“Eustigeny”: in the theater on Clean Ponds celebrated the centenary of its main artist

In the foyer of the "Contemporary" will not push. The professionals of the theater are Evstigneev's contemporaries, who worked with him here from the very beginning - actress Lyudmila Krylova, former chief administrator Galina Lishtvanova, as well as Mikhail Shvydkoy, Leonid Yarmolnik, the Strizhenovs - Alexander and Ekaterina, several directors of the capital's theaters. The daughter of Evstigneev Masha, an actress of the theater, but the son of Denis is not visible. About admirers of the artist’s talent, mostly middle-aged, and nothing to say – they quickly filled the ranks of the amphitheater, balcony.

The evening-performance director Marina Brusnikina, a master of such productions, began unexpectedly. The microphone was approached by a girl in a light dress on the floor and with an open back. Smooth dark hair with a straight partition and taken in a bundle, she resembled a ballerina. And stood like a ballerina - straight backs, easily unfolding beautiful shoulders. She spoke in a well-formed voice.

- From the last interview of Evgeny Alexandrovich Evstigneev. “It is said that nature rests on children. In my case, fortunately, the opposite happened. I have an adult son and daughter: my son Denis is already a well-known cameraman, even received “Nika”, and my daughter Masha is an actress in the theater “Contemporary”. “Are there any grandchildren?” he was asked, and he replied, “No, the children are doing worse with this case.” Yevgeny Alexandrovich did not know that he was going to have a granddaughter, and I am Sophia Evstigneeva.

The hall gasped and slammed, and Sonya, Masha’s daughter, said that her grandfather had never seen her, did not know that she became an actress of the Chekhov Moscow Art Theatre. “I have never seen my grandfather in my life, and I only know him from movies and other people’s stories. It seemed to us that today, on his anniversary, he would be very pleased if everything here was so beautiful.”.

The latter is the key phrase for the evening - "beautiful." The design of the scene, made in a minimalist style (artist Nikolai Simonov), resembled some Moscow cafe of the 60s: ten white light balls with warm light hovered over a long table, ten young artists also sat behind it. At the left portal, a small composition is slightly hidden in the depths, playing something not bravura, with fanfare, befitting the occasion, but an easy one in the style of jazz. And this suited the image of the artist: he played drums in the club in Nizhny Novgorod, while still being (attention!) a locksmith at a local factory and where he then entered the theater technical school. Moreover, he played the guitar - and not just romances, but Liszt's works and played a little on the piano. And on stage he was the king of improvisation. This was talked about a lot at the evening, recalling from the stage and screen funny stories that occurred in different years at performances and rehearsals.

The young artists spoke, as did Sonya, who did not know Evstigneev, most of whom were taken to the troupe by Galina Volchek, a long-term artist of the theater and his first wife. They spoke on behalf of those who just worked with Evstigneev: Efremov, Gaft, Volchek, Tabakov, Kazakov, Kashpur. The latter shared with him in the dormitory a three-meter room in Vladimir, where the certified artist Evstigneev was distributed in the local drama. “On a small nightstand we had a small radio and listened to music for long periods of time at night. Zhenya was musical in everything, even in the intonation of speech.

The relay of memories passed from one contemporary Evstigneev to another, the profession was replaced by personal life and returned to the profession, drawing the image of the hero and the time that many now do not know. Efremov (Ilya Lykov): "He was my main director's headache" and at the same time the greatest happiness. The dog and Evstigneev cannot be outplayed - these two creatures on stage do not know how to lie at all. But working with him as a director was a disaster. I spent two hours talking about the social subtext of the play, about the deep meaning, and Zhenya is sitting somewhere in the corner, looking at her shoe. Then he raises his big sad eyes at me and says, “Oleg, just tell me where I’m coming from.” And what's really hurtful to me as a director is that when he comes on stage, he does exactly what I've been gazing about for two hours with burning eyes.

Galina Volchek (Dasha Belousova): In my life suddenly there was an unemployed graduate of the Moscow Art Theater school of village origin. Dressed in a Boston purple suit for growth and with a long nail on his little finger. That's how Zhenya came to our house. The nanny of his appearance commented: "And is he not ashamed to walk bald?" I wish I had a hat on. But then everybody loved him. And when we were no longer living together, and Zhenya came to our house only as a guest, the nanny always admired him and asked him to fix the iron, then the spinelet on the window frame.

