. And on the bed of the dear guests lies a luxury item — the skin of a slain animal.

There's a live orchestra on stage, and the artists sing a lot. Composer Gennady Gladkov wrote the parts specifically for this work by Ostrovsky. If there were even more music, the genre of the production could be defined as a musical.

"In a lively place" is a series of serious conflicts, revelations and semi—secret intrigues. The dexterity and enterprise of the heroes become a real weapon in the struggle for profit and a place in the sun.

The satire Theater is probably the only one in Moscow where the audience is not forbidden to film a play. The main thing is without flash. Tickets for the premiere — from 600 rubles to 5 thousand. Which is also attractive to the public. But they used to go to "Satire" by name. And when the "casting" differs only slightly from premiere to premiere, these measures may be useless, even if it is a star-studded theater with a large talented troupe, whose portraits the audience always carefully examines in the lobby.