“Arguments and Facts” No. 32 (August 1999)
Svetlana Kuzina:
In a spacious room with walls upholstered, as in a mental hospital, with something soft, the only furnishings are three loungers and an “Oscar-like” statue. But there are three doors leading here. Through them, one by one, the imperturbable manager lets the nervous young man and two anxious ladies: one is younger, but the other is more elegant. These three are clearly strangers, but, locked together, they begin to behave like spiders in a jar - they either strive to make love, or squabble to the point of fighting. And they argue constantly. This is what it looks like, according to the director Alexandra Mokhova, one of the circles of hell is the judgment of one’s own conscience.
How colorful they are - a coward shot for desertion ( Andrey Sokolov) and two charming... killers ( Irina Alferova And Natalia Petrova)! How they cling to a bygone life, unable to come to terms with the cruel outcome - the verdict on their earthly path! How earnestly they seek each other’s sympathy! But their spontaneous confessions are only partly true.
If N. Petrova known more from films and a fairly new face on the Moscow stage, then A. Sokolov And I. Alferova– actors more than familiar to the viewer. However, the play “Behind a Closed Door” revealed some new, amazing facets in them”; maybe the famous “Lenkom” is not fully using the capabilities of its stars?
“Nezavisimaya Gazeta” 03/30/99
Valentina Fedorova:
The domestic theatrical enterprise never ceases to amaze. Following the appearance of Frisch's play in one enterprise, ... Jean-Paul Sartre appears in another. Moreover, with one of his most conceptual plays, “Behind a Closed Door,” which largely determined an entire direction of research about Sartre...
...There is nothing scary in this hell. Strange, yes, but not terrible. And although the fun of the new arrivals has a somewhat hysterical connotation, they, nevertheless, do not lose their sense of humor. The director's undoubted success is the correctly found tonality of the performance, its rapid rhythm, and nervous bravado. Perhaps the most clear character is Ines Serano. In performance Natalia Petrova- This is a long-legged, spectacular brunette in irritating red, deliberately harsh and provocative. This bitch is heartless and cruel, like life itself.
Estelle Rigo, performed by Irina Alferova, at first seems to be her complete opposite. An elegant, charming lady, she seems like a charming coquette, a brilliant butterfly. But her tragedy is gradually revealed. The cruelty of this sweetest creature suddenly manifests itself in her almost market-like scream... Alferova did not have to play negative characters very often. Here she demonstrates facets of her talent unknown to us. She is not afraid to even be funny when she absurdly clings to the only man she has left forever.
Joseph Garcin, a pacifist journalist who exposes himself as a coward, is played by a popular theater and film actor. Andrey Sokolov. The equanimity and respectability of the first episodes, slightly seasoned with understandable nervousness, are replaced by almost childish despair, a boyish thirst for recognition. The actor conveys a strange combination of strength and dependence on others, sparing no satirical colors...
Hell is others. We are all executioners and victims. But not everything is so gloomy, gentlemen. In our terrible age, the search for a moral imperative seems inevitable. So maybe he is there, behind a closed door?
“New Time” 11.28.99
Larisa Davtyan:
...In the treatment of the “Players” theater to Sartre’s play “Behind a Closed Door” one can discern a certain experience of “intellectual banter” in the performance Andrey S O Kolova, Irina Alferova, Natalia Petrova And Rudolf Sarkisov, who should not be afraid to overdo it with irony. After all, the receptacle of hell imagined by Sartre, where a sinner meets two sinners, does not at all imply the pathos of walking through “Dante’s circle.” The heroes of this performance (scenography Victor Krylov), according to its director Alexandra Mokhova(the directorial debut of the “Snuffbox” artist) are rather driven into a corner. And in his impasse, they will have to discover the extremely simple truth that “hell is others,” and accept the doom of “coexistence,” the inevitability of which can only be diluted by laughter. And, perhaps, it is symbolic that this so-called “hellish story” was voiced by a composer from the former team of “Jolly Fellows” Sergey Shustitsky, finding justification for euphonious harmonies in such a seemingly alien place for them, and with broken tango rhythms giving the otherworldly action a flavor of farce...
“Evening Moscow”, June 2, 1998
Irina Kretova:
...The director recreates Sartre’s “theater of situations”, in which “torture by thought” pushes aside intrigue, life is sharpened to a graphic, laboratory sketch. The action of a tragic farce is limited by a predetermined, constructed conditional situation - “hell”, in which people will be punished for their earthly sins. In this hell there are no braziers, spits and cauldrons, no executioners. Just a room with closed doors, and in it there are three completely different people... At first glance, they are in no way connected with each other, however, each of them carries the “bacillus of evil” from birth, and each of them is the executioner of the other. But it’s difficult for the heroes to agree with this... In order to understand this and find salvation from “hellish” torment, they will have to go through all the circles...
