Genre: The story of one life.

The duration of the performance is 1 hour 50 minutes without intermission.

Ticket prices for the play Three Tall Women at the theater on Malaya Bronnaya:

Parterre: 2700-4500 rub.
Amphitheater, Mezzanine: 2000-3000 rub.

Ticket reservation and delivery are included in the price. Availability of tickets and their exact cost can be clarified by calling the website.

The famous American playwright Edward Albee was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1994 for his play Three Tall Women. Sergei Golomazov’s performance “Three Tall Women” at the Theater on Malaya Bronnaya managed to present this work at a decent level. This is confirmed by tickets instantly disappearing from the box office, despite the fact that the performance is complex, philosophical, pessimistic, even tragic. Confirmation of this is the sympathy and attention of the audience, the long, prolonged, sincere applause in the finale.

According to the plot of the play, three heroines appear before the audience - these are three women, conventionally designated by the author as A, B, C. The first - A - is the oldest, she is ninety-two years old. The second - B - is younger, she is 52; the youngest of the women, S, is 26 years old. As the plot develops, the audience understands that this is the same woman, just at different ages, in different periods of life. The performance raises questions that can resonate in the soul of every person. Can we change our future when we're 26? Is it right to be ashamed of your past at 52? Is it scary to die alone after living to the age of 92? Three ages and three destinies merge into one, giving birth to a life lasting almost a century. This is a play about how courageous fragile women can be, how steadfastly they overcome defeats, troubles and misfortunes, severe trials prepared by fate.

Three tall women - video

In the first part of the play “Three Tall Women” there is room for sincere laughter. In this part, the old woman shares her memories with the lawyer and the nurse. However, then a difficult period comes, the old woman finds herself in a coma. All three heroines appear on stage, dressed in evening dresses, and then the viewer understands that they have a common life, one for all, that they are all one and the same heroine. The life lived at first seems joyless and hopeless, as if all life is a continuous expectation of death. But in old age, suddenly an amazing feeling fills the soul. This is a feeling of freedom and happiness, independence from circumstances and people. Three wonderful actresses, a talented director, a minimum of scenery and a philosophical story about life and fate.

Characters and performers of the play:

Ah, a very old woman, 92 years old Evgenia Simonova
B, a nurse, looks like A would look at 52 years old
S, an assistant lawyer, looks like Zoya Kaidanovskaya would look like A at 26 years old
A young man, about 25 years old, later their son Mark Vdovin, Ilya Zhdanikov, Alexey Frolenkov
A, B, C in a coma Alena Ibragimova

Marina Zayonts

Old age is a joy

Edward Albee's play "Three Tall Women" was staged at the GITIS Theater

The theatrical boom that has emerged in the capital in recent years refuses to end.

On the contrary, he increasingly finds himself in completely unexpected places. So, one wonders, what is this GITIS theater? Well, there is an educational theater of GITIS, now RATI, in Bolshoi Gnezdnikovsky Lane; student graduation performances are performed there - it’s a common thing. There was almost never any excitement around. And then suddenly it happened. There are countless oddities in the story of “Three Tall Women.” Judge for yourself. The play is not played as a comedy (they say that our audience is greedy for the funny; give them “Full House” and everyone will be happy), moreover, it is heavy, pessimistic, with philosophizing. There is no advertising, even posters in the city, it seems. Word of mouth alone works properly, according to the principle: look, tell it to a friend. The name of the director is, as they say, not heard by the general public., competent, worthy, not too noticed by criticism. In a word, his name cannot make a box office in any way. And finally, the stars. In an enterprise performance it is impossible to do without them. And here, out of three actresses (Evgenia Simonova, Vera Babicheva, Zoya Kaidanovskaya - the daughter of Simonova and Alexander Kaidanovsky), only one can be considered a star, and then only with a stretch. Evgenia Simonova, undoubtedly famous actress, but still he doesn’t star in TV series that are fashionable these days, he doesn’t appear on glossy covers - one wonders, why break chairs?

