Play by Vera Kopylova
Production and scenography by Mark Rozovsky
Premiere – December 2003
A pack of restless ones
Mark Rozovsky about the performance:
One day the door opened and a girl came into my office and said:
– I wrote a play. My name is Vera Kopylova.
– How old are you?
- Fourteen.
-What kind of play?
She handed me the manuscript and I gasped. On the title page it read: “Based on the story “Days of Late Autumn” by Konstantin Sergienko.
Kostya was my friend. And a friend of the theater “At the Nikitsky Gate”, which he visited not dozens, no, hundreds of times!..
– How do you know this writer? The schoolgirl hesitated and did not answer. But she muttered only one thing in embarrassment:
- This is my favorite writer.
I was terribly happy, because I thought – and still do! – Konstantin Sergienko A brilliant master of prose.
Liya Akhedzhakova once told me about Kostya’s story “Goodbye, Ravine”:
- Read it. This is brilliant. All heroes are dogs. Homeless.
- I forgot my last name. But find it and read it.
I found and read it. And this had to happen - literally a couple of days later I found myself in the Writers' House of Creativity in Dubulti in the room next door to Konstantin Sergienko - we lived next door for almost a month, met and became friends.
Kostya turned out to be anything but simple.
Today, when several years have passed since his unexpected death, he remains in our memory as a poet who loved all sorts of adventures and adventures (especially at night), with constant and countless bottles of dry wine under his arm, with a thirst for ironic and heartfelt conversations with any person, interest in which he felt... The nymphet girls were especially drawn to him, each of them cried into his vest, trusting Kostya with their deepest secrets, and he controlled this flock of restless living beings completely disinterestedly, gallantly and absolutely masterfully. Konstantin Sergienko professionally turned everyday life into feasts and holidays - suffice it to say that he taught all of us “in those still” years to celebrate Valentine’s Day. He amazingly skillfully processed his loneliness into unity with no less lonely souls - together it was no longer so lonely, not so sad.
At the same time, he wrote with frantic diligence. The sense of words made him similar to Sasha Sokolov, with whom they were friends, started together and together - before Sasha left abroad - defined their attitude to language as the main means of self-understanding and mastering the world.
If I had the right, I would appoint Konstantin Sergienko as a “classic” - without effort, without exaggeration.
That’s why, when a girl I didn’t know, Vera Kopylova, revealed her admiration for Kostya, my heart felt good.
Later, Vera attended my classes at the Institute of Russian Theater as a “volunteer”, and then, after graduating from school, she entered the Literary Institute in the workshop of playwrights of Professor Inna Lyutsianovna Vishnevskaya.
But in order to enter the Literary Institute, I had to write another play. It was then that I suggested to Vera - if she really loves a writer named K. Sergienko - to make a dramatization of his story “Goodbye, Ravine” with a transfer of the action to the present day.
The result is a performance that is being shown to our audience today.
I won’t hide that a lot in the play had to be redone and a lot added. For example, songs by different authors and composers.
However, despite all this difference, I wanted to gather under the arches of the play “Dogs” a company of authors who knew Kostya well during his lifetime, respected and even worshiped him. This is also the winner of the award. Andrei Bely Mikhail Aizenberg, and Mikhail Sinelnikov, and Yuri Ryashentsev, and the author, hidden under the pseudonym A.P.
I wanted to create a kind of theatrical fantasy based on the story, placing a semantic emphasis on the restlessness of the characters. We made the play “Dogs” not about dogs, but about people living a dog’s life.
There are a lot of them in our country...
Now let’s settle down in the ravine “At the Nikitsky Gate” and begin to empathize with their characters and destinies.
After the third call we will begin...
The most famous story about theater in the South-West. Once, after the play “Molière,” in which Viktor Avilov dramatically “dies,” one spectator cried so much in the hall that the actor had to go out to her to prove that he was alive and that death was just theater.
Don't know. I watched “Moliere” four times. Three of them are with Avilov. Yes, it’s hard, there’s a lump in my throat, but then there’s no way I can cry and sob.
And after the children’s play “Dogs,” I wanted to shout: “Well, tell me that all this is not true!” That everyone was still alive!” And cry non-stop. In general, for those who cried over the book “White Bim Black Ear” as a child, my advice is to stock up on scarves for the duration of the performance.
From overheard
Isn't this a bit of a sad show? One mother.
