The development of Russian theater in the era of enlightenment. Buy tickets for the performance "fruits of enlightenment"

The fruits of enlightenment are an emotional performance that tells about the life of the Zvezdintsev family. Their house is constantly filled with people. Servants now and then open the doors for the guards with a dress for the lady, for Sakhatov, the barman and the doctor, for the peasants who came to the master to give them land in installments. By the way, a servant helped them, leading them to her master under the guise of mediums. The master himself, Leonid Fedorovich, is very keen on spiritualistic seances, and does not notice anyone around.

The Fruits of Enlightenment, based on the comedy by L. Tolstoy, was staged by Fomenko for many years. Today the new version is presented by the student of the legendary master - M. Karbauskis. It premiered in 2015. And today the production rightfully takes the place of one of the most "densely populated" performances. After all, the whole troupe of the theater takes part in this performance - from mature and accomplished artists to young just beginning and little-known ones. This trend will delight the audience. And to appreciate the performance at its true worth, hurry to buy tickets on our website.

The play "The Fruits of Enlightenment" at the Mayakovsky Theater

Dedicated to Pyotr Naumovich Fomenko.

The Fruits of Enlightenment, which appeared on the Moscow theater poster in 2015, is a comedy by Leo Tolstoy, written not for the professional stage, but for the home theater. This is probably why all the scenes are very witty, and the characters seem to be written off from reality. The action takes place in the house of the Zvezdintsevs, where men come with a request to buy out land in installments. The owner of the house, Leonid Fyodorovich, was left indifferent by their appearance - he was keen on conducting the next seance. The maid tries to help the peasants by passing off one of them as a medium.

The director of the play "The Fruits of Enlightenment" is Mindaugas Karbauskis, who has been managing the Mayakovsky Theater for 5 years. For many years Mayakovka's repertoire included Fruits of Enlightenment directed by Fomenko. And therefore, Karbauskis dedicated the first premiere of 2015 to his legendary teacher, choosing as a material exactly the play that his master staged in the same theater. Karbauskis' "Fruits of Enlightenment" is symbolic not only by the fact and context of its origin, but also by the fact that it is one of the most "densely populated" performances: literally all generations of the troupe are involved in the production: Igor Kostolevsky, Mikhail Filippov, Galina Anisimova, Svetlana Nemolyaeva, Natalia Palagushkina and Vladimir Guskov, combining history, the present and the future of the theater in the play.

Probably, each of us at least once stopped near a glossy theatrical poster and looked at it bright alluring illustrations calling to see a particular performance. Today in modern theaters there are diverse performances designed for different categories of the population, depending on the preferences and penalties of the domestic public. What genres of theatrical art do you favor?

If you like a subtle comedy that conveys the life and worldview of people of the nineteenth century, if you love classical works written by the great Russian writers and thinkers, then you should visit the unusual and original comedy "The Fruits of Enlightenment". The Mayakovsky Theater will hospitably open its heavy curtain for everyone.

The very first production

This play did not leave the stage of Russian theaters from the very beginning of its writing. Written in 1890 by the magnificent talented writer Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy, it was very fond of a wide audience and is now one of the most visited productions of the theater. Mayakovsky.

The first director of the play was the famous Konstantin Stanislavsky (he also played one of the leading roles in the play).

The production was shown in a narrow circle of spectators, consisting mainly of friends of the actors.

A piece on the big stage

Then the play was staged on the stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater, where such stars of the imperial stage as Vladimir Davydov, Vera Michurina-Samoilova, Vasily Dalmatov appeared. It is noteworthy that in the play the actors did not choose the main plot roles for themselves; they wanted to play characters, hardly noticeable at first glance, but possessing a certain semantic load. Until now, according to numerous reviews of "The Fruits of Enlightenment", these characters are considered the central figures on which the whole production rests and to which the eyes and attention of the audience are riveted. These are, first of all, Tanya, Betsy, men, cook, cook and so on. Therefore, if you are attending a comedy, pay attention to how contemporary artists cope with these special, peculiar images.

A few months after the first screening, the play was a great success at the Maly Theater. Leo Tolstoy also attended the performance there. "The fruits of enlightenment", demonstrated by no less talented actors (among them were Konstantin Rybakov, Alexander Lensky, Glyceria Fedotova, Olga Sadovskaya), made a pleasant impression on the writer. However, the play of some actors playing the roles of men seemed unnatural and boring to Lev Nikolaevich. As you can see, in his play Leo Tolstoy assigned a significant role to these characters. We'll talk about who plays these characters on the stage of modern theater a little later.

