Honestly, this is a performance after which not a single critic discounts the Pushkin Theater anymore. The first powerful work after the death of Roman Kozak, who headed the theater from 2001 to 2010 and set a course for “serious” theater.
The premieres that appeared in the theater before “The Good Man…” were by no means bad. All of these were high-quality productions, but - to be honest - with an entertaining message, mostly comedies. In this context, the tragic performance of Bertolt Brecht for the Pushkin Theater is a serious milestone in history.
PLOT
In search of a good person, the gods descend to earth. In the main city of Sichuan province, no one wants to accept them for the night, except for the prostitute Shen Te. In gratitude, the gods give Shen Te some money - with it she buys a small tobacco shop. And then begins what is usually called “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” People take advantage of Shen Te's kindness. Things are going very badly at the shop. To save herself from ruin, the girl dresses up in men's suit and pretends to be his cousin Shui Ta, a cruel and calculating businessman.
Shui Ta conducts business harshly, refuses everyone who turns to him for help, and, unlike Shen Te, things are going well for his “brother.” In a chain of rapidly developing events, Shui Ta forces numerous parasites to work for Shen Te and eventually opens a small tobacco factory. It all ends with Shui Ta being accused of murdering his cousin. The gods undertake to judge him. That's it in short.
ABOUT THE TIME
Brecht wrote the play for 11 years, from 1930 to 1941. Although the location of the events is designated as the Chinese province of Sichuan, Brecht explains in the stage directions that this could happen anywhere in the world. globe, “where man exploits man.”
Meanwhile, the following is happening in the world:
Benito Mussolini puts forward the idea of a corporate state, that is, the idea of the state as the power of corporations representing and harmonizing the interests of all segments of the population (as opposed to parliamentary democracy as the power of parties). Fascist ideology originated in Italy in the late 1910s, with the Italian Fascist Party coming to power and establishing Mussolini's dictatorship in 1922.
Begins Civil War in Spain. As historians write, this was a battle test between fascism and communism. While the Republicans turned to the USSR for military assistance, Italy and Germany provided assistance to the nationalists. The Comintern began recruiting people into anti-fascist international brigades.
World War II begins. With the coming to power of the National Socialist Workers' Party led by Adolf Hitler in 1933, Germany begins to ignore all the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles - in particular, it restores conscription into the army and quickly increases the production of weapons and military equipment. On October 14, 1933, Germany withdraws from the League of Nations and refuses to participate in the Geneva Disarmament Conference. On July 24, 1934, Germany attempted to carry out the Anschluss of Austria.
On March 7, 1936, German troops occupy the Rhineland demilitarized zone. Great Britain and France do not offer effective resistance to this, limiting themselves to formal protest. On November 25 of the same year, Germany and Japan concluded the Anti-Comintern Pact on the joint fight against communism. On November 6, 1937, Italy joined the pact.
From 1939 to 1945, about 40 million people died in Europe - 2 million Western Europeans, almost 7 million Germans and more than 30 million Eastern Europeans and citizens of the USSR.
AUTHOR
Bertolt Brecht- German poet, prose writer, playwright, also known as a theater reformer and revolutionary. His work has always caused a lot of controversy; any premiere was accompanied by scandals. Nevertheless, Brecht's theory of epic theater revolutionized the theater of the 20th century.
Brecht contrasted his theory with the “psychological” theater (“theater of experience”), which is associated with the name of K. S. Stanislavsky.
What's the point?
A combination of drama and epic.
The principle of distancing, allowing the actor to express his attitude towards the character.
The destruction of the so-called fourth wall, separating the stage from the auditorium, and the possibility of direct communication between the actor and the audience (the latter has become very firmly established in European theatrical culture).
Performance as a form of reflection of reality, including political reality.
Refusal to recreate the environment, conventional design, only the main signs of place and time.
The action is often accompanied by inscriptions that are projected onto the curtain or onto the backdrop of the stage.
Music as an effective element that enhances the text (zongs).
Ragged rhythm as “a protest against the smoothness and harmony of ordinary verse.”
The performance is a calling to build a new world.
Plays are Brecht's main legacy, which made him world famous. He wrote them on the topic of the day and, in his words, dreamed of a time when the world around him would change so much that everything he wrote would be irrelevant. Alas. " a kind person from Sichuan" (translation option "The Good Man from Sezuan", German: Der gute Mensch von Sezuan) is a play completed in 1941 in Finland, one of the most striking embodiments of the theory of epic theater. Originally called "The Goods of Love" (Die Ware Liebe) and was conceived as a domestic drama.
Brecht dedicated “The Good Man...” to his wife, actress Elena Weigel, and the main role was intended for her.
QUOTES
“Your world is cruel! Too much need. Too much despair! You extend your hand to a poor man, and he snatches it away! You help a lost person and you disappear yourself!.. There is probably some kind of falsehood in your world.”
“Good people / In our country cannot remain good for long, / Where the plates are empty, the eaters constantly fight. / Ah, the commandments of the gods / Do not help when there is nothing to eat. / Why don’t the gods come to our markets, / And open the cornucopia to us with a smile, / And don’t allow us, refreshed with bread and wine, / From now on to be friendly and kind to each other?”
“I saw the need, / And wolf rage filled my heart. Then / I realized that transformation was inevitable - my mouth / Became a cleft palate, kind words / Burned my tongue, but still / I wanted to be an “angel of the suburbs.” I couldn’t refuse the pleasure / Help. Just one / Happy smile - and I was already floating in the clouds. / Judge me, but know that I committed these crimes / to help my neighbors, / To love my beloved, and to / Save my own son from poverty. / I’m sorry, but I, a mere human, cannot fulfill divine plans. Help!"