A little sad? This is the most tragic play I have ever seen. Shakespeare, with his tragedies, including the saddest story in the world, rests in comparison with sketches from the lives of stray dogs.
Girls will always survive. One girl with red eyes.
This is true. If I wanted to adopt a dog, I would certainly choose a small white dog like Zhu-Zhu, or Dachshund, or Beautiful. But I would never take a huge dog, Black or Proud. And she wouldn’t let the impudent cat Yamamoto into the door.
But they don’t do anything to be found! Gleb.
How people were spoiled by the housing issue
This is a social drama. About the attack of the city on the countryside, about the problem of stray dogs in the metropolis, about the fact that it is difficult to keep animals in apartments, etc.
Once upon a time there was a village near the city. Private houses were demolished and residents were relocated to stone boxes. So the leader of the pack, Black, was left without a home. He found refuge in a ravine, where Lame, a peaceful farm dog with a sore paw, had lived long, long ago before him. Various dogs began to flock to them.
Big-headed, who lived with the school watchman for five years and passed all classes except one, and at the same time learned to read.
Dog Proud believes that he is a free dog and does not want to live in a pack. However, he also has an attachment - his own person. One artist sheltered him for the night, wounded. And since then he secretly goes to look at it.
Lame picked up an intelligent Dachshund on the road and brought him into a ravine. Her owner, a professor, abandoned her at the dacha and did not want to move the dog into the apartment. It's strange though. If you can have anyone in the city, it’s a dachshund. It is quite compact.
The dog Zhu-Zhu was kicked out of the circus when she was no longer needed, and she lost her voice from shock.
Gift for actors and spectators
What a blessed play this is for actors! All roles are main and equal. Each has a large piece of text and room for acting. Except for Karina Dymont, who plays the mute dog Zhu-Zhu. But she expresses all her feelings with facial expressions - she is clearly visible from any row of the small auditorium. Plus she has the most poignant scenes. No, the play is full of such scenes, but hers are the most heartbreaking.
At first I was upset when I realized that Karina Dymont had no words in the play. I have wanted to see her for a long time, I love her very much. But now it seems to me that this is one of her best roles.
It’s a joy to see Alexander Zadokhin on stage, he plays the leader of the pack, Black. The role is contradictory: he is torn between hatred of people and the desire to protect his own. It is he who decides to take revenge on people.
Ilona Barysheva plays Dachshund. Sweet, gentle, most intelligent creature. As her monologue, she reads a poem by Marina Tsvetaeva.
How I love names and banners,
Hair and voices
Old wines and old thrones,
- Every dog you meet!
Where did she hear it? Probably at his Professor's dacha. She lay on his lap, and smart conversations were going on around him, and the Professor, stroking the dog, quoted Tsvetaeva.
By the way, you may ask, where are these people? Who exactly should you hate? Where are these soulless evil creatures who did this to dogs? But they are not there. They don't appear on stage. They are present in the form of sound design, in the stories and memories of dogs, and with the beams of a spotlight they are driven into the knackers.
Don't think anything of it, but there are funny moments in the play. Yamamoto's cat, actor Mikhail Belyakovich, is responsible for the humor. Oh, and they are sneaky, these cats. He hung noodles on the ears of gullible dogs. They say you should run to Japan, it’s a paradise for dogs.
When everyone knows that they need to flee to Turkey! The problem of stray dogs has already been solved there. Sterilization, vaccinations and food.
Everyone watch!
The analogy with another theater performance in the South-West immediately occurred to me. This is “At the Bottom” about dogs. Greyhound - why not Satin? Cat Yamamoto - why not Luka? Dogs, just like beggars, have their own legends and myths, their own hopes. Some believe in a Palace where they are treated for alcoholism, others in the existence of a door behind which lies a dog's paradise.
I generally try to avoid direct calls to action. Just because I like something doesn’t mean that others will agree with my opinion.
But, speaking about the play “Dogs,” I urge everyone - parents, schools, just adults. Everyone goes to the outskirts of Moscow, to a theater in the South-West, to be vaccinated against cruelty! Lead teenagers in classes. One will not understand, the second, the third, the fourth will understand. They will remember something, and then, in adult life, suddenly someone will pick up a puppy on the street. And someone will not throw out a dog with whom he does not get along in character, but will advertise in the group: “I will give the dog to good hands.”
Unexpected conclusion
It's been two years now that I really want a dog. After the performance, I understood very clearly that I would not lead. I finally understood what my husband was telling me, but I brushed it off. A dog is a very big responsibility. Now I see for myself. Yes, it's a big responsibility. What if it doesn't work out? What if I can’t? And what should we do with it then?