From the history of writing a work

The first, draft version of the play "The Fruits of Enlightenment" was written by the great Russian writer back in 1886. Written and left in a drawer. Later, three years later, they decided to stage the work in a narrow circle of the Tolstoy family. This made it possible for the author to look at his literary creation from the outside.

During the period of numerous rehearsals, Lev Nikolaevich began to work on reworking the play, trying to convey the dramatic images as deeply and as accurately as possible. Changes and corrections of the work were carried out several times, after which the play, previously titled "The Thread Broken," acquired its present name.

A little about the theater itself

Theater them. Mayakovsky, founded in 1922, is located at Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street, 19/13. The theater's initial performances were related only to contemporary foreign plays. Classics were then staged in a bold, innovative style.

The artistic directors of the theater at various times were talented directors and artists such as Alexei Popov, Nikolai Okhlopkov, Andrei Goncharov and others.

Now the place of artistic director is occupied (since 2011) by an experienced and gifted theater named after V.I. Mayakovsky has undergone some changes and is now one of the most visited theaters in the capital. Another master of his craft, the Russian theater director, teacher and professor Yu.V. Ioffe, also shows his performances here.

Such famous and talented actors as Svetlana Nemolyaeva, Igor Kostolevsky, Olga Prokofieva, Galina Belyaeva, Andrey Gusev and others are involved in the dramatic repertoire.

Contemporary productions of the play

The play "The Fruits of Enlightenment" has been on the stage of the Mayakovsky Theater for a long time. It was first staged in 1985. This production was entrusted to the invited director - P. N. Fomenko. "The fruits of enlightenment" in the interpretation of Pyotr Naumovich were distinguished by grotesque, lively action, imagery, brightness and musicality. The audience is already so accustomed to this work of the great director that they reacted with caution to rumors about a new production of the play, carried out under the direction of Mindaugas Karbauskis.

By the way, the gifted artistic director dedicated the premiere of the play to Fomenko, his friend and teacher.

A play in facts

Here is a summary of the piece:

• The modern production of the play "The Fruits of Enlightenment" at the Mayakovsky Theater first took place in February 2015.
• The duration of a dramatic work is equal to three hours and twenty minutes.
• Almost all the actors from the theater troupe are involved in the play.
• Interestingly, in the modern production of the play, some actors are involved in an earlier variation. First of all, this is Igor Kostolevsky, who under Fomenko played the role of young Zvezdintsev, but now he got an older character - Zvezdintsev the father. Svetlana Nemolyaeva, People's Artist of the RSFSR, is also beautiful in her new heroine. If earlier she played the role of Zvezdintseva, now she got an interesting and curious character - the cook.

For other actors, let's talk a little below.

Experienced artists

Who else is involved in the production of "The Fruits of Enlightenment"? The playbill for the play gives an exhaustive answer to this question.

First of all, this is Igor Kostolevsky, playing the role of a wealthy landowner, a retired lieutenant of the Horse Guards, who is fond of spiritualism. Igor Matveyevich, born in 1948, is an Honored and People's Actor known to the Russian public for numerous films ("The Dawns Here Are Quiet", "Asya", "Garage", "Tehran-43", "Vacation at Own Account" and others) ... Among his bright and unforgettable theatrical works, it is necessary to mention such productions as "The Karamazovs" (Ivan Karamazov), "Dead Souls" (Plyushkin), "The Seagull" (Treplev) and so on.

The role of Zvezdintsev's wife is played by Tatyana Augshkap (born in 1961). Honored Artist of Russia, known for such theatrical images as Serafima Saratova ("Blazh"), Nina Smelskaya ("Talents and Admirers"), Polina ("Children spoil relations"), wife of Bluebeard ("Bluebeard's Birthday"), Elizaveta Markovna (Dead Souls) and others. Among the talented film works of the actress, the most distinguished are "Pathfinder" (Jenny), "Tomorrow Was War" (Zina Kovalenko), "Queen Margot" (Claudette), "Daughters-Mothers" (Martha) and etc.