DIRECTOR
Yuri Butusov graduated from the shipbuilding institute. In 1996 he graduated from the directing department at the academy. theatrical arts in St. Petersburg. He staged his first performances with fellow actors: Konstantin Khabensky, Mikhail Porechenkov, Mikhail Trukhin. He made his debut at the Lensovet Theater in 1997 with the play “Woyzeck” based on the play by Georg Büchner, including songs by Tom Waits. Today Butusov - main director The Lensovet Theater also stages performances not only on the leading stages of Russia, but also in Norway, Bulgaria, and South Korea.
Winner of the National Theater Award " Golden mask", the highest theater award of St. Petersburg "Golden Sofit", the theater award named after. K. S. Stanislavsky, “Chaika” Prize.
Signs of the director's style: a penchant for the tragic farce genre, eccentricity, deliberateness, sensuality, audacity, hysteria combined with a philosophical search. Experiments with theatrical form. Always a brutal soundtrack, a mix of pop, rock and jazz hits.
Scandal around Yuri Butusov: In the spring of 2012, Butusov had an acute conflict with the then chairman of the Culture Committee, Dmitry Meskhiev, who tried to prohibit the director from working in other cities and abroad. Butusov threatened to leave the theater, he was supported by the theater community, and Meskhiev soon resigned.
Alexander Matrosov, performer of the role of Wang:“Butusov is a man of utmost honesty with himself. We all take so much time for ourselves. But he doesn't. She never flirts, she puts out what she has.
He doesn’t feel sorry for you or himself. This is his strength and wisdom. At this stage of life - to hell with this word - Butusov is my idol.” Alexander Arsentiev, performer of the role of Young Sun: “Yuri Nikolaevich and I worked together on only one performance, and all these notions about a tyrant are a big theatrical myth. Yuri Nikolaevich is very vulnerable, literally crystal inside. He is a very educated, gifted director with an interesting way of thinking. And, what is most important for me, Yuri Nikolaevich creative person
with a big heart. Everything he does, he does with mental effort.”
“Theater is a convention. The general agreement is that there, on the stage, there can be castles, fields, another time, space - anything. Magic occurs when we all begin to believe in these proposed circumstances. We are all united by a common desire for truth. It seems to me that this is the most important thing in Yuri Nikolaevich - the ability to discern the truth. Moreover, on stage everything can be turned upside down: a woman can play a man, an old man can play a young man, a young man can play an old man. Everything that happens in Butusov’s performances is true.”
5 REASONS TO WATCH THE PERFORMANCE:
A decisive and uncompromising director's statement. It’s not at all about the social motivations of revolutions and the injustice of society. But about how poorly the world works in general.
Grandiose acting work, especially by Alexandra Ursulyak (performer of the role of Shen Te and Shui Ta).
Detachment from era and place.
Critics saw only one “flaw” in the performance. Thus, he was accused of being an “imperfect ensemble.” The reason is that most of the actors are used to playing comedies. It was difficult for them to adjust.
Alexander Matrosov, performer of the role of Wang: “For the artists who are involved in it, this performance changed the consciousness. We have grown both as people and as professionals. If we take the Pushkin Theater as a phenomenon, I think we were ready for such a performance since it happened. Just as athletes set their records, so do we. After “The Good Man...” it is impossible to play badly. Even Evgeny Aleksandrovich Pisarev noticed that we had become different. This is the standard we have set, and we are already building on it.”
Alexandra Ursulyak, performer of the roles of Shen Te and Shui Ta:“This performance is a precedent and a serious statement. But this does not mean that the Pushkin Theater was green and now suddenly turned red. It doesn't happen that way. You cannot create something good on bad soil. And our theater has always been good. We have a wonderful troupe, hard-working, real. I believe that any director will find it pleasant and interesting to work with us. Yuri Nikolaevich we really love
Alexander Arsentiev,performer as Young Sun: “Nothing just happens. Roman Efimovich Kozak set a serious direction for the theater, and Evgeny Aleksandrovich Pisarev picked it up. And, apparently, for such a performance as “A Good Man...”, the time has come, and we have “ripened”: we have become older, more experienced. But no one set the troupe the task of taking the heights. To be honest, we didn’t expect success at all. We thought it was just another experiment. But everything turned out the way it did. The performance was created by touch, by inspiration. It was as if we were weaving a web that you could blow on and it would break. Therefore, every detail in the performance and a healthy atmosphere inside is important for “The Good Man...”.”
WHAT CHANGED?
Butusov refuses criticism and social pathos. He fundamentally removed any hints of rebellion against the regime and placed emphasis not on the political component of Brecht’s play, but on the universal one.
Butusov came up with a plastic “feature” for each character: the landlady Mi Jiu (Irina Petrova) moves sideways, Mrs. Shin (Natalya Reva-Ryadinskaya) constantly waves her arms, the water seller Wang becomes a cripple with cerebral palsy.
Godless challenge. Brecht wrote a play as a challenge to society.
Butusov did not include all the zongs in the performance; he abandoned openly moralizing ones, including the final one. Brecht ended the play with the lines: “The bad ending is discarded in advance - it must, must, must be good.”
MUSIC
Music in Butusov's play is a full participant in the action (according to Brecht). The chamber ensemble of soloists “Pure Music” by Igor Gorsky performs works by composer Paul Dessau. The sound is sharp, expressive, alarming. And it's ubiquitous. Even when the zongs are not playing, the ensemble continues to play.
Zongs are the reference points of the director's concept. They sound in German (again, according to Brecht - removal of the author). The interlinear text is shown as a creeping line on a special screen.
ARTIST
Alexander Shishkin is Butusov’s regular collaborator. Among domestic theater artists, he is one of the most sought-after, productive and successful. Works mainly with directors of his generation - Yuri Butusov, Victor Kramer, Andrei Moguchiy, etc. Winner of the theater awards “The Seagull” (2002), “Crystal Turandot” (2004), “Golden Mask” (2008), Stanislavsky Prize (2009).