Theater At the Nikitsky Gate (B. Nikitskaya St., 23/9)
A play based on the story by K. Sergienko “Farewell, ravine!” (2h10m)
V. Kopylova
700 - 1500 rub.
Performance DOGS
Vera Kopylova
Musical performance based on the story by Konstantin Sergienko "Goodbye, ravine"
“Dedicated to the memory of Kostya” M.R.
Production and scenography: People's Artist of Russia
Choreographer: Tatyana Borisova
Costume designer: Evgenia Shultz
Musical director: Viktor Glazunov
Artists:
Proud: Sergey Sholokh Konstantin Taran
Black:
Beautiful: Natalya Troitskaya
Golovasty: Honored Artist of Russia Yuri Golubtsov Alexander Chernyavsky
Former Dachshund: Marietta Tsigal-Polishchuk Honored Artist of Russia Irina Morozova
Lame: Honored Artist of the Russian Federation Andrei Molotkov Dmitry Rafalsky
Juju: Nika Pykhova Kira Transkaya
Baby: Honored Artist of Russia Olga Lebedeva Valery Tolkov
Yamomoto, cat: Denis Yuchenkov Natalya Koretskaya
Gully Voice: Viktor Glazunov
Violin: Valentina Lomachenkova M. Radovich
Songs from the play "Dogs"
(in order of execution):
1. “Why don’t you drink, devils?” Poems by Sergei Yesenin, folk music.
2. “Trash” Poems and music by A.P.
3. “I’m standing at the side of the road...” Poems and music by A.P.
4. “He had money” Poems by Andrei Molotkov, music by Viktor Glazunov.
5. “My bow is torn...” Poems and music by A.P.
6. “Mirror World” Poems by Boris Vlahko, Mark Rozovsky, music by Mark Rozovsky.
7. “I won’t give news about myself...” Poems by Yuri Levitansky, music by Mark Rozovsky.
8. “My name is silent...” Poems by Andrei Molotkov, music by Mark Rozovsky.
9. “Felt boots” Poems by David Samoilov, music by Mark Rozovsky.
10. “Yamamoto-san, tell me...” Poems and music by Sergei Shcheglov
1. “Song about carelessness” Poems by Yuri Ryashentsev, music by Mark Rozovsky.
2. “Great, dogs!” Poems and music by A.P.
3. “Oh, cherry blossoms…” Poems by Yuri Golubtsov, variations on music by I. Dunaevsky and A. Alyabyev.
4. “Flea Lice” Poems and music by Mark Rozovsky.
5. “Rastafar” Poems by Mikhail (Mike) Naumenko and Mark Rozovsky, music by Mark Rozovsky.
6. “Kuzma” Poems by Dmitry Laptev and Mark Rozovsky, music by Mark Rozovsky.
7. “It was, just so you know, politics...” Poems by Mikhail Eisenberg (collage), music by Mark Rozovsky.
8. “Swallow” Poems by Yunna Moritz, music by Mark Rozovsky.
9. “And I will rise...” Poems by David Samoilov, music by Mark Rozovsky.
10. “Crying” (in memory of Konstantin Sergienko) Poems by Mikhail Sinelnikov, music by Mark Rozovsky.
11. “Let us love each other” Poems by Andrei Molotkov, music by Viktor Glazunov.
Musical Quotes:
Sergey Shnurov and the Leningrad group (“Nobody Loves”, “Tango”, “Instrumental”);
Alfred Schnittke, Symphony No. 3, part I “Moderato”.
Vera Kopylova
About Konstantin Sergienko
“Once upon a time there lived a little-known but amazingly talented writer Konstantin Sergienko. His stories about love are half children’s, half adults. Stories where the heroes have strange, mysterious, exciting dreams, where thickets of delphinium crowd in an abandoned dacha and a juniper bush stands covered in tears, where dreams do not come true in reality, but dissolve in it, change it and still make people happy.
