Tickets for kinaston. The star role of Maxim Matveev became female: a sensational production in “Tabakerka” Is it easy to play a woman

An actor was called “the most beautiful woman on the theatrical stage” in England in the mid-17th century. Edward Kynaston. According to the laws of that time, all female roles in theatrical productions could only be played by men. No one could surpass Kynaston in this capacity - he was a real star by the standards of any time: handsome, incredibly talented, and also notorious, wore a woman's dress and, according to rumors, was the lover of the Duke of Buckingham. This is the role I was not afraid to take on Maxim Matveev, and I must admit, he handled it brilliantly in the play "Kinaston" V "Snuffbox".

According to the director of “Kinaston” Evgenia Pisareva, Maxim Matveev treated the role “with fanaticism”, he did the makeup, wig, plastic surgery himself and deliberately lost 12 kilograms - in this unexpected way the intrigue with the sudden thinness of the artist, which amazed many, was resolved. This “sacrifice” was not in vain: Matveev’s first appearance on stage is impressive. Spectators find themselves in an English theater of the Restoration era, to a performance "Othello" based on Shakespeare's play. Matveev in the image of Desdemona in a white wig and a long blue dress is graceful, beautiful, feminine in every movement and gesture... His hero in the play, as in life, will have to go through a difficult path - from universal adoration to fall and almost oblivion, from deliberate femininity to true masculinity. He will be able to overcome all the hardships of fate and ultimately emerge victorious.

The play on which the performance was based was written by a popular American playwright in 2003 Jeffrey Hatcher, in the original it was called "Perfect female stage beauty". The playwright took as a basis a turning point in the life of both Kynaston himself and England as a whole. In 1660, King Charles II issued a decree according to which all female roles in the theater were required to be performed only by women, and no one needed Kynaston. It turns out that it was then, in the middle of the 17th century, with the arrival of women in the theater that real intrigue came there. However, both the play itself and the performance as read by Evgeny Pisarev are to a greater extent the story of a man who is trying to determine who he is. Kynaston is an actor, a man whose trade is to publicly portray women. When he is prevented from continuing his career, his professional identity is called into question. In addition, he is clearly bisexual, and it is also important for him to define who he is in a sexual sense.

The play was immediately staged on Broadway, where it was a constant success. In 2006, film director Richard Eyre made a film based on it "Beauty in English", which, however, did not gain fame as a Broadway production. In Russia, the first translation of the play was made in 2007; it was offered to be staged by various directors, including Kirill Serebrennikov, but everyone refused. And Evgeny Pisarev did not immediately decide on this production. " I was not sure of anything - neither in the play, nor in myself, - admitted the director. - That's why I decided to make a performance not on my territory(Evgeny Pisarev - artistic director of the Pushkin Theater - THR), and on the stage of a theater friendly to me.I tried not to offend the feelings of the audience, my own, or the feelings of the artists. For me, this is a story about human dignity.".

As a result, “Snuffbox” received a performance that initially promises to be a hit of the season. Director Evgeny Pisarev, set designer Zinovy ​​Margolin and costume designer Maria Danilova managed to create an alluring and mysterious spirit of the theater on stage . And the “theater within a theater” genre is loved by audiences at all times. The performance turned out to be spectacular, provocative, with maximum use of the technical capabilities of the new Tabakerka venue - the stage on Sukharevskaya, where you can instantly change the scenery. The audience is not given the slightest chance to get bored during the scenes with “conversations”, while they are literally “in the blink of an eye” moved to another world, and the drama is replaced by real buffoonery. Well, some frivolity, the opportunity to see the half-naked Maxim Matveev “live” and not on the screen, adds piquancy to the production.

It is impossible not to note the more than successful selection of artists for the main roles. Appearance in the play Ani Chipovskaya, who played the role of the first actress of the English stage, Margaret Hughes, will attract more than a dozen of her fans to the theater. However, in “Kinaston”, in addition to her and Maxim Matveev, they also shone Anastasia Timushkova as the king's mistress Nell Gwynne, and Vitaly Egorov in a deliberately parodic image of Charles II himself.

ATTENTION! The deadline for booking tickets for all performances of the Tabakov Theater is 30 minutes!

Jeffrey Hatcher

Stage director -Evgeny Pisarev
Translation Mikhail Barsky
Set designer -Zinovy ​​Margolin
Costume designer -Maria Danilova
Plastic directors -Alberts Alberts,Alexandra Konnikova

At the Oleg Tabakov Theater there is the Russian premiere of the play by the outstanding American playwright Jeffrey Hatcher.

Written several years ago, the play was first performed on Broadway with great success and was filmed. Its undoubted popularity is predetermined both by the amazing romantic talent of the playwright and by the theme he chose.

“Perfect female stage beauty” is the literal translation from English of the original title of the play.