At the same time with theater work Alexander Shishkin continues to be an easel artist. He is engaged in both traditional painting and unusual digital painting, creating huge, very similar oil works using a computer (in 2003, his exhibition was held at the Russian Art Festival in Nice). Shishkin’s track record also includes performances: he organized large events in Turin (“Parade of City Creatures”) and in Helsinki (“Pillar Incubator”).
The scenery for The Good Man of Szechwan is spare and symbolic. Before the viewer is a picture of the end of times. The stage is bare, the backdrop is a brick wall that serves as a video screen - portraits of the characters and modern video art are projected onto it. Boards and sacks are scattered everywhere, and there is an old rusty bed in the corner. There is a door, but it leads to nowhere. In one of the scenes, bare, dry trees come down from the grate.
The lights are dim all the time. The costumes are laconic and extremely simple.
COMPLEXITY OF REHEARSAL
There are legends in theater circles about how difficult it is to rehearse with Yuri Butusov. Some are sure that there is no more gloomy and silent director in the whole country. On this score, the performers of the main roles in “A Good Man...” express the exact opposite opinion.
Alexandra Ursulyak, performer of the role of Shen Te and Shui Ta:“Yuri Nikolaevich is a wonderful director, one of the brightest of our time. But there are situations when the director must overcome the actor's fear, the artist's reluctance to work, or misunderstanding. Then Butusov uses more aggressive methods. He sometimes says himself: “I come into conflict with the artist.” An uncomfortable situation for him is something like soil on which something can grow. We tried to be attentive to him in order to feel and understand the coordinate system in which he exists. The further we went into work, the more we felt the warmth from him. Yuri Nikolaevich is very reserved and never demonstrates his attitude. But personally, what I feel is enough for me. You don't have to say everything out loud. He's quiet, that's true. But he also knows how to explain, believe me. And if he doesn’t say something, then there is intent in this too. And sometimes his silence just means that everything is fine. Because when it’s bad, he speaks right away.”
The legendary performance from which the history of the Taganka Theater began, and which laid the foundation for the signature Taganka style: direct appeal to the audience, conventional action, detachment from the image, “live” music and zongs - short rhythmic songs that you want to sing along with.
The plot of the play is conveyed in a few words. The gods who descended to earth are looking for at least one good person. But, as it turns out, even in the soul of a good person evil exists and periodically gains the upper hand. These deep and serious thoughts are presented in a light, elegant, and sometimes satirical form.
The plot of Bertolt Brecht's play was based on the duality of our material world: good impulses turn into cruel acts, the desire to do good causes pain, the “wrath of fate,” as T. Mann put it, becomes “far-sighted kindness.” Yes, the gods present Shen Te with a gift, but a good person must pay for it with awareness of the truth about the world order and mental suffering, the need to be tough and sometimes cruel in order to survive and give others the opportunity to live. Shen Te is a product of the world of duality, for her there is no other way but to live according to its laws, she does not have the strength to break the rules of the game. This is where the ironic and condescending attitude of the gods towards her comes from, this is where their demand for “regulations” for the appearance of the “shadow” hypostasis of Shen Te - Shui Ta’s cousin - comes from.
What conclusion should the viewer draw from Brecht's parable play? The world is dual and, therefore, cruelty must be taken for granted? Is the person left with suffering and pessimism? No. Bertolt Brecht, Yuri Lyubimov and the actors of the Taganka Theater suggest thinking and understanding that only reason and strict control over the manifestations of one’s “shadow”, cruel nature will help maintain the balance between good and evil. Reason and intellect are the only weapons of man in the world of duality. This is the call of the gods and the declaration of the author.
The parable play about the need to affirm goodness through the power of reason will be modern and timely as long as the material world exists. That is why for almost 50 years the performance has not left the stage, combining the theater of thought of B. Brecht and the theater of form of Yu. Lyubimov, which has become the hallmark of the Taganka Theater.
Director - Yuri Lyubimov
Music - Boris Khmelnitsky, Anatoly Vasiliev
The actors performing in the performance are:
Maria Matveeva, Alexey Grabbe, Anatoly Vasiliev, Galina Trifonova, Ivan Ryzhikov, Larisa Maslova, Dmitry Vysotsky, Vladislav Malenko, Timur Badalbeyli, Anastasia Kolpikova, Tatyana Sidorenko, Felix Antipov, Polina Nechitailo, Sergey Trifonov, Yulia Kuvarzina and others.
The duration of the performance is 2 hours 45 minutes.
You see, Lyovushka, no matter what happens, the main thing is to be able to remain human.
(E. Radzinsky “104 pages about love”)
He knows how to do this - to be different, new, unexpected, while maintaining his unique author's style, which the Moscow public has passionately and faithfully loved for more than 10 years. This is its distinctive feature. And he does not become cemented, does not ossify in his remarkable skill - somehow he remains alive, light, youthfully desperate and passionate, perhaps even progressing in this from performance to performance. And you can’t create this artificially, it comes from within, from yourself. Yes, probably like this: he creates his performances in his own image and likeness and necessarily breathes into them a part of his soul, in the sense of his own. That's how I feel about it. And from performance to performance, he seems to push the boundaries of his capabilities - easily and confidently - and takes the viewer with him into a new space. He repeats in an interview: “the viewer is a friend and ally.” The emotional exchange with the audience is the final touch, the last layer on each of his works—probably that’s also why we love them so much and are so involved in them. He is completely restless, inexhaustible with energy, ideas and plans. And the theaters are tearing it apart. And I don’t understand how he manages everything and does it in a bright, extraordinary, high-quality and powerful way. He is the best director in the country - Yuri Nikolaevich Butusov.
