At the Volkov Theater, spectators made a trip along the Moscow-Petushki route

YAROSLAVL. Last Monday, the artists of the Volkovsky Theater presented the performance “Moscow-Petushki” - a new production staged by the young Moscow director Denis Azarov from the famous book written by Venedikt Erofeev in the late sixties. For several decades, this poem in prose did not fit into the framework of censorship, but this did not prevent it from becoming a cult book of the intelligentsia of the country.

In those years, it spread in samizdat, first appeared in print in the second half of the 80s. Then books began to be published, previously unknown to the general public. Interestingly, the work, the protagonist of which was an intelligent alcoholic Venechka, was first published in the journal “Sobriety and Culture”, which was just presented to readers. Now this work can be read in twenty languages of the world.

After the play was seen by the friends of the theater, the official premiere took place on its chamber stage on December 9th - the audience went along with the main character on a journey along the Moscow-Petushki route. The artist who designed the performance, Dmitry Gorbas, considered that the audience should delve into the text as much as possible, where the words of the characters of the production are supplemented with quotes from world literature and the Bible, and also include stamped phrases from the Soviet press.

Therefore, on stage, artists and spectators were placed nearby, on wooden benches, reminiscent of old trains. The boxes scattered around the stage became stops on the route that Venechka was trying to reach her happiness. Dialogues of the hero of the play with angels, which at times turn into fellow travelers of Venechka, evoke a homeric laughter in the audience. However, in the tragic finale of the production, the smiles of the audience give way to undisguised horror frozen on their faces.

Ludmila Trautmane © Gallerix.ru