Zurab Nanobashvili

Russian writer, a talented and desperate young writer, once told me, "I like it when people of other nationalities participate in Russian cultural construction." And I agree with him, but with one "reservation". Yes, this position does not speak about our generosity (let's not be so proud of ourselves!), but about the ability of Russian culture to draw others into itself, not to be afraid to share its strength and power with anyone. And there is actually one "reservation" - does Zurab Nanobashvili like Russian culture? The answer is clear and definite - he loves. He was brought up by her and he became a director in Russian theatre. For him, our classics are exactly the same interlocutors as for you and me. All. The question is settled. We have only one main measure, and others only obey it - this is the measure of love. (And neither his personal fervor nor his furious temperament is absolutely important anymore, which are much clearer and closer to a Russian person than cold prudence.) So let's talk about which his work-which kind of Ostrovsky he introduced...

Perhaps the playwright's main idea of a Profitable place as official feeding and sacrificing human beings for the sake of this feeding was expanded by the director of the play Zurab Nanobashvili and the set designer Elena Senatova into the depths of history, to the times of Gogol's birth of the official theme in Russian literature, and brought closer to us - today with its fantastic growth of bureaucracy. That's why we see a compact, but very meaningful stage structure - a huge "throne chair" symbolizes not just a life or state hierarchy, but also personifies the "hierarchy" of success, income, and a well-fed life. Inside this very "chair - the house", the "chair - the office" space, there are other chairs, stools and just poor "standing places" of those who are at the very bottom, at the foot of the bureaucratic machine pecking like a chicken, "grain by grain". <...> Ostrovsky turned out to be social - and today it is the highest point, the peak of theatrical freedom of thought.

There were also some sensations at the festival. The Vologda Drama Theater appeared in a new capacity, where a new artistic director, Zurab Nanobashvili, recently appeared. In his tragicomedy in two parts "Balsaminov, Balsaminov!.." usually half-asleep Zamoskvorechye turned into a phantasmagoric life, a life of transcendent energy, electrified by the thirst to hit the jackpot! And to immediately and a lot! The luxurious life "on the droshky" appears in the delusional half-dreams, half-fantasies of the near-minded Misha Balzaminov (I. Rudzinsky) and his mother Pavel Petrovna (S.Trubina). The looming wealth gives such energy to the Matchmaker, S. Smybina, that it seems the house will blow up. Even the usually phlegmatic cook Matryona L.Likhacheva is extremely heated here, even the merchant's wife Belotelova N.Lukyanova, doomed to languish from boredom, languishes in some kind of quite explosive state, and the maid Himka N.Vorobyova is some kind of meteor! The fact that Ostrovsky's characters often gravitate towards grotesque forms is not news. The problem is that in Ostrovsky it is impossible to limit the grotesque only to the external - the characters immediately lose volume, turn into masks, and the "internal support" of the grotesque is extremely rare... In the performance of Vologda - it was possible. In addition, the director perfectly combines all the variety of characters into an ensemble, remarkable for its completeness of form and masterful finishing of details. In a word, what to say? The work!