“Just the other day,” they say in her native Moscow Chekhov Art Theater, where the people’s artist has worked for more than half a century, “she was congratulated on her 81st birthday. And when she suddenly ended up in the hospital, they I expected numerous health wishes to come into effect.”
Poor me. Irina Miroshnichenko, a star of theater and cinema, an actress of incredible talent, passed away on Thursday, August 3, in a Moscow clinic. Remember: after all, many remember her from her first very small roles of hers! – at least the young Katya in the film by George Danelia “I am walking, walking around Moscow.” It was her film debut: as a third-year student, she fled the Moscow Art Theater School shooting without permission. And she remembers, then there were “Andrei Rublev”, “Uncle Vanya”, “You never dreamed of”, “That sweet word is freedom”, “Winter cherry”, films by brilliant directors. More than fifty unforgettable roles in the cinema. Even the episodes of her with her, they always hold on to something. They lay on the heart.
But the actress always unconditionally gave her heart to the theater. The Moscow Art Theatre. Chekhov, in which she stayed with Oleg Efremov in the 1980s, when the Art Theater troupe split in two. In that scenario she took off, there were significant meetings and great roles. Until the last days, she appeared on this stage, in the play “My dear Matilda.” Her Matilda fell in love with the public so much that she remained in the repertoire of the theater for a whole decade, not so long ago there was the 100th show …
And he began in the play “Only for the clock with a fight”, where his partners were the “old MKhAT”: Yanshin, Gribov, Prudkin, Androvskaya … They all taught somehow imperceptibly: not with sermons and instructions. But the young actress recalled such lessons from them: “One thought constantly sounded: the soul must be trained … The soul must be in a state of openness in order to listen to something, respond to something, shudder at something and blossom again.”
Irina Miroshnichenko was generous to people, believing that it was her duty to give joy.
Maybe it’s about this eternal training? Perhaps that is why, no matter how you look at it, both Miroshnichenko herself and the heroines from her remained like no one else. The secret is this: he is in a state of soul opening…
“I never thought that I would go to the cinema. In addition, I refused many leading roles in the cinema if I had to leave the theater, go somewhere for a long time. For me, the theater was a priority. He never interrupted performances, did not dodge, did not cheated: if a performance was once canceled because of me, then only for health reasons. The actor must go out and play, because there is a spectator in the hall. And I do not regret unsuccessful roles in the cinema, “he told her. to RG” not long ago.
Special for Irina Miroshnichenko – Chekhov’s heroines. Oleg Efremov could not imagine Chekhov on the stage without Miroshnichenko. She was Arkadina and Masha in The Seagull, Ranevskaya in The Cherry Orchard, Uncle Vanya’s young wife Elena Andreevna, two of the Three Sisters. Her stage images not only conveyed femininity and charm, but always felt a hidden inner strength. Like the actress herself. She was beautiful, at every age in her own way. Few people knew how many trials she had to endure.
A message from the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater: “Irina Petrovna lived with an open soul. Life was generous to her, endowing her with talent, beauty and character that did not allow her to bend to the blows of fate: there were enough of them, stubbornly going to the dream and to the intended goal. And she herself was generous to people, believing that her mission, her duty is to give joy. And she did it seriously.
Miroshnichenko recalled: her mother, Ekaterina Antonovna, was a student of the founder of the Chamber Theater Alexander Tairov, she herself could become an actress, but it did not work out: in the thirty-seventh year her husband was arrested, everything went wrong. When Irina was born, her mother saw a big bright star in the window. And she wished: that her daughter was a star. And so it happened. And so it remains, for all of us.
