In fact, the Anniversary Theatre. The Moscow City Council considers the entire current theatrical season, therefore four premieres that appeared on the main stage during this period can be considered timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary. Among them: “Solo for Chilling Clock” by Pavel Parkhomenko with the participation of the legends of the Moscow Soviet troupe; two performances by Eugene Marchelli – “Shakespeare Hamlet” and “Dowry”; and literally the other day the premiere of Andrei Konchalovsky’s play “Married Life. Perestroika” took place. And at the end of May, another new name is expected on the bill – “The Bremen Town Musicians”. The artistic director of the theater also puts on a family play.
– We have been preparing for the centenary for two years, this very feeling, the centenary, is solemn, but also very responsible, – shared Evgeny Marchelli. – I wanted to approach the date as seriously as possible, with decent dramaturgy and performances. Today we will have a family celebration in the theater: we will meet in the evening after the performance and we will have an official celebration on April 24.
According to the artistic director of the theater, Marina Brusnikina organizes the anniversary evening, and the celebration will begin immediately at the entrance to the territory of the Aquarium Garden; there, on an open-air balcony, she will play a real orchestra. But this is only one of the elements that will create a festive atmosphere.
By the way, the sale of tickets for the celebration begins today, on the birthday of the theater. The organizers warn that there are not many places: many artists and friends of the theater plan to visit the holidays, so it is better to hurry.
– When I received an offer to organize an anniversary evening, I was very surprised and agreed, – recalls Marina Brusnikina. – I myself worked here once, I have a lot of theatrical impressions associated with the Moscow City Hall Theater, and my passion for the theater, one might say, began precisely here. I would like to tell those who don’t know, and remind those who have forgotten what a tremendous creative life this theater has lived and the incredible artists who have worked here.
The entire company will participate in the program, from luminaries to recruits, and young artists have been added in two years.
– When I first came, there were not enough young people here, and we caught them with a passion: we accepted ten people in two years, graduates of creative Moscow universities, and now we even feel some bust. But young people work very hard, and largely thanks to them, the theater is full of initiatives, constantly, in all spaces, we are rehearsing, – says Evgeny Marchelli.
He also noted that the Moscow City Hall Theater plans to invite new directors to work; the artistic director has not yet revealed the names, but hinted that they are great and famous masters. Meanwhile, rehearsals for the play “Late Love” based on Ostrovsky and staged by Yuri Eremin have begun. A lot is happening on the “Under the Roof” chamber stage, where Arbuzov’s “Old Fashioned Comedy” directed by Vladimir Skvortsov will be released very soon.
– This is a very warm and tender play, and it seems to me that the theater in our time needs to be reoriented to precisely this: to warm, help, bring warmth to the viewer’s life, – said Marchelli.
The theater will also go on an anniversary tour. In the near future, he is expected in St. Petersburg, and also on the calendar: Stary Oskol, Novorossiysk, Balashov, Tomsk, Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk and other cities. A trip to Armenia is also being discussed.
Direct speech
Evgeny Steblov, People’s Artist of Russia:
– I have been in the troupe of the Moscow City Hall Theater since 1969. I moved here from the Lenin Komsomol Theater, I was invited by the then director Lev Losev. I remember that Sasha Zbruev said: why are you going there? You’ll be playing in shorts for the rest of your life! But I did not listen, because I always loved my colleagues of the older generation very much. And I was not mistaken: on the stage of the Moscow City Hall Theater I played with Ranevskaya, Maretskaya and Plyatt … You see, acting in general is very connected with a particular person and his personality, and therefore the theater is a unique thing, and any representation is exclusive.
Help “RG”
The State Academic Theater named after Mossovet, one of the first creative teams created by the Soviet government, was founded on March 3, 1923 by writer-director Sergei Prokofiev as the theater of the Moscow Provincial Council of Trade Unions. An important milestone in its history is associated with the arrival of Yuri Zavadsky, an actor and director, a student of Stanislavsky and Vakhtangov, who headed the theater from 1940 to 1977. His performances became theatrical legends. But not only them: performances with the participation of Faina Ranevskaya and Rostislav Plyatt (“Furthermore: Silence” starring Anatoly Efros), Lyubov Orlova (“Lizzy McKay”, directed by Irina Anisimova-Wulf), Vera Maretskaya (“Orpheus Descends to hell”, a performance by Irina Anisimova-Vulf, which became the first Tennessee Williams production on the Soviet stage), Margarita Terekhova and Leonid Markov (“The Royal Hunt”, directed by Roman Viktyuk). From 1985 to 2016, the theater was directed by Pavel Chomsky. After his death, the creative policy of the theater was determined by the director’s triumvirate: Eremin, Konchalovsky, Yursky. In September 2020, Eugene Marchelli became the theater’s artistic director.
