Today, few people need to explain what Theater.doc is. Over these twenty years, he has been inscribed in the history of the Russian theater. Why and for what — theater critics and theater experts have already written and will write about this.
Mikhail Ugarov and Elena Gremina
Each viewer has his own Theater.doc. For me, Doc is not just a “hunt for reality”, it is, first of all, a political theater. I started going to the performances of Doc and met its co-founders Mikhail Ugarov and Elena Gremina in 2010 when they were collecting material for the play about Sergei Magnitsky Hour 18. This performance was a turning point in the life of «Doc». It was after him that political theater was born there.
Ugarov and Gremina died in the spring of 2018, 45 days apart.
And it seemed that Doc would die and disappear with them. About this in the magazine «Theater», which was released in the spring of 2018, after the departure of Gremina, Elena Kovalskaya, a close friend of Gremina and Ugarov, director of the Center. Meyerhold: “Well-wishers are now crying out: “We will not let Doc die,” “We must save Doc at any cost. But the very word «save» sounds wild in relation to the «Doc», the name of which is synonymous with development. «Save».
There will be no better theater, and if worse, why should it be called «Doc»?
The twenty-year anniversary is, of course, a reason to sum up, but summing them up is all the more difficult because «Doc» has been living without its co-founders for almost five years.
The history of the theater was divided into «before» and «after» .
Lena told me about how the theater was born when I interviewed her in 2017 on the theater's fifteenth anniversary. She said that while doing repairs in a small basement on Trekhprudny Lane for the first premises of the theater, no one imagined that it would be such a long journey, that they would be able to create a real theater institution, a venue where up to 70 performances would go on a year. «Doc», according to Lena, was born from «a community of unclaimed playwrights», from the famous festival of plays «Lubimovka». Many plays from this festival were later included in the theatre's repertoire. Over time, the playwrights and directors who over the years have written plays and staged performances at the Dock dispersed to different theater venues. Some of the like-minded people have turned into passionate opponents and it is no longer possible to imagine them sitting on the same stage: at a festival, at a joint reading of a play, or discussing a performance.
Theatre. doc was not originally conceived as a political theater. Ugarov said in a later interview that they completed the first task. They introduced documentary as a general theatrical aesthetic. Now they are forced to engage in protest art. The famous Ugarov's «zero-position» — the basis of his theatrical philosophy, eventually turned into its opposite. Both Ugarov and Gremina were people of a rare civic temperament, which did not allow them to maintain this «zero-position» when events in the country forced them to react, when it was impossible to remain indifferent and not participate in reality.
After the play «Hour 18», where prison doctors, judges, an investigator, a nurse were tried — people allegedly involved in the death of Sergei Magnitsky (Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Manitsky died on November 16, 2009 in Matrosskaya Tishina prison under unclear circumstances — Ed.), as Gremina said, «life will never be the same again.» Working on this performance, talking with human rights activists, with the Magnitsky Gremin family, I realized that there is a parallel world, “where arrested people are tortured, where you have to pay a bribe in order to be given boiling water, a world where judges take a flash drive with an indictment and rewrite its content in the verdict.
Audience at 18 Hour. Photo: Svetlana Vidanova/Novaya
And then 2012 came. Gremina was fired from the expert council of the Ministry of Culture. «Doc» was blacklisted. The owners of the buildings terminated the lease agreements with the theatre, first at Trekhprudny and then at Razgulyai (because of the play «Bolotnoe delo» and other «sharp» performances that had not been noticed before). The thugs came to the performance about Pussy Riot and the screening of the film about Ukraine along with NTV cameras.
A sign at the entrance to the Theatre.doc in Trekhprudny Lane. Photo: Mikhail Japaridze/TASS
And, if the first slogans of «Doc» were «Theatre, where they don't play», «Theatre doc. is a theater for everyone”, then in recent years Gremina has come up with new ones: “Theater that is not afraid”, “Theater that moves”.
On the eve of the theatre’s 16th anniversary, a few months before his death, Ugarov wrote in his LiveJournal: “It’s a lot for an independent theater, but actually 16 years is puberty and, of course, the Theater. doc is also a teenager. Demands the impossible, forbids to forbid—in general, he remains an idealist in a world where panic attacks in society are becoming the norm.”
Gremina is staging Beslan, a play based on reports by Elena Kostyuchenko, staging the play War Is Near, about the Oleg Sentsov case, Human Rights Defenders, When We Come to Power.
Witness and political performances. After her departure, these performances disappeared from the Doc's repertoire.
Elena Kostyuchenko during performance «New Antigone». Photo: Ali Fesenko
What did Doc come up with on its 20th birthday?
The theater has two sites, one — on Paveletskaya — “Doc. on the island», the second — on Aviamotornaya, this is «Doc. industrial».
The students and colleagues of Ugarov and Gremina continue the «doc» direction: there is a performance based on the play by Viktor Shenderovich (recognized by the Ministry of Justice as a «foreign agent»), the premiere of the play by Arthur Solomonov «How we buried Joseph Vissarionovich» is expected .