It is impossible not to mention Galina Anisimova, People's Artist of the RSFSR, who plays the role of a fat lady. Galina Aleksandrovna, born in 1929, has been working in the company since 1952. She is a war veteran and a labor veteran. Among the brilliant works of the actress, "An hour before dawn" (Varya Kalinnikova), "Talents and admirers" (Smelskaya), "Hamlet" (Ophelia), "The Cherry Orchard" (Anya), "The Zhurbin Family" (Tonya), " Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District "(Aksinya) and many, many others.

Young talents

The role of Zvezdintsev's daughter Betsy is played by This is a young actress (born in 1994). Despite such a young age, the girl has already distinguished herself in episodic roles in such interesting productions as "On the Grass of the Yard", "Lackey", "Dead Souls".

The son of the couple Zvezdintsevs is also played by a young actor (born in 1989) - Vladimir Guskov. The young gifted artist also actively participates in other productions of his native theater - "The Last" (Alexander), "Berdichev" (Garik), "Nine by Ten" (Kostolevsky), "Mayakovsky goes for sugar" (Mayakovsky) and others. Vladimir is also filming to the cinema.

The role of the resourceful maid Tanya went to the young and promising actress Natalya Palagushkina. The artist is also known for such theatrical works as "Fathers and Sons" (Fenechka), "Berdichev" (Zoya), "Not all the cat is Shrovetide" (Agnia) and so on. Also, the girl can be seen in films ("Moscow. Three stations", "Citizen boss. Continuation", "Barvikha" and others).

As you can see, the production of "The Fruits of Enlightenment" involves the brightest and most talented artists of our time. However, your idea of ​​the play will not be complete if you do not give a brief description of its plot. This will be discussed below.

The intrigue of the piece

The play begins with the arrival of three men at the house of the landowner Zvezdintsev. They want to buy land from him, and they bring a small deposit. Leonid Fedorovich is dissatisfied with such an insignificant amount and does not want to sell his possessions, as he had promised earlier. Moreover, now he is not worried about economic thoughts. He is consumed with only one desire - to find a good medium for the next seance.

The master's maid Tanya is not satisfied with the lieutenant's refusal to resign. She wants to help the peasants - her fellow countrymen and relatives. Therefore, the girl decides to go to the deception: she passes off her fiancé, the barman Semyon, as a medium. Zvezdintsev invites the young man to a session, after which all the fun begins. The end of the play "The Fruits of Enlightenment" - you can see, having visited the production itself.

Positive feedback from viewers about the work

As for real reviews about the play, there have been a lot of them in two years. Many visitors note the talented acting of the actors (especially - Kostolevsky and Nemolyaeva). Also, according to numerous reviews, the play itself, its comic and topicality, was awarded approving reviews. However, not all viewers are so unanimous.

Negative and neutral responses

Some admit that they were annoyed by Nemolyaev, as well as the excessive protractedness and intricacy of the work. The play looked boring, outdated and florid.

However, as the audience admits, the modern production of "The Fruits of Enlightenment" is sustained in the classic Russian style, combining sparkling humor, subtle psychology and actual edification. The play vividly and distinctively conveys the spirit of that time, makes you laugh and cry at the same time.

The talented acting of the actors, which unites several age categories of the troupe, is also impressive. It was evident that each artist diligently got used to the image, harmoniously complemented the other, played with feeling and knowledge of his craft.

A special bow for this wonderful eccentric comedy - to Mindaugas Karbauskis, the chief director of the Mayakovsky Theater.

The fruits of enlightenment
Comedy

The author of the work is L.N. Tolstoy
Production - Mindaugas Karbauskis
Space - Sergey Barkhin
Costumes - Natalia Voinova
Music - Giedrius Puskunigis
Lighting Designer - Igor Kapustin

Characters and performers:
Leonid Fedorovich Zvezdintsev, retired lieutenant of the Horse Guards - Igor Kostolevsky
Anna Pavlovna Zvezdintseva, his wife - Tatiana Augshkap
Betsy, their daughter - Valeria Kulikova
Vasily Leonidich, their son - Vladimir Guskov
Alexey Vladimirovich Krugosvetlov, professor - Mikhail Filippov
Doctor - Maxim Glebov
Marya Konstantinovna, music teacher - Olga Ergina
Petrishchev: Alexey Zolotovitsky
Grosman - Niyaz Hajiyev
The Fat Lady - Lyubov Rudenko
Sakhatov Sergey Ivanovich - Konstantin Konstantinov
Fedor Ivanovich, valet - Yuri Nikulin
Gregory, lackey - Pavel Parkhomenko
Jacob, barman - Igor Evtushenko
Semyon, the buffet man - Alexey Sergeev
Old chef - Rasmi Dzhabrailov, Sergey Rubeko
Cook - Svetlana Nemolyaeva
Tanya, the maid - Natalia Palagushkina
other.