Of course, they didn’t break the chairs at the performance, but they applauded very loudly and somehow very heartfeltly. As the name implies, at first there were three women - A (she is 92 years old), B (52 years old) and C (26 years old), and then it turns out that this is the same woman, so to speak, in different years of his long life. The first part of the play looks almost cheerful, where a 92-year-old senile old woman (Evgenia Simonova) shares her memories with a nurse (Vera Babicheva) and an assistant lawyer (Zoya Kaidanovskaya). But then a blow overtakes her, she falls into a coma, and three women, dressed in white ball gowns, finally find out that they have the same life for all of them. Some absolutely joyless, hopeless life, in which, as soon as you are born, you begin to die. And only in old age, before the face of death

, you feel absolutely free and even happy, surprisingly. Evgenia Simonova played in this performance, undoubtedly, her best role. A turning point role that changes fate. Eternal ingénue, charming and glorious princess from old fairy tale

showed here great dramatic talent and desperate courage. Whatever one may say, this is an event for which it is still worth breaking chairs.

Izvestia, February 18, 2004

Marina Davydova

Simonova played for three Play of the living American classic was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1994. In our area, around the same years, the tireless Oleg Tabakov became interested in it, dreaming that main role

I have always had sympathy for Simonova, but I have never seen her on stage in all her professional glory.

On the contrary, on different stages over the years I saw her in something so inexpressive and inarticulate, staged either by Ibsen, then by Strindberg, or by Pinter. Her obvious, very fragile charm was exploited to no avail or inspiration - a grown-up princess, a grown-up princess again. In Golomazov's performance, Simonova finally appears in all the splendor of her talent. Besides charm, it turns out there’s a lot more to her.

The prolific and extremely successful Edward Albee managed to write plays that were adjacent to the theater of the absurd (that is, designed for a very intellectual and sophisticated audience) and at the same time benefit performances (that is, quite suitable for commercial theatrical needs). "Three Tall Women" is an amazing example of such benefit absurdity. The play begins as a domestic comedy. A wealthy old woman who has fallen into insanity, replaying her memories like a worn-out record, her tired and already indifferent nurse, a young energetic person who has some financial claims against the old woman. "Doctor, I have blackouts." - “What failures?” - “Excuse me, doctor, what are you talking about?” In Albee, this anecdote is stretched out in time and divided into three voices. "Call Harry."- “We already talked. Harry died 30 years ago.” - “How did you die? Oh-oh-oh!” Closer to the middle domestic comedy

It is easy to guess that in an ideal situation, three stars are needed to stage this play, each of which will lead its own part in different keys or even registers. In the play, Golomazova is busy alone. She plays an old woman.

In fact, for some time now such a move has become a direct path to success. How much Hollywood stars- from Nicole Kidman ("The Hours") to Charlize Theron ("The Beast") - approached the coveted Oscars by bravely aging themselves, gaining weight, or gluing a large gummous nose to their pretty face.

Simonova surpassed them. She plays not an old person, but old age as such. He carefully puts a handkerchief to his watery eyes and the corners of his mouth, speaks in a loud, creaky, crackling voice - like that record -, smiles in confusion, shakes his small fist temperamentally and wonderfully conveys the detachment of a person frozen somewhere on the path between this world and the next. Looking at her smart and technical playing, you remember the baroque singer Deborah York, who came to us a year ago as part of Easter festival . York's voice is not at all powerful, but she masters it masterfully. The talent is small, but what a cut! You look at the stage and understand: very

The other two actresses clearly serve as foils for Simonova. A kind of side dish for the main dish. One (Vera Babicheva) leads her party with dignity and without pressure, the other (Zoya Kaidanovskaya) - monotonously and falsely. But here, of course, the director became the actress’s true partner.

Sergei Golomazov has long been considered an unrecognized genius among us. Or at least in talent. There are unconditional reasons for the last statement. The first part of the performance was done very skillfully. He competently reaches a crescendo, turns on the music on time and correctly explains to the actress where she needs to scream and where to whisper. In general, it skillfully balances on the line between a performance for intellectuals and an entertainment spectacle. And everything would be wonderful if suddenly Sergei Golomazov did not remember that, damn it, he is not a fool and has the right. Eh, I should give in to directing, he seems to be saying to himself. And away we go - shadows begin to dart across the stage out of nowhere, the artists spin around in a dance, disco light music fills the playing space, the existential melodrama turns into a melodramatic phantasmagoria. The ending is especially upsetting. There are actually two of them. The first miracle is so good. A woman who has already fallen into a coma (this fourth hypostasis of hers lies motionless on the bed throughout the second half of the performance), and her prodigal son

suddenly they come to the fore. The action moves beyond earthly suffering and worries. He quietly hugs her and rests his head on her shoulder.

