Valentin pluchek. Tatyana Vasilyeva: “Seven centuries ago I was an Egyptian queen Tatyana Vasilyeva and Pluchek

13.06.2019

Proverbs where there are numbers Folk definition of a proverb

Cutugno with his wife. Biography. "I cheated, but I have only one woman of heart!"

Valentin Pluchek was born on August 22 (September 4), 1909, in Moscow, into a Jewish family. Valentin Pluchek's cousin, Peter Brook, was born in London. Childhood of Valentin Pluchek was difficult and he did not dream of a theater. He lost his father early, and with his stepfather, whose last name he bore, he could not find a common language. He left home, contacted the street children and soon ended up in an orphanage.

Since childhood, Valentin Pluchek has been noted for his aptitude for the fine arts. After graduating from the seven-year school, Valentin entered the VKHUTEMAS and already in the 1st year painted a picture that ended up at the graduation year exhibition of the iso-technical school.

The idols of Valentin Pluchek were Mayakovsky and Meyerhold. Together with other students of VKHUTEMAS, he attended the poet's debates, enthusiastically read "Left March".

In 1926, Valentin Pluchek entered the acting department of the State Theater Experimental Workshop under the direction of V.E. Meyerhold. In 1929, Pluchek entered the directing department of the same workshop, at the same time starting to work as an actor at the Theater. Meyerhold.

In 1932 Valentin Pluchek organized the TRAM of electricians.

In 1939, after the closure of TIM (Meyrhold Theater), before the war, together with A.N. Arbuzov, he organized the Moscow Theater Studio, where among the students were: I.K. Kuznetsov, V.E. Bagritsky, A.A. Galich , Zinovy Gerdt, Maxim Grekov. The students jointly composed a play, the basis of which was set by Arbuzov, and staged a play “City at Dawn” based on it. The premiere took place on February 5, 1941. During the war, part of the studio worked as a front-line theater.

In 1957, Valentin Pluchek became the chief director of MATS. In the same year, the premiere of his famous and scandalous play "Was there Ivan Ivanovich?" Nazim Hikmet (starring B. M. Tenin and Anatoly Papanov). In the same 1957, his play "Mystery-Buff" by Mayakovsky was released. In 1959 he staged “The Sword of Damocles” by Nazim Hikmet, the performance becoming one of the most notable events in theatrical Moscow. Another famous and also scandalous play Pluchek will release in 1966 - "Tyorkin in the Next World" by AT Tvardovsky with Anatoly Papanov in the title role (music by RK Shchedrin). The performance was a resounding success.

In 1969 the premiere of the play "The Marriage of Figaro" by P. Beaumarchais with A. A. Mironov in the title role took place. The performance was sold out until 1987, while the leading actor was alive. A new generation of viewers knows and loves this performance from the TV version "Crazy Day, or The Marriage of Figaro".

In 1970, Pluchek released the play Captured by Time by A.P. Stein with Andrei Mironov and T.G. Vasilyeva in the lead roles. For the first time on the Soviet stage, the hero asked to return the past. The revolutionary plot of the play protected him from the attacks of the party censorship. In 1975, the premiere of one of the most interesting plays of M. M. Roshchin "Repair" took place.

In 1980 the theater showed one of the best recent plays by V. S. Rozov "The Capercaillie's Nest" with Anatoly Papanov in the title role.

In 1982, Pluchek staged NR Erdman's The Suicide. The play, written many years ago, turned out to be modern and topical, the authorities are quickly removing the play from the theater's repertoire.

In 1986, with the beginning of Perestroika, the director restored "The Suicide", but it will be a different performance. In 1984, on the Small Stage, he released The Cherry Orchard by A. Chekhov, offering a completely new interpretation of the play. The play reinterpreted the previous performances and made Lopakhin (A. Mironov) the main character of the play, which corresponded to the author's intention.

The best roles were played in the play by the theater actors: Anatoly Papanov, Georgy Menglet, Mikhail Derzhavin, Olga Aroseva.

At the age of 80, Pluchek staged VN Voinovich's Tribunal.