The first premiere of 2015 is dedicated to Pyotr Naumovich Fomenko.

For many years in the repertoire of the Mayakovsky Theater was the play "The Fruits of Enlightenment" directed by P.N. Fomenko. The premiere of 2015 is by no means a reconstruction of it, but it is quite possible that in the production of the artistic director of the Theater Mindaugas Karbauskis, a student of Pyotr Naumovich, there will be some “quotes”.

In the morning bustle of a wealthy Moscow house, servants scurry about, visitors are constantly ringing at the door: a co-worker from Bourdieu with a dress for a young lady, Mr. Sakhatov who is interested in everything in the world, an unlucky barman, an elegant doctor. Slowly, the owners of the house also go down to breakfast to once again plunge into conversations about mediums, spiritualism and seances. The series of visits is continued by unexpected guests - men from the Kursk village, bothering to buy land. Paradoxical as it may seem, but the main question of their life will be decided by a resourceful servant.

Tolstoy's first remark is that "a young and handsome footman looks in the mirror and preserves himself." It was taken as a basis by the artist Sergei Barkhin and the director Mindaugas Karbauskis, who embodied the theatrical concept of "stage mirror" in the scenery. It is the mirror that will become a kind of mat for the performance: here is an awkward barman rehearsing a fatal look, Mr. Sakhatov diligently combing his bald head, a footman Grigory, showing off, recalls his love victories, the mistress of the house, passing by, straightens her hair, and the maid Tanya diligently polishes him to a shine with a rag.

The performance "Fruits of Enlightenment" will become one of the most densely populated: all generations of the theater troupe are involved in the production. Many artists also played in the performance of Fomenko. But if earlier, for example, Igor Kostolevsky played the role of Vasily Leonidich Zvezdintsev, now he will play his father - Leonid Fedorovich. As in Fomenko's production, Mikhail Filippov will play the role of Professor Krugosvetlov, and Galina Anisimova will play the role of Tolstoy Lady. Along with the masters of the theater stage, a lot of young people are employed in Mindaugas Karbauskis's play: the maid Tanya, "the driving force of the whole action," will be played by Natalia Palagushkina, and Vladimir Guskov will play the role of Vasily Leonidich Zvezdintsev.

The premiere of the play took place on February 21, 2015.
The duration of the performance is three hours and 20 minutes.

Festivals:
Participant of the XI International Theater Festival "Stanislavsky's Season" (Moscow program), Moscow, 2015.
The performance was included in the long list of the Golden Mask award (the most notable performances of the 2014/15 season, according to expert councils).

On the first floor of the theater. Vl. Mayakovsky, to the right of the entrance, at the end of the corridor, in the corner, there is a dressing table - a trellis. Nobody looks at him, and he doesn't look at him either - they go upstairs rather. On the other hand, the mirror, a few steps higher, is extremely popular. As in a Pushkin fairy tale, the mirror says and shows it. It contains both the past and the present, and sometimes it seems that the future can also be discerned. The mirror is a theater. It either reflects life, or the onslaught of those who are trying to correct its clarity. Photos are retouched, films are "cut", words are erased from books and songs, and they are trying to correct other performances. Behind the curtain, not only intrigues are hidden, but performances and entire theaters are “curtained”. They do not blame the mirror, they are charged with articles of the criminal code, offended feelings, "defiled objects of worship" ... Or, simply, they beat mirrors that have forgotten how to flatter. Broken mirrors are a bad omen. Sign of the times. The angle of reflection is sharpened without worrying about the angle of its own incidence. But a few uncompromising theatrical mirrors still keep, look at them (i.e. at themselves in them) occasionally and with disgust (therefore, they recognize). And without a mirror, how can you tell if the one breathing on it is alive or ...?

