The star drama “Cosmos” premiered on the New Stage of the Moscow Art Theater named after Chekhov.
Photo: Anastasia PLESHAKOVA
The main character Tatyana (performed by Evgenia Dobrovolskaya) is a schoolteacher in the Bugulma province of southeastern Tatarstan. She is an English teacher and even in everyday life she amusingly intersperses her speech with foreign words. She is a widow and has been a single mother for twenty years. Her hero husband died in some modern war. Son (Denis Paramonov) grew up. According to the mother, he is neither bad, nor good, neither this nor that, a waffle and a “stump”. There is no mutual understanding with her son, and this is normal for a school teacher.
And now – another anniversary of the death of her husband. According to the ritual, one must go to the cemetery, commemorate, stick two carnations into the ground, talk to the grave and be sure to cry, even if the tears have long dried up … Life is boring and ordinary, like a gray sky
Suddenly the news reports: a famous pilot-cosmonaut, the hero of Russia, comes to Bugulma. Tatiana’s classmate. He will come to his small homeland and of course he will go to his native school…
The movement begins. The school principal (Vanguard Leontiev) was puzzled by urgent repairs, the physical education teacher (Armen Arushanyan) prepares to surprise the guest with acrobatic pyramids. Well, Tatyana, living in a dream world, fantasizes: an astronaut comes to meet her, her love from her school … And there is something to remember. In the tenth grade, Seryozha (this is the name of the cosmonaut played by Oleg Gaas) gave him a pencil, a piece of which he keeps as an artifact and proof of great love. During his school years, Seryozha was unsightly – a man with glasses and a “nerd”. Once the boys plunged their heads into the toilet. 25 years have passed, and now he is a hero of Russia. “There was a fool, but he became God.” But why go to the place where your head was dunked in the toilet? Since old love does not rust, the astronaut wants to take Tanya with him. But… As often happens, dreams and reality do not match.
The performance takes place on the New Stage of the Moscow Art Theater, where the distance between the actors and the audience is minimal and implies a frank conversation with the audience.
Photo: Anastasia PLESHAKOVA
The director of the performance, Nina Grigoryeva, says that this is a funny play (author – Alexei Zhitkovsky) about a graceless life. About unfulfilled dreams and unfulfilled desires. How the cosmos becomes a black abyss within us. And about trying to escape from this abyss.
The sketch of the performance was created in October 2022 as part of the ARTHAB experimental project, and later expanded with scenes and characters and entered the repertoire of the Moscow Art Theater.
According to the People’s Artist Avangard Leontiev, this is a melodramatic comedy. To Avangard Nikolaevich’s taste, “there are a lot of funny things in acting.” But one cannot disagree with him: all the heroes are ordinary people leading the most ordinary life. And the usual concerns and desires, understandable to every viewer. Ordinary destinations, hardships, problems, daily difficulties…
“It’s funny and scary at the same time,” says Evgenia Dobrovolskaya, the lead actress. – There are many single women who know the feeling of spiritual emptiness. And it is understandable the hope that her “cosmonaut” will fly right now and take her with him, if not into space orbit, then at least to Star City … She wanted to talk about this from a close distance.
The performance takes place on the New Stage of the Moscow Art Theater, where the distance between the actors and the audience is minimal and implies a frank conversation with the audience. How it turned out, the audience will judge.
Where: Chekhov Moscow Art Theatre.
When: February 18.
Entrance fee: 2000 rubles.