In 1991 he released "The Ideal Husband" by O. Wilde, in 1992 - the comedy by A. N. Ostrovsky "Hot Heart", in 1994 - "The Taming of the Shrew" by Shakespeare - a performance highly appreciated by critics. In 1996, the premiere of "Threepenny Opera" by B. Brecht took place, and in 1998 - "The Inspector General" by N. V. Gogol - the play with which his life in the theater began.

In 2002, Pluchek worked on the comedy Servant of Two Masters by Carlo Goldoni.

Awards and titles

People's Artist of the USSR (1974)
State Prize of the RSFSR named after K. S. Stanislavsky (1977) - for staging the play "Foam" by S. V. Mikhalkov
Order of Merit for the Fatherland, III degree (1999)
Order of the Patriotic War II degree
Order of the Red Banner of Labor
Order of Friendship of Peoples
medal "For the Defense of the Soviet Arctic"

Creation

Theater director

"The City at Dawn" by A. N. Arbuzov

"A long time ago" G. I. Gladkov
"Officer of the Fleet" A. A. Kron
"White Nights" by Y. P. German

1952 - The Spilled Bowl by Wang Shi-fu
1952 - "The Lost Letter" by J.L. Karadzhale
1953 - "Pages of the Past" (included "The Gamblers" by N. V. Gogol and "Breakfast at the Leader's" by I. S. Turgenev)
1953 - "Bath" by V. V. Mayakovsky
1955 - "The Bedbug" by V. V. Mayakovsky
1956 - "Georges de Valera" by J.-P. Sartre
1957 - "Mystery-Buff" V. V. Mayakovsky
1959 - Coward's Nude with a Violin
1959 - "Monument to myself" S. V. Mikhalkov
1959 - "Sword of Damocles" by Nazim Hikmet
1962 - "The House Where Hearts Break" by B. Shaw

Film director

1959 - Nude with a violin
1962 - Apple of Discord
1974 - Crazy Day, or The Marriage of Figaro
1975 - Small Comedies of the Big House
1982 - Auditor

In Alentin Nikolayevich Pluchek lived a long life and left a wonderful theater as a legacy to grateful spectators. From 1957 to 2000, he headed the Moscow Theater of Satire, in which he gathered a powerful stellar troupe.

When Pluchek took over the leadership of the theater, the troupe already included Tatyana Peltzer, Vera Vasilyeva, Olga Aroseva, Georgy Menglet, Nina Arkhipova, Anatoly Papanov, Zoya Zelinskaya. But Andrei Mironov, Alexander Shirvindt (the current head of the theater), Mikhail Derzhavin, Yuri Vasiliev, Nina Kornienko, Natalia Selezneva, Valentina Sharykina, Alena Yakovleva and many other actors were admitted to the Theater of Satire at Pluchek.

His temper was uneven - like almost all directors. He demanded absolute loyalty and dedication in his work, but he had every right to do so - he himself lived in the interests of his team and never put performances on the side. Satire was considered in the highest meaning of this concept. Under Pluchek, the theater's repertoire included performances based on the dramatic works of Gogol, Griboyedov, Mayakovsky, Bulgakov, Beaumarchais, Shaw, Brecht, Frisch. The theater's specialization was not limited to making the audience laugh. Pluchek was the direct heir of the revolutionary art of the 1920s, a student of Vsevolod Meyerhold, that is, the bearer of the idea of a theater educator and educator. But Pluchek also had an excellent flair for new and interesting drama. The loud premiere of 1966 was the production of "Terkin in the Next World" based on the poem of the same name by Alexander Tvardovsky. On the stage of the Satire Theater there were performances based on plays by Yevgeny Schwartz, Viktor Rozov, Alexander Gelman, Grigory Gorin and Arkady Arkanov, Mikhail Roshchin. Under Pluchek, director Mark Zakharov began his bright professional career at the Satire Theater. His performances "A Profitable Place", "Wake Up and Sing!"

