Theater and film director

"Omon Ra" – Victor Pelevin's first novel, "the book about the inner cosmos of the Soviet man" – was written at the very beginning of the 90s, at the time of the collapse of the great myths of the past.
His hero is a young man Omon Krivomazov (the name was given by his father, a policeman), who dreamed of heaven from childhood and chose the call sign "Ra" in honor of the ancient Egyptian god with the head of a falcon. Including imagination, he learned to "fly" (after all, the feeling of flying is just a set of sensations). One day, when he saw the figure of an astronaut floating in weightlessness on the mosaic of the VDNH, the Omon realized that it was necessary to strive not just to the sky, but higher – to the absolute freedom of space. And he wanted to soar above the earthly life, in the happiness and justice of which he no longer believed.


"Omon Ra" is an absurd, sometimes fabulous tragicomedy about human delusions and illusions. About how life around us, our "cosmos", our "universe" is formed by our thoughts.

"Fairy Tales for Adults" is a charitable literary and theatrical project. The program is based on satirical fairy-tale works by Anton Anosov. Well-known heroes, performed by popular actors of theater and cinema, will find themselves in difficult life situations that are more relevant than ever in our time. The author's music by Ilya Efimov, written in the best manner of Soviet comedy cinema, will help you immerse yourself in the atmosphere of carefree youth. For the first time, fairy tales will be played out more for adults than for children. Sparkling humor, unpredictable plot and brilliant acting are waiting for you.

"Three sisters. Finale" is a video project that is part of the "Practice of Co—creation" - a series of quarantine essays created according to new rules. So the process of preparing the play became open to people outside the theater, and the play, the cast and the director were selected by audience voting from the proposed list. The roles of the sisters were played by Nelly Uvarova, Mariana Spivak and Yulia Khlynina, and Vershinin was played by Anatoly Bely. Svetlana Kolpakova, Evgeny Stychkin, Alexey Zolotovitsky, Veniamin Smekhov, Anton Kuznetsov, Alexey Rozin, Rodion Dolgirev and Sergey Karaban are also busy. The director of the production is Mikhail Rakhlin.

The first premiere of the season at the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater — the hour—and-a-half musical comedy "Merry Times" - directed by Mikhail Rakhlin, the director of the Moscow Art Theater's New Year's skits, took the audience to the golden age of Hollywood. The vaudeville story about the love of a Parisian dandy and the Bolshevik Ninochka was directed by Ernst Lubich in 1939, and Ninochka was then played by the silent film star Greta Garbo.

According to the plot, the heroine comes to Paris from Soviet Russia with an assignment of national importance: to control the hapless emissaries who were ordered to sell the "legally confiscated" jewelry of Grand Duchess Svana. Ninochka is a devoted patriot who grew up on a collective farm on goat's milk and in the army on vodka. But in capitalist Paris, temptations are waiting for her at every step, and acquaintance with Count Leon becomes a real test of revolutionary fortitude.

The fact that the play was created based on a black-and-white film is reminiscent of some stylistic techniques: taking seats in the hall, the audience watches a screen with the inscription "iron curtain" on the stage, there are also credits with a mini-presentation of the actors in the finale, and a bear notifies the audience about the beginning of the action. An artist in disguise, of course.

The performance is decided in the form of a cabaret — a contrasting musical repertoire from Edith Piaf to the International and the song "My native country is Wide" by Isaac Dunaevsky musicians (piano and violin) perform right on stage. The young director Mikhail Rakhlin himself plays in Alexander Molochnikov's "19.14" production similar in genre, so he assembled a team of artists with knowledge of the matter.

The role of the angular emissary in kirza boots went to Svetlana Kolpakova, who is in demand in comedy productions and TV series — unlike Greta Garbo, for whom "Ninochka" became the first comedy. The Grand Duchess is played by Natalia Rogozhkina, who resembles a silent movie actress with pretentious gestures. Konstantin Kryukov (Leon) comes out as a courteous social dandy, able to find a way out of any delicate situation. The trio of emissaries performed by Armen Arushanyan, Alexander Usov and Rostislav Lavrentiev is also colorful. But the primacy in the comedy competition belongs to Svetlana Kolpakova.

