Artur Solomonov’s play “How We Buried Iosif Vissarionovich” is performed on the stages of many cities around the world.It premiered at Moscow Theatre.doc in 2019, and the play was soon translated into multiple languages, including English, German, Polish, Czech, Bulgarian, Romanian, and Hebrew.The plot in brief is as follows: in a large theater in the Russian capital, they decide to put on a daring performance on Stalin. After a carefully conducted period of rehearsals, a preview screening for the press was planned, but unexpectedly, the President of the Russian Federation and the accompanying Minister of Culture are among the invisible spectators. Through his deputy, the head of state said: “It’s curious to see how they are going to show my predecessor. Clearly, he doesn’t like what’s being presented on stage and he’s demanding major changes be made. As a result, the original idea is modified beyond recognition.Director Kirill Serebryannikov commented on the play: “Stalin’s funeral in Russia, oddly enough, hasn’t happened yet. Therefore, the witty and well-constructed play by Arthur Solomonov is, alas, very relevant. And although it tells how a modern theater group ventured into the burial of Stalinism and failed, it lets you enjoy the carnivalesque illusion of the possibility of such a funeral.The correspondent of the Russian service media attended the performance of the artistic reading of the play in Riga. There were almost no empty seats in the hall of the Riga Jewish Community House.People’s Artist of the Russian Federation Alexander Filippenko, who now lives in Lithuania, played two roles in the play: Stalin and the director of the play. After the final greetings, he went backstage and gave a short interview.And, since several non-professional performers were involved in the reading, the first question was formulated as follows: why did a famous artist decide to take part in this?
Alexander Filippenko
“Because the problem is very important! Filippenko replied. – This is something that did not happen with us in 1956. That is, it somehow happened, but at a closed-door congress in Khrushchev’s report. And that didn’t happen in 1991. And that way at least (you can) invite people to think.The artist quotes the beginning of a poem by Raymond Queneau, which he reads during his creative evenings:“Take care of your head, my friend! / Take care of your head, my friend! / The head, as you know, is round, The head, as you know, spins, And you yourself will not notice How you suddenly lose it.And he continued: “Everything from there, think about it! And in this piece, I found a lot of second and third shots. But now people have forgotten how to see it – such a time has come. Now, all these soap opera technologies – there, the main subject is action. I was shooting “Poor Nastya” (Russian-American historical TV series of 2003 – 2004 – AP), and the American director jumped – “Know-know-know! Only action-action!”. No “Chekhovism” or “Ibsenism”, only types in the proposed circumstances – bad-good, half-bad-half-good. Figurative thought is absent. We have to invite people to take a step. Do not talk in the kitchen, but further, but for this smart people should be in Russia. Let’s believe they exist.”Film critic Anton Dolin, who read the author’s text, said that Artur Solomonov, with whom he had previously worked in the Gazeta newspaper, offered him to participate in this artistic action. “My immutable rule is that when old friends, colleagues, acquaintances contact me, I never refuse them. But then the idea of burying Stalin again is good, invigorating and very pleasant to do,” Dolin said in an interview with a correspondent for the Russian media service.He admitted that all participants in the reading could have problems in Russia. “Now, problems can arise for a person if they see the ‘wrong’ images on the phone. And some ‘supporters’ will see it,” Dolin explained.Since the level of denunciation in Russia and the atmosphere of fear is approaching the era of the “cult of personality”, the play “How we buried Joseph Vissarionovich”, according to the film critic, is very relevant. “Unfortunately, Stalin turned out to be more alive than all the living, and here I will not say anything new. There has just been a new production by Mitia Chernyakov of the opera “War and Peace” in Munich, and it was presented on the day of the death of Stalin and – as we all know – Prokofiev. This year also has an anniversary. (March 5 marked the 70th anniversary of Stalin’s death – AP) And he became again clear that Stalin was “eternally alive”. But this was not invented by Chernyakov, nor by Solomonov, nor by anyone else, unfortunately it is now a pattern that, perhaps, Alexander Galich saw and felt earlier than others in his famous song (“Night Watch” – AP) And then there are a lot of works that warned, spoke about it – the film “Khrustalev, the car!” including – but all this did not kill Stalin. He turned out to be much more lively than the same Lenin. This, of course, is a tragic fact, but a fact, and we must begin by recognizing this fact, ”Dolin emphasizes.Anna Mongait, host of the Dozhd TV channel, who read the roles of Stalin’s nurse and his mother, admitted that she had never had such an experience in her life, but had a lot liked the text of the piece. “To be honest, I’m very suspicious of theatre, you can’t call me an inveterate spectator. But it seemed to me that this text argues so subtly and wittily with the present moment, it contains so many references to my current experience At the same time, he does not rush, does not indulge in moralizing, and I thought it would be good for me to try my hand at this text, “she said in an interview with a correspondent. of the Russian media service.