Valentin Plutchek. Photo: kino-teatr.ru

Valentin Nikolaevich at the rehearsal of the play "Tribunal". Photo: teatr.pro-sol.ru

Valentin Pluchek. Photo: teatr.pro-sol.ru

But Valentin Pluchek could have become not a director, but an artist. He easily entered VKHUTEMAS, having a seven-year school and an orphanage behind him. Yes, as a boy, Pluchek ran away from home, ended up in a company of street children, and with them in an orphanage. Everything happened due to the fact that Valya could not get along with his stepfather. On the mother's side, Valentin Nikolaevich Pluchek is Peter Brook's cousin. At the beginning of the 20th century, branches of one family parted so bizarrely, but it is noteworthy that, having no connection with each other, being in different worlds, the brothers Valentin and Peter (living in London, his Russian-speaking parents called the boy Petya) became major theatrical figures, directors! They met in the late 1950s when Brooke came to Moscow on tour with the Royal Shakespeare Theater.

The teachers of VKHUTEMAS noted Pluchek's remarkable abilities, but he had already fallen ill with the theater. Specifically, by the Meyerhold Theater. As easily as in the case of VKHUTEMAS, Pluchek entered the State Theater Experimental Workshop under the direction of Vsevolod Meyerhold and after a while was admitted to the master's theater. The young actor played tiny roles at first - in The Inspector General, The Bedbug. When they put on "Bath", Mayakovsky himself asked to appoint Pluchek for the role of Momentalnikov. The young actor and aspiring director Pluchek idolized Meyerhold and formed as an artist in his aesthetic "faith", but one day he fell out with the master. "But he still returned to him at his very first call, because nowhere could he find himself so unmistakably as in his theater."- he later recalled. When Meyerhold's life was tragically cut short, Pluchek and playwright Alexei Arbuzov created a theater studio, which later became known as "Arbuzovskaya". The activities of this collective were interrupted by the war. During the Great Patriotic War, Pluchek directed the Military Theater of the Northern Fleet, which he created. In 1950 he was invited to the Theater of Satire, where a few years later he became the chief director.

Theatergoers with experience remember Yuri Vasiliev from the Shchukin school. It was a rare case for those times when a star - indisputable and obvious to everyone - appeared already on the student bench. Excellent appearance, musicality, plasticity, the ability to play heroic, comedic, sharp-character roles with equal brilliance - like an actor, he simply did not have weak points. At the same time, it is still a completely non-actor character. A clear, natural, always benevolent person with a wonderful open smile and shining eyes.

He went to the Theater of Satire, which was directed by Valentin Pluchek. He serves there to this day, for three decades now. Then this step seemed to be a mistake to many. Yuri did not just join a troupe filled with stars like the August sky. The biggest star there was the one that Vasiliev looked like even outwardly. This, it seemed, doomed the young actor to the role of Andrei Mironov's "understudy", to exist in the shadow of the best of the best artists of those years.

But Yuri Vasiliev did not become an understudy. He grew up into a wonderful, distinctive master. And at the same time he continued the Mironov tradition in the theater, fusing romantic impulse, lyrics and sharp grotesque in his work. It is not for nothing that he inherited Mironov's dressing room. As you know, museums are not made from dressing rooms. In this case, the "study" of the departed Master is occupied by his successor in essence.

- Can you remember your favorite theatrical story associated with Andrei Mironov?

- Tour in Novosibirsk, Andrey Aleksandrovich is walking along the corridor of the Ob hotel, a loud conversation is heard from the half-open door of the hotel room. The actor, who has played the role of wordless lackeys all his life, loudly discusses with the actresses-performers of the roles of maids how Mironov plays the role of Figaro monstrously badly. Andrei Alexandrovich entered the room, silently looked into his eyes. Gogol's silent scene, a pause, and he left. The next day there is a play "Crazy Day, or The Marriage of Figaro." This actor plays a footman who stands behind Figaro's back. And after each scene, each monologue, Mironov turned to him and asked: "Well, how is it better today?"

Novosibirsk - Moscow - Paris

- You came to Moscow from Novosibirsk. You were not a "star" child; as far as I know, there was no patronage or cronyism behind you. Nevertheless, as I was told, you came to "conquer" the capital. Where did such self-confidence come from?

