“Faina. A Bird Soaring in a Cage” is the name of an intriguing project organized by Stella Samokhotova and Sofia Lezhneva. The latter is a professional playwright, but Samokhotova, one might say, entered the theater from the back entrance. A former entrepreneur, a fan of Ranevskaya, invited Sovremennik actress Svetlana Korkoshko, who was surprisingly similar to Ranevskaya in both voice and appearance, to play the role of Faina Georgievna, staged the play on the “praying” stage of the Central House of Writers - and the result was something balancing between a commercial enterprise and a professional theater .

The “hook” for the viewer, of course, was Faina Ranevskaya’s famous witticisms. The elderly actress good-naturedly quarrels with her housekeeper Marusya, meets Lyubov Orlova, who has come to visit, and explains to them her views on cinema, theater and life. Text of the play “Faina. A Bird Soaring in a Cage” is structured so that the stage Ranevskaya has the opportunity to insert some “Ranevskaya” aphorism into a squabble with Marusya about poorly cooked borscht: “There are only two perversions: field hockey and ice ballet.”

The Central House of Writers hall is about half full; spectators with a nostalgic twinkle in their eyes look at the touchingly recreated life of the 70s on stage: a telephone with levers, a brown lamp, a high dressing table mirror.

If the patient wants to live, the doctors are powerless,” Svetlana Korkoshko says in a voice indistinguishable from the voice of Ranevskaya herself. But this is not enough. After arguing with the housekeeper who doesn’t want to answer the phone, “Ranevskaya” adds: “Do you know a woman who would lose her head over the fact that a man has beautiful legs?”

Now the audience is laughing contentedly: everyone knows and loves Ranevskaya’s jokes.

But this sarcastic impression dissipates very quickly when you understand that Ranevskaya’s aphorisms are used in this performance not just “to attract attention,” but that they are a necessary part of the image of the great actress, which Svetlana Korkoshko managed to make deep and sad. Aphorisms are the only thing left in mass consciousness from the fate of a great actress, all my life former queen episode - and suffered from it. The play “Faina. A Bird Soaring in a Cage” reveals this side of Ranevskaya’s life, who complains that in mature age, when she can only really act, she is offered only episodes of two or three words in films, in which she can act “only under anesthesia.” “To show off your face on the screen...” says Ranevskaya, the audience laughs. Those few who understand that the brilliant sense of humor that Ranevskaya had, only exist in very deep and very sad people, do not laugh.
Of course, it was necessary to stage the first play about Ranevskaya in a different way: on the historical stage Bolshoi Theater, with a massive PR campaign in the press, so that the director would be Oleg Tabakov, and Ranevskaya herself would be played by Sergei Bezrukov. But the creators of the play “Faina. A Bird Soaring in a Cage” treated the story of the great actress with care and love, and created a quiet and lyrical production, captivating with its unpretentiousness and naivety, and it will definitely find its audience. After all, there will always be a demand for great destinies.

DIRECT SPEECH

During the intermission, the VM correspondent spoke with the producer of the play, Stella Samokhotova.

Stella Georgievna, you are in theater world new person. Tell us why you decided to create a play about the life of Ranevskaya?

I have been involved in business all my life, and now I am “retired”. I always loved the theater and admired Ranevskaya, and decided: why not? I believe that Ranevskaya is the standard: an actress, a woman, an intelligent person.

- How did you find the actress for the role of Ranevskaya?

On the one hand, when you stage a play not in a repertory theater, then in order for it not to die, it must be played by actors who interest people. On the other hand, I had a clear idea of ​​what kind of actress playing Ranevskaya should be. And I realized that media exposure is not always the key to success.
Svetlana Ivanovna Korkoshko once shone at the Moscow Art Theater, with Doronina, and now works at Sovremennik. Those who are now 50 should remember her roles in both cinema and theater.

- Who wrote the play itself?

Have you offered your play to other theaters for production, and are there any plans to continue the play on a large professional stage?