Just now, in October, at his Lensoveta Theater in St. Petersburg, he released the strongest, absolutely fantastic “Macbeth” (if the performance does not collect a harvest of prizes at the end of the season - honestly, all these prizes are worthless), as in February, in Moscow Pushkin Theater - also unlike anything hitherto in his director’s biography, the most complex and serious work based on Brecht “The Good Man from Szechwan” with marvelous original music by Paul Dessau, a live orchestra “Pure Music” on stage and zongs performed live by artists on German(and since Yuri Nikolaevich is, in a sense, a trendsetter in terms of stage techniques, then expect a series of performances in Moscow in the coming years with authentic music and songs in Japanese, Hungarian, Yagan or Tuyuka). The play itself is very complex and everything inside is in hypertexts, but Yuri Butusov, of course, plowed and overhauled Brecht’s text and sowed it with his own hypertext. Now all this will gradually (this is how all his works affect eyewitnesses) will germinate and emerge in our heads. For now, these are just first superficial impressions.
I almost forgot: artist Alexander Shishkin and choreographer Nikolai Reutov helped him create the performance - that is, there is a full composition of the star team.
Again I have to mention one thing. About my interpretation of the works of this director. I really like to understand them, or rather, I try to do it. His imaginative thinking pushes me into the space of images, but, getting carried away, I can wander somewhere completely wrong. In other words, Yuri Nikolaevich puts on plays about something about his own, and I watch them about something about mine. And I can’t imagine how often we intersect with him, or whether we intersect at all. In general, don't take anything for granted.
So, “The Good Man of Szechwan.” In Brecht's play, socio-political motives are clearly read, which, as they say, was emphasized in the famous (and which I did not see) Yuri Lyubimov's performance at Taganka. Yuri Butusov, on the other hand, is much more (and traditionally) occupied with issues relating to the complex and contradictory nature of man, human personality and features of interpersonal relationships. Strictly speaking, this is the base, the foundation on which it is then built, incl. and the socio-political platform and in general any other one you want. A man with his complex inner world- primary.
On stage, as usual with Yuri Nikolaevich, there is little, but all this is from his “director’s backpack.” MacBett's (Magritte's) door, gray stones-boulders (from Duck hunting) scattered all over the floor, at the back of the stage is the dressing room (from The Seagull and Macbeth) - this is the house of Shen Te (who, while waiting for the client, will be dressed in a cloak made of black “polyethylene” - Macbeth - and a black wig from The Seagull), planed boards (Lear), in the left corner of the stage there is a bed (Macbett, Richard, Lear, The Seagull), figurines of dogs that look more like wolves (Yuri Nikolaevich’s dogs live in almost all performances), on the proscenium there is a small table-“stool” and chairs everywhere , some are overturned (a loose, shaky, rotten world? think about it). Actually, that's all. Before us is a poor quarter of Szechwan, in which the gods are trying to find at least one kind person. Over the almost 4 hours of the performance, the set design will change very little (he knows how to fill the stage with other things: energy, acting, music, riddles), and, of course, every object that appears will not be accidental.
The aesthetics of the performance sends us associations to Foss’s “Cabaret” (in fact, the zongs in German are obviously for the same reason). Parallel. Voss's film shows Germany during the birth of fascism, i.e. on the eve of the world catastrophe, just as on the eve of the catastrophe the Brechtian world froze. At the beginning of the performance, Wang will say harshly and emphatically: “The world CANNOT remain like this any longer if there is not at least one kind person in it.” In the public translation of the play, the phrase sounds different: “The world CAN remain like this if there are enough people worthy of the title of man.” Both phrases are about an unstable balance - that the world has frozen at a dangerous line, beyond which there is an abyss. I don’t know German, I don’t know what the original phrase of the play sounds like, but it’s quite obvious that the second phrase is about the fact that the world is still before the line, and the first – that it’s already a spade, that’s all.
The same boulder stones associatively signal that “the time has come to collect stones” (Book of Ecclesiastes). The expression “time to collect stones,” as an independent expression, is used in the meaning of “time to create,” and in relation to Brecht’s play, I would translate it as “time to change something.” Until it's not too late.
Or the fine sand that the water-carrier Wang will pour first onto the white material on the proscenium, and then onto his own head. This is not sand. Or rather, it is sand for God (sand is a symbol of time, eternity). For Wang, this is rain, water. Yuri Nikolaevich conjures water here, just as he can conjure snow. But now I won’t go into detail about the props; there’s a lot more that needs to be said.
Surprises begin from the first moments of the performance. Yuri Butusov's Brechtian three gods turned into a quiet, silent girl (Anastasia Lebedeva) in a long black coat thrown over sports shorts and a T-shirt. She is an inconspicuous, quiet girl, but the holy fool - the water-carrier Wang - unmistakably recognizes her as the messenger of the Wise, for holy fools are God's people, and how can they not recognize God in the crowd. And while the unfortunate Shen Te courageously tries to bear the overwhelming burden of the mission placed on her shoulders by the gods, Wang watches what is happening and in dialogues (and in fact, monologues) with the gods tries for herself to answer the questions asked by Brecht in the Epilogue of the play, which Yuri Butusov logically omitted it, since these questions are its essence:
Surely there must be some sure way out?
For money you can’t imagine - which one!
Another hero? What if the world is different?
Or maybe other gods are needed here?
Or without gods at all?..
As we unwind and comprehend this tangle of questions, Wang’s attitude towards the Gods changes - from blind enthusiastic worship (with kissing feet) through complete disappointment (then he will drag her onto the stage like a sack) to conscious... I can’t find the words... let there be a “partnership”. When disappointment in the gods reaches its limit, Wang begins to speak and behave like an ordinary person (without stuttering, cramped muscles) - as if he refuses to be a man of God. And, perhaps, I’ll adjust my assumption regarding sand. Still, for Wang this is also not water, but sand, a symbol of God. By pouring it on his head at the beginning, he denotes both his closeness to the Wise Ones (like a holy fool) and his unquestioning worship of them.