- Our family was not "star", but everyone in it was artistic and outstanding people. My mother, Lilia Yuryevna Drozdovskaya, graduated from a theater studio in Novosibirsk during the war. My mother's father, my grandfather, a Latvian by nationality, once came to Siberia to establish the production of cheese and butter. In the mornings he would accompany me to school and make me a "train" - a long sandwich of small pieces of cheese for one bite. Since then, I cannot live without cheese. There was a sea of grace and artistry in him, women adored him.

I didn’t find my father’s grandfather, he was a well-known lawyer in Siberia, fled with Kolchak, then worked for the Soviet regime. My father, Boris Alexandrovich Vasiliev, studied in Moscow, in the theater studio with Mark Prudkin and in the art studio, and for a long time could not decide who to become after all - an actor or an artist. Still, he became an artist and returned to Novosibirsk. He headed the Association of Artists, drew posters and cartoons in newspapers. During the war, he kept amazing diaries, which I recently published. He served as a military surveyor and was in the foreground all the time, making maps of the advancement of Rokossovsky's Second Shock Army. Two submachine gunners followed him, who, in case of danger, were supposed to kill him and eliminate everything.

From the eighth grade, I firmly knew that I would be an artist. He adored French cinema, carried a portrait of Gerard Philip in his pocket, with which he later went to enroll in Moscow. I still have it on the dressing table. I love my native Novosibirsk very much, but Moscow has always been the city of my dreams. The same, however, as well as Paris.

"Go to Satire - there are many of ours"

- You easily entered the Shchukin Theater School and were one of the most prominent on the course of Yuri Vladimirovich Katina-Yartsev in 1975.

- This "lightness" was hard. All applicants enter all theatrical institutes at once. I only entered Pike. Came to the first audition right from the plane. Four hours time difference. A very hot summer - peat bogs were burning near Moscow then. A huge crowd in a small alley in front of the school. Competition - three hundred people per place. There is nowhere to sit. I was called only at the first hour of the night. I vaguely remember reading my passage from Jack London's "Mexican" in a semi-conscious state. And they let me go straight to the third competition round. And on the exam I was given a "three" in the skill of the actor. I was simply killed by this "troika". I've been fixing it all my life. But still, when I saw myself in the lists of applicants, I realized what a moment of happiness is.

We disappeared at the school, rehearsed day and night, often slept there on gymnastic mats. We met the great Shchukin teachers - Cecilia Lvovna Mansurova, Boris Evgenievich Zakhava, Vladimir Georgievich Schlesinger. We had seven teachers for the skill of the actor alone. The legendary Boris Ionovich Brodsky led the history of the fine arts in our country. An absolutely fantastic person "Uncle Kolya" Bersenev taught us to put the scenery on the stage.

And, of course, a wonderful and beloved teacher, artistic director of our course, Yuri Vladimirovich Katin-Yartsev. An amazingly educated, intelligent and intelligent person. Once we were transporting him from one apartment to another, and I saw how many books he had. He had a huge list - who should be given what to read and who would have to play what.

In the second year, we made a unique educational play "Ways-Crossroads" based on Fyodor Abramov. We played this novel before Lev Dodin staged his famous play. There were amazing scenes - meetings, funerals, farewells. We worked on the authenticity of the special northern speech of the heroes. There was a conflict with the rector of the school, Boris Evgenievich Zakhava. He saw something anti-Soviet in the performance, he especially did not like the interludes that we came up with to rearrange the scenery. These permutations were done by women with a cheerful song: "Come on, girls, and well, beauties!" In this he saw something defiant.

Before graduation performances, a huge piece of plaster collapsed in the auditorium. Therefore, we did not graduate on our own stage, but played in the Vakhtangov theater, in the educational theater of GITIS, in the Actor's House, in the House of Scientists. We had a big poster - "French Songs", "Lermontov's Letters", "Summer Residents", "Trees Die Standing", "The Story of One Love", "Three Musketeers". I dreamed about the role of d'Artagnan, but Schlesinger, who directed the play, gave it to Socrat Abdukadyrov. And he gave me the role of Buckingham. The whole role was built on plasticity and vocals, and I was always fond of stage movement, ballet, dancing, music. The performance was wildly popular, all of Moscow attended it. Maris Liepa came and said about me: "A future dancer is studying with you ..." After finishing the course, Katin approached everyone and quietly said some good words. He also came up to me and patted my hair in such a fatherly way: "Well done, boy." He never praised anyone and never kicked anyone out. He believed that even if someone did not become an artist, it wouldn’t matter: the Shchukin school would shape his personality. And if two or three people from the course become good artists, then this is a successful course.