I don’t want to talk about these plans yet, so as not to jinx it. Today we are playing the play for the second time - the release was on May 12 - but it turns out that among the actors there is an opinion that the second show is a failure. I hope this won't be the case. The Central House of Writers kindly invited us to show the performance in its hall - it is “iconic” for theater lovers and cozy, intimate. There was no goal to stage it in a regular theater, and there is no time for this yet.

- Where else can I watch your performance?

We will have screenings here at the Central House of Writers in September and October, and the “official” premiere will be on November 7 at the Teatrium on Serpukhovskaya. I won't lie - the commercial side interests me too. If any repertory theater is interested in our play, we will be happy to discuss the production.

QUOTES BY FAINA RANEVSKAYA

I lived with many theaters, but never enjoyed it.

The money is eaten up, but the shame remains (about his work in cinema).

You have to live in such a way that even the bastards remember you.

Spelling errors in a letter are like a bug on a white blouse.

If you want to lose weight, eat naked and in front of a mirror!

IMPORTANT: Please note that the performance will take place on the stage of the Zheleznodorozhnikov Palace of Culture
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Genre A satirical play about 2 days in the life of Faina Ranevskaya
Lezhneva S. S., Samokhotova S. G.
Director: Stanislav Evstigneev
Scenography: Roman Vatolkin
Duration: 2 hours

Cast: Dmitry Prokofiev, Maria Kresina, Evdokia Germanova, Svetlana Korkoshko, Igor Pismenny, Marina Kudelinskaya

People's Artist of the USSR Faina Ranevskaya will soon celebrate her 70th birthday. For for many years she played many roles in theater and cinema, but... all these works seem to her, a talented creative person prone to self-criticism, something frivolous. And, as luck would have it, now, when she feels that she is on a much higher professional level More than ever, there are no worthy job offers. An elderly, lonely woman who never had a family of her own, truly loved only a few people, most of whom she outlived. Among them is Pavel’s closest friend Wulf, who died quite recently. Like the sun peeking out from behind the clouds, the dear ghost appears whenever Ranevskaya despairs. And she has many reasons for despondency - she is not given interesting, major roles either in the theater or in the cinema, and her circle of friends, which is already not at all wide, is narrowing almost to the limit. Faina Georgievna's loneliness is slightly diluted by the presence of the housekeeper Marusya, a girl from the provinces who is about to get married and has a very specific attitude towards her immediate responsibilities. “Household” tasks like cleaning, cooking or buying groceries turn into a sitcom with her. au pair and creative person don't see eye to eye on what real work is. Their constant clashes on this basis create many wonderful situations - from lyrical to comic. Friends, of whom Faina Georgievna, like any other person, had few, gradually left this world. But some people shone in the sky for quite a long time, painting dull “gray everyday life” with bright colors. Among them is the star of Soviet cinema, Lyubov Orlova, like a ray of light, rapidly penetrating into “ dark kingdom» of his lonely colleague and friend. What torments Ranevskaya most on the eve of her anniversary - loneliness or lack of normal work, interesting, big roles? Of course, the second one! And this is exactly what she wants most of all, and not the celebration of a “beautiful date” with all the ensuing consequences in the form of congratulations from colleagues full of hypocrisy. This is exactly how Ranevskaya perceives preparations for the upcoming celebration, creating difficulties for the representative of the theater administration Vladislav, who cannot get the stage veteran to agree to participate in his celebration. Memories. Regrets. Joy. Sadness. Reflections. Feelings. Monologues. Dialogues. And all this is under modern heroes performance music flowing from an old radio. Legendary aphorisms Faina Georgievna Ranevskaya, harmoniously woven into the context of conversations, lyrical and comic scenes, smoothly replacing each other, like magical patterns inside a kaleidoscope... All this allows you to see the legends Soviet theater and cinema as they are - living people, consisting of flesh and blood, who are concerned about the same problems as their contemporaries and in general are not alien to anything human. It’s just that their work is different, associated with the constant giving of their strength, feelings and emotions and sometimes leading to moral devastation. But the viewer should not see all this, since theater for him is a holiday that nothing can overshadow.