Yes, here it is also important, in my opinion, why Yuri Nikolaevich deprived the girl-God of almost all words, making her almost mute at times. Whether there is a God or not is a deeply personal, intimate question for each individual person, and that is not what we are talking about here (by the way, Luka in Gorky in “At the Depths” gives a wonderful answer to this question: “If you believe, there is; if you don’t believe, - no. What you believe in is what it is”). Here we are talking about this reciprocal silence. There is great benefit in silence: having reflected from it, the question returns to the one who asked it, and the person begins to deal with it himself, think, analyze, weigh, and draw conclusions. And this is what all the sages and philosophers seem to be talking about: the answers to all questions can be found in yourself. The silence of the girl-God in the play by Yuri Butusov allows Wang to answer the questions that are important to him.
“..if you continue to look within - it takes time - little by little you will begin to feel a beautiful light within. This is not an aggressive light; he is not like the sun, he is more like the moon. It doesn't sparkle, it doesn't blind, it's very cool. He is not hot, he is very compassionate, very softening; it's a balm.
Little by little, when you tune into the inner light, you will see that you yourself are its source. The seeker is the sought. Then you will see that the real treasure is inside you, and the whole problem was that you were looking outside. You were looking somewhere outside, but it was always inside you. It's always been here, inside you." (Osho)
Well, while the finale is still far away, Shen Te, chosen by the gods to be the savior of the world (amazing work by Alexandra Ursulyak), gradually comprehends the bitter truth that if a person wants to live, it is impossible to be ideally kind (and therefore impossible to complete the mission). Kindness that cannot repel evil in order to simply protect itself is doomed (“a predator always knows who is easy prey for him”). And in general it is impossible to be an exemplary bearer of any one quality. If only because (I know this is a banality) everything in the world is relative. For ten people you are kind, and the eleventh will say that you are evil. And everyone will have arguments in favor of their opinion. You can even do nothing at all: neither good nor evil, but there will still be both people who consider you good and people who consider you bad, and, by the way, they can change places. This world is a world of assessments. Subjective momentary assessments that instantly become outdated (I really love this quote from Murakami: “The cells of the body are completely, one hundred percent, renewed every month. We change all the time. Here, even right now. Everything you know about me is no more than your own memories"). Even you yourself don’t know what you really are, because in unforeseen situations you sometimes reveal things you didn’t even suspect about yourself. Or, on the contrary, you were absolutely sure that you would do something, but the moment comes and you remain inactive. Every human action and deed (like every word, even thrown casually, for a word is also an action, moreover, a thought is also an action), like any coin, has two sides, two results opposite in sign.
For example, Shui Ta, wanting to “correct” Sun Yang, gives him the opportunity to work off wasted money and generally find a permanent job and make a career. Noble mission. Good deed. And Song, in fact, gradually becomes the right hand of Shui Ta, but at the same time - a complete beast in relation to other workers, causing nothing but hatred towards himself. And also - he no longer wants to fly, he has lost his “wings”, which breaks the mother’s heart of Mrs. Young, who knows what a first-class pilot her boy is, and remembers how happy he was in the sky, since he was created for him.
I can’t resist.. This is what Chekhov’s “The Black Monk” is about. While Kovrin was not entirely adequate and had conversations with a ghost, he was absolutely happy, believed in his chosenness and indeed showed great promise and was, perhaps, a future genius of science. But a loving wife, frightened of him state of mind, with the best of intentions, she put him on pills and took him to the village to drink fresh milk. Kovrin physically recovered, stopped seeing the Black Monk, stopped believing in his chosenness, lost the desire to work, went out, faded and became nothing, no one. What is good and what is evil here? What is normal, what is pathology? Delusions of grandeur grew in a person a great scientist who was able (and eager) to benefit humanity. The woman’s desire to save her beloved husband from illness led to her ruining him.
A person learns about the Law of unity and struggle of opposites in school, before entering the big life. Concepts that are opposite in meaning “go in pairs” - everything is interconnected, interdependent, one cannot exist without the other and is rarely found in its pure form (if found at all). Without its opposite, good is not good and evil is not evil - they are such only against the background of each other. Quote from E. Albee: “I realized that kindness and cruelty on their own, separately from one another, lead to nothing; and at the same time, in combination, they teach you to feel.” And no matter how you weigh the facts or subject them to spectral analysis, when assessing something, you will almost certainly make a mistake, not in general, but in particular. We live in a world of misunderstanding and delusion and persist in it. “Do not rush to judge and do not rush to despair” - the translation of a phrase from one of the zongs will appear on the electronic line.
There are no perfectly good people on earth. And not at all ideal people, and if there were - what a melancholy it would be to be among them (on this topic - a person getting into some ideal space according to his ideas - a lot of things have been written and filmed. It’s really scary). And in vain the tired God - a quiet girl in worn-out shoes - wanders the earth in search of an ideally kind person (on stage she will walk on a treadmill and ride a bicycle - this is all about her search). Her legs were wiped bloody (already in her first appearance), then she was barely alive (in Brecht’s text, “good people” gave one of the Gods a bruise under the eye, and this girl-God has bloody bandages on her arms, head, neck , belly) Wang will drag her to the front of the stage, and for the third time he will carry her out completely lifeless. God himself could not survive in the world, which he ordered to live according to his, divine, rules. People mutilated God, abused him (in the play - not knowing that it was God (the townspeople did not recognize her at the beginning), and deep meaning- such a God with his commandments is not needed by people, he is powerless), and God died. And Wang contemptuously throws a handful of sand on the lifeless body, uttering a phrase that in the original play belongs to one of the gods (I use a publicly available translation of the play, and for the play YN specially translated the play again by Yegor Peregudov):
“Your commandments are destructive. I'm afraid all the rules of morality that you have established must be crossed out. People have enough worries to at least save their lives. Good intentions bring them to the brink, but good deeds bring them down.”