But who embodies this feminine beauty in 1661 on the London stage during the Restoration of royal power in England?

Of course, men! Yes, there was such a tradition of men playing female roles. And the play is about the fate of one of them.

Edward Kynaston, a real person, an outstanding English actor, left a noticeable mark on the history of the Foggy Albion theater. The images of his perfect, beautiful ladies excited contemporaries of both sexes until they fell in love. He fully experienced universal adoration and worship.

And suddenly - a decree from Charles II: from now on, only women can perform female roles in the theater! How can intrigue not begin here? Yes, not only theatrical, but also palace. After all, all traditions, illuminated by centuries and Shakespearean masterpieces, are being broken.

The performance by director Evgeny Pisarev and artist Zinovy ​​Margolin immerses the viewer in the mysterious atmosphere of the theater, life in which so accurately reflects the drama of life outside it, with its ups and downs, seriousness and humor, tears and laughter.

The main role, a complex and ambivalent role, is played by Maxim Matveev, who himself knew first-hand what popularity is, and is now trying on the role of a theater star of the 17th century.

Come to the "Snuffbox" and you will find yourself in the exciting world of old London with the pomp of the royal court, regular parks, theatrical backstage and outlying taverns.

Characters and performers:

Edward Kynastonthe last actor in Restoration England to play female roles -Maxim Matveev
Thomas Bettertonfamous English actor of the Restoration era -Mikhail Khomyakov
Samuel Pepys writer, author of "Theater's Diary" -Arthur Kasimov
Willers, Duke of Buckingham, aristocrat - Kirill Rubtsov / Pyotr Rykov
Maria, seamstress - Evgenia Borzykh
Lady Meresval, Alena Goncharova
Miss Frayn, rich lady from high society -Anastasia Chernyshova
Sir Charles Sedley rich man, philanthropist - Pavel Shevando
Margaret Hughes the first actress of the English stage -Anya Chipovskaya
Charles II, King of England - Vitaly Egorov
Nell Gwynne the King's mistressAnastasia Timushkova
Hyde, Prime Minister -Igor Petrov
Thomas Killigrew, theater owner - Alexander Kuzmin
Mrs Elizabeth Barry actress - Isabel Aidlen
Tavern owner -Natalia Kachalova
Sir Peter Lelli, artist - Alexander Limin
The actor playing the role of Emilia -Nikita Ufimtsev
Actress playing the role of Emilia -Anastasia Bogatyreva
Spectators, Courtiers, Tavern Visitors:Arina Avtushenko,Daria Bezsonova,Vasily Brichenko, Yuliana Grebe, Alexey Knyazev, Vladislav Naumov,Vasily Neverov,Alexander Samsonov, Maxim Sachkov

MOSCOW, September 8. /Corr. TASS Olga Svistunova/. At the Moscow Theater, under the direction of Oleg Tabakov, the premiere of the play “Kinaston” based on the play by playwright and screenwriter Jeffrey Hatcher took place. In the original, the play is called “Perfect Female Stage Beauty,” which was embodied on the stage of “Tabakerka” by actor Maxim Matveev.

“The premiere shows took place on Wednesday and Thursday, and both evenings were sold out,” the press service of the Tabakov Theater told TASS, adding that the series of premiere shows will continue on September 21 and 22.

About the play

The play "Kynaston" (originally "Perfect Female Stage Beauty" - TASS note) was written by Jeffrey Hatcher in 2003. It talks about Edward Kynaston, an outstanding English actor during the Restoration. Then, in the 18th century, women were forbidden to play on stage, and all female roles were performed only by men. The best among them on the London stage was Edward Kynaston.

But everything changed overnight - Charles II issued a decree according to which now only women could perform their roles in the theater. Kynaston turned out to be unnecessary and forgotten, but still the actor found strength and returned to the stage in a male role.

Hatcher's play was a success on Broadway and was filmed. In Russia, it was first staged on the stage of the Oleg Tabakov Theater by the artistic director of the Pushkin Theater, director Evgeny Pisarev. The set design was done by Zinovy ​​Margolin, the costume designer was Maria Danilova. The cast includes: Maxim Matveev, Anya Chipovskaya, Kirill Rubtsov, Mikhail Khomyakov, Vitaly Egorov, Evgenia Borzykh, Arthur Kasimov.

"The Ultimate Experiment"

“It started for me as an absolute experiment,” director Evgeny Pisarev admitted to TASS. - I was not sure of anything: neither in the play, nor in myself, so I decided to make the play not on my territory - at the Pushkin Theater, but on the stage of a theater friendly to me - in the Tabakerka.

Pisarev said that the play was translated into Russian in 2007. It was offered to different directors, in particular, Alexander Morfov, Kirill Serebrennikov, but everyone refused. “At first I wasn’t going to stage it either, but now, I think I’m ready for this play and took the risk of staging it,” Pisarev continued.