House of Culture named after S.M. Zueva is not just one of the capital's theater venues. This is a unique monument of constructivist architecture. Its unique appearance is known to specialists all over the world, since it is one of the first workers' clubs in the capital, opened in 1926. The author of the project is the famous Soviet architect Ilya Golosov. From the outside, it seems as if the massive concrete body of the building is mounted on a huge cylinder of glass. During construction, it was assumed that the cultural center would be used for cultural and political events.
Repertoire of the House of Culture named after S.M. Zueva
Currently on the bill House of Culture named after S.M. Zueva You can see various performances and concerts. In particular, comedians from an unusual group called “Quartet I” found shelter here in 1990. Its members are now known throughout the country, but to this day they consider their hometown House of Culture named after S.M. Zueva. The premieres of their famous plays “Radio Day”, “Conversations of Middle-Aged Men”, “Faster than Rabbits”, “Election Day” took place here. Also on this stage, productions of other groups are shown - “Not like everyone else”, “The Tempter”, “Station for Three”, “First Number”, “Coming Home”.
How to get to the House of Culture named after S.M. Zueva
The Palace of Culture building is located in the north of Moscow, on Lesnaya Street, which is located between the Garden and the Third Ring Road. First you need to get to the Belorusskaya metro station. From there you need to go to Lesnaya Street. There, turn right and walk for five minutes. Then turn left and soon you will be able to see the building House of Culture named after S.M. Zueva. It is located at the turn to 2nd Lesnoy Lane.
Quartet I
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theater quartet I
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Yesterday on stage regional philharmonic society an entreprise performance based on Jean-Paul Sartre's play “Behind a Closed Door” took place, the main roles in which were played by folk artists Russia Andrey Sokolov and Irina Alferova.
Kemerovo residents saw a production based on one of Jean-Paul Sartre's plays, which was extremely unusual for the domestic enterprise stage. It is in this work that the famous French philosopher and the writer expressed the idea that “hell is other people.”
The plot of the play is briefly as follows: a nervous young man and two anxious ladies take turns entering a spacious room with three sunbeds and soft walls. It turns out that they are all sinners, and already dead: a coward who was shot for desertion, and female killers. Now they are either in hell or in purgatory and, locked together, they begin to behave like spiders in a jar: they either strive to make love, or squabble to the point of fighting. And they argue constantly.
Before the start of the performance, journalists asked Andrei Sokolov whether the audience was ready for this kind of production? After all, usually enterprises are light and funny, but this one makes you think seriously.
This performance is already 10 years old, and all this time it has been popular,” the artist replied. - I have not yet encountered negative reviews about the performance in the press, and there are always spectators. There’s just too much “fast food” in art now, and we’re trying to avoid it...
- Your partner on stage is Irina Alferova. How do you feel about her - as an actress and a woman?
“I don’t even know how to answer this question,” Sokolov said after thinking a little. - So that the husband would not be offended, and Irina would be pleased (smiles). You see, our project has existed for a very long time, and this “feeling of elbow room” has arisen when we do everything together and reflexively. Although only in the last two years have I begun to clearly understand what I am doing in this performance. Previously, my game was a continuous search. The play is very difficult, the material is complex. But my partners are wonderful!
Andrey, this is not your first time performing in Kemerovo - you played on the stage of the drama theater, were at the birthday party of the Moscow Cinema House, and celebrated City Day with us. What can you say about the Kemerovo public?
There was one funny incident at one of my performances. We go on stage, play, and there is silence in the hall. Ten minutes pass, twenty minutes - the audience does not react at all. After the first act we “sent in the Cossack”. As it turned out, the audience was instructed not to disturb the actors. But, thank God, the second act went better, the audience began to react to our performance. I don’t want to single out Kemerovo residents as separate species public. I can only say that in Siberia the audience is alive.
- When returning home after a performance, what do you prefer to do? How do you relax?
“It all depends on the amount of free time,” Sokolov shrugs. - Now we have a very big tour - eight cities, so it’s quite difficult to relax in the car. If you have more time and have the opportunity to go somewhere, then best place- forest. I am by nature a person who loves to be close to trees and nature. And I prefer active recreation - hunting, for example.