Why is God a girl here? (I'm just guessing). Here it is necessary to summarize and name by name what I have been unnamed for a long time above in the text. In “The Good Man from Szechwan” (as in “The Black Monk”) one of the main themes is the theme of duality (of man, phenomena, concepts, etc.). Yuri Butusov loves this theme very much - it sounds in all his works. Moreover, this term has many meanings, but for us, as non-specialists, the most understandable (conditionally) is direct and reverse duality. Those. in one case - a copy, in the other - the opposite, the reverse, the shadow side. If you look closely, almost every character in the play has his own double. And even more than one. Such a mirror labyrinth of doubles. (Yuri Nikolaevich again drew such a clever pattern inside the performance - I can’t recognize everything). I didn’t keep track of the video sequence well (you get carried away by the action and forget to keep your nose to the wind) - / the back wall of the stage, as well as the light curtain falling onto the proscenium from above from time to time, act as a screen - the video projector creates a video sequence on them / - but two almost-twin prostitutes (in black dresses, black glasses) against the background of an image of two little twin girls (sad and smiling; I remember this photo of Diana Arbus - Identical Twins. And here they are, pairs of antagonists: childhood - adulthood; innocence - vice ; joy and sadness.
More. I wondered why Alexander Arsentiev’s (Sung Yang) eyes were lined with red. Red eyes.. “Here comes my mighty enemy, the devil. I see his terrible crimson eyes...” And then - “Elegy” by Brodsky.” Yes, this is "The Seagull". Former pilot Sun Yang is a “mail line pilot” who “alone, like a fallen angel, chugs down vodka.” Fallen angel, Lucifer. Sun Yang's eyes are the red eyes of Lucifer that he talks about World Soul in the monologue of Nina Zarechnaya. And then Lucifer’s dance with God is also about duality. And about the struggle and interaction of the Light and Dark principles in man. And these are Yang and Yin in the Eastern symbol, in which each of the concepts carries within itself the grain of its opposite. One gives rise to another and itself comes from this other.. And this is life (a red balloon, symbolizing first sparkling wine in a glass of Sun, and then “turning” into the belly of Shen Te and the God girl, although one became pregnant from her loved one , and the other was probably raped). And if we further develop the theme of Sun’s Luciferism: after all, he (again conditionally) competes with God in the right to a Good Man, manipulates what for a woman is the energy of life, love. In general, Shen Te found herself in that very monstrous situation when everyone needs something FROM you, but no one cares about you. Her only friend, Wang, again, trying to help her, eventually exposed her and declassified her secret. Throughout the entire play, no one asks her herself: how she feels, what she thinks, what she feels, whether she feels good or bad. In fact, only God talks to her about her (the entire scene of the dialogue between Shen Te and Mrs. Shin on the eve of Shen Te’s arrest was rewritten by Yuri Butusov under Shen Te and God, “I’ll be there when this happens,” God says to Shen Te, this about childbirth, but you need to understand this much more broadly).
More about doubles: Shen Te with her unborn son, Mrs. Yang with her son, Mi Ju’s double (when she is dressed in black and cradles a birch log wrapped in a blanket). Yes, in fact, we are all mirrors and doubles of each other.
And I didn’t finish talking about God the Girl. The main and obvious pair of doubles in the play, of course, are Shen Te and Shui Ta (for such a double, which is hidden in the person himself, Wikipedia suggested a sonorous German word - Doppelganger). But towards the end, when Shen Te is already 7 months pregnant (and when she has long been in the “guise” of her brother, “godfather” and tobacco king Shui Ta), she looks in the mirror, and her reflection in the mirror is a girl- God with the same 7-month belly. Before Shen Te's last time decides to take advantage of her brother, the God Girl will be dressed like Shui Ta (Shen Te suggested that she need to do this). She, the girl-God, will build on the floor either a Chinese hieroglyph (which one?), or a house from empty cigarette packs that rained indifferently on her head. Shen Te, aka Shui Ta, the Godfather and the tobacco king, was God in her tobacco kingdom, established her own rules there, introduced her own regulations.. In general, the same scenario as the Gods with their rules and regulations for the world in general (recursion. the process of repeating elements in a self-similar manner). And everything is destroyed: the world that God built, and the tobacco empire that Shui Ta created.
Now a beautiful phrase came to mind: this performance is about God’s search for Man and Man’s search for God. Both girls, through torment and suffering, come to the conclusion that something needs to be changed in the “regulations of interaction” between God and Man.
Brecht left the ending of the play open - questions remained unanswered. But Yuri Nikolaevich, even despite Shen Te’s call for help, still made the ending closed and giving hope, offering his own version of the answer to the question “what to do.” Wonderful final scene(again - as I heard her, maybe I misspoke), in which poor Shen Te begs the gods to allow her to become cruel Shui Ta at least once a week: the girl-God, smiling softly, will allow (will not wave away this permission in horror, as if not wanting to hear anything, like Brechtian gods, but will say calmly and consciously): “Don’t abuse it. Once a month will be enough.” Yuri Nikolaevich wisely did not remake this world (for we ourselves create the reality around us, these are the fruits of our own labors and beliefs, and not someone else’s, and if they are “someone’s”, and we continue to live in them, then they they just suit us too (“if you’re unlucky today, it’s okay, you’ll be lucky tomorrow; if you’re unlucky tomorrow, it’s okay, you’ll be lucky the day after tomorrow; if you’re unlucky the day after tomorrow, it means you just like it better”); yes, we will return everything back anyway); did not change the hero, because Shen Te is, in fact, perhaps the best specimen of the human race; did not begin to abolish gods (and everything that can be included in a group with such a general name, i.e. both internal and external concepts) in general, because, alas, without any restraining factors at all, a person very quickly lets loose, plunging the world into chaos, and this is a direct path to self-destruction. Yuri Butusov changed - Resolution. His God softened his demands on man, lowered the prohibitively high bar, allowing man, within much wider boundaries, to be what he is by nature: different - good, bad, kind, evil, strong, weak, etc. And such a God is acceptable to Wang - they will leave holding hands.