Passions are a thing of the past. Forgiveness took their place. This very true and quietly sounded chord should have completed the performance. There is nothing to add to it. So after the storm there is blissful silence. But Golomazov adds, forcing the young man to dance across the stage with all the performers of the play in turn, thereby giving the finale some kind of café-chanting tone. Not only does the very nature of his talent, which, it seems, is also intimate and quiet, resist this cafe-chantiness. It is resisted by the nature of the play, in which the whirlwind of life is replaced by what we all undoubtedly deserve - peace.

Kirill Metelny

"I renounce all of you" "Three Tall Women" by E. Albee at the GITIS Theater"and other things, who successfully combined in his work the features of the European theater of the absurd with purely American realism (with elements of existentialism).

It is worth immediately noting that the play bears the cross of the playwright’s autobiographical experiences: it is he who leaves native home, the reason for which was a break with his mother (this conflict is aggravated by the fact that Albee’s parents are unknown, and he himself was adopted by the “Broadway” entrepreneur R. Albee; the adoptive parents fulfilled every whim of the “son”, thanks to their wealth he received an excellent education).

The director who staged the play is known (although not widely) for his work in various theaters - “Petersburg” and “Dreyfus” (named after N.V. Gogol), “Killer Theater” (directed by A. Dzhigarkhanyan), “ Dedication to Eve" (named after E. Vakhtangov, together with S. Yashin).

In addition, he staged plays in Riga, Tel Aviv, and Lyon. The GITIS stage also knows several of his works. And finally, new... and emphasizes the passage of everything (in the mouth of a very elderly woman). In general, the melody of this aria accompanies the drama from beginning to end: its motive sounds both before the start of the action and after. Her nurse (or allegorical figure “B”) is played by actress V. Babicheva (V. Mayakovsky Theater), who is 52 years old in the play (from the program: “looks like “A” would look at 52 years old”). Babicheva brilliantly coped with her task in the first mise-en-scène: her nurse was accustomed to all sorts of whims and attacks of the “mistress”. Nothing bothers her at all anymore. All the quirks of the old, crazy and slightly wild grump are indifferent to her due to habituation. She can only sneer and wave her hand. But. She, who receives money for her work, of course, periodically plays along with her elderly “Ma’am.” The third allegorical figure “C” and the lawyer’s assistant (“looks like “A” would look at 26 years old”) is Zoya Kaidanovskaya (her face strongly resembles the wonderful actor A. Kaidanovsky). Her character is a young person who has not experienced life, naive, ardent in her youth, tactlessly curious, asking a lot of “stupid” questions, and ridiculously businesslike.

The action takes place in the house of a 92-year-old woman, whose loneliness is disturbed by the arrival of a nurse and an assistant lawyer to her chambers. The latter came to the old woman because she did not pay bills sent to her, she did not sign papers brought to her by courier, and so on and so forth. It’s true that the old woman doesn’t care about everything: I used to cope with everything myself, and why can’t I now? As a result of the unsuccessful attempts of the lawyer’s assistant to begin negotiations with the eccentric old woman, the three heroines begin to become mutually involved in personal mental suffering and experiences, in their intimate experience. The main semantic center of this dialogue is the stories of a 92-year-old woman about her youth - love, marriage, infidelity, enterprise, however, quite funny far-fetched, conflict with her son, who once left home, but never showed up, and does not make himself felt to this day. Each of the three interlocutors has their own fate, and each interests the viewer almost equally: each of the actresses, in my opinion, manages to sufficiently captivate the story of their fate, they are equally interesting, and the eminent Simonova rarely steals the audience’s blanket interest. The emotional conversations of the three heroines are everyday (life-like) and they are symbolized by the “white”, ordinary lighting of the heroes and the stage (light - K. Palaguta).

