“I filmed my performances”: why Alexander Shirvindt does not want to play “Molière”

The comeback at the capital’s Theater of Satire turned out to be triple: together with Alexander Shirvindt, the hit play “Where are we? ∞!…” appeared on the poster, and on February 2, the audience saw Fyodor Dobronravov on stage again, who officially returned to the troupe. Izvestia appreciated the updated production about life in a lunatic asylum and found out from Alexander Shirvindt in what other performances his fans would see.

“President Actor”

As soon as it became known that the play “Where are we? Admirers of Alexander Anatolyevich were not embarrassed by the price of 7 thousand rubles for a place in the stalls. Even the speculators did not have time to orient themselves. There are no more tickets at the box office for upcoming performances. After personnel reshuffles in the most cheerful theater of the capital, many were not at all funny. Someone is still shedding tears over spilled milk – adherents of artistic director Shirvindt and director Agaev. Others rely on the maturity, track record and energy of Sergei Gazarov, who replaced Alexander Anatolyevich as artistic director. Nevertheless, the new artistic director decided not to cut the branch on which he was sitting, and returned Shirvindt to the audience. Now they can see him not in the gossip column and not in the news, but on the stage.

The performance “Where are we?∞!…” the people’s artist has not played for two years. But as soon as immediately after the New Year holidays, the director began rehearsals, Alexander Anatolyevich chose the tactics of a professional actor. He appears in the theater earlier than others and enters the stage with a memorized text. The current status – the president of the Moscow Academic Theater of Satire – did not change his status as an acting artist.

Fans remember how in 2018, the Theater of Satire became so bold that he sent his artistic director and stage stars Fyodor Dobronravov, Alexander Oleshko, Yuri Nifontov, Zoya Zelinskaya, Natalya Zashchipina, Nina Kornienko to a madhouse. After all, that is where the play takes place. Some then felt that Shirvindt and company had diagnosed our time. The playwright Rodion Ovchinnikov wrote a phantasmagoria that turned out to be extremely topical. And the idea of ​​​​a performance in which the main characters would be artists was submitted to Shirvindt by Alexander Oleshko.

“It seems to me that this is an important action,” the president of the Satire Theater emphasized after the performance. “Because the morbid state of repertory theaters is diverse, but it has a terrible prospect. Creativity fades into the background and battles, resentments, doubts arise. To the credit of the new leadership and team, we will not have any of this. And we need to promise one thing: today we need to close our eyes to be creative, because we don’t know how to do anything else. And we’ll blow it up!

Madhouse on fishing

In the name of the play “Where are we? ∞!…” there is a question that is asked by the characters of this story, who ended up in a lunatic asylum. Among them, the village drunkard, the nugget-philosopher Slava Pravotorov (Fedor Dobronravov), the mad TV presenter (Alexander Oleshko) and the circus star, and now forgotten clown Pyotr Petrovich Zaraisky (Alexander Shirvindt), stand out especially. The latter once lived in the House of Stage Veterans. But after all the old people died there, the building burned down, a mental hospital was built in its place, where the former idol ended up. Now he is rather a sad sage, and only a false nose and the admiration of a crazy TV presenter, who, by the will of fate, remembered his grandiose success, and now shares the same room with him, remind him of a past life.

This medical institution is headed by a doctor (Yuri Nifontov), ​​who treats crazy people not with drugs, but with soothing promises. Although even without them, the life of patients is filled with strange adventures, sadness and laughter.

If a clown in his declining years from loneliness spoke to God on “you”, then the star of the screens prays for a television rating. Together with a new friend, the old man fishes with a dropper in a bucket, drinks alcohol from a heating pad and poisons jokes. But they are all sad.

A crematorium worker accidentally sneezed at work. Now he doesn’t know who is where, the clown amuses his friend.

A former idol teaches a TV star that popularity is a one-night slut. “Glory seek.” And she comes, but not as Oleg dreams. Glory of the Pravators, a cheerful drunkard, appears in the hospital. He immediately becomes his own in the company of stars. Each remark of Fyodor Dobronravov, who plays the fool, is met with applause. But the audience could no longer see the people’s artist on the stage of Satire. He left the troupe a year ago. And only with the arrival of Sergei Gazarov, his return became possible. The artistic director persuaded the artist to revive the performance together with wonderful partners. After the performance, Sergei Gazarov announced that Fedor Dobronravov had returned to the troupe.

“Two years without a theater slipped by quickly. And I’m happy that we are together under this roof, everyone is relatives here, ”the artist admitted to Izvestia.

“Where are we? ∞!…” – a parable. In the performance, as in a mirror, not only what is happening in a single madhouse is reflected, but also in the theatrical world in general. Each viewer will make their own conclusion: someone will simply call their mother, someone will put things in order or find a kind word for a neighbor.

After the performance, Izvestia asked Shirvindt in what other roles the viewer could see him.

“The fact is that once Chatsky was played until the age of 80, and he was 19. Tsarev played him until the age of 67 in the Maly, and the veteran of the Yuryev Theater played Sofya,” Alexander Anatolyevich answered. – And to the surprise of my colleagues, I myself removed myself from the repertoire, three performances at once, in which I played: Molière, Ornifly and Lucky-Unlucky. Only because Molière was already buried at the age of 52.

So far, the former artistic director has one role. Whether this is enough for 87-year-old Alexander Anatolyevich, one must see. Perhaps he will get involved, and the current artistic director Sergei Gazarov will return the archival performance of Satire to the repertoire, or put something on Shirvindt? I want to believe that “Where are we?” will only be the seed for the people’s artist.