How did the struggle between the great actress and the theater management end? What is the fate of her anniversary? The answer to these (and many other) questions lies within the play “Faina. Bird soaring in a cage! You just have to watch it to the end!

Ranevskaya Faina Georgievna (nee Fanny Girshevna Feldman) is a Soviet theater and film actress.

AWARDS, TITLES, RECOGNITIONS:

• 1937 - Honored Artist of the RSFSR
• 1946 - Medal “For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War” Patriotic War 1941-1945."
• 1947 - Order of the Badge of Honor
• 1947 - People's Artist of the RSFSR
• 1948 - Medal “In memory of the 800th anniversary of Moscow”
• 1949 - Stalin Prize, second degree, for playing the role of Losev’s wife in the play “The Law of Honor” by Alexander Stein
• 1950, 1967 - Order of the Red Banner of Labor
• 1951 - Stalin Prize of the second degree for playing the role of Agrippina Solntseva in the play “Dawn over Moscow” by Anatoly Surov
• 1951 - Stalin Prize, third degree, for his performance as Frau Wurst in the film “They Have a Motherland”
• 1961 - People's Artist of the USSR
• 1976 - Order of Lenin
• The asteroid (6821) Ranevskaya, discovered by astronomer Lyudmila Karachkina at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory on September 29, 1986, was named in honor of F. G. Ranevskaya.

“I would have played a lot more in theater and cinema if I had been given such an opportunity,” Ranevskaya lamented. – I haven’t played practically anything. Everything remains in me. The directors didn't like me. For what? Probably, for the initiative, I always argued with them, I always set problems myself and solved them, but this should not have been done. Fate could have been much better.”

Faina Ravnevskaya was born into the family of a wealthy industrialist Feldman in Taganrog. Her father deprived her of her allowance when Faina decided to go on stage. After the revolution, she was left alone; all her relatives left Russia. At this time the future great actress I lived with one dream - to become an actress.

She was not accepted into the troupe of any theater. The directors thought she was funny, ugly, clumsy and... mediocre. Ranevskaya herself explained her dream of becoming an actress and the desire to “get on stage” with her impudence. Then all her life she had to prove that she could play serious dramatic roles, and not just be funny. She was able to prove this by shining on stage and on camera, even in episodic roles. The history of the play “Storm” is known, to which the audience came to the theater for exactly those 10 minutes when the actress Ranevskaya was on stage in the role of Manka the Speculator. Director Yuri Zavadsky once said that he would remove the actress from participating in the play, to which Ranevskaya replied that she would try to play worse. But it didn't help. Ranevskaya was removed from the performance.

Ranevskaya considered Stanislavsky to be her only teacher in the profession. And when asked why she so often moved from one theater to another, she answered: “I was looking for holy art and found it... in the Tretyakov Gallery.”

Roles in the theater:

1936 - “Vassa Zheleznova” by M. Gorky - Vassa
1945 - “Chanterelles” by Lillian Helman - Birdie
1951 - “Storm” by V. N. Bill-Belotserkovsky - Manka the Speculator
1958 - “Trees Die Standing” by A. Kason - Grandmother
1966 - “The Strange Mrs. Savage” by J. Patrick - Ethel Savage
1980 - “Truth is good, but happiness is better” by A. N. Ostrovsky - Filitsat

Works in cinema:

1934 - Pumpkin - Madame Loiseau
1937 - Duma about the Cossack Golota - priest
Songs from the film “Duma about the Cossack Golota”
1939 - Cochin engineer's mistake - Ida Gurevich, tailor's wife
1939 - Foundling - Lyalya
1939 - Man in a Case - wife of a gymnasium inspector
1940 - Beloved girl - Manya, Dobryakova’s aunt, maternity hospital employee
1941 - Dream - Rose Skorokhod
1941 - How Ivan Ivanovich quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich - Gorpina
1942 - Alexander Parkhomenko - pianist

The Taganrog Chekhov Theater staged the play “Faina. A bird flying in a cage." The producer of this theatrical project, Stella Samokhotova, gave an interview to Taganrogskaya Pravda.

“We came here with trepidation, excitement, fears and doubts, which are not typical for us when we perform in some other cities,” she admitted.