But then the old woman becomes ill and falls into a coma - the blue-turquoise lighting of the characters and the stage comes on - this is the color of a dream, a kind of allegorical internal dialogue, the subconscious, possible or impossible desires. In the middle of the stage there is a bed on which we see an old woman in oxygen mask(GITIS student A. Ibragimova), who is “danced” (rather plastically) in a fencing suit and with a rapier by her son (also GITIS student A. Frolenkov) - this is a kind of allegory of a son’s repentance before an abandoned, lonely mother. By the way, about the dance numbers (choreographer - I. Lychagina): it was not entirely clear whether they were pantomime or ballet steps. Dance numbers They were successful only in places, but mostly it looked quite difficult (not only from my observations).

In the next mise-en-scène, on the right of the proscenium there is a bed on which the old woman continues to lie in a coma, and diagonally on high chairs (a rather direct metaphor, but not taking the viewer far from the quintessence of the play) three of our “tall” women are sitting. They are dressed in angelic white fluffy dresses, like angels of such Last Judgment(after all, the old woman is dying) - a kind of conditional subconscious dialogue (“trialogue”). A “what would happen if” conversation ensues between them.

Each of them declares its spiritual strength (height). Simonova is slightly arrogant and ironic here. Babicheva is inspired and somewhat straightforward, which reminded me of Joan of Arc from some historical film. Kaidanovskaya seemed about the same to me; the truth justifies her by the fact that here she embodies the young “I” of the main character - a dying old woman. She "swears" to them: "I will never be you."

The main goal of their trialogue is to find out “which place is better”: which a woman occupies in her youth, when everything is still ahead; which is occupied by a woman in maturity, when a lot is behind her, but not everything is lost and there is a chance for change, or which is occupied by an ancient elderly woman who only has ahead... as I. Brodsky used to say: “Do you know how it all ends ?... but now you can look at everything with ease and carefree. Those other two are her youth and maturity.

The whole action ends with a mise-en-scène of universal reconciliation - all the participants in the performance smile at the viewer while sitting on the same bed (the white lighting of the last mise-en-scène after the allegory of internal reconciliation with the son leaves the viewer with very real everyday hope). The play ends...

In general, the play "Three Tall Women" is humanistic and democratic. It is about the fate of an ordinary woman, an ordinary person, in fact, a “little man,” only in the American, and not in the Russian, version (she is not poor and not downtrodden). This play is about an ordinary woman. Contrary to the director's interpretation, I do not think that this is a play about “female courage.” It is, after all, rather about female loneliness, about “lack of communication,” about alienation and the meaninglessness of existence. The playwright tried to reveal the reasons for this loneliness and portray a world that had lost its internal integrity. Golomazov made a performance about a certain conventional

strong woman

(“wise and courageous”).

This is his interpretation. Only him. Everything that we can hear from the characters very controversially leads to Golomazov’s idea.

But I do not undertake to challenge the right of any artist to subjectivism. This is probably what makes this production original.

Perhaps new. Maybe. Russian Courier, February 11, 2004 Alisa Nikolskaya Ladies War Evgenia Simonova met her daughter on stage

The GITIS Theater showed a performance that was indirectly related to the educational institution. Edward Albee's play "Three Tall Women" was directed by Sergei Golomazov, once an actor at the Mayakovsky Theater, who from time to time produces cute chamber plays about human relationships on various stages and at the same time teaches at the Russian Academy of Theater Arts. “Women” combines two small family relationships: Golomazov’s wife, actress Vera Babicheva, plays here, as well as Evgenia Simonova and her is divided between three heroines of different ages, and at first they exist separately and in earthly reality, and then they move somewhere into the fourth dimension and become a continuation of each other, the roles are perfectly written here. To the credit of the ladies involved in Golomazov’s performance, they work honestly and it’s a pleasure to watch them. Outwardly, the spectacle turned out to be very traditional, even ascetic: an empty stage, three auxiliary chairs, a piercing temperamental waltz, enhancing the feeling of particularly pathetic episodes.

