Performance behind closed doors.

Yesterday, on the stage of the regional philharmonic society, an entrepreneurial performance based on the play by Jean-Paul Sartre "Behind the Closed Door" was held, in which the main roles were played by People's Artists of Russia Andrei Sokolov and Irina Alferova.

The residents of Kemerovo saw a production based on one of the plays by Jean-Paul Sartre, which is extremely unusual for the domestic entreprise scene. It was in this work that the famous French philosopher and writer expressed the idea that "hell is other people."

The plot of the play is briefly as follows: a nervous young man and two anxious ladies take turns entering a spacious room with three sunbeds and soft walls. It turns out that they are all sinners, and already dead: a coward who was shot for desertion, and female murderers. Now they are either in hell or in purgatory and, locked up together, begin to behave like spiders in a jar: either they strive to make love, or they squabble to the point of a fight. And they argue all the time.

Before the start of the performance, journalists asked Andrei Sokolov if the audience was ready for this kind of performance. After all, usually entreprises are light and funny, but this one makes you think seriously.

This performance is already 10 years old, and all this time it has been popular, - the artist answered. - I have not yet seen negative reviews about the performance in the press, and there are always spectators. It's just that there is too much "fast food" in art now, and we try to avoid it...

- Your partner on stage is Irina Alferova. How do you feel about her - as an actress and a woman?

I don't even know how to answer this question, - Sokolov said after some thought. - So that the husband is not offended, and Irina is pleased (smiles). You see, our project has existed for a very long time, and there was such a “feeling of the elbow”, when we do everything together and reflexively. Although it was only in the last two years that I became clearly aware of what I was doing in this performance. My game used to be all about searching. The play is very difficult, the material is complex. But my partners are wonderful!

Andrei, this is not the first time you have performed in Kemerovo - you played on the stage of the drama theater, were at the birthday party of the Moscow Cinema House, and you also celebrated City Day with us. What can you say about the Kemerovo public?

There was one funny incident at one of my performances. We go on stage, play, and there is silence in the hall. Ten minutes pass, twenty - the audience does not react at all. After the first act, we "sent a Cossack". As it turned out, the audience was told not to interfere with the actors. But, thank God, the second act went better, the audience began to react to our game. I do not want to single out Kemerovo residents as a separate type of public. I can only say that in Siberia the audience is alive.

- Returning home after the performance, what do you prefer to do? How are you resting?

It all depends on the amount of free time, - Sokolov shrugs his shoulders. - Now we have a very big tour - eight cities, so it's quite difficult to rest in the car. If there is more time and there is an opportunity to go somewhere, then the best place is the forest. I am by nature a person who likes to be closer to trees, nature. And I prefer outdoor activities - hunting, for example.

House of Culture named after S.M. Zueva is not just one of the capital's theater venues. This is a unique architectural monument of constructivism. Its unique appearance is known to professionals all over the world, as it is one of the first working clubs in the capital, opened in 1926. The author of the project is the famous Soviet architect Ilya Golosov. From the side it seems that the massive concrete body of the building is as if put on a huge cylinder of glass. During construction, it was assumed that the Palace of Culture would be used for cultural and political events.

Repertoire of the House of Culture named after S.M. Zueva

Currently on the flyer House of Culture named after S.M. Zueva you can see various performances and concerts. In particular, comedians of an unusual group called "Quartet I" found shelter here in 1990. Its members are now known throughout the country, but to this day they consider their hometown Palace of Culture named after S.M. Zuev. The premieres of their well-known performances "Radio Day", "Middle Age Men's Talk", "Faster Than Rabbits", "Election Day" took place here. Also on this stage, productions of other groups are shown - “Not like everyone else”, “Tempter”, “Station for three”, “First Number”, “Return Home”.

How to get to the Palace of Culture named after S.M. Zueva

The DK building is located in the north of Moscow, on Lesnaya Street, which is located between Sadovoye and the Third Transport Ring. First you need to get to the Belorusskaya metro station. From there you need to go to Lesnaya Street. Turn right there and walk for five minutes. Then turn left and soon you will be able to see the building Palace of Culture named after S.M. Zueva. It is located at the turn to the 2nd Lesnoy Lane.

Quartet I
quartet and
theater quartet I
theater quartet and

“Arguments and Facts” No. 32 (August 1999)

Svetlana Kuzina:

In a spacious room with walls upholstered, as in a psychiatric hospital, with something soft, from the situation there are only three sunbeds and an “Oscar-like” statue. There are three doors that lead here. Through them, in turn, the imperturbable manager passes a nervous young man and two anxious ladies: one is younger, but the other is more elegant. These three are obviously strangers, but, locked together, they begin to behave like spiders in a jar - they strive to make love, then they squabble to the point of a fight. And they argue all the time. This is what the director looks like Alexandra Mokhov, one of the circles of hell - the court of one's own conscience.