“I tried not to offend the feelings of the audience, nor my own, nor the feelings of the artists,” the director noted. “I was not interested in the provocativeness of this play. For me, this is a story about human dignity. You can fall to the ground, or you can soar up, everything is nearby, everything close. But both there and there you have to live with dignity.”

According to the director, he is “pleased that he directed “Kinaston.” “I am very glad that Misha Khomyakov, Vitaly Egorov, Anya Chipovskaya have interesting roles,” he said.

As for Maxim Matveev, he, in the director’s words, “treated the role of Kynaston with rabid fanaticism.” “Maxim deliberately lost 20 kilograms, did his own makeup, wig, and plastic surgery. It seems to me that he is growing into a major, real artist, and a handsome and good artist is a rarity,” assessed Pisarev.

Is it easy to play a woman?

“In fact, I lost weight for this role not by 20, but by 12 kilograms,” Maxim Matveev entered the dialogue. And when asked who is easier to play - a man or a woman, he answered that in any case you have to play yourself.

“In each image, the actor is looking for something different, and this does not depend on the gender of the character,” says the actor. “It’s not about sexuality, but about the idea. The material itself is interesting, in the play it’s interesting to be silent, to think, to find something new ".

Matveev said that he is on the staff of the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater, and works in “Tabakerka” as a guest artist. “The artistic director is the same, Oleg Pavlovich Tabakov,” Maxim noted with a smile.

At the Moscow Art Theater he plays in “An Ideal Husband”, in “Karamazov”, “The Last Victim”, and in “Snuff Box” he is busy in “The Devil”, “Wolves and Sheep”, and now in “Kinaston”.

He played about 40 roles in films, the most recent work being Vronsky in “The Story of Vronsky” by Karen Shakhnazarov.

“After Vronsky, it’s difficult for me to understand what kind of film I’ll be interested in starring in, what kind of story to get involved in. I feel the same feeling now in the theater. After such fertile material as “Kynaston”, it’s hard to understand what manifestations I myself will be interested in in further," the actor said.

First responses

“Kinaston” is just beginning its stage life, and the first spectators are willing to share their emotions,” Ekaterina Strizhkova, head of the literary and artistic department of the Oleg Tabakov Theater, told TASS. - I met two young people. They turned out to be father and son. I ask: “How did you get to the performance?” And the father replied that his wife and daughter were there the day before, and they advised.”

The audience's first impressions are already quoted in the Kynaston program. “The performance was a breeze. I’m still impressed! Thank you!” reads one of the responses. The author of another review advises: “Everyone should go! But I warn you, 18+, however, everything is very beautiful and within the limits!”

Most of those who have seen "Kinaston" praise the performance. "Super production! Bravo!" - viewers write. And they applaud, literally and figuratively.

But it’s not only Matveev’s plastic skills, which he mastered to perfection, that amazes, what amazes is his absolute absorption into the character, his transformation, and the level of acting skills that you don’t often see on the Moscow stage today.

Matveev's worthy partner in the play was the famous actress Anna Chipovskaya. And their acting, especially in the final scene, is simply breathtaking.

And all the artists involved in the play - Mikhail Khomyakov, Vitaly Egorov, Kirill Rubtsov and others - deserve praise.

For the first time not at home

The director of the play, Evgeny Pisarev, the artistic director of the Pushkin Theater, admitted that this was the first time he had betrayed his theater. He had staged musical performances on other stages before, but this was the first time he had staged dramatic performances not at home.

But “Snuffbox,” as the director said, is a special case. Firstly, because Pisarev considers himself a student of Tabakov, and secondly, as an actor he played in the play “Snuffboxes” and knows the troupe well.

Is this a man's profession?

“After watching, Oleg Pavlovich said that this performance finally clearly answered the question - is being an artist a male profession? Yes, it is a male profession, which requires real courage, is difficult morally and physically,” Pisarev emphasized.

According to him, “Kinaston” is rather a story about a crisis that happens to every person and in addition to external interventions.

“Kinaston was extremely successful and beloved, and in one second he suddenly found himself at the bottom of life, in the trash heap. How can one be able to withstand both fame and humiliation and at the same time remain a person worthy of respecting oneself and one’s work?” – this is how the director defined it. the main theme of the play.

The performance at the Theater under the direction of Oleg Tabakov is just beginning to live, but the first step has been taken confidently. "Kinaston" promises to become one of the main hits of the Moscow theater season. Premiere screenings will take place on September 7, 21 and 22.