However, there are enough impressions even without the director's fancy. Evgenia Simonova, who has not appeared in new theater roles for a long time, looks especially interesting. In the first act, she portrays an ancient old woman: frozen, watery eyes, sunken mouth, sallow face, disobedient body, creaky voice. She looks at those sitting opposite her through binoculars, wipes away tears and drool and carefully forms a fig from the fingers of her broken hand - they say, you won’t wait. And along the way, he drives those around him to the point of insanity - with his memories of the exploits of his youth, “slips” of consciousness and, finally, a frenzied, indomitable passion for living. In the second part, where all three ladies find themselves in another dimension, becoming either angels or three parks, Simonova successfully embodies wisdom, which is always closely associated with cynicism. While the two younger friends are still capable of reflecting, worrying and asking questions, she can only pass judgment and state the facts. Kaidanovsky: a frantic gloomy look, sweeping, slightly masculine plasticity, a sharp voice and frightening internal mobility, making it possible to instantly jump from introspection to hysteria. And Kaidanovskaya plays in a completely different manner - more hysterically, a little sloppy. Which even attracts additional attention to her. Kaidanovskaya got the task of playing the tragedy of youth, that period of a person’s life when you want everything at once, but it turns out that pleasures will be strictly dosed for the rest of your life. The actress has already played something similar in Vladimir Mirzoev’s television play “Passionate and Sympathetic Contemplation,” so here one can see, to put it pathetically, the beginnings of an “actor’s theme.”

Another quiet, stylish performance has appeared in Moscow, where the qualities of a good ladies' novel and everyday philosophy are intertwined. "Three Tall Women" leaves a pleasant, tart aftertaste.

When several people gather for a performance not to declare principles, but simply for the sake of pleasure, their emotions are transmitted to the audience.

St. Petersburg Theater Magazine, No. 37, May 2004

Grigory Zaslavsky

Women's stories

E. Albee. "Three Tall Women"

Branch of the Theater named after. Mayakovsky (Moscow). Stage director Sergei Golomazov, artists E. Yarochkina, N. Zholobova, S. Agafonov Edward Albee is either lucky or unlucky in Russia, and in the first case it is difficult to name the reasons for his luck, and in the second it is difficult to understand the reasons for theatrical indifference. brought a representative of sexual minorities to the stage, and this flaw in his hero was in addition to another, even more noticeable, since he played the Hunchback. “Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf” directed by Valery Fokin is a “pandemonium” of successful acting works (Galina Volchek, Marina Neyolova, Valentin Gaft!) and a rare case when a domestic performance in the depth of psychoanalysis, which is semi-forbidden in our country, blocked and surpassed the overseas film reading of that the same plays, where, by the way, not the last of “their” actors, Barton and Lauren, also played.

Several years ago, Viktor Shriman’s performance in the Magnitogorsk drama, with Saido Kurbanov and Farida Muminova, also became noticeable in Russia.

And “The Goat,” one of Albee’s last plays, now that it’s possible to be about representatives of sexual minorities and about anything else! - it was never possible to stage Volchek, and she experienced this failure tragically, perhaps because the idea was already “clear and the theme was guessed”, the actors for the main roles were chosen in absentia, which had to be abandoned after not without difficulty We settled everything related to copyright. And Viktyuk did not stage it, although he also intended to and already had his own translation. Before the current premiere was played, “Three Tall Women” had no luck in Russia for a long time: it had long been translated into Russian, and not even once. More than once they started betting. For several years, plans were hatched to give the role of the old woman to Maria Mironova. The last time the play was staged in Moscow was a year or two ago, with a famous director and several famous actresses

Perhaps the most mysterious thing about the fate of this play on the Russian stage is that the successful - happy - reading of it happened when the demands of our and the American public were closer than ever. Suddenly a performance came out that made it possible to admire this play and its “non-commercial” history. And he came out - in an enterprise, seemingly - in our time - alien to any kind of seriousness (in its overwhelming majority). For a month or two, from time to time, the performance was played on the stage of the GITIS theater, in a small basement hall in Gnezdnikovsky Lane. And only after a while, having carefully looked at the performance and recognizing him not as a stranger, but as a family member, he was accepted into the branch’s poster Academic Theater named after Mayakovsky, close to the director Sergei Golomazov, and Evgenia Simonova, who played the role of a 92-year-old old woman in “Tall Women.” Both in terms of the level and cast of performers, the play, of course, deserves an academic stage.