Anna Mongait
According to Mongait, another argument in favor of participating in this project was a good company. “It was a cool experience and it’s good that I didn’t have a lot of text. I’m very grateful to myself for not being scared and trying this thing. Probably, second time , I would not agree to participate in this, because if you participate the second time, then you must be better than this young neophyte that I was today. And today was a personal celebration for me ” , says Anna Mongait.At the same time, she notes that interest in the personality of Stalin himself and what happened in the USSR during his twenty-nine years of rule is not very interesting for the Russian public today. today. “And this is noticeable on television – plots or materials about Stalin probably do not bring viewers together, interest in this topic has faded, but this is apparently not a reality. People don’t react. And it is a unique work, where a game with a name, an image and a personal story, completely unexpectedly reflects today and does not seem old-fashioned, and “old school”. And that’s what I really liked. Neither Lenin nor Stalin – these “old-fashioned” names seemed completely new. And, of course, these references to our experience as an emigrant, the experience of living in a totalitarian country, the leveling of the attitude towards a person, broken personalities, an attitude towards a person as a slave, as absolutely unimportant modeling material, which is to some extent in theatrical dictatorships – today all this resonates, recognizably. You can see how the audience reacted, how happy they were when they heard something that matched their current feelings. We are all, of course, very traumatized and eager to hear something familiar,” says Mongait.TV journalist Kirill Nabutov, who got the role of Lenin in this reading, was extremely brief in an interview with a Russian service correspondent.When asked why he decided to participate in this unusual experience for him, he replied: “I became interested.”
Kirill Nabutov
Having received an offer to participate in the reading, Nabutov was surprised: “I am a journalist and immediately warned that in the theatrical field I was “nobody to name”, but they immediately objected to me that this ” does not work !”.According to him, Kirill Nabutov did not think about the fact that by participating in this action he could get into trouble in Russia: “There are enough problems even without this in the homeland as such. I can say this – this play and the character around which everything is happening, and this whole topic for Russia will still be relevant for many years.Maria Solenova, producer of the Riga reading of the play How We Buried Joseph Vissarionovich, said: “This is an independent project that we are carrying out together with Arthur (Solomonov). We have big plans for many cities, we already have some agreements. And the main idea of this project is that it is charitable.”Maria drew attention to the fact that a significant part of her time is occupied with charitable projects related to Ukraine.
Maria Solenova
“In fact, this theatrical project makes a lot of sense, because it is cultural, and with such a theme, which, unfortunately, has now come to life. Here we finally want to bury all that, and the project itself was made in order to tell, to show, to explain to those who still do not understand (and there are people like that!). And there is only one goal – to help Ukraine – all the money from these readings will go to help Ukraine. Today, you might say, was our first – the first reading for this charity project. The next ones will probably be Berlin, Vilnius, Barcelona. I won’t quote the exact dates yet, but we already have preliminary agreements.The media interviewer pointed out that she could not assess the performance of professional and non-professional actors, as she was not an expert. “But as a producer, I can say that I am very satisfied. The guys only rehearsed for a few days, there were difficult moments during rehearsals – people have character, we are all complex and different. But how they came together and performed – they looked like one organism on stage. And Anna, and Kirill, and Anton played perfectly, and without exaggeration I can say that it was not a reading, it was a real performance!