The popular artist, husband of Liza Boyarskaya, showed himself to be a master of disguise

Evgeny Pisarev's performance "Kinaston" will go down in the history of the theater for the fact that it discovered the artist - and this is a rare phenomenon. Moreover, he is a well-known artist, in demand in cinema and theater, who ended up in gossip columns due to life circumstances (married to Elizaveta Boyarskaya), although he never suffered from acting exhibitionism. Maxim Matveev is a handsome man. The reputation of an overly positive hero has so far provided him with corresponding offers from the film industry and theater: noble officers of word and honor, in a word, those positive men who make beautiful women suffer. But this time Matveev’s hero is a historical figure, a popular English actor who lived in the 17th century: his fate formed the basis of Jeffrey Hatcher’s play “Female stage beauty” (listed in the poster as “Kinaston”).

Kynaston is a role not even for resistance, but for total breakdown. Kynaston is not a man, although formally he is considered one. He is an artist who plays female roles in English theater of the 17th century. Of course, this historical fact requires clarification in detail: both in Shakespeare and in other English theaters, adult men played old women, but women and girls were played by teenagers, and until their voices broke. They were specially and long trained for such roles.

Kynaston was also prepared, and, apparently, excellently, if the audience is crazy about his Desdemona. And in his workshop he is a star, a recognized legislator of the embodiment of female images on stage. In a word, Kynaston is like a canon. And he became so comfortable with his heroines that in life he switched to the female role. Coquetry, whims, outfits, promiscuity - the ladies' set has been mastered and skillfully appropriated.

But... the actor's fate is changeable and dependent on the will of the king. And King Charles II, having returned from French emigration, where he had seen enough of another theater, ordered not only men, but also representatives of the fair sex to appear on stage - and here Kynaston’s star set.

Maxim Matveev presents two different Kynastons to the public. In the first act, he is the spoiled king of the stage. But in this stardom and natural femininity of the hero, Matveev does not have a single stable cliche that usually conveys the behavior of transvestites: an inviting gait from the hip, capricious notes in a voice made to sound like a woman’s, etc. The artist has lost a fair amount of weight (he lost 20 kg especially for the role) , does not exaggerate the visual image of his hero/heroine. Yes, he is graceful in his movements and gait, but only to the extent that violation of the trait is fraught with parody and vulgarity. He is spoiled, he is gullible, he is corrupt. But Pisarev’s play is not about transvestites and homosexuals, of whom there were no more in the theater of that time than in real life.

Photo: Moscow theater under the direction of O. Tabakov.

The main theme emerges sharply in the second part, where Kynaston is already different: broken, having lost his job and former recognition. He is without a job, at the bottom of his life, among a suspicious rabble, losing his human dignity, but with all his might he is trying to maintain his professional dignity. There is no trace of the former charm: Matveev plays a genuine drama. And here you can see the artist, his potential, previously unrevealed. The skill is especially clearly manifested in the second act, in the scenes of obscene dancing, in the scenes of rivalry with a real competitor (Anna Chipovskaya).

Taste and moderation determine Yevgeny Pisarev’s productions at his Pushkin Theater, and “Kinaston” on the stage of the new “Tabakerka” was no exception. Here there is a laconicism of double and crowd scenes, a montage of subtle comedy and area farce. Even Zinovy ​​Margolin’s decoration in the form of a platform is a sign not of celebration and vitality, but rather of such a precarious balance that, at someone’s whim, can easily be upset: raised to a height or dropped to the bottom, from where they do not always return. A tragicomedy in clear proportions, strictly graphic on several levels.

So, on the top, a king (Vitaly Egorov) suddenly appears - quite democratically-secularly-progressive, and his appearance is decoratively and mise-en-scènely arranged as if he had stepped out of a card from a deck that had been shuffled. But the card turned out to be marked. The owner of the theater where Kynaston stars, played by Mikhail Khomyakov, is simple and cynical: he has everything for sale, like a butcher - today the public is in demand for men in skirts, and tomorrow he exchanges them for women’s goods without further ado. And he’s not a villain, but a nice realist.

Photo: Moscow theater under the direction of O. Tabakov.

In addition to the two luminaries of “Snuffbox” Khomyakov and Egorov, as well as Kirill Rubtsov, invited from the Vakhtangov Theater, the cast of Tabakov’s college of recent years has been called to “Kinaston”; young artists - mostly in third roles or perform in a frenzied crowd, as if straight out of Goya's paintings (Maria Danilova's phantasmagoric costumes are very appropriate in these scenes). But... the praised ones, who received carte blanche in the “basement” theater, not all of them fit organically into the ensemble. I would highlight, perhaps, only one - Vasily Neverov, who attracted attention with his performance even in the graduation performance “In a Lively Place” (directed by Vitaly Egorov).

It’s impossible to get tickets for Kynaston, which once again proves that the performances of Pisarev, who knows how to create talented box-office productions, have the widest audience. And he, and not fashionable directors, is called to improve the collections in other theaters, including fashionable ones.