V. Smekhov staged a performance based on poems by Yevgeny Yevtushenko on the Taganka stage

MOSCOW. On April 24, the premiere of the poetic performance “No Years” staged by Veniamin Smekhov, a director who began his career in the walls of this famous theater, took place on the stage of the old Taganka. The performance is dedicated to Valery Zolotukhin - the actor and director of the theater who had recently passed away should have become one of the participants in the performance, even managed to take part in several rehearsals.

The performance is based on poems by Yevgeny Yevtushenko, among which are not only well-known to everyone, but also new ones written very recently. The author of the idea of the production was the famous poet himself, according to whose verses on the Tagansky stage during the heyday of the theater the extremely popular play “Under the Skin of the Statue of Liberty” was already on. Sometimes Yevtushenko himself went on stage, continuing the performance by reading his new poems.

The composition of the new performance was created by the director - Veniamin Smekhov, some new works of Yevgeny Yevtushenko were included in the production at the request of the author himself. Yevtushenko’s idea was also to use in the performance documents sharply criticizing Yevtushenko’s poems by the Minister of Culture Furtseva and kind words in letters from Boris Pasternak. These documentary evidence of the era bring into the hall the atmosphere of that time when full stadiums of people, with bated breath, listened to the performances of sixties poets.

Even at the stage of preparing the play, there was a lot of talk about it. Not only the acting team, but also the long-term fans of the theater were worried whether Veniamin Smekhov and Taganka would continue to collaborate, or whether this would be his only work.

At the premiere, viewers saw veterans working in the theater since its foundation, and a young generation of actors who worthily continued theatrical traditions.

Ludmila Trautmane © Gallerix.ru