The story “The Happiest Day” is a forbidden, secret, completely absurd relationship between a schoolgirl and a young teacher in the small town of Beavers during Soviet stagnation. A strange girl named Lesta in a red beret, living with dreams - or memories - of a non-existent life, of saffron Crimean roses, of cognac with Latin letters on a gold sticker and of evenings in the mysterious city of 's-Hertogenbosch. She is so inconsistent with the Komsomol, school, active public life and is so in contrast to reality that even her only friend and beloved, a 25-year-old literature teacher, could not understand her. “Days of Late Autumn” is the diary of a 16-year-old girl who fell in love with a strange, unhappy adult man with an incomprehensible past. A story about the unrealizability of their love, about the impossibility of breaking out of the strict rules of a conservative wealthy family, about a red sunset, about a star on a pine branch, about Mr. Blütner’s piano, about the clavianissim instrument, about chrysanthemums and about autumn. This book was my favorite when I was 14 years old, then I was in the 9th grade at a French school on Old Arbat. Then I went to the theater “At the Nikitsky Gate” for the first time, I liked the theater so much - I later dreamed about these performances. I learned that Kostya Sergienko died in 1996, quite recently, that he was a very good friend of Mark Rozovsky and that there were attempts to dramatize his story “Goodbye, Ravine.” However, I still started with “Late Days.” autumn." Thanks to Kostya, the dramatization turned out to be subtle, transparent, pure and, thanks to me, childishly naive and funny. That must have been her strength. It became educational material for Mark Grigorievich’s students, which I am very happy about, it gave me a lot of experience, primarily in drama. I was going to enter the A. M. Gorky Literary Institute at the Faculty of Drama. This happened in 2002, my master was Inna Lyutsianovna Vishnevskaya. In the first year I wrote another dramatization based on the story by K. Sergienko, in the second year I wrote an independent play “They won’t catch up with us.” The dramatization of K. Sergienko's story appeared so that it would be staged on the stage of this particular theater. A theater where there is a tradition and the ability to combine the dramatic-sad and the musical-fun in one performance, just like in life. “Goodbye, Ravine” is Sergienko’s most scenic work that initially contains theater and life. The heroes of the story are stray dogs. Dogs who have lost or never had their home, their owner and a quiet, well-fed life live in a ravine on the edge of a big city, far from the self-sufficient and self-sufficient world of people. Uncle Ravine sheltered them on his grassy side. Each dog has its own sad past, its own character, its own little thing or object that helps them in moments of special melancholy. Everyone also has their own dream, and every dog has a dream - to find the Dog Door, behind which happiness is hidden. And winter is getting closer, and there is less and less food, and people are falling asleep and filling the ravine with earth, afraid of mad dogs. The last inhabitants of the Ravine, where during the day the flowers shake their heads and at night the endless starry sky spreads, fall into the hands of the flayers, and only one dog remains alive and finds that long-awaited happiness, his closest friend - the owner.
In the story, the characters were only indicated, outlined in several succinct features. To stage them on stage, it was necessary to develop them and try to convey in dialogues and music what K. Sergienko conveys in prose - sounds, aromas, the finest threads of love that stretch between the characters. The heroes are not exactly dogs, but simply creatures, creatures of nature who find themselves on the sidelines of the measured life of big, smart people. It is impossible not to feel sorry for them and it is impossible not to see the same “dogs” around you, which is why the story is not entirely for children. It is amazingly musical in itself, the dogs in it often sing, howl, laugh, talk about themselves, and, without a doubt, its most expressive form for stage production is the musical.
Konstantin Sergienko was too famous in the 80s, he was too subtle, elegant, sensual writer and too good a person, he died too accidentally and absurdly to be completely forgotten now. His books are not on the Internet, almost none in libraries, and very few are on sale. Publishing house "O.G.I." and Limbus Press have recently published his books, but they are so few and far between! K. Sergienko should be remembered or recognized. If something changes after Mark Grigoryevich Rozovsky’s production of the play “Dogs” at the theater “At the Nikitsky Gate”, then perhaps readers will appear - visitors to a completely different world, where the month of April has dragonfly wings, and August is the time of the silver web . Thanks to the fact that this world has settled inside me since childhood, I probably live.”
Vera Kopylova. Born in Moscow.
Second year student at the A. M. Gorky Literary Institute, drama seminar under the direction of I. L. Vishnevskaya. Author of dramatizations “Days of Late Autumn”, “Goodbye, Ravine!” based on the stories of the same name by K. Sergienko and the play “They Won’t Catch Up with Us.”
People's Artist of Russia
Mark Rozovsky
About the play "Dogs"
“One day the door opened and a girl came into my office and said:
- “I wrote a play. My name is Vera Kopylova.”
- “How old are you?”
- "Fourteen".
- “What kind of play?”