My most famous classmates are Lenya Yarmolnik and Zhenya Simonova. Zhenya was my constant partner. We played all the excerpts and love scenes together with her. And, of course, we started a very stormy romance. My first love tragedy was connected with her, because soon Alexander Kaidanovsky appeared in her life.

We played The Three Musketeers in 1977 in Paris. I fell in love with him at first sight, I realized that this is "my" city. This was my first foreign country - not some kind of Bulgaria, as it was then customary, but immediately France. I remember how we were standing on the bridge of Alexander III, and I even asked our d'Artanyan, Socrat Abdukadyrov, to pinch me - it was so unreal. We threw coins and made wishes. Socrates then said: "I will definitely come here and stay." He retired from the profession a long time ago, he has a travel company, and he lives in Paris.

Then, in 1977, there was such a case. Our Russian group was taken to a restaurant for dinner. At the next table sat a gray-haired man with an absolutely straight back and noble bearing and just listened to Russian speech. I realized that this was some kind of Russian émigré of the first wave. I so wanted to meet him. Just to talk, to talk: I was already preparing to play Golubkov in Bulgakov's Run. But at that time it was impossible: we, of course, had an accompanying comrade from the relevant authorities with us.

Last December, I was in Paris again and took part in a concert attended by more than a hundred descendants of Russian emigrants from the first wave of emigration. The very same famous names: Trubetskoy, Golitsyn, Chavchavadze ...

- But how did it happen that after college you ended up not in the Vakhtangov Theater, but in the Satire Theater?

- When we played our graduation performances, I had invitations from six Moscow theaters. Of course, I dreamed of becoming a Vakhtangov. Evgeny Rubenovich Simonov called me and said: “Yura, you are ours. But I'll tell you honestly: we are now undergoing a change of generations, and you will not play anything in our theater for five years. " It was an eerie drama. I wanted to accept the invitation of Yuri Lyubimov, but nevertheless decided to once again consult with the teachers. And they told me: "Go to Satire - there are many of ours." I obeyed them and came to this theater.

Orchestra Man

- You came to the theater during its heyday, when Papanov, Menglet, Peltzer, Mironov and many, many others shone on the stage. How were you met?

- Mark Rozovsky rehearsed the play "Dear Wardrobe". I have not even worked in the theater yet, but saw my name in the distribution of roles. And next - Arkhipova, Derzhavin, Tkachuk ... In the first season I played five main roles, among which were Golubkov in the production of Pluchek "Running" and Damis in "Tartuffe", which was directed by the French director Vitez. This was the golden age of Satire. At the same time, oddly enough, in the so-called "theatrical circles" there was a kind of incomprehensible disdain for our theater. Alexander Anatolyevich Shirvindt told me that at some jubilee Efremov said quite loudly during our performance: "Look, the theater of the" second echelon ", it's good!" Pluchek was completely dazed.

And the audience adored our theater. I was leaving the metro and saw a poster: "For any money I will buy a ticket to the Theater of Satire." For tickets to the Theater of Satire, one could buy a queue for a car or a fashionable imported "wall". I'm not talking about touring, when the cities we visited just stopped doing anything other than getting tickets for touring performances. In the capitals of the union republics - Baku, Tbilisi, Alma-Ata - we were received exclusively by the then presidents - the first secretaries of the Central Committee. In Tomsk, Perm, when we were traveling by bus from the theater to the hotel, the crowd blocked the street. The police had an order: let them do what they want - don't touch the artists.

In Moscow, crowds of female fans were on duty both at the theater and at the home entrances of our stars. I remember how Mironov "escaped the chase", running away from the fans through the back door of the theater and the garden "Aquarium", then through the alleys around the Mossovet Theater ...