The heart of the stern Nina will melt under the pressure of a charming Frenchman, she will change her boots and uniform for an elegant dress, but will retain her natural spontaneity: "We have high moral ideals, and you have a climate." In the barely planned confrontation of ideologies, love wins, and this Nina's decision does not look like a betrayal at all. A Bolshevik woman is first of all a woman, and then a party worker.

And the genre of romantic comedy was created for Hollywood happy endings, not for the truth of life. Here in the next Moscow Art Theater premiere, already on the Main stage — Alexander Molochnikov's play "The Bright Path. 1917" — the viewer will be invited to reflect on the fate of an entire nation, and not a single Ninochka.

Source: iz.ru

‘FROH’ is a performance based on the novel by Andrey Platonov. It was directed by Michael Rakhlin with actors of the Moscow Art Theatre Studio.

Video Editing: Valerii Zazulin

"Romeo & Juliet" is a performance where the performers are the same age as the young heroes of Shakespeare.And they are also characterized by a desperate denial of parental will and care, desperate fun and desperate detachment, a desperate desire to possess and a desperate need to belong.

A story that happened to two lovers could happen to each of those involved in the action, but by the will of circumstances it happens to a young man and a girl whose names have become common names since that very moment. the moment when the premiere of the play based on the great play by William Shakespeare happened.

In the framework of the director's laboratory "After the Revolution (drama and prose of the 1920s-1930s)".

Michael Rakhlin: "This is a monument to Soviet drama, and even in verse. "Glory" is a poetic play of 1935, today such can rarely be found in the repertoire, and there have been few poetic plays in the Art Theater lately. Oddly enough, it is not devoid of relevance. The play depicts the world on the eve of war, in anticipation of an imminent war. And the theme of heroism, heroism, patriotic education is treated ambiguously here. People live in preparation for war. Constantly expecting some kind of enemy, they prepare to be fully armed, they forget that there is a simple human life and simple human happiness. Which is forgotten and which must be protected. We are building a bright future and constantly forget about the present. And this whole construction site turns into a huge grave.
There are a lot of naive cute moments in the play, where we allow ourselves irony from the height of our time. But somewhere this naiv becomes truly scary. There is a measure of seriousness here that must be sustained. So that the topic does not turn into banter."

This performance is the result of extensive laboratory work of the Moscow Art Theater. In the 2014-15 season, as part of the "For the First Time in Russian" program, the Moscow Art Theater presented several sketches of modern Spanish plays staged by young directors of this country. Two of them, "The Dark Stone" by Alberto Conahero and "Click Here" by Jose Padilla, were decided to remain in the repertoire, combining them into one performance.

The action of "Dark Stone" takes place at the end of the Spanish Civil War, and the heroes of "Click Here" are our contemporaries. Different in style and plot, these plays are united by a common theme. Here we are talking about the price of action and inaction, about how much in the world around us depends on each of us.

An active promenade performance based on Dostoevsky's novel
"Demons" was composed by directors Mikhail Mokeev and Mikhail Rakhlin specifically for the mysterious vaulted space of the "Boyar Chambers". The actors move with the audience from hall to hall — from the room of Shatov and Kirillov to the meeting to the Virginskys — changing aesthetics on the go: from a brisk stand-up to a soundrama. Not to mention the doubled relevance of the original source itself in the current realities.

The performance participates in the special program "Golden Mask-2021" "Dostoevsky and the Theater", dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the birth of Fyodor Dostoevsky.

A source: https://www.afisha.ru/performance/97464/

Moscow Art Theater Studio School. The course of R.E. Kozak and D.V. Brusnikin
Directed by Mikhail Rakhlin.

Musical (by Jason Robert Brown), Karinthy Szinhaz, Budapest 2024

By Anton Chekhov, Goodman Acting School, Ber Sheva 2024

Based on the play by Carlo Gozzi "The Raven". Nissan Nativ, Tel Aviv 2024

The magic musical for family viewing "The Blue Bluebird" is the story of the adventures of a girl Matilda and her brother Thiel. On their journey through fabulous countries, they will meet about 50 of the most unexpected characters: the Queen of the Night, Napoleon Cake, an orchestra of clockwork monkeys, a Blue Peacock – the keeper of time, monsters and monsters from the closet.