She handed me the manuscript and I gasped. On the title page it read: “Based on the story by Konstantin Sergienko “Days of Late Autumn.”
Kostya was my friend. And a friend of the Nikitsky Gate Theater, which he visited not dozens, no, hundreds of times!..
- “How do you know this writer?”
The schoolgirl hesitated and did not answer. But she muttered only one thing in embarrassment:
- “This is my favorite writer.”
I was terribly happy, because I thought - and still do! - Konstantin Sergienko A brilliant master of prose.
Liya Akhedzhakova once told me about Kostya’s story “Goodbye, Ravine”:
- “Read it. It’s brilliant. All the heroes are dogs. Homeless people.”
- “Who is the author?”
- “I forgot my last name. But you find it and read it.”
I found and read it. And this had to happen - literally a couple of days later I found myself in the writers' House of Creativity in Dubulti in the room next door to Konstantin Sergienko - we lived next to each other for almost a month, met and became friends.
Kostya turned out to be anything but simple.
Today, when several years have passed since his unexpected death, he remains in our memory as a poet who loved all sorts of adventures and adventures (especially at night), with constant and countless bottles of dry wine under his arm, with a thirst for ironic and heartfelt conversations with any person, interest in which he felt... The nymphet girls were especially drawn to him, each of them cried into his vest, trusting Kostya with their deepest secrets, and he controlled this flock of restless living beings completely disinterestedly, gallantly and absolutely masterfully. Konstantin Sergienko professionally turned everyday life into feasts and holidays - suffice it to say that he taught all of us “in those still” years to celebrate Valentine’s Day. He amazingly skillfully processed his loneliness into unity with no less lonely souls - together it was no longer so lonely, not so sad.
At the same time, he wrote with frantic diligence. The sense of words made him similar to Sasha Sokolov, with whom they were friends, started together and together - before Sasha left abroad - defined their attitude towards language as the main means of self-understanding and mastering the world.
If I had the right, I would appoint Konstantin Sergienko as a “classic” - without effort, without exaggeration.
That’s why, when a girl I didn’t know, Vera Kopylova, revealed her admiration for Kostya, my heart felt good.
Later, Vera attended my classes at the Institute of Russian Theater as a “volunteer”, and then, after graduating from school, she entered the Literary Institute in the workshop of playwrights of Professor Inna Lyutsianovna Vishnevskaya.
But in order to enter the Literary Institute, I had to write another play. It was then that I suggested to Vera - if she really loves a writer named K. Sergienko - to make a dramatization of his story “Goodbye, Ravine” with a transfer of the action to the present day.
The result is a performance that is being shown to our audience today.
I won’t hide that a lot in the play had to be redone and a lot added. For example, songs by different authors and composers.
However, despite all this difference, I wanted to gather under the arches of the play “Dogs” a company of authors who knew Kostya well during his lifetime, respected and even worshiped him. This is also the winner of the award. Andrei Bely Mikhail Aizenberg, and Mikhail Sinelnikov, and Yuri Ryashentsev, and the author, hidden under the pseudonym A.P.
I wanted to create a kind of theatrical fantasy based on the story, placing a semantic emphasis on the restlessness of the characters. We made the play "Dogs" not about dogs, but about people living a dog's life.
There are a lot of them in our country...
Now let’s settle down in the ravine “At the Nikitsky Gate” and begin to empathize with their characters and destinies.
After the third call we will begin..."
. "Dogs." Theater "At the Nikitsky Gate" ( Culture, 02/19/2004).
Dogs. Theater "At the Nikitsky Gate". Press about the performance
Culture, February 19, 2004
Alexandra Lavrova
Mercy dump
"Dogs." Theater "At the Nikitsky Gate"
The play based on the once very popular story “Goodbye, Ravine” by Konstantin Sergienko was written by Literary Institute student Vera Kopylova, adapting it to today’s realities. The play turned out to be more social and tough than the story.
It contains anticipation of an event that happens in the finale. The dogs learn that people want to fill up the ravine that has become their home. They try to find owners by organizing a dog show, and after praying to their dog god, the Moon, they die. Before us is a certain frame of the plot, a structure open to filling. It seems that this is exactly what director Mark Rozovsky needed. The fragments are linked into a single whole by acted out songs, of which there are twenty in the play! Among them are songs by Shnur and the Leningrad group. They introduce the heroes, comment on their characters, explain the motives and reasons that led them to the ravine.