How colorful they are - a coward shot for desertion ( Andrey Sokolov) and two charming ... killers ( Irina Alferova And Natalya Petrova)! How they cling to the past life, unable to come to terms with the cruel outcome - the sentence of their earthly path! How earnestly they seek each other's sympathy! But their spontaneous confessions are only partly true.

If N. Petrova known more from cinema and a fairly new face on the Moscow stage, then A. Sokolov And I.Alferova- Actors more than familiar to the viewer. However, the performance “Behind the Closed Door” revealed some new, amazing facets in them”; maybe the famous “Lenkom” does not fully use the capabilities of its stars?

“Nezavisimaya Gazeta” 30.03.99

Valentina Fedorova:

Domestic theatrical entreprise never ceases to amaze. Following the appearance of Frisch's play in one entreprise, Jean-Paul Sartre appears in another. Moreover, with one of his most conceptual plays “Behind the Closed Door”, which largely determined the whole direction of research on Sartre…

…There is nothing terrible in this hell. Weird, yes, but not terrible. And although the fun of the newcomers has a somewhat hysterical connotation, they, nevertheless, do not lose their sense of humor. The undoubted success of the stage director is the correctly found tonality of the performance, its rapid rhythm, nervous bravado. Perhaps the most clear character is Ines Serano. In execution Natalia Petrova- this is a long-legged spectacular brunette in annoying red, deliberately sharp and provocative. This bitch is heartless and cruel, like life itself.

Estelle Rigaud performed by Irina Alferova at first seems to be her complete opposite. An elegant, charming lady, she seems like a lovely coquette, a brilliant moth. But gradually her tragedy is revealed. The cruelty of this sweetest creature suddenly manifests itself in her almost bazaar cry ... Alferova did not often have to play negative characters. Here she demonstrates facets of her talent unknown to us. She is not even afraid to be funny when she clings absurdly to the only man she has left forever.

Joseph Garcin, a pacifist journalist who accuses himself of cowardice, is played by a popular theater and film actor Andrey Sokolov. The equanimity and respectability of the first episodes, slightly seasoned with quite understandable nervousness, are replaced by an almost childish despair, a boyish thirst for recognition. The actor conveys a strange combination of strength and dependence on others, sparing no satirical colors ...

Hell is others. We are all executioners and victims. But not everything is so gloomy, gentlemen. In our terrible age, the search for a moral imperative seems inevitable. So maybe he's there, behind a closed door?

"New time" 28.11.99

Larisa Davtyan:

... In the address of the theater "Players" to Sartre's play "Behind the Closed Door" one can see some experience of "intellectual banter" performed by Andrey S O Kolov, Irina Alferova, Natalia Petrova And Rudolf Sarkisov who should not be afraid to overdo it in irony. After all, Sartre's imaginary receptacle of hell, where the meeting of a sinner with two sinners, does not at all imply the pathos of walking along the “Dante's circle”. The heroes of this performance (scenography Viktor Krylov), according to its director Alexandra Mokhova(the directorial debut of the artist "Snuffbox"), rather, are driven into a corner. And in its impasse, they will have to discover the extremely simple truth that “hell is others”, and accept the doom to “coexistence”, the inevitability of which can only be diluted with laughter. And, perhaps, it is symbolic that this so-called “hellish story” was voiced by a composer from the former team of “Merry Fellows” Sergei Shustitsky, finding justification for harmonious harmonies in such a seemingly alien place, and with the broken rhythms of tango, giving the otherworldly action a touch of farce ...

"Evening Moscow", June 2, 1998

Irina Kretova:

... The director recreates Sartre's "theater of situations", in which "torture by thought" pushes aside the intrigue, life is sharpened to a graphic, laboratory study. The action of a tragic farce is limited by the framework of a predetermined, constructed conditional situation - “hell”, in which people will be punished for their earthly sins. There are no braziers, skewers and cauldrons in this hell, there are no executioners. Just a room with closed doors, and there are three completely different people in it ... At first glance, they are not related to each other in any way, however, each of them carries a “bacillus of evil” from birth, and any of them is the executioner of the other. But it is difficult for the heroes to agree with this... In order to understand this and gain salvation from "hellish" torments, they have to go through all the circles...