“We arrived, saw the city, came to the theater and immediately felt some special atmosphere, warmth in the soul, a feeling was born that everything would work out, everything would be fine,” Stella Georgievna recalled the morning after the performance. – Maybe Faina Georgievna’s spirit was somewhere nearby.

– Isn’t it upsetting that the public responds most to rude jokes?

– The public reacts to absolutely everything. She just reacts to jokes with laughter, and you can hear it. But when after the performance people leave the hall, wiping away their tears, and say to each other: “Let’s be silent,” this is an even greater reaction than the one you hear. What happens to people after the ending is the main feeling for the author and actors.

– How did you approach this material? Was it difficult?

– It wasn’t difficult for me. When I realized that I wanted to do this, I had no fears. Yes, after seeing the performance, many experts were shocked that it even occurred to them to approach such a topic, and the very idea of ​​writing it and staging it arose. And it was necessary to find an actress who would embody the image of this great woman. What saved me was that I did not rely on anyone’s authority or depend on anyone’s opinions. This is my first theater experience.

-What did you do before?

– I had a business that I closed.

- Not theatrical?

- No. I realized the dream of my youth, which, due to family circumstances I didn’t realize it then, without becoming a director. Finally, at 50, I realized that I have the right to do what I always wanted.

- Did it work?

– It’s not for me to judge. People say yes.

– Did you study with the masters?

- No one has. No, of course, I have information, I saw a lot, I read, I knew - not like I loaded coal on a tanker, and then came and decided to stage a play. No, I always loved the theater.

– But you didn’t have your own theater venue? Where did you start?

– Yes, there was no theater, but this can be easily solved now if there is money, especially in Moscow. I don't depend on anyone financially. Decorations, costumes - everything, of course, costs money, but if a person is not burdened with worries about finances, he can fulfill his dream.

– Does a dream come true, in turn, bring profit? Is this a commercial project now?

– Well, it’s primarily for the soul. It is not unprofitable, but I would not say that it is a commercial project. I didn't want to make money from it. I wanted to pay tribute to the man I idolize.

– How long did you work on the play?

– It was written in one go, I don’t even remember whether it was a month and a half or two... It feels like it has always existed and it just needed to be recorded on paper.

– The result may give the impression of a staged collection of sayings by Faina Ranevskaya, everything is quite simplified. On purpose, to make it easier to “reach out” to the public?

- That's right. Don't forget - this is an enterprise! Not a drama, not an absolute comedy. This is an invitation to people to generally remember that we have great art, which was created by great actors, and not to forget to pass this on from generation to generation.

– At the level of folklore?

– Who perceives it differently... To make a play about Ranevskaya’s life would have to be too a brave man. You know, we don't have the right to just delve into this. So we did what could be done. In honor of this great woman. And, I think, they did it with love and with the utmost care.

– What is your forecast for the lifespan of this production?

- She will stay for a long time. As long as I exist, there will be an actress who can embody the image of Ranevskaya on stage.

- There are also future plans?

- Why stop? A project about Faina Ranevskaya already exists. But what will be done next is necessary to prove, including to yourself, that the first success is not an accident.

– How do you react to negative reviews about your work?

– There are people who realize their harmfulness through the forms available to them. They write nasty things about the performance on the Internet. Why should I react to this? There is a nasty person - this is his life, his destiny, with this disgustingness he will eat himself. So let them write. Sometimes it is more effective to fight nasty things with indifference. We're just doing our thing. We go, we play, we see people’s reactions, we hear their grateful reviews, and this is the most convincing evidence.
Victor GALPERIN

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The play “Faina. A Bird Soaring in a Cage” was co-written by Stella Samokhotova and playwright Sofia Lezhneva. The role of Ranevskaya was played by People's Artist Russia Svetlana Korkoshko. Lyubov Orlova is played by Honored Artist of the Russian Federation Evdokia Germanova, housekeeper Marusya is played by Maria Kresina, Vladislava is played by Igor Pismenny, and in the role of Pavla Wulf is Marina Kudelinskaya.