Gorky's Maxims: Nikita Mikhalkov's Workshop "12" read "At the Bottom" in a new way

Director Roman Markholia presented his version of Maxim Gorky's play "At the Bottom". The main roles are played by People's Artists of Russia Mikhail Porechenkov and Svetlana Kryuchkova. The action is transferred to our days. Nochlezhka for the capital's homeless in a new reading - a capsule hotel. "Izvestia" evaluated the idea of the producers and its execution.

Where the light comes from, if there is no sun

"At the bottom" is shown in the educational-theater complex of the GITIS, on Akademika Pilyugina Street, 2. Nikita Mikhalkov's "Workshop "12" is located there for the time of reconstruction of the stage on Povarskaya Street. But soon the work in the historic building will come to a close, and the performances will again be possible to see in the renovated space in the center of Moscow.

Director Roman Markholia has modernized Maxim Gorky's literary basis. The lodging house owned by Mr. Kostylev (Evgeny Dubovskoy) and his wife Vasilisa (Tamara Razorenova), in the classic, was the basement of the owner's house "like a cave". With a heavy ceiling, stone vaults, smoky kerosene lamps, and crumbling plaster. Maxim Gorky wrote this play at the end of 1901. Soon it was already put by Konstantin Stanislavsky on the stage of the Art Theater.

- The first title of the play was "Without the Sun". And if there is no sun, where does the light come from? - asks the director. - Only from within. This play is about people who shine from within. What fascinates me in the play "At the Bottom", recognized as a masterpiece of world drama and Maxim Gorky's most famous play? The ineradicable zest for life of its characters, the fierce human desire to prolong their days, despite the harsh circumstances on offer. Gorky admires the turbulence of the Russian man, his stability, flexibility and vitality.

The director is sure: the play "At the Bottom" is a story about people who have fallen out of the stream of life because of their rebellious nature. Gorky is uncomplimentary to his characters, critical of the structure of Russian reality, but in his conclusions he is an optimist. Life can be chaos, nonsense, cruelty, but even then it is blessed. Today, when reality is becoming more and more like its virtual copy and man resembles a plastic simulacrum, our joy is in creating living characters on stage, exploring the diversity and richness of Russian nature.

He came to the family with kindness: the Moscow Art Theater presented "The Eldest Son"

Director Andrei Kalinin has found a new approach to Vampilov's famous play

Bizarre characters

Artist Vladimir Kovalchuk has built a capsule hotel on stage with sleeping places in the form of storage cells. Ten luminous windows. On the second tier you can climb the stairs. This is a temporary shelter for those who have strayed here. In the center is a makeshift screen, a metal station bench and a large table where the inhabitants gather.

A thief, a prostitute, a hustler, a peddler, a policeman, a locksmith, a shoemaker - Gorky's heroes are still around today. Not having their own homes, they have nothing to do but to adapt to the conditions and not to lose their spirits. As the creators of the play say, they live with gusto. They play checkers, play "fool", sing songs.

For the prototype of the elder Luke Gorky took Tolstoy. The writers were linked by a complex relationship. Luke comes to the lodging house and with his speeches brings confusion to the general existence. Some he pities, some he admonishes. And kind of like a "kind grandfather" brings people to the edge. Anna (Yulia Vostrilova) ends up committing suicide. And Vaska Pepel (Alexander Fokin) decides to kill the owner of the institution Kostylev.

In "Tabakerka" in 2000, director Adolf Shapiro staged a landmark play "At the Bottom". For the role of Luke invited Oleg Tabakov. With recognizable tuneful intonations, the People's Artist of the USSR played a quiet old man, in a calfskin and woolen socks. He is either a saint, or a denouncer, or a swindler, who discreetly appeared in the lodging house and just as quietly disappeared. In Roman Markholia, Luka is played by Honored Artist of Russia Igor Yatsko.

- My character is a materialized philosophy, a collective image of the sounding ether, the inner voice of each character," says Yatsko.

Satin's voice is the loudest. He is played in the play by Mikhail Porechenkov of the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater. Even the well-known thesis: "A man - it sounds proud!" - from his lips comes out as a cry of the soul.

His character is a very imposing man. He wears a hat, a red jacket over a leather vest. The shirt is either lost or lost.

- He is cheerful, and inside he is seething, boiling so that in the end these emotions burst out," says Porechenkov. - It doesn't matter in what scenery the characters exist. It seems to me that people do not change in essence. In each of us there is a thirst for knowledge, a moment of rebellion.

Svetlana Kryuchkova, an actress of the Bolshoi Drama Theater (BDT), has been invited to play the role of Kvashnya. The People's Artist of Russia will travel from St. Petersburg to play in Roman Markholia's production. With her in line, Kvashnya is played by Maria Larina.

One Hundred Thousand and One: a musical about Scheherazade and Sultan staged in Moscow

Audiences have bought up tickets to all the shows through the spring

Merited Artist of Russia Sergei Batalov brings humor to the play. His Medvedev appears in a military uniform, in chrome boots, with a field bag over his shoulder. The serviceman resembles a white officer. And in front of Kvashnya can dance in a knitted sweater with a hood.

Gorky's play is beautiful with a diverse palette of images. They are created by the artists of "Workshop "12" Nikita Mikhalkov": Marianna Vasilyeva (Natasha), Ekaterina Nesterova (Nastya), Danila Dzygar (Baron), Vladimir Kochetkov (Bubnov), Alexander Kizhaev (Kleshch), Alexander Vedmensky (Actor), Sergei Atroshchenko (Alyoshka), Sergei Khachaturov (Crooked goiter), Seferullah Navruzbekov (Tatar).

- It is not by chance that the author places his protégés - thieves, murderers, cheats, prostitutes - at the very bottom of life, in the closed space of the lodging house. This is Noah's Ark, where unique human specimens are saved, which are neglected by "normal" society, - says Roman Markholia.

In his opinion, despite the fact that in the play the main characters are "ex-humans", it is actually a cheerful story. For all the cruelty and ordinariness of their lives, Gorky's characters are funny, entertaining, picturesque, curious, quirky, and in every line of the play you can hear the words of the author: "Forgive you, people, earthly creature, everything is forgiven, live cheerfully! It is an excellent position to be a Man on earth! Sweet you purple devils!"