Two more words about America and Americans. There is something that outwardly reminds Albee’s “Three Tall Women” with Wilder’s more famous play “Our Town”: both here and there describe, albeit restless and even nervous, but equally measured and inevitable flow of life, from birth to death. It’s as if the playwrights are playing with a time machine and giving pictures of the childhood or youth of the hero (heroes), their maturity and the logical ending (how is it possible to see off a person whom you have known since childhood without tears?!). In both cases, from the first lines, one feels that the author worries and sympathizes with his characters more than a writer should, since he is not talking about “A”, “B” and “C”, but about his parents and his own childhood. For those who know the story of Albee himself, the personal intonation is beyond doubt: like the son of the heroine of his play, he also left home in his youth, took the name of his adoptive father, and now, in his old age, he dedicated this play to the memory of his mother. In this - courage is no longer heroines of the play

“Three Tall Women” by Sergei Golomazov, despite its title, which implies an acting trio, is a benefit performance by Evgenia Simonova, whose performance delights: first, with enchanting details in the depiction of a sedentary 92-year-old woman who is already losing not only her memory, but also her mind (all not old women yet!), and then - the amazing energy with which she defends the truth of her heroine.

The playwright himself instructed the actress to emerge victorious.

For reference: Albee's play consists of two scenes, each with its own “life” dimension. In the first we see the old woman, her nurse and her lawyer’s assistant, in the second all three appear as three hypostases and three ages of one heroine. In order not to get confused in the names, Albee simply indexed them - A, B and C. “C,” Albee writes, looks like what “A” would look like at 26 years old (Zoya Kaidanovskaya), “B” is what she would look like at 52 years old (Vera Babicheva), “A” - looks the way she looks at 92 (Evgenia Simonova).

In the translation by Alexander Chebotar, the story does not raise any questions: this play is about the fact that each age has its own truth, and each has its own reasons for concern and grievances and its own reasons for forgiveness.

Simonova plays both happiness and old age using the most advanced acting technique (in consumer electronics, such excellence is called hi-end).

Picking her nose, she examines her prey through binoculars, endlessly forgets that the old lawyer Harry died 30 years ago, asks about him again and again and experiences another reminder that he is no longer in the world, like a momentary grief, wiping away the ever-tearing eyes and slobbering mouth. The formation of a fig, which “A”, in support of his words, turns into a reprise from the fingers of a broken hand, encased in plaster, with the help of the poorly obeying fingers of the second, not broken and more or less healthy.

Looking at her, you understand how quickly time must pass for old people in these endless worries. At the same time, “A” also sings, but in such a way that through the creak of her voice the words are barely distinguishable: “The heart is full of joy,” an aria from “Rigoletto.” Simonova manages to play (convey) the fading of consciousness, with loss of interest in the environment and those around her, when she, like a snail, suddenly hides in an invisible shell, with transitions into “autonomous existence”, and instant transformations of the heroine, who also suddenly returns to life.) - ahead, Simonova’s role would probably have been drowned in countless “age-related” details. But Simonova is a smart actress. And Golomazov, as was evident from his previous performances, is a sensible director. He knows where to open the floodgates and where to direct the acting energy in a different direction. Apart from the optional dance inclusions, the director tries to make his presence invisible and, as they used to say in the old days, to disappear into the actor-heroes (or rather, into the heroine-actresses). On the stage there are three high chairs, like those that stand in front of the bar, with an actress on each chair. Their feet do not touch the floor: since at the moment the heroine is in a state of coma (as the hospital bed in the corner of the stage reminds us), their state is the most suspended. Between heaven and earth they talk about life. About my life. That is, about what connects them. Their

human stories

for the director it is more important than any kind of directorial self-expression, especially self-satisfaction. The three monologues could have been boring if they had at least some resemblance to each other. But Albee tells the same story in such a way that it is impossible to understand that he is talking about one person. We know about this, and the heroines themselves also know, although they don’t really want to put up with it. Even “A” is ready to give up the past, let alone “S”, who at twenty-six does not want to be abandoned by her husband, or abandoned by her son, or the one who easily gets along with the groom in the stable. She doesn’t want to be them, just as she doesn’t want to die, and she doesn’t believe in death.

A: very old woman; thin, domineering, arrogant, as much as possible at her age. Bright red nails, elegantly styled hair, makeup. Beautiful nightgown and peignoir.

B: reminds me of A at 52, dressed simply.