This is probably Yuri Butusov’s “message” to this world, which is now also dangerously approaching the line:
“Man, be a man, with all your human weaknesses, flaws and imperfections, but still try to be a Man, then this world still has a chance to be saved.”
“You can do it, Shen Te. The main thing is to remain kind.”
You probably shouldn’t love all of Humanity, it’s very abstract and useless. You can focus on a narrower circle, for example, on those who are nearby. And if there is an opportunity to do something that will help someone else or at least just make him happy, why not do it? Sometimes just listening is enough. Such trifles and trifles can make a person happy - I am surprised every time, including myself. People are now terribly separated, distanced from each other, have lost mutual trust, are closed in on themselves, the main nature of contacts is mutual use of each other.
Life is difficult - it’s all true, but if you observe, it is precisely those for whom life is most difficult, or who themselves have experienced something terrible, for some reason who are most capable of compassion and sympathy for others. When in the summer they collected help for the Krasnodar drowned people everywhere, retired grandmothers brought their old, worn things to the collection points. It's not a matter of timing. “These are the times.” The times are always the same (“Do not say: How did it happen that the former days were better than these? For you did not ask this out of wisdom.” - Book of Ecclesiastes). There is something wrong with ourselves.
(Abstracting from the inconsistency and ambiguity of concepts and using the usual understanding of terms): good, like evil, has a chain reaction (motorists know: if you let someone go ahead of you on the road, then, as a rule, he will soon also let someone go ahead of him ). I repeat: life is a difficult thing, but while we are here, we have to live it somehow. In a world where there are more “good chains”, life is easier.
The heroine Doronina in the film “Once Again About Love” sent postcards to all her friends for the holidays: “People are pleased when they are remembered. There is not much warmth in life. In the past New Year sent 92 postcards."
And the last quote. Chekhov, "Gooseberry":
- Pavel Konstantinich! - said [Ivan Ivanovich] in a pleading voice. - Don’t calm down, don’t let yourself be lulled to sleep! While you are young, strong, vigorous, do not get tired of doing good! There is no happiness and there should not be, and if there is meaning and purpose in life, then this meaning and purpose is not at all in our happiness, but in something more reasonable and greater. Do good!
Bertolt Brecht
in collaboration with R. Berlau and M. Steffin
Good man from Sichuan
Parabolic play
Wang- water carrier.
Three gods.
Shen De.
Shoy Yes.
Yang Song- unemployed pilot.
Mrs. Yang- his mother.
Widow Shin.
Family of eight people.
Carpenter Lin To.
Landlady Mi Ju.
Police officer.
Carpet dealer.
His wife.
Old prostitute.
Barber Shu Fu.
Bonze.
Waiter.
Unemployed.
Passersby in the prologue.
Scene: semi-Europeanized capital of Sichuan.
The province of Sichuan, which summarized all the places on the globe where man exploits man, now does not belong to such places.
A street in the main city of Sichuan. Evening. Water Carrier Wang presented to the public.
Wang. I am a local water carrier - I sell water in the capital of Sichuan. Hard craft! If there is little water, you have to go far to get it. And if there is a lot of it, the income is small. In general, there is great poverty in our province. Everyone says that if anyone else can help us, it’s the gods. And imagine my joy when a cattle trader I knew - he travels a lot - told me that several of our most prominent gods were already on their way and could be expected in Sichuan any hour now. They say that heaven is very worried about the many complaints that it receives. It’s already the third day that I’ve been waiting here at the city gates, especially in the evening, to be the first to greet the guests. Later it is unlikely that I will be able to do this. They will be surrounded by high-ranking gentlemen, try to get through to them then. How can you recognize them? They will probably not appear together. Most likely one at a time, so as not to draw too much attention to yourself. These ones don’t look like gods, they are returning from work. (Looks carefully at the workers passing by.) Their shoulders are bent from the weights they are carrying. And this one? What a god he is - his fingers are covered in ink. At most, an employee of a cement plant. Even those two gentlemen...
Two men pass by.
...and those, in my opinion, are not gods. They have a cruel expression on their faces, like people who are used to hitting, and the gods have no need for this. But there are three! It's like it's a different matter. Well-fed, not the slightest sign of any activity, shoes covered in dust, which means they came from afar. They are them! O wise ones, dispose of me! (Falls on his face.)
First god(joyfully). Are they waiting for us here?
Wang(gives them something to drink). A long time ago. But I was the only one who knew about your arrival.
The first god. We need an overnight stay. Do you know where we could settle down?
Wang. Where? Everywhere! The whole city is at your disposal, O wise ones! Where would you like?
Gods They look at each other meaningfully.
The first god. At least in the nearest house, my son! Let's try as soon as possible!
Wang. My only concern is that I will incur the wrath of those in power if I give special preference to one of them.
The first god. That is why we order you: start with the nearest one!
Wang. Mister Fo lives there! Wait a minute. (Runs up to the house and knocks on the door.)
The door opens, but it is clear that Wang gets rejected.
(He timidly returns.) What a failure! Mr. Fo, as luck would have it, is not at home, and the servants do not decide on anything without his orders, the owner is very strict! Well, he’ll be furious when he finds out who wasn’t accepted into his house, won’t he?
Gods(smiling). Undoubtedly.
Wang. One more minute! The house next door belongs to Su's widow. She will be overjoyed. (Runs to the house, but, apparently, is refused again.) I’ll do better on the contrary. The widow says that she has only one small room, and it is not in order. I’ll turn to Mr. Chen now.
Second god. A small room is enough for us. Tell her we'll take her.
Wang. Even if it's not tidy, even if it's full of spiders?
Second god. Nonsense! Where there are spiders, there are few flies.
Third god(friendly, Vanu). Go to Mr. Chen or somewhere else, my son, I must admit, I don’t like spiders.
Wang knocks on some door again and they let him in.
