Complex building: Khabensky and Tsypkin staged a fairy tale for adults at the Moscow Art Theater

Khabensky and Tsypkin staged a play of their own composition at the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater — nine stories united by a common finale. The creators have assembled a star cast. The performance employs two dozen artists, including Kristina Babushkina, Igor Vernik, Viktor Khorinyak, Vladislav Vetrov, Anatoly Kot, Pavel Chinarev. The work of Khabensky and Tsypkin became part of the Theater in Cinema project and found its embodiment not only on stage, but also on big screens. Izvestia appreciated the directors' innovation.

Synthesis of cinema and theater

The creators of "Once upon a Time There was a House." define the genre of their production as a folk tale for adults, which was inspired by Karl Bryullov's painting "The Last Day of Pompeii" by Konstantin Khabensky, artistic director of the Moscow Art Theater. It would seem that what is common? However, it was the tragedy of the Italian city that prompted him to wonder if it would have been possible to avoid the consequences of the eruption of Vesuvius if the residents of the city had listened to their intuition. Only the action of his production takes place in a typical high-rise building. The plot focuses on stories from the lives of its residents, united by a common ending.

He also introduced animals into the household of this panel room. So two parrots, two rats, a cat, a dog and two angels were added to the 13 characters.

To implement the idea, Khabensky attracted the writer Alexander Tsypkin, for whom this project was his first dramatic experience on the stage of an Art Theater. Initially, his text was written according to film laws and was conceived as a script. Apparently, due to the fact that Khabensky takes long pauses between works in cinema, devoting his time to the leadership of the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater, his colleagues decided not to go far - to experiment and make a film in the theater. Moreover, Konstantin Yurievich dreamed of a short film based on stories that he had accumulated for a long time, but something did not add up. As a result, an adventurous idea arose to make a play out of everything conceived, and at the same time capture it on camera — this is how the synthesis of theater and cinema was born.

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The People's Artist jokes that after his production of Chekhov's The Seagull, which he considers the pinnacle of drama, he had to go down to the very bottom. But it was the literary work of Alexander Tsypkin that he raised from the bottom.

"The director is better visible on weak texts," the writer joked.

The authors' attitude towards each other is humorous, and this does not prevent them from making a common project called "Once upon a time. There was a House." It is with an ellipsis after each word. To make each one sound clear. Maybe it's a craze at the Moscow Art Theater. Recently, there was an evening in memory of Innokenty Smoktunovsky, and it was similarly called "I love. Kiss. Kesha.".

Rehearsals for "Once upon a Time There was a House" took place not only at the Moscow Art Theater, but also at Mosfilm. There, in pavilion No. 3, decorations were built according to sketches by Nikolai Simonov. This is a projection of a wide variety of block houses, assembled into one typical one. With an entrance, an elevator, a pay phone on the wall and a basement with rats. These decorations subsequently moved to the Main Stage of the Art Theater.

The film version of "Once upon a time there was a House." was shown on the eve of the premiere at the Moscow Art Theater, on May 14. In 100 cities of the country, viewers were able to watch it on 300 screens. The cheapest ticket for a screening in the capital's cinema costs 850 rubles, and the most expensive is 2,750 rubles. The theatrical premiere is sold out on May 15 and 16. There are only tickets left for the June screenings, prices range from 3.5 thousand in the last row of the balcony to 25 thousand in the stalls.

The rats are running to the ship

The action takes place one evening. Two angels (Denis Paramonov and Alexey Agapov) meet in the neighborhood. There is information that one of the houses should either collapse or explode. The younger angel needs to figure out which one it is and save the tenants. A gas leak in one of the high-rise buildings suggests to him that he has coped with the first task. Now the angel who looks after the neighborhood must lure residents out of their apartments.

But who are the people who are being given a chance at salvation? In the 34th, the hapless robbers Romanians (Pavel Chinarev) and a Horse (Anatoly Kot) are hiding. Under the guise of couriers, they have just taken out two million "greenbacks" from the house of a rich businessman. They're weird guys, they don't seem to be bad. Why did they do it? The horse wants to get rich, and the Romanian mentions the Lord on occasion, quotes Sun Tzu and dreams of wiping his ex-lover's nose. Because of her, he lost his voice while serenading in the cold. But the girl didn't appreciate it. Since then, he has sworn off falling in love. A comical duo of ridiculous robbers sets a cheerful mood for the production.

Drunkard Karas (Alexey Krasnenkov) lives in apartment 38, to whom the loafer Valera (Pavel Vorozhtsov) comes to get drunk. To stop drinking is beyond their strength. Vodka, suddenly dripping from the ceiling, makes you stop. And this is Zakhar (Artyom Volobuyev) from the 41st apartment, just a boiler leaked into which he poured a stash from his wife.

In the 20th apartment there is a single mother Marina (Svetlana Kolpakova) with her teenage daughter Ksusha (Daria Trukhina), who was abandoned by her boyfriend. She suddenly calls her ex "asshole". The mother is interested: "What is this?" "A hole in the ass." Tsypkin introduced vulgarity into the dialogue between Marina and Ksusha, which some of the audience shamelessly laughs at.

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There are two parrots in the play. One old, long—lived one (Vladislav Vetrov) and a young, green one (Alexander Porshin) - that's whose dialogues the playwright was snoring over. The bird-talker cuts the truth about Russia, about freedom, even about Pushkin. Konstantin Khabensky also chose the role of the old parrot for himself. He plays a queue with Vladislav Vetrov. Krylatyi was a year older than Pushkin, had the opportunity to personally communicate with Alexander Sergeyevich and the royal family, and he went wherever he could — he went through (or flew through) two Patriotic Wars. The parrot has a mission of thinking about the world, about the motherland, about people and the meanings of life.

It turns out that local animals have problems too. Here are the rats (Kristina Babushkina and Igor Khripunov) running from the basement, where there are not even cockroaches, to the ship, where they are well fed and you can see the world. And the cat (Igor Vernik) and the dog (Alexey Varushchenko) are whiling away the days chasing each other around one of the apartments. But anticipating trouble, the first rescues his owners, cunningly staging the dog's escape from home.

Tsypkin's lightweight texts are not overloaded with deep philosophical meanings. Rather, they can lead the viewer, who is eager to listen to the material, to something personal.

The performance is based on the skill of the artists of the Art Theater. And the decoration of the production is music. The production features songs by St. Petersburg author Gabriel Lubnin. The musician collaborated with Oleg Garkusha, the leader of the Auctioneer group.

Every artistic director of the Bolshoi theater should have his own hit. When Oleg Pavlovich Tabakov was at the Moscow Art Theater, the audience went to "No. 13" staged by Vladimir Mashkov. There have been different premieres, but this play has been making the box office for the theater for many years. Apparently, "Once upon a time there was a House." is a bet on audience success. In addition, nine plots imply a continuation. Khabensky and Tsypkin conceived an interactive project. There will be an online voting on the project's website. The continuation of whose story the audience will want to see next will become the basis for a short film. Moreover, the Moscow Art Theater's general sponsor's trust in Tsypkin and Khabensky has not been exhausted. The bankers provided additional funding for the creation of the film version. The film "Once upon a time there was a House." will be based on this material.