Sometimes overtly melodramatic stories of dogs cry out for human mercy. Dogs are quite openly associated with people thrown out of society. And here noble indignation against the cruelty of society appears. There are also specific social denunciations of today. Some were more successful - for example, the helpless and merciless political philippics of the magnificent Lame, a veteran dog with an order bar, who makes his living by begging (Andrei Molotkov). Others - not so much.
The co-actors deserve the kindest words, although sometimes their acting is overly rough, I would say, fat. However, this is what was required of them: not irony, not stylization, but grotesque. Each creates an exact social type, but at the same time the audience does not forget for a minute that they are looking at “dogs.” Vladimir Davidenko's Black is a scumbag leader, hopelessly in love with Krasivaya (Yulia Bruzhaite), clearly a half-breed bulldog. When a long-legged slut, dreaming of a human owner, as one dreams of becoming a kept woman, throws out contemptuously: “You are not a bulldog!”, she hits the patient. A touching, tall "excellent student" in glasses, newspaper reader Golovasty (Yuri Golubtsov) is comically intelligent. Two appearances on stage of the homeless woman Kroshka (Olga Lebedeva), laden with bags and backpacks, are a tragicomic apotheosis of life in a hole, which comes down to two emotions: insane happiness when you manage to dig up scraps in the garbage, and mortal grief when you don’t find anything edible. Kira Transkaya’s Zhuzhu, a mute dog who performed in the circus, is so immersed in the role of a beggar that for her own people she continues to play the theme “we ourselves are not local.” Veronica Pykhova's Zhuzhu is a puppy child who does not lose carelessness, despite the suffering that befell her. Irina Morozova - Former Dachshund - a kind of impoverished professor's daughter, kind, spontaneous, not adapted to life. But Maria Liepa’s Dachshund is an apathetic aunt. Anatoly Zarembovsky's Cat Yamomoto is a badass comedian, while Denis Yuchenkov's is a sybarite who takes pleasure even at the bottom of a ravine: here he finds grateful listeners to his lies.
For Rozovsky it is always extremely important to create a gap between characters and actors, between acting and direct expression. In "Dogs", unfortunately, the actors are still too carried away by the "life of a dog", and their periodic direct addresses to the audience seem like deliberate stage techniques, unrelated to the main form of existence. More successful in this sense are accompanists-observers whom the director brings onto the stage. Valentina Lomachenkova (Violin) and Viktor Glazunov (Guitar) accurately master their signature role and create a “frame” of perception.
A very large burden in this regard falls on the performer of the role of Proud - Vladimir Morgunov. His character is the author's young romantic alter ego. Proud expressed his gratitude to Uncle Ravine, which blooms in the spring; he speaks of the happiness of life, the right to freedom, true friendship and devotion “without a collar.” He does not join the pack, but sympathizes with the dogs huddled in it, fights for justice with the leader Cherny and sympathizes with him too. Rozovsky needs the proud one so much that he sins against the logic of the play, which, unlike the story, requires that everyone die in the finale. A very simply solved and very impressive scene of death does not imply a continuation (under the apocalyptic “Moderato” from Schnittke’s third symphony, two “terminators” in robes and with spotlights in their foreheads cover the sleeping dogs with the “slope of a ravine”). However, Proud is still revived at the left curtain, rather clumsily explaining his salvation. He gives another monologue and sings another song. It is very difficult for a young actor to cope with the task.
In general, the performance leaves a feeling of redundancy, a desire to say as much and as clearly as possible. There are too many songs, and variety, and skits, and a live dog greets the audience with an upside-down hat placed next to it.
Well, why was it necessary to force the actors to literally illustrate the song under Shrinov’s “Nobody Loves Us, Drug Addicts” - to depict how they inject drugs and drink? Why is it so naturalistic to catch flea lice and itch?
Rozovsky creates the image of a landfill on stage. Here material and spiritual waste are equalized. A ravine is a garbage heap where “unnecessary” things end up, including creatures once tamed by man, for which man does not want to be responsible. People for whom society does not want to be responsible.
And here comes another very important declaration for the director and the performance, expressed in Rozovsky’s old charming song “Swallow” based on the poems of Yunna Moritz.
With this song, the dogs in chorus ask the heavenly swallow for very specific material help: “Swallow, swallow, give me milk, give me four sips of milk.” So, they ask Mother Moon to open the heavenly door to where there will be a lot of food.