Of course, Elena Kovalskaya, Doc, is right, “it is impossible to either extend or reproduce — for this you need to be Gremina and Ugarov” …
It is all the more surprising when in the new performances that go under the Doka brand, you suddenly discover a genetic similarity, continuity.
At the Meyerhold Center, the premiere is a performance by Anastasia Patlai, director of Doc. This is a performance about Bertolt Brecht's favorite actress Karola Neher, who died in the Gulag, and about the liquidation of the International Memorial (recognized by the Ministry of Justice as a foreign agent). and in spirit reminiscent of the famous «Hour 18».
On the day of the anniversary, excerpts from the very first performances of the theater will be shown at the Dock on the island (Paveletskaya). And playwrights Andrei Rodionov and Ekaterina Troepolskaya will read the play «Troekurovo». According to the plot of the play, Kapitalina, the director of the fund for helping older artists, ends up in the Troyekurovo clinic with a diagnosis of burnout. The clinic performs operations that allow you to communicate with the dead. So the heroine finds herself in the cemetery and hears the conversations of Elena Gremina, Mikhail Ugarov and Dmitry Brusnikin buried there (the artistic director of the Praktika Theater died in August 2018 — Ed.). In the last scene of the play, three iconic theater directors argue about documentary theater and tell jokes about Vovochka. Quite a phantasmagoric play ends touchingly and quite in the spirit of «Doc». We hear Gremina, Ugarov, and Brusnikin, who has joined them. And it is no longer so important what they say, how important their intonation, irony, jokes are. And the fact that they, albeit not physically, but virtually, participate in the celebration of the anniversary of the Theatre.doc.
With the permission of the authors, we publish an excerpt from the play «Troekurovo»
Scene 10
Kapitalina and Tanya in the cemetery listen to the dead. In front of them are Ugarov, Gremina, Brusnikin
MJ
Not only do you collect documentary material
But documentary material also collects you
< p>EA
What is this, Misha, what did you just say?
In my opinion, this is some kind of …
DV
Well, the guys saw, they saw, you understand?
We saw the burnout and began to dig up the problem
The problem is serious, the problem is sick
EA
I think it's cool!
MJ
Listen, Lena,
You seem to be so independent
And you follow me like Lenin's croup
EA
You have no idea how important this was to me
Turns out there's a documentary theater here
MU< /strong>
Is this a documentary theatre?
DV
Well, what did you think? Can this all be invented?
MJ
Yes, any psychiatrist can come up with it
EA
And in my opinion, it’s all from the inside, from there…./
MJ
/…./Dima, don’t listen, here’s a joke about Vovochka, come on
About Vovochka:
DV
Come on, let's start poisoning
MU
Vovochka, son, if you're smart
You'll go to heaven, if not — to hell
And how should I behave in order to get into the circus?
DV
To Troekurovo!
EA
I understand, this is about the third way of Russia
DV
< p> Are you at Troekurovo?
MJ
To Troekurovo
EA
And me to Troekurovo
MJ
and Lena on Troyekurovo
DV
And I on Troekurovo…..
Alla Terekhova: “I wanted to pull my husband out of the mouth of Leviathan”
The wife of a «traitor», the author of the play «My War» about why she wrote it and how important the Theater is. doc
«My War» is the story of an ordinary family, in which trouble suddenly came. Gennady Kravtsov, Alla's husband, a former GRU officer, was arrested in 2014 for treason. Lawyer Ivan Pavlov (in 2021 recognized by the Ministry of Justice as a “foreign agent”), who defended Kravtsov, explained to journalists that there was no evidence of Kravtsov’s guilt in the case. His wife tried her best to save him. Alla Terekhova, a director by training and a tourism entrepreneur, tells what she had to endure in six years: lawyers, transfers, dates, turned away friends, investigators, courts, psychiatrists, the Lefortovo prison.
Alla Terekhova wrote the play «My War» in order to relive what seemed impossible to survive. But she managed not only to tell about her personal story, but also to tell about the time and about all of us. There are recognizable characters in the play — lawyer Ivan Pavlov, human rights activists, journalists.
Alla Terekhova. Photos from social networks
— How did you first find yourself in the Theatre. doc.?
— It was 2016. My husband Gena has been in prison for two years. The verdict of the Moscow City Court was 14 years in a strict regime, then the Supreme Court lowered it to six years. I came to the play «You don't need two to tango.» This is a witness performance by Marina Kleshcheva (the actress of «Doc», was previously convicted of robbery. She played in the theater in the colony. The director of «Doc» Varvara Faer came to the colony. That's how Kleshcheva learned about the Theater. doc. A few years after her release, she came to meet Gremina. She began to play in the theater, starred with Kirill Serebrennikov and Sergey Loznitsa. — Ed.)
Then I met Lena Gremina. Kleshcheva's performance amazed me. For an hour and a half, she kept the hall in suspense, talking about her life: her childhood in the yard, her parents' dislike, boarding school, then prison. I wrote a post about the play on Facebook. Gremina thanked me, we began to correspond. She invited me to write about our history. “We will put it in the Dock,” Gremina wrote.