Director Mindaugas Karbauskis, taking on the production of the play by L.N. Tolstoy's "Fruits of Enlightenment", offered the audience a trick with three mirrors: a mirror of life, a mirror of the stage and just a mirror. The space, created by the outstanding set designer Sergei Barkhin, is framed: the frame “grasps” the performance over the entire stage, transforming every phenomenon in it into a picture. They play here appropriately - picturesquely, as on the genre canvases of Pavel Fedotov. In the introduction of the performance - a portrait gallery of images, the director came up with his own "way out" for each of the characters, his own characteristic feature, which manifests itself in the way each of them holds himself in front of the mirror. Here, some spit on the “fourth wall” in order to wipe it later, others spin in front of it, others are afraid of their own reflection. The young are showing off, the elderly are peering; youth casts a quick, contented glance at the mirror and is in a hurry to live; old age sadly shakes its head or roars unsuccessfully in front of a reflection spoiled by time. Sometimes you see double in your eyes: old age sees its former youth, youth is frightened, noticing the signs of “age” ... The performance consists of many similar sketches invented by the director, but the “mirror motives” are not limited to that.

In the program "Fruits of Enlightenment" there is no indication for the viewer about the genre of the play. There is only a short and exhaustive one: “dedicated to P.N. Fomenko ". The performance of the same name by the teacher Mindaugas Karbauskis, and simply the Teacher, has been on this stage for almost 30 years and has earned the epithet “legendary”. Time will tell whether the current production will continue the legend, but it was not without "retelling". Many participants in the current premiere were involved in the play by P.N. Fomenko and either retained their roles as Mikhail Filippov (Professor Krugosvetlov) and Galina Anisimova (a fat lady), or tried on the images of other characters: Igor Kostolevsky from Zvezdintsev's son grew into a father, and Svetlana Nemolyaeva, who once played the wife of a retired lieutenant, Spiritual, this time she chose the role of the cook, turning her "episode" into one of the most vivid impressions of the performance. The new "Fruits ..." also contains intentional borrowings and details from the predecessor performance, which are readily read by the audience who remembers that performance. One of the first author's titles of the play - "The thread broke", in the theater. Vl. Mayakovsky "days the connecting thread" is not cut off, fort.

“The theater is not a reflecting mirror, but a magnifying glass,” said the one whose name is now the former Theater of the Revolution. This is quite true for the current premiere, in which, however, even through binoculars it is impossible to discern the relevance. Rehearsing the play, which is based on a satire on passion for spiritualism and other supernatural fun, the director, I'm sure, did not set the goal of speaking out that “telepathists, Buddhists, spiritualists, drugs, Freudians, neurologists, psychopaths” took the upper hand. The supernatural, however, was not without. This is how the artists play in this performance, every one of them. They play "over", i.e. not natural. They overplay, but this cannot be reproached with them. "Fruits ..." unquestioningly follows the directions and instructions of the author, who conceived this play for a home performance and did not like it. In three and a half hours, all the author's brackets, comments in italics, notes on the appearance of the characters are revealed to the viewer (the costumes created by Natalia Voinova based on fashion magazines of that era deserve a separate exhibition); and even a waltz by L.N. Tolstoy (arranged by Giedrius Puskunigis) here is the time. If the author Zvezdintsev Sr. is a soft, pleasant gentleman, then there is no need to clarify that the actor Igor Kostolevsky does not have to make any special efforts in this role - applause is guaranteed here, and this is fair, but not new. Zvezdintsev's wife, a young, irritable lady (as directed by the author), and actress Tatyana Augshkap, setting a decorative dog on the servants, begins to bark instead of her, convincingly and accurately according to the text. Daughters of Zvezdintsevs Betsy are provided with loose manners imitating masculine, and pince-nez, and the actress Valeria Kulikova adequately embodies this image. And so on, according to the program, you can look for differences from the original source and not find. No differences, nor anything more interesting than the mirror image of the text i.e. copying. It should be noted, however, that the worthy acting work of the valet performed by Efim Baikovsky and peasant walkers (Igor Marychev, Viktor Zaporozhsky, Sergei Udovik), whom the author "counted" on the first, second, third and only in the text of the play indicated their names - a sign time: for gentlemen, "people" go to the count, by the rivers ...