“Dogs” is neither a victory nor a defeat, but an expression of the essence of Rozovsky’s theater, which does not want to change and seeks relevance not in form, but in theme. It contains advantages and disadvantages, arguing with each other.
A play about stray dogs.
Characters:
Black- stray dog, leader of the pack.
Proud- stray dog, does not belong to the pack
Former Dachshund- stray dog
Chit- stray puppy
Lame- old stray dog
1 puppy- puppy
Summer has come. How I love this time! It's not easy to live in winter. If you find a stub on the road and it’s frozen, try it and bite it.
It's a bit boring in winter. The only joy is when children ride down the mountains. You can run, jump and bark after them.
One of our dogs was in the forest hunting. He says there are a lot of footprints in the snow. They set a dog's heart on fire.
But it's in the forest. And if a stitch is laid in our ravine, it will be a familiar cat. There are human footprints, bird crosses and ski rulers all around. Only in the morning after a snowfall does the ravine become clean and white.
No, it's better in summer. Big grass grows. Flowers shake their heads. And there are plenty of smells that make your nose shiver.
Our ravine is large and beautiful. In the ravine we have freedom, to run around it is a whole journey.
Bushes and trees grow along the edges of the ravine. Blackbird birds live in the trees. Their houses look like baskets, no roofs, no doors. A dog's house, of course, is better, but not every dog has its own kennel.
I know every hole here. A stream flows in the middle of the ravine. In summer it almost dries out, but the ground around is still wet, and there is even a small swamp. The grass here is tall, up to your ears. Mosquitoes fly in clouds and frogs laugh.
There are a lot of things in the ravine. What can you find here! Old shoes and mittens. Wheels, balls and boards.
Bighead found a crumpled hat and learned to wear it, and Tiny lives in an apple box. The box smells of apples, but Tiny dreams of cutlets at night.
I know where the gold ring is. I smelled it and realized that the ring was worn by a kind man. I just don’t know why he put it in the ravine.
The ravine is surrounded on all sides by tall white houses. And then there are more and more of these houses. There are cars humming and a glow rising at night.
Our ravine gets smaller every summer. This spring they poured a whole bunch of stone, sand and clay. They want to build a house again. All of us are fighting. Isn't there enough room for them? Why is it necessary in our ravine? Where should the dog go?
But there is no one to complain to.
I especially love our ravine at night. From its deep bottom you can see the black sky, and there are many beautiful shining stars sprinkled in it. They are very high, and no matter how you jump, you won’t be able to reach them.
Instead of the sun, a white moon appears. A chill runs down your back, your fur stands on end. And if you sleep under the moon, there are dreams from which tears flow, and inside you ache so sweetly.
We are all free dogs. Once upon a time there was a village around the ravine. Small houses were torn down and big ones were built. The owners left, but the dogs remained.
Our leader is Black. He's big and strong. Everyone obeys him, only I stay away. We got into trouble a couple of times. He realized that my fangs are no worse, and he no longer bothers me.
Sometimes I run with everyone, sometimes alone. I did not fight off the Black Dog, and he calmed down.
Previously, Black had a friend, a big and stupid hulk named Otpety. As soon as Dirty Rotten rushed into the fray. He was always for Black. Now Otpety is gone, but Black is still feared.
Big-headed:
- Proud one, take me into the pack.
Proud:
- I don’t have a pack, Bigheaded.
Big-headed:
- Then collect it. The former Dachshund asks for Lame too.
Proud:
“There shouldn’t be two flocks in a ravine.”
Big-headed:
-Then defeat Black. Yesterday he threw my hat into the swamp.
Win, win, win.
Proud:
Having let go of their heads, everyone goes to their kennels. And they go to bed.
Chit:
May I dream of a big bone today!
Former Dachshund:
And let me dream of a soft sheepskin, otherwise it’s completely wet in my box.
Big-headed:
And I want to find a beautiful and smart book in a dream, I will read it.
Black:
Let me dream about a man! I'll bite him!
Proud:
Not all people are bad! Good night everyone!
*****************************************************************************
People are divided into children and adults. Children are little people. Children are more fun and kinder. Adults can be evil, but they can also be kind.
Once upon a time, Black had his own Man. He kept him on a chain and beat him. When the village was broken down, that Man got into the car and drove away. Black ran after him for a long time.
The car stopped. The man came out and drove Black away. But Black ran after the car again. Then the Man hit him. The black man fell and the car drove away. Since then, Black has not liked people.