I didn't think about the play, I thought about the book.
When Gena was just arrested, I lived in such insane state and extraordinary things happened to me. And then I became, as it were, watching my life from the outside,
I began to write down everything that happens on some pieces of paper and thought that it would turn out to be a book.
— How did the play come about?
— Twenty percent of what happened to us was included in the play. Gena was supposed to return from the colony in May 2020. I then went through such a powerful psychotherapy according to the Murray method. I understood that Gena would return and it would be necessary to start life anew. So I was told by that same woman psychiatrist from the Serbsky Institute, whom I later described in the play. She scared me: “He will come out and turn out to be inadequate.” When I visited him in the colony, he really seemed to me somehow strange. By that time, we became friends with Marina Kleshcheva and she hurried me: «Write a play, your story with Gena is very Dock.» I've been writing the play all summer, finishing it, reworking it. Sent to Marina. And she says: “Why did you send a story, give me a play!” And she herself, without telling me, sent the text to the artist Yulia Aug. And Julia liked the play very much. She then participated in the first performances. And Marina Kleshcheva became the director of the play «My War».
The play «My War»
— When your husband Gena released from the colony, he read the play?
— Not. He didn't read it. He saw her for the first time in the theatre. He is generally a non-public person, an introvert. He was afraid to take it all out in public. I think he just didn't want to go back there.
— It seems that for you the play became like a continuation of psychotherapy. Is that so?
— Yes, when I wrote, of course, it was hard. It rolled up at times. It was hard to listen to the first readings, even when Julia Aug read for the heroine, that is, for me. But when I started playing myself, I felt better. I sort of pulled away.
— Why did you name the play: «My War». War with whom?
— When Gena was arrested, I had the feeling that I was left all alone on some island. Gena is also somewhere, and probably we have similar interests with him, but he is far away. He is neither on earth nor in earth. It was a war with the whole world, it seems to me, even with the other world.
— Who won?
— I fought with Leviathan, with the state. The state took my husband away from me. Just then, the film «Leviathan» by Zvyagintsev appeared. I thought it was a movie about us. In the film, after all, the hero is also an innocent convict. It seems to me that my war ended only recently. And yet, I won.
— Who is the main character in the play?
— There are two heroines. This is me, but in two forms. One is a real woman, an acting hero. And the second is her inner voice, her soul. The acting hero goes all-in like a battering ram, she wages war. And the second woman reflects, analyzes, sometimes she is afraid.
— Relatives of those who were also there came to one of the performancesconvicted of treason. True, they are not as «lucky» as you. After all, your husband, although he served time for nothing, nevertheless returned after six years. But Viktor Kudryavtsev, a 75-year-old scientist, after serving more than a year, was released due to illness and died rather quickly. The wife of Alexei Vorobyov also came to the performance, he was sentenced to 20 years. How did they react to the performance?
— This is what Olga Kudryavtseva, the widow of Viktor Kudryavtsev, wrote to me: “For nine months after his death, this was the first day when I did not cry. I thought it would be the other way around, but apparently, the common grief unites and gives strength. No need to explain or justify anything to anyone. Around native people. Everyone is on stage. Thanks!»
Performance «My War»
— What will the average viewer understand from this performance? Is this a love story?
“Of course, a love story. And the story of insight, because the arrest of my husband somehow shook me from sleep. Before Gena's arrest, I was not interested in any politics. I knew nothing about the judicial system, or about what our state is doing, or about political prisoners. When all this happened, I seemed to wake up. I can no longer live the way I used to live. I began to correspond with various political prisoners: Alexei Pichugin, Petr Parpulov, Valery Selyanin. Life has changed dramatically.
I don’t know if it’s worth telling people about this so that their life will change too. Can it be easier and happier to live when you don’t see all this? On the other hand, and this sounds in the play: maybe it would be much easier for me to survive all this horror if I at least knew that this happens, and was at least somehow ready. And then a person is sleeping, death comes to him and says: “Everyone, get up, it’s time for you to get ready.”
I want people to understand: don't despair, you have to go all the way. You shouldn't listen to those who say that you should renounce your husband because he is an enemy of the state.
And you, it turns out, are also an enemy.
— The same thing was said to the bride of Ivan Safronov: forget him.
— It was also a war with friends. They said, “Don't defend him, don't waste money on him. Take care of the kids.»
— There was a moment when you hesitated whether to start this war or not?
— I had no doubts that Gena should be pulled out by any means. I had no fear for myself. I was afraid for him. When I realized how many years he was facing, I thought: I won’t do worse to him, I need to save him.
— What is your favorite scene in the play?
—In the transmission bureau of the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center, I met Roza, the mother of a girl who was allegedly convicted of financing terrorism. She lived at my house. She was awakened at night by the prayer of the mullah (alarm clock on the phone). And I also began to pray. We have different gods, but we are united in our grief and in our hope.