"The Fruits of Enlightenment" is a clever illustration for the play, a clamshell book for it, a deluxe edition with gold embossing. In "Year of Literature" this is welcomed, and the rest of the time it is forgiven, because performances "to help the school" are rare, and "new forms" and readings often scare teachers away. "Fruits ..." is read aloud, with feeling and sense, clearly (even the peasants in the play, whose inconceivable speech patterns the author especially worked on, pronounce all their "dystically" and "tapericha" according to all the canons of stage speech) and loudly, gestures and intonations - in assortment. Here, one feels, they worked through every remark, rushed with it like a barman Yakov (Igor Yevtushenko), constantly counting spoons. The setting is good, and the tablecloth is boiling white, but there are no companions behind the high backs of the chairs. There is something to play and to whom, but there is neither an ensemble nor a common theme. Here, in meticulousness, they decided not to yield to the author, they got carried away with analysis and external details, wanting to make the viewer peer into the performance, react to "little things" and "strokes". There are a lot of them, even too much, so "the chicken, say, and that has nowhere to let out", and they are cute. But what are these details and for what, so far it has not been possible to discern. There is no reflection of “duality” in the play, but the audience, insatiable for the political context, conjectures it, hearing: “The people are weak. You have to feel sorry ”, or“ Yes, how far we are from Europe! ”, And when it sounds:“ I will use my method, which I demonstrated in Odessa, ”the audience sees something completely through the looking glass.

There is a huge podium table for a seance on the stage. The previous performance of Mindaugas Karbauskis “Kant” was also “feast”, but instead of the “buffet” there was a skillful three-course table-talk - “words, words, words”. And the audience was mesmerized, mesmerized by them. "Kant" was a real "spiritualistic seance", a celebration of spirit and thought. In "The Fruits of Enlightenment" only the inhabitants of the stage are hypnotized, while the audience remains intractable. However, among the twenty-two characters, it is not difficult for the public to find consonant ones. In the first slow-motion act, the viewer feels like a gangman from Bourdieu (Yuri Lobodenko), who fell asleep in the hallway waiting for the gentlemen. In the second, when the participants in the session decide who will "lull" the medium, the viewer takes on his own account the reply: “Sit down and surrender to feeling. But don't think anything yourself, ”and if he is not asleep, then he is awake. It is worth experiencing the slowness of the first action for the sake of the second. It features a touching duet of a cook and an old cook, Svetlana Nemolyaeva and Rasmi Dzhabrailov. They "mirror", paint, predict the fate of another still faded (for youth?) Couple of the maid Tanya (Natalya Palagushkina) and the pantry man Semyon (Alexey Sergeev). Nemolyaeva's appearance on the stage is perhaps the most spectacular in the performance. Radiant (whether the costume, or the light, and, most likely, the aura of the actress is the reason for this) she comes out to the sounds of O. Kremier's romance "When Love Dies" and needless to say that it overshadows everyone. This is the only "reflected" light in the performance that warms up. In her remarks there is not a word about love, as befits a cook, she talks about the professional, about how the gentlemen are “gorged”, “washed down” and “bubbled” on the pianos, but the actress tells the audience much more than the text prescribed to her.

The frame of the performance turned out to be narrower than the one installed on the stage. The actors from time to time step outside the stage, even go out into the hall, and the performance seems to be afraid to go beyond the frame. It is framed, bound by the framework of the play and performance of P.N. Fomenko. All other theatrical achievements, incl. and the achievements of Mindaugas Karbauskis himself, who was always distinguished by a special literary ear and some kind of "supersensible" perception of texts, were taken out of this framework, exiled from the stage. The director, who sometimes could be called a medium in awe of the play, suddenly found himself here a mediator, a mediator between the play, its past production and the current audience. The label "medium" migrated to the performance - it turned out to be something in between. And this middle is not even gilded yet.