By the way, in this regard, I remember one wonderful story. At the beginning of the play "The Marriage of Figaro" Mironov - Figaro in a dazzlingly beautiful costume in an elegant pose very effectively rode from the depths to the proscenium. A footman offered him a rose, and at that moment there was always applause. And on tour they just staged a standing ovation. And now Tbilisi, the opening of the tour, the first performance. Figaro enters the stage. Absolute silence - no applause. Figaro turns to the footman: "They didn't recognize!"

The first eleven years of my work in the theater - before that tragic summer of 1987 - I remember as a time of great creative happiness, delight and a real acting school. From the very first day I set myself the task of taking my place in the theater. And he came to this very gradually. I have several books and photographs signed by Valentin Nikolayevich Pluchek. He actually didn't like to praise actors. And here are the inscriptions on them: "To a very gifted artist Yuri Vasiliev", "To a very talented artist Vasiliev." And only on the last book he donated - this is the book by Nina Velekhova "Valentin Pluchek and the Comedians' Halt" - he wrote: "Yuri Vasiliev - a talented actor who became a Master." This assessment for me is even slightly higher than the title of People's Artist.

In the first season, I played 34 performances a month. Was busy in all the crowd scenes, played the Cat in the play "Kid and Carlson", replaced Spartak Mishulin in the role of the Drunkard in "The Bedbug". The first time Andrei Alexandrovich Mironov noticed me and praised me, when I was "thrown" into the crowd in the play "Captured by Time". On the go, I thought of a role for myself in Trench Scene. "Bullets are flying": I am wearing a peakless cap - hop! We got it. There is a scene of a farewell ball, and I have no partner: what to do? I played this scene while dancing with myself.

Andrei Alexandrovich liked to say: "We do not need well-deserved artists, we need good ones." I remember that forever. When I already became an honored artist, the soldiers who were on the guard of honor did not come to the play "Tribunal". I changed clothes in a second, and we, together with the assemblers and stage workers, went out as “soldiers” to this “guard”.

- Has Mironov ever been "jealous" of you?

- We had a very warm relationship, although they constantly tried to push our heads together. When I came to the theater, the cooling of relations between the main director Pluchek and his main actor Mironov had already begun. Pluchek was a very addicted person - he quickly fell in love with people, and then cooled down just as quickly. And there were always those who wanted to bring this cooling to a conflict.

Rehearsals of "Tartuffe" are underway. Antoine Vitez wanted Mironov to play Tartuffe. Mironov was not allowed to play this role. We showed the performance to the artistic council. At some point, Valentin Nikolaevich loudly speaks to Vitez, pointing at me: "Here is Khlestakov!" And next to him sits Mironov, wonderfully playing this role in his performance. Then, when he fell ill, Mironov himself “gave the go-ahead” so that I could rehearse at The Inspector General. But I had to enter the performance in four rehearsals, and I refused.

When Andrei Alexandrovich was gone, Pluchek offered me to play his role, but I said no. I played only Mackie Knife, but it was a new version of The Threepenny Opera.

And in that first performance, I played the role of one of the bandits, Jimmy from the Mackie Knife gang. I came up with the idea that my character is, so to speak, "gay." I did some incredible makeup for myself, curled my hair, came up with eccentric movements and gestures. Nobody had ever seen anything like this on the domestic stage, it was only 1981, and the performance was also dedicated to the XXVI Party Congress. The performance was wildly popular. I have a huge number of female fans and admirers. I have never seen any jealousy on the part of the leading actor Mironov, no desire to "destroy" a competitor.

Before the start of the performance, he quickly changed his clothes, took his famous hat and cane and so, "entering the image", went to check his "gang". He opened the door with his foot, caught some of his acting courage and began to "pin up" us all.