IN: Reminds me of B in 26.

23 or so; nicely dressed (jacket, tie, shirt, jeans, light leather shoes, etc.) Scene:“Rich” bedroom in French taste. Pastel shades, with a predominance of blue. The bed is in the middle at the back of the stage with a small bench at the feet. Lace pillows, beautiful bedspread.

French painting

Vaulted passages leading to each of them.

Act one.

At first, A is in the left chair, B is in the right, C is on the bench by the bed.

A. (From nowhere to nowhere): I'm ninety-one.

B. (Pause) Really?

A. (Pause) Yes.

IN. (smiling): You're ninety-two.

A. (Longer pause; not too friendly) So be it.

B. (to B) This is true?

IN.(Shrugs; shows papers) That's what it says here.

B. (Pause.) Okay... Why does it matter?

IN. Strange pettiness!

B. Everything is forgotten.

A. (Like before.) I'm ninety-one.

B. (With a sigh) Yes.

IN. (with a grin) You're ninety-two.

B. (indifferent) Oh... don't.

IN. No! It is important. Feeling of reality...

B. It does not matter!

IN. (About myself) For me it does.

A.(Pause) I know this because he says: “You are exactly thirty years older than me; I know how old I am because I know how old you are and even if you forget how old you are, ask how old I am and you will find out. ( Pause.) Oh, he said that many times.

IN. What if he's wrong?

A. (Restrained; gradually flaring up; getting louder and louder) What?

B. It happens.

IN. (still to A.) What if he's wrong? If he is not thirty years younger than you?

A. (unexpectedly loud; rough) Imagine, he knows perfectly well how old he is.

IN. No, I mean... what if he's wrong about your age.

A. (Pause) Nonsense. How can he not be thirty years younger than me if I am thirty years older than him? He talks about it all the time. (Pause) Whenever he comes to visit me. What date is today?

B. Today (names the day that actually exists).

A. Yes?!

IN. (like to a child): Well, okay, one of you may be wrong, and it is quite likely that it is not him.

B. (Slight grin) Oh, this one.

IN. (Fleeting smile). Yes; I know I know.

A. Don't be smart. What today? What date is today?

B. (Calls the same day).

A. (Shakes his head): No.

IN. What's not?

A. Absolutely no!

B. Fine.

IN. What do you think is the date today?

A. (Embarrassed) What number? What number am I... (Eyes narrow). Well, today is today, of course. What do you think? (Turns to B; giggles)

B. Bravo, girl!

IN. What nonsense! What stupidity...

A. Don't you dare talk to me like that!

IN. (Offended) I'm sorry!

A. I'm paying you, aren't I? You can't talk to me like that.

IN. Everything is relative.

A. In what sense?

IN. You are not paying me personally. You pay someone who pays me, someone who...

A. Who cares? Don't you dare talk to me in that tone!

B. She doesn't even speak.

A. What?

B. She doesn’t speak in any such tone.

A. (vacant smile) I don't understand what you're talking about at all. (Pause). Absolutely.

Silence. Then A cries. They don't bother her. At first, out of self-pity, and then for the sake of the process itself, and finally, with rage and disgust at what was happening. This takes quite a long time.

B. (When it ended): Here you go. Now it is better?

IN. (whisper) Admit it.

B. You'll cry it all out and it'll all be gone.

A. (Laughs; slyly): and if it doesn’t reach the bottom, what then?

She laughs again; B joins her.

IN. (Shakes his head in admiration) Sometimes you're so...

A. (Menacing; sharp) Which?

IN. (Small pause). Not really. I almost said a compliment. But that doesn't matter anymore.

A. (Turning to B). What does she say? He mutters something all the time.

IN. I'm not mumbling. (With annoyance at myself). None of this matters!

A. Will anyone figure out what she's mumbling?!

B. (Calming). She just didn't finish her thought. But it does not matter.

A. (Small triumph). I'm ready to swear that he doesn't.

IN. (Persistently, but not rudely). All I wanted to say is that you can be wrong about your age, especially if you have lost count for a long time, but why hide one year...

B. (Wearily). Leave her alone. Let him think as he wants.

IN. I won't leave.

