New Theater Season:
Predators Ready for the Hunt!

At once in two cities - Moscow and St. Petersburg - the premiere of the musical and dramatic performance "Predators" based on the novel by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov "Drama on the Hunt."

Theatricals are already predicting that the musical and dramatic performance "Predators", which was based on a classic piece - one of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov’s earliest short stories "Drama on the Hunt", will become one of the high-profile premieres this fall. The premiere performances will be held in Moscow (September 15) and St. Petersburg (October 28, 29, 30).

The production involves musical stars, popular actors of drama theater and cinema, as well as ballet dancers: Dmitry Ermak, Natalia Bystrova, Igor Balalaev, Daria Shcherbakova, Alexander Pashutin, Asya Budrina, Lyubov Tikhomirova, Julia Vaganova.

“I wanted to deliver material on Chekhov for a long time, we looked for different forms,” says the director of the production Valery Vladimirov. - In the end, it was decided to stage a musical performance using the classic Russian romance of the same period when the work was written. There is a single form in this, which allows you to accurately convey the relationship and the internal component of the characters and the story. ”

According to the director, Anton Chekhov’s drama “Hunting Drama” is more than popular - this work is the basis of many films and productions not only in Russia, but also in Hollywood. Spectators are waiting for not only an exciting plot, an unsurpassed play of artists, but also piercing music. The performance includes music by Glinka, Rubinstein, Gurilev, Guerchia, Bulakhov, Prozorovsky, to the verses of Kukolnik, Lermontov and others.

“This is a musical performance using classical romances skillfully reworked by Tatyana Solnyshkina,” says Ivan Ozhogin, owner of the Golden Mask national theater award, who plays the role of judicial investigator Zinoviev. “One of the strongest musical numbers is the composition, where two romances are performed together.”

“Like any classic work, it is interesting to consider it at different periods of time and the development of society,” says director Valery Vladimirov. - They often say: “This is Chekhov! Care must be taken in classics. ” Probably, yeah! But this is still not a museum exhibit, time is changing - people are changing. The author writes works for those people who surrounded him, for people of that time. Today we perceive everything differently and if we interpret, then we interpret on the basis of what we are now. There is also an opinion that all people are the same, no, we are different, completely different. But to find what we have left is completely different. ”

The name of the performance “Predators” was not chosen by chance. “The performance is about gambling, about burning life,” the director says. “He was such an explosive mixture of desire and temptation.” At some point, each of the character turns on a hunting instinct. Everyone begins to hunt for their prey. "

As the theater and film actor, leading artist of Moscow musicals, Igor Balalaev, who plays the role of the idle, weak-willed Count Karneev, who drowns boredom in entertainment and wine, admits, he did not immediately give his consent to participate in the production, since to participate in the play based on Chekhov’s work for He was a kind of fear and risk.

“Drama on the Hunt” is a sad, beautiful story, what can come of it? As a result, we got a cocktail of music, romances, texts by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, which you love, savor, and the incredible play of talented actors, ”says Igor Balalaev.

In the production of "Predators," Igor Balalaev endowed his drunken and licentious hero with an aristocratic imposingness and a peculiar breadth of soul that has not yet been lost.

“For me as an actor, in this performance there are opportunities to prove myself dramatically and musically,” says the actor. - A wonderful property of the performance is that it has not turned into a literary and musical composition. This is primarily a gamble of actors. Chekhov is a study of human nature, in his works we recognize ourselves — vulnerable, weak, willing — and that means living. And I believe that it was not in vain that we all started this! ”

Winner of many awards, star of the musical scene, actress Natalia Bystrova in the play "Predators" plays the young beauty Olenka, a prudent and conceited "angel in the flesh."

“According to Chekhov’s description, she is a“ forest tradesman ”,“ a terrible woman ”and“ as much evil as beautiful, ”says Natalia Bystrova. - She is obsessed with the desire to break out of poverty into another life, wear beautiful outfits, and not the stockings of her dead mother. She is seized by the desire to become a stately lady. Accepting the rules of the game, she becomes a real predator. “Did she succeed or not, there’s another question: did she get her happiness?”

The most honest hero of the story, according to actress Lyubov Tikhomirova, is her character - the gypsy Tina. The actress will debut in a performance with musical numbers. “I don’t pretend to be a singer, it’s acting, acting vocals,” says the actress. “I am happy that I have the opportunity to try myself and develop.”

According to the creators, the production is designed for all ages - both a young audience and the older generation.

“I managed to make a performance about people,” says the director. - Everything Chekhov writes about is about people, everything is real. Both passion and pain are all real, ”summarizes the director Valery Vladimirov.

September 15, 19:00 - Moscow, Concert Hall “COSMOS” (Prospect Mira, 150)

October 28, 29, 30, 7 p.m. - St. Petersburg, Vyborgsky Palace of Culture (Komissara Smirnova, 15)

Tickets can be purchased on the performance website: musical predators. rf