In 1981 we went with the Threepenny Opera to Germany. We played, of course, in Russian, but the Zongi decided to sing in German. Andrei Alexandrovich, who knew English well, tried very hard to master some specific Berlin accent. At the very first performance, we had a wild success. Our translator comes to us backstage during the intermission and says: “The Germans are simply dumbfounded. This is amazing. But everyone asks: what language do you sing? "

Georgy Martirosyan, who played a small role of the bandit Robert-Pila, was not allowed abroad then. And Alexander Anatolyevich Shirvindt was introduced to this role. He threw on his cloak and sat with his famous pipe, without words in this common "gangster scene" of ours. After the performance, a journalist comes to interview us. He approaches Alexander Anatolyevich with the question: "Tell me, what is your biggest creative dream?" Shirvindt calmly replies: "To play the role of Robert-Saw in Moscow."

Touring of that time is an eternal lack of money, boilers, canned food, soups from bags. I remember touring in Vilnius in 1987. Vilnius is a western city, cleanliness, flowers, strawberries in beautiful baskets. The exquisite performance "The Marriage of Figaro" is being performed in the huge Opera House. And behind the scenes, make-up artists and dressers are cooking some borscht, grimy children are running around. Andrei Alexandrovich came to the rehearsal, saw all this household and sighed: "Well, there would be a puddle and a pig here too."

When we went to Germany, someone from home ordered Shirvindt to buy a needle for beads, and he and Mironov went into a large department store. Mironov, who spoke English easily, easily explains to everyone: "Pliz, igol buy beads" and gestures expressively. No one understands anything, and for about forty minutes the poor saleswomen show them the entire assortment of the store - from condoms to large knitting needles. As a result, Schirvindt had to buy these knitting needles and shamefully run out of the store, because he realized that they had infuriated even imperturbable Germans with their stubborn "needles by beads".

Once we decided to play the troupe. They said that they went to a small town with an amazing market, where everything is several times cheaper than in the rest of Germany. Only you have to go very early, because in the first hours after opening everything is swept away from the shelves. And everyone was told this "in secret." And so in the morning, at five o'clock, we went out onto the balcony and watched the whole theater in small groups, like partisans, hiding from each other, sneaking onto the train. And the most interesting thing, then everyone asked each other: "Well, how did you buy it?" “Of course we did. Wonderful, wonderful. " Naturally, there was no market there.

Once we moved on tour from Germany to Yugoslavia. A beautiful place - mountains, sky, sun, but everyone was terribly tired of the long bus crossing. The youth, as usual, sat in the back, and the people's artists in front, but Mironov always walked towards us, back, because we had fun. Suddenly he began to improvise some kind of jazz melody. He sang, played the imaginary saxophone. Orchestra Man. I picked it up right away. I knew all these tunes from my brother, who is eight years older than me. Wanderers in the Night by Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong. We made such a concert of popular jazz tunes!

- But in the performances of Mironov, the director, you almost did not play ...

- When he started directing, I really wanted to work with him, and this desire was mutual. He wanted me to play Glumov in his play Mad Money, but I was not given this role. Then he put on "Goodbye, master of ceremonies!" - Gorin's play about the actors of the Theater of Satire who died in the war. The role of the Dancer in this play was written for me. I was already preparing for the start of rehearsals, and suddenly, on tour in Perm, Andrei Aleksandrovich came to my room and said: “Well, the chief director won't let me have you again, he says that you will be busy in rehearsals of the play“ The Raven ”. And I so wanted to work with him, even with the second team, even with any, that I almost burst into tears. And our administrator Gennady Mikhailovich Zelman, who was sitting next to him, so threateningly told him: "Don't offend Yurka!"

I still rehearsed with Mironov and played one of the central roles, Naboikin, in "Shadows" by Saltykov-Shchedrin. His work on Shadows is an example of how a director should be prepared. It seemed that he knew everything about Saltykov-Shchedrin. It was a wonderful performance and absolutely today. Now it would sound surprisingly modern. Amazing design by Oleg Sheintsis: open space, open doors, light between the columns ... I remember that for a long time nothing worked out for me, and suddenly something moved during one rehearsal. How happy Andrei Alexandrovich was! What happy eyes he had!