On the one hand, you can expect a bright and spectacular show with a lot of tricks and special effects from the "Blue Bluebird", on the other – a philosophical discussion about eternal values for both children and adults. Director Oleg Glushkov (known to the general public as the choreographer of Valery Todorovsky's film "The Dudes") promises the audience wonderful music, magical scenery and costumes, clever and funny lyrics, and, of course, exciting dances.

"We have written a completely new, original story and told it in modern language. She relies on the traditions of the author's fairy tale, but lives here and now. And the inventions and the most real miracles here are more than enough for ten ordinary performances," says the director.

Following the results of the 2017-2018 season, "Blue Blue Bird" received the theater award of the newspaper "Moskovsky Komsomolets" in the nomination "Best Children's Performance".

The new performance will appeal to everyone without exception — both children and adults. Among the many versions of Cinderella's fairy—tale fate, this one is one of the most unexpected. Characters familiar from childhood acquire new character traits, manifest themselves in familiar situations from an unexpected side, and Cinderella finds her happiness with a new hero, so unlike the prince. The realities of modern life and relationships in the plot of the fairy-tale musical "All about Cinderella" give hope that this plot is immortal. Cinderellas are eternal, and princes don't necessarily live in palaces.

The Russian version of the Broadway musical. The final.

The fascist plague is sliding down the peaceful Alpine slopes to Austria. A widower and father of six children is threatened with service in the German army — and then a new governess appears in the house. The successful Broadway musical is familiar to us from the 1965 film with Julie Andrews. Stage Entertainment has staged its own version. It impresses both the direction of Evgeny Pisarev and the outstanding scenography of Zinovy Margolin. Run and watch: The "Sounds" will not resume in the fall.

Renata Litvinova as Marlene Dietrich.

The murdered elderly madam bequeathed her fortune to a young friend. A friend has an alibi, but retired investigator Sir Wilfrid Robarts does not believe him. The play by Agatha Christie was staged on the small stage of the Moscow Art Theater by Swiss Marie Bischofberger — with Dmitry Nazarov, Igor Vernik and Renata Litvinova. Bischofberger had already worked with Litvinova in the absurdist play "Step", the text of which the diva never managed to learn, so she read it from a notebook. Now she is staging for Litvinova the role that Marlene Dietrich played in the 1957 Billy Wilder film.

Anatoly Bely — Master.

Anatoly Bely is gradually but steadily turning into the face of the Art Theater. In the dramatization of "The Master and Margarita", which is staged by the Hungarian director Janos Sas (it is only known about him that he has already staged a novel in his homeland), White plays, of course, the Master. During the rehearsals, the casting changed several times — and only White was unshakable. As a result, Yeshua and Pilate are played by Igor Khripunov and Nikolai Chindyaykin, Voland and Koroviev are played by Dmitry Nazarov and Mikhail Trukhin. For the longest time, the theater could not decide on Margarita. As a result, she will be played by Natasha Shvets.

A moderately funny sitcom about female happiness and emancipation.

One day, two girls met in a police "monkey house". One (Angelina Mirimskaya) lives with her mother and sister, the other (Valentina Mazunina) is mired in a toxic relationship. Together they will have to find something in each other that is not in themselves, and along the way experience a lot of extreme and funny situations. The pun name of the series is the surname of one of the main characters and at the same time the diagnosis of all the characters. It is worth saying that "Ivanko" was filmed a long time ago, but it seems that it still has not lost its relevance and perspicacity — after all, it is based on too recognizable and eternal types.

The Russian evening entertainment show of the STS TV channel, created on the basis of the Australian project "Thank God you're here".

According to the rules of the show "Thank God you came!" four celebrities are invited to participate in the program, usually three men and one woman. After the presenter introduces the participants, each of them will have to pass a kind of test: he must wear a suit issued by the costumers of the program. Then you need to enter the room with the rest of the participants and, if possible, funny to answer pre-prepared questions. The participants' performance ends with a general improvisation.

A scene involving guest stars can be stopped by the judge, who presses the red button at the climax. After all the performances, the judge determines the winner, who, in his opinion, is the most interesting to get out of the situation offered to him, and hands him a prize — a plastic statuette in the form of an open door.

