A new theatrical version of the story "And the dawns are quiet here" will be presented in Moscow

The play based on Boris Vasiliev's novel "And the Dawns are Quiet Here" will be performed on the Melnikov stage on June 22, the Day of Remembrance and Sorrow. The production combines theatrical and cinematic art. Konstantin Bogomolov, the artistic director of the Melnikov Stage and the Theater on Malaya Bronnaya, spoke about how the creators managed to combine the two types of art in an exclusive interview with Izvestia on June 17.

"And the dawns here are quiet" is a work that resonates in the hearts of millions of viewers. It was transferred to the cinema screen three times. Stanislav Rostotsky's film has become a classic of war cinema. Mao Weining's Russian-Chinese TV series, filmed for the 60th anniversary of the Victory, was watched by over 400 million viewers. The script was expanded to 700 pages and 19 episodes, by the way, with the participation of Vasiliev himself. And the title song became a national hit.

Yuri Lyubimov staged "The Dawns here are Quiet" on the theater stage. In the spirit of the story, but not in the letter. In the new stage performance "Melnikov", which will be released on June 22, the Day of Remembrance and Mourning, the production is as close to the text as possible.

The play directed by Anton Okoneshnikov is also very cinematic, but in a slightly different sense, Bogomolov notes.

"The director uses film stylistics in a new way in this performance, in theatrical action. Cameras are starting to work as weapons, cameras are starting to work as the gaze of a variety of characters," Melnikov, the artistic director of the stage, said in an interview with Izvestia.

Black burnt paper underfoot. Or maybe it's ashes. Or something else—who knows, there's only ashes left. There was once a resort here, they say from the stage. Everything was destroyed by a German air raid. Planes are shown on a video screen. The sounds of gunfire fill the hall. Then the rays of light pierce the darkness. A cameraman runs onto the stage to document what is happening.

"Here are two actions — one stage, the other screen. It is wrong to say that the stage action is duplicated on the screen. In fact, the cameraman on stage is making a separate documentary film. And together, these two arts — theatrical and cinematographic — complement each other," says film critic Nikolai Nikulin.

Young Soviet anti-aircraft gunners are played by their contemporaries today. They have decades of distance between them, but they are very close emotionally, admits actress Yana Stavorzhinskaya, who plays Rita Osyanina, who lost her husband.

"I am a happy wife, I have a wonderful loving husband. I am happily married. And it's enough for me to imagine what would happen if this person were taken away from me. I would be ready to tear up," says actress Yana Stavorzhinskaya.

Rostotsky's black-and-white painting shows the girls' memories of pre-war life in color. The play also has a color, mostly green. He is also the color of the archive, in which the story of the brave heroines is analyzed on stage.

"The team and I chose the form that it would be such a reconstruction. That is, in an artistic sense, it happens in an archive, where people from the archive try to study materials, look, study photos, videos, recordings," Okoneshnikov explained.

There are five different characters in front of the viewer, five female faces of war. Vasiliev's story has a special look at historical events. This look is dreamy at first, then tragic and is valuable in all productions and film adaptations.

And the pains here are quiet: how the Bogomolov Theater reinterpreted military classics

The young team staged Boris Vasiliev's novel in a documentary way

The train of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation "Unity in memory. Strength in a feat!" on the occasion of the 85th anniversary of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, on June 15, he left Moscow for Belarus. The campaign is dedicated to the common history of the countries and the memory of the dead, as well as the fight against the rewriting of history and the preservation of the continuity of the military traditions of the defenders of the Fatherland. The train brought together seven themed carriages dedicated to the events of the Great Patriotic War.