Specularity is the solution and the basis of the performance. Reflections are an insidious thing full of illusions; in them everything is vice versa and in the opposite direction. But, if you do not go into physics and Carroll's looking glass, then the mirror is also just beautiful. And not so much it as its frame, as on the playbill, which is dominated by a pompous gilded frame, at the base of which the mask of comedy and cupid is huddled. And the "Fruits of Enlightenment" is quite capable of decorating the repertoire. Its external decoration: the names of their favorite actors and director, scenery, songs (the second act contains a divertissement, inconceivable for the realities of the 19th century manor house - in the human kitchen the peasants sing the song "If I had golden mountains ...", but the peasants are not kicked out, the audience intercepts with applause ), and the author may attract someone. His portrait is shown on the poster (as always at the theater - talented), his appearance resembles a bifurcated portrait of a peasant with a thick beard in a top hat and bast shoes, with a cane and a begging mug. The simplified count, who stood up for the easier life of the peasantry and the abolition of estate privileges, wrote not so much a comedy about morals as a moralizing play. There are many repetitions, lengths and instructions in it. It is a mirror of the morals of that time and a mirror of the inevitability of the Russian revolution. Some are busy with charades and "spiritism" on saucers, others drink tea from saucers, some are worried about the land issue, others philosophize about the extraterrestrial.

The culmination of the performance - a seance - almost all takes place in the dark. “They put me in, put out the light, told me to sleep,” - this is how the audience thinks at other moments. Screams, noises, candles, vanity of vanities, "Grosman vibrates" - but there is no magic or trick on the stage. And there is exposure. Through the looking glass in the play turned out to be the mansion of the manor house, the servants were the reflection of their masters; ruined souls like the maid Natalya, whose fate they frighten Tanya, who replaced her, serve as a reflection of the bar's criminal carelessness. Tolstoy's "ladies and gentlemen" are unlucky and idle, foolish and inactive, lackeys twirl them around and, envious of them, hate them ("Today I am a lackey, and tomorrow, maybe I will live no worse than them"), and the people, as usual, suffer but suffers. "The fruits of enlightenment" today, and even in a "mirror" embodiment, could become a statement about the victorious "lackey" (by the way, the theater's repertoire has an interesting performance on this topic - "Lackey"), become an occasion for reflection (turning back and himself), a reminder that those who are busy with the "walk of time" will be confused by him. But "Fruits ..." focused on the edge of the saucers, on the cute quirks of antiquity, on "Marshmallows and Cupids."

It is no wonder that over the 125 years that have passed since the day of its writing, "Fruits ..." has stale, the humor has already disappeared, and the topic of class inequality has dulled. However, spiritualism today could have been amusingly beaten: Woody Allen managed to do this in "Magic of Moonlight", there was a place in it for an uncomplicated plot, and forcing ideas about the illusory nature of life and illusions in life, about gullibility of those who do not believe in anything and that the implausible, at times, is much more convincing than the truth. These thoughts are also in Tolstoy's play. But they appear between the lines. Therefore, they are not in the play, which is focused exclusively on the author's text and the history of its performances.

In the play based on this play, Konstantin Stanislavsky, Vera Komissarzhevskaya, Maria Lilina, Alexander Artem played, and after them many more famous names. Everything has a background, it is important to know it, respect it, remember it, but why engage in the reincarnation of the play? The director cannot be denied the irony - the reanimation of the play about spirits (“You must understand that as we live, the invisible world of spirits lives right there”), but there is something necrotic and taxidermic in this. And without dedication on the poster, the current performance would inevitably be compared with Fomenkov's one, and without direct deliberate quotations from the director, parallels would be sought, and even if the distribution of the roles of “coincidences” were not in the reviews, they would write: “I remember NN. in this role. " But they would write about the director Karbauskis, and not about the director's student Fomenko. An attempt to speak in someone else's voice, to adopt characteristic features and techniques (i.e., purely external) leads to a parody, an undesirable effect in this case. A student is a reflection of a teacher, but at some point you need to stop being someone's reflection. Karbauskis overcame his apprenticeship long ago, and it is not entirely clear why this time he needed this "cover". Although, perhaps, the director is practicing in a new quality for himself as a genre painter, a writer of everyday life? Occupied with high spheres and topics, he plunged into the world of saucers and tyurnyurs, took care of how to beat the name Kapchich in "apchi" and played with mirrors so that he stopped being reflected in them. However, for young artists, the work in the play is undoubtedly fruitful and enlightening: it is a school (completely etudes) of speech, manners, imitation, "looking-glass" existence. And for their teacher-student Mindaugas Karbauskis, as an artistic director, this is charity, as for a director, wasteful self-forgetfulness. Be that as it may, but the dedication on the poster is a dedication to the winner to the teacher from the defeated student. This time.