Source: https://www.vokrug.tv/product/show/slava_bogu_ty_prishel/

The film in a parody form tells the main milestones in the history of the Theater of Nations. The film stars Viktor Verzhbitsky, Evgeny Mironov, Liya Akhedzhakova, Chulpan Khamatova, Ingeborga Dapkunaite, Julia Peresild, Anatoly Bely, Avangard Leontiev, Vladimir Mashkov, Konstantin Bogomolov, Maxim Didenko, Pavel Rudnev, the management and staff of the Theater of Nations.

Source: https://vk.com/wall-122332671_102

On September 9, the second Korsh Prize was presented at the Theater of Nations. The award is given to actors, directors, employees and patrons who have made a great contribution to the development of the theater. As the artistic director of the Theater of Nations Yevgeny Mironov correctly noted, "the theater gives hope, the theater inspires, the theater lifts us up"

On June 8, the grand ceremony of the most ambitious project of the Year of the theater - the All-Russian Theater Marathon took place on the stage of the Et Cetera Theater! Olga Golodets and Alexander Kibovsky took the symbol of the Year of the Theater from the hands of actors Sergei Garmash and Igor Vernik. The evening was directed by Mikhail Rakhlin, it was attended by the best artists of the Et Cetera Theater, the Moscow Art Theater, the Oleg Tabakov Theater and other Moscow theaters, accompanied by the orchestra of the Stanislavsky Musical Theater and Nemirovich-Danchenko. The hosts of the ceremony are Honored Artists of the Russian Federation Natalia Blagikh and Igor Zolotovitsky.

The All—Russian Theater Marathon passes through all 85 regions of Russia in the form of a relay race — from theater to theater, from city to city, from the east of the country to its westernmost point - Kaliningrad. Starting on January 18, 2019 in Vladivostok, it passed through 49 cities of our country, 76 theaters took part in it, which showed 160 performances to more than 75,000 spectators. Moscow has become the 50th participating city of the All-Russian Theater Marathon.

Photo report by Oleg Khaimov
A source: https://et-cetera.ru/news/peredacha-simvola-goda-teatra-sostoyalas-na-stsene-teatra-et-cetera/

The presentation of the new season and the presentation of the first Korsh Prize took place at the Theater of Nations on September 10. 2021 marks the 15th anniversary of the Theater of Nations in its current format — with the team of the People's Artist of the Russian Federation Yevgeny Mironov. In this honor, the first Korsh Award ceremony was held. It was awarded to actors, directors, theater employees and patrons who made a great contribution to the development of the theater.

The tribute concert dedicated to the jubilee of Oleg Tabakov, the famous Russian actor and Art Director of the Moscow Art Theatre

«The Tempest» William Shakespear
Gesher Theater , Tel Aviv

Director Adolf Shapiro presents a play based on the famous novel by Klaus Mann "Mephistopheles", which tells about the relationship between power and creative personality. This is the story of the life of a talented artist, director and theater worker in a totalitarian state.

Adolf Shapiro: "Anthropologists have learned to recreate pictures of the past from human remains. And is it possible to understand from what is left (or not left) in us what is human, what awaits us tomorrow? Us is me, you, friends, neighbors, the country. That's what I was thinking while rehearsing the play. After all, the question is not whether to be or not to be. And how to live in such a way as to BE, and not to exist."

The performance was awarded the theatrical prize of the newspaper "Moskovsky Komsomolets" in the nomination "Masters. The best performance of a large form" (2015). Finalist of the Moscow theater award STD "Nail of the season" (2016).

The play "The Jeweler's Jubilee" was chosen by Oleg Tabakov to be staged for his 80th birthday and offered to director Konstantin Bogomolov. This is the story of an elderly man who clearly feels his limits, but looks very calmly and worthily into the future.

Konstantin Bogomolov: "The Jeweler's Jubilee, at first glance, is a traditional benefit play, but, in fact, it is not, but is an example of high, strong drama. First of all, this is a drama in which courage and a real serious mental expenditure are required from the actors. Our performance is a psychological story in which the main actors are the actors, not the director's decision."