When he was gone, Maria Vladimirovna Mironova said: he loved you. And I always knew and felt it. He brought me souvenirs from all trips. Sometimes he asked me what to bring. For some reason from Bulgaria I asked to bring canned beer. I still remember that it was some kind of strange beer - with the Russian name "Golden Ring".

On tour in Novosibirsk, I presented my mother with a book with the inscription "Lilia Yurievna from a fan of your son." And then, when I came there for concerts, I drove chickens to my mother. He entered and bowed: "Behold, the son sent you to eat."

Never hurt old people

- For thirty years of work in the Theater of Satire, has there really never been a desire to go to another theater, to change something in your life?

- I had the only conflict with Pluchek when I really wanted to slam the door. It was already in the early 90s. We made the so-called exit version of the play Barefoot in the Park - for concert performances. Pluchek calls me up and begins to scold me for doing hack.

I say that this is unfair, because I give a lot of energy to my native theater and I can go to a concert in my free time, because I need money. He will shout: "Boy!" And I told him: "Valentin Nikolaevich, no one has ever shouted at me, not even my parents." Zinaida Pavlovna Pluchek immediately waved her hands at me: "Yura, go away." I jump out and write a letter of resignation, I have a bad heart. The receptionist tells me: go home, lie down, do not answer any calls. We will decide how to reconcile you.

The next day I have a rehearsal for the play "The Youth of Louis XIV". From the rehearsal I was summoned directly to Valentin Nikolaevich. I am in boots, with spurs, with a sword, I go to his office. I go in and stand at the piano in such a defiant pose. And he says to me: “Well, old man, we worked together for fifteen years. Are you going to let our friendship die for just a hundred rubles? "

Valentin Nikolaevich was brilliant and paradoxical. As in any great person, a lot of different colors were mixed in him. His wife Zinaida Pavlovna really was the mistress of the theater, helped him, but also intervened in everything. But I tried to understand it and understood it. Zinaida Pavlovna was once the leading actress of the Theater of the Northern Fleet. She was an actress and a ballerina, graduated from the Vaganovskoe School. She was a very beautiful woman. And when Pluchek returned to Moscow after the war and was given the Theater of Satire, she should have become the leading actress of this theater. But he did not take her, because he understood that then his whole life as a director would have worked for her. And she left the stage altogether and became simply "Pluchek's wife." That's what he paid for all his life. And nevertheless - I was a witness to this - as soon as she began to speak badly about one of the artists, he immediately interrupted her: "Zina, stop!"

I believe that Pluchek is a great director and a brilliant art director. I saw some moments when the troupe had to just swallow him, and he gave everyone a job, and everything calmed down. It was he who told me that I should be directing. And he advised: “Never offend old people. The artist needs to be given a role, and he will cease to be dissatisfied with you. "

- How did Valentin Nikolaevich leave the post of artistic director?

- By and large, that famous Theater of Satire, "Pluchek's Theater", ended in 1987, when we lost Papanov and Mironov. The theater has changed. Pluchek staged several more successful performances, brought another generation of actors onto the stage, and in the mid-90s, in the wake of the success of The Taming of the Shrew, he had to leave.

In the last year and a half, Valentin Nikolaevich was no longer able to even come to the theater. There was practically no artistic director in the theater. The Department of Culture proposed various candidates, including mine. But I was the first to support Alexander Anatolyevich Shirvindt. And when I came to Pluchek after his resignation, I found him in a state of peace and tranquility, as if some very heavy burden had been lifted from him.

Although, of course, he missed the theater. Already shortly before his death, I visited him, told him that I began to teach at the Theater of the Disabled, and he asked me with a smile: "Do they need a director?"

- Do you ever dream of that "golden age" of the Theater of Satire, as you called it?

- On August 16, 1987, in the early morning I dreamed of Andrei Alexandrovich. In a suit from Threepenny, with a hat and a cane. He took off his hat, waved his hand goodbye and left. I woke up from a phone call, they called me from the hospital and said that it was all over, Mironov died. And then for some time he constantly dreamed of me and said: "I was joking - I'm coming back soon." I answered him, they say, what have you done, how could you, because of you so many people suffer, you are so loved. And he only repeats: "I was joking." Wow jokes.