After the divorce, they maintained good relations, and it was Galina Volchek who prepared Sonia's mother - Masha - to the theater institute.

Mikhail Kazakov (Semyon Shomin) recalled how they often gathered as students in their house, where the elder - Zhenya Evstigneev - sang to the guitar, and Mikhail's father, a famous writer afterward, said: "This Zhenka is the most talented of you.".

On the screen, Oleg Basilashvili, this is his course in the Moscow Art Theater Studio School immediately for the third year was accepted by Evstigneev: “Slim, long with a pale face and almost bald man, with big eyes.” And his suit was so dilapidated that it seemed about to crumble. But I immediately stuck my heart to him. When everyone did sketches, he, like us, did everything well, but at the same time added to his character characteristics. I couldn’t help but improvise and not make us laugh: in dance classes, when the choreographer turned away, “A woman in long family underwear (and we simply didn’t have others) in polonaise, pretended that he had one leg bone.”.

Own persons participated in the play Leonid Yarmolnik - a partner in cinema, Alexei Guskov - a student of Evstigneev. Leonid Isakovych brought to the evening a rare shot from the parody television play “The Detective Game” of 1981, in which he persuaded Evstigneev to play an inspector, and he was a sergeant. Their joint shot parodied "Seventeen Moments of Spring," a wordless scene where Stirlitz met his wife in a cafe. Evstigneev teacher funny showed Alexei Guskov.

Footage from the famous films - the head of the pioneer camp from "Welcome or outsiders are forbidden", the accountant-snatcher of the museum picture from "Old Robbers", and of course, "Beware of the car", where the director of the amateur theater offers "to swing at William our Shakespeare." The third wife of Irina Civina with memories of his last days before the operation, which took place in London.

And here came the old Mkhatovets Stanislav Lyubshin. Grey, handsome, with a stick, but he hardly leaned on it when he stood in front of the microphone. He'll change the playful tone of the evening

- Sasha Kalyagin called me and said that Efremov offered his wife to retire. And Zhenya at this time had to get on the train after the play and go to the shooting of the famous film, where he played a professor (Professor Pleishner, “Seventeen Moments of Spring” – M. R.). I didn’t know what was going to happen to him on the train.”.

Stanislav Andreevich remembered how the artist experienced such an act of his favorite director, for which he left the “Contemporary” for the Moscow Art Art Theater. As they were once approached by Russians from Australia, those born into a family of immigrants asked Lyubshin and Evstigneev for tickets to Ivanov, where the artists played. It's 16 tickets, not realizing you can't get there. The artists were able to agree with the administrator only about eight, and then the emigrants sent their children there to hear the beautiful Russian speech and see the recreed artists.

Lyubshin remembered the play “Deaf”, where Evstigneev played a terrible man, “right from life” and brutally, as in truth, beat the hero Lyubshin. He wanted to listen and listen, and he didn’t leave the timing. The artist prepared to dissect something, but suddenly a young artist approached him and, embarrassingly apologizing, blushing, offered to leave the stage. Like, there's more to say.

I wish he hadn't done that. The room, and it was heard, shrank, made a sound of indignation and confusion at the same time - how can this be? To the honor of the artist, Lyubshin did not explain himself to a colleague, and after a minute, he addressed the last words of the sky and left the stage. There was an awkward pause. And it was clear that the best of intentions wanted to shorten the evening, which was already overdue, but it turned out ugly. For someone, such delicacy was an annoyance that affected the perception of the anniversary evening, and for someone, that evening was simply spoiled. The mood tried to smooth with champagne, serving it straight to the hall and not in the final, but serving only planted the pace of action.

The finale seemed to be the steppe of students of the Tabakov School to the French song about a bee in the summer heat from the film “Winter Evening in Gagra”, and the Evstigneev drummers orchestra. Even the dance divertissement of Sonya Evstigneeva, beautifully and sexually moved to the music. But the ending was different: Sonya, sitting in a chair, asked important questions to her invisible grandfather and received answers from five artists who alternately took the place around her. The answers were not fictional: this is how her brilliant grandfather answered reporters at different times.