The play "The Jeweler's Jubilee" is a finalist of the Moscow theater award of the STD "Nail of the Season" (2016) and the audience award "Star of the Theater—Goer". For the performance of the main role in the play "Jubilee of the Jeweler" Oleg Tabakov was awarded the independent theater award "Crystal Turandot", the Oleg Yankovsky award "Creative Discovery" (festival "Cherry Forest"), the theater award of the newspaper "Moskovsky Komsomolets".

The premiere of the cabaret performance "19.14" took place in 2014 and was timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War.

What do we know about the First World War, except that it began with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and poison gas was used for the first time? What is the Great Trench War, to which Remarque's novel "On the Western Front without Change" is dedicated? These questions aroused the creators of the play's interest in such an important, but undeservedly modest place in our memory, a grand episode of the history of the twentieth century.

But do not think that you will be presented with some kind of historical action filled with didactic pathos, a lecture on human cruelty. The story will be told in the genre of cabaret, the host here is an entertainer, his only goal is to entertain the audience with songs and funny stories, at least until…

Sir Pickwick and his friends' Space Journey around Women in and around London.

The premiere of Charles Dickens' play entitled "The Pickwick Club" was held in the walls of the Moscow Art Theater. Chekhov. I would like to note that the performance opened the Cherry Forest festival, taking the place of the main cultural and secular event of spring Moscow in 2009. There was an incomparable atmosphere at the festival, a slight excitement of the actors and even the air smelled of the premiere.

In English literature, Dickens rooted the genre of the "comic epic", revived the "novel of the high road" for his century, England received a great novelist who discovered new facets of his talent from year to year.

"My grandmother Sekletinya is an ignoramus, but she never took someone else's, did not deceive anyone, helped everyone. She often repeated one stichera. Her windowsills were brought to Siberia. The worshippers prayed to nature. So in one verse, Grandmother Sekletinya said, it was written that everyone who sows turmoil, wars and fratricide on earth will be cursed and killed by God." (V. Astafyev "Cursed and killed")

The plot is based on the events of 1942, experienced by Viktor Astafyev.
"This is my truth about the war," he wrote, "mine and no one else's. It may not coincide with another truth."

Anatoly Bely — Master

Anatoly Bely is gradually but steadily turning into the face of the Art Theater. In the dramatization of "The Master and Margarita", which is staged by the Hungarian director Janos Sas (it is only known about him that he has already staged a novel in his homeland), White plays, of course, the Master. During the rehearsals, the casting changed several times — and only White was unshakable. As a result, Yeshua and Pilate are played by Igor Khripunov and Nikolai Chindyaykin, Voland and Koroviev are played by Dmitry Nazarov and Mikhail Trukhin. For the longest time, the theater could not decide on Margarita. As a result, she will be played by Natasha Shvets.

Homage to Billy Wilder's film Sunset Boulevard.

Renata Litvinova: "Inspired by films about the film stars of the great cinema of the past, when the greatness of the star was compared with the greatness of the roles and with her human scale, I composed the play "The Star of your period" precisely about a post–Soviet movie star, with all her past and her imaginary future - and it will be a thriller and a poignant drama at the same time – about the eternal search for love, about relevance, about the fact that everyone has their own rate of aging, and about a Person who justifies his entire life and about whom they will say: "... She was a great star of your period...""

A musical fairy tale for adults and children. Mikhail Mironov staged the play, he also became the author of the stage version of the play. This is the first independent work of a young director, before that he graduated from the acting faculty of the Moscow Art Theater School, and then released two performances as an assistant director.

The production employs aspiring actors, most of them have been working in the theater for no more than two years. The artistic director of the Moscow Art Theater Oleg Tabakov gave the young talents carte blanche, allowing them to do whatever they wanted on stage.

The play "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" was written by Lev Ustinov in collaboration with Oleg Tabakov, and more than 50 years ago it was already a great success on the stage of the Sovremennik Theater.

Each hero of the play has his own character, the reflection of which is easy to find among the people around us. Snow White, according to actress Nadezhda Zharycheva, "is not a princess, but a girl" "with her problems, with her transitional age." The Queen is a parody character, "obsessed with beauty", but at the same time she is talented, dramatic. All participants of the production admit that they worked on it with passion.