Wang(returning to the gods). Mr. Chen is in despair, his house is full of relatives, and he does not dare to appear before your eyes, the wisest ones. Between us, I think there are bad people among them, and he doesn’t want you to see them. He is afraid of your anger. That's the whole point.
Third god. Are we that scary?
Wang. Only for unkind people, isn't it? It is known that residents
“The Good Man from Szechwan” is the play with which Taganka began. Although many of the actors are no longer alive, you can feel that this is a production by Yuri Petrovich Lyubimov. The action of the play is permeated with Lyubimov’s atmosphere.
"The Good Man from Szechwan." Plot
The gods do not want to believe that there are no good people left on earth and almost travel around the world as pilgrims. Why almost - because they seem so natural to themselves, but in fact, an ordinary water-carrier recognizes gods in their companions. Sezuan is one of the many cities they came across along the way. Maybe someone will shelter them for the night?
I only managed to ask for a girl of easy virtue. The rest - with heavy ones - were adamant. And the one with the lungs, she can’t say “no”.
As they left, the gods thanked the girl. And then it all began...
Eternal questions
- Is it easier to be kind if you have money?
- How long can you remain kind with money?
- Is it possible or to be infinitely kind? Is kindness an inexhaustible source?
- Is it true that goodness must come with fists?
- Why do your brains turn off when you love?
- What is more important - feelings or obligations?
- Is it easier to live for the good than for the evil, or is it more difficult?
- Are good people simpletons? And why do they say that simplicity is worse than theft?
- What, in the end, is stronger - good or evil? Now, if two opposite people come together, will the bad one eventually become better or the good one worse?
If you decide to go to a performance, your head will swell from such questions. And your heart will break with pity... And despite all this, you will giggle at the jokes of the characters. This is the paradox.
How do you like this dialogue:
The first god. "The main thing is to remain kind, Shen Te! Goodbye!"
They turn to leave and nod goodbye to her.
Shen Te (frightened). “But I’m not confident in myself, wise ones! How can I be kind when everything is so expensive?”
Second god. "Here, unfortunately, we are powerless. We cannot interfere in economic issues."
Third god. "Wait! Wait a minute! If she had some means, perhaps it would be easier for her to remain kind."
Nothing has changed in our lives...
Author
When I previously tried to get into the work “The Good Man from Szechwan”, reading about Vysotsky, and that the role of the unemployed pilot Sun Yang was his favorite, everything seemed incomprehensible to me. AND main character one in two persons, and strange names heroes who clearly do not exist in reality, clearly invented, made in the Chinese style, but not Chinese - Shue Ta, Shen Te, and maybe even Chinese - Mrs. Shin, pilot Song, Brother Wong. In general, it seemed strange.
Then, after watching, there is a desire to “catch up” with information; you read about the author, and about his time, and about the history of the creation of the play. And you understand what Brecht is. And you get into it. This quote is revealing:
Me-ti said: my affairs are bad. Rumors are spreading everywhere that I have said the most ridiculous things. The trouble is that, absolutely between you and me, I actually said most of them.
Actors
If you are a long-time reader of ours, you may have noticed that we visit Taganka more often. And some actors are already like close people to us. We look forward to every meeting with them, and our expectations are met. Trifonov, Luchikhin, Radzig, Ryabushinskaya, Badalbeyli, Nechitailo, Gaaz, Kotov, Ushakov, Staburov, Sidorenko. They are certainly talented, and every new role they see reveals another facet of their talent.
This time a discovery for us was Maria Matveeva in leading role and - surprisingly - Marfa Koltsova. And her role is not a role, but a role play, but HOW it’s presented! Several days have passed, and her image is still before my eyes, and my ears hear her creaky voice and phrases spoken like a broken record.
Pleased. Each of the images - absolutely every one - was memorable.
Bright bitchy Margot. In another cast, the housekeeper Mi Tzi is played by Anastasia Kolpikova, so it’s very difficult to imagine her.
Enchanting extreme Timur. Just the barber darling Shu Fu!
Dmitry Vysotsky opened up on the other side. How I didn’t perceive it at all. And as a Water Bearer he is incomparable.
The same story with Mikhail Lukin. Woland, in my opinion, is so-so. A bit boring. And here he is just a musician. But attention-grabbing, memorable. I don’t know how to explain this phenomenon.
Another musician, Anatoly Vasiliev, is a theater legend. I feel reverent delight towards those people who stood on the same stage with Vysotsky. And he was still that musician back then. Moreover, the music is his.
Music
Can you imagine a film or play with Vysotsky without music? Yes, of course, “The Career of Dima Gorin” or “The Cook”. Or the same “Meeting place...”. You can remember if you want. But the same “Masters of the Taiga” or “Intervention” are primarily remembered for their songs.
"The Good Man of Szechwan" is filled with songs, and in addition, music often plays in the background, creating mood and giving meaning to the scenes of the play.
Unfortunately, over time, the lyrics do not lose their acute social orientation. Half a century has passed since the play was staged in Taganka, a century has almost passed since the texts were written, and come on!
Rams walk in a row
The drums are beating
They give them skin
The sheep themselves.
We can't wait any longer.
That's why they should give us
People of hard work
Saint's Day Never -
The day when we will rest.
Staging
The production is original, Lyubimov’s.
Taganka began with "The Good Man". And despite the fact that many of the actors of that time are no longer here, the spirit of Lyubimov is felt, carefully, reverently preserved.
Minimalism of the props and simplicity of the costumes. The emphasis is on acting. Each character has its own character.
The portrait of Bertolt Brecht and some of the decorations seem to have been preserved from those times.
Impression
After all that has been said, talking about impressions, in my opinion, is superfluous.
"The Good Man from Szechwan" got me hooked. And it’s unclear why, despite all the tragedy of the problem posed and the questions asked, it was easy and pleasant to watch. This is probably the MASTERY OF TAGANKA.