A. How do I want it?

IN. Why hide one year? I can understand, or at least try, when they throw off ten. Well, okay - seven or five - cute, witty - but one?! Lying for one year? What kind of strange ambitions?

B. Well , broke up.

A. (Mimics): Divorced.

IN.(Pursing his lips): Divorced. I can understand ten, five, or seven, but not one.

B. Here we go.

A.(K V): Off we go (K B) Where did you go?

B. She was carried away.

A. (Cheerfully): Yes; she was carried away!

IN. (Smiling): Yes.

A. (Sudden, but not panicky): I want to go out.

IN. Got it?

A. (persistently): I need to go out. I want to go out.

B. Do you want to go out? ( Rises). Vessel? Do you need a boat?

A. (Embarrassed to talk about it): No... N-e-e-t!

B. A-a. ( Addresses A). Clear. Can you do it yourself?

A.(Tearful): I don't know!

B. Okay, we'll help you. Yes? (Pointing to the walker for the disabled). Give me a walker?

A. (Almost crying) I need to go out! I don't know! As you wish! I want to go out!

B. Fine!

B lifts A to his feet. We see that left hand A is in a sling, inactive.

A. You hurt me! Hurt!

B. Fine! I'll be careful!

A. Yes, of course!!

B. Will!

A. You will not!!!

B. (Angrily) Will!

A. No, you won't! ( Standing on his own two feet, sobbing, trudges along with the help of B.) You're hurting me on purpose. You know it hurts me!!

B.(TO IN. leaving): Be the hostess.

The title of Edward Albee's play "Three Tall Women" is fully justified: in the first act (although the performance runs without intermission) on stage we see A - a 92-year-old lonely woman (a brilliant reincarnation of Evgenia Simonova), B - her 52-year-old nurse, philosophizing and ironically, and S, her lawyer’s 26-year-old assistant, who can’t wait for the old woman to finally die. In some places it’s drawn out and boring, in others it’s really funny, A, who has fallen into insanity, recalls the best moments of her passing life and gradually turns from an unbearable burden for B and C into an interesting drinking companion, from a pitiful creature into a strong personality, and more and more the viewer understands that all three are this is one and the same person standing at three different stages of life (the plot was constructed in the same way in the ever-memorable “Photo Finish” of the Ermolova Theater, only there is an excursion into the past, and here – rather into the future). In the second act, our heroines are already sitting as ghosts dressed in white over their own body, which has fallen into a coma, and, already realizing themselves as a single whole, they find out from each other what they will have next: the 26-year-old - from the 52-year-old, the one - from 92-year-old, now of sober mind and strong memory; Naturally, many surprises await everyone, and unpleasant ones at that: the positivity of the first act has ended, and hopeless fatalistic pessimism has begun. Listening to A and B, C desperately does not want to accept this scenario of her own fate: according to their stories, after just two years she will have to forget about her first love for the swordsman with purple eyes– she has a forty-year marriage ahead of her with a one-eyed “penguin” and short-lived pleasures with her lover-groom, an alcoholic sister and a crazy mother, in-laws who hate her and a gay son who ran away from home. As they say, life was not a success, but the attempt was counted. A bright note to this dark kingdom They only contributed to the discussion that flared up at the end about what period of life is the happiest - at the beginning of the journey, when you believe in the best, halfway, when you see both youth and old age, or at the end of the journey, when everything is done and all that remains is to rejoice every day that is still alive – and the ending itself, which I won’t spoil. I cannot agree with the hopelessly gloomy moral of the play, which can be expressed in the phrase of one of the heroines - “If everyone knew what would happen next, the streets would be littered with the corpses of young people committing suicide.” Still, it seems to me that everyone builds their own destiny, everyone is to blame for most of their problems, and everyone is capable of changing many inconvenient circumstances (that’s what prevented the heroine from divorcing the “penguin”, and why complain about twenty years of loneliness after she herself read my son’s personal correspondence and thereby forced him to leave home?). Still, it is worth recognizing that “Photo Finish” was more life-affirming, but “Three Tall Women” is staged and acted well enough that you can think about them, trying on the views of people with different degrees of experience on the same things, to to the same classical music and the dancing adds a fair amount of touching in between the overly cynical text. In general, it’s a high-quality product, but not for everybody – I liked it, but I can’t promise the same effect for others.