Krymova Natalya Anatolyevna - a legendary person in the world of theater. Having absorbed the sprouts of humanism and social truth of the 60s, she uniquely combined them with deep professionalism. Remarkably about this state of mind Oleg Efremov said:
Sixties ... Sixties ... It was a time that helped to become a man. Who had the ability to become a man, he became. It would seem, naively, simple, but true at the same time. What matters is not the "workshop", not the questionnaire - human features.
Natalya Anatolyevna sincerely believed in the development of the psychological nature of the theater, understood the need to saturate it with more and more new forms. She expressed her views in articles, books. She was a sought-after critic. People have always expected her articles, and the point of view must be taken into account.
Everyone knew that the theater connoisseur Natalya Krymova was the wife of Efros, the actor and director. However, her career is a matter of her personal efforts, talent, integrity. To a large extent, thanks to her, the playwrights of Arbuzov, Rozov, Volodin took place, because unprofessional attacks on them were crushed to dust after her Word. The essence of her articles and speeches consisted in the art of removing the cloying official gloss from the stage masters, presenting them in all their depth and originality. Krymova noticed the positive sprouts of theatrical development and showed concern for them. To a large extent, thanks to her, the methodical literature so necessary for the actors was published: two-volume book by M. Chekhov, books by M. Knebel, A. Popov.
She was respected. She, not lowering the bar of professionalism, had the rare courage to always tell the truth, never obeying the conjuncture.
Childhood. Youth
The biography of Natalya Krymova usually developed, like most Soviet citizens: birth, childhood, school, college. She was born on March 12, 1930 in Moscow. She lived with her parents along Leontief Lane. By the way, nearby were the apartments of Stanislavsky. Little Natasha remembered his walk, smile, and welcoming words addressed to the children.
The girl’s parents were far from the theatrical world. You can find the following about them in Natalya Anatolyevna’s notes: “... My mother was the Commissar of the Iron Regiment, a communist with“ pre-October experience ”. About my father, I always wrote in the questionnaires “party worker” - he worked in the Cheka under Dzerzhinsky, and then he was in charge of all sorts of “secret departments”. Father left our house just in that year, when Tolya came to us ... "
Since childhood, she was spiritually filled with poems by Vladimir Mayakovsky and considered the theater something unusual Natalya Krymova. Her biography testifies to the conscious choice of a profession: she graduated from the theater studies department of the Lunacharsky Institute (course of Pavel Markov), and then graduated from GITIS.
Love
A very spectacular lady, photogenic and expressive all her life was Natalya Krymova. Photos of her convincingly testify to this. Undoubtedly, the actor’s gift of the highest standard played in it with colors, where everything is truly, not simulated. Take a look at her pictures. At different ages - a spiritualized face, glowing eyes.
The theater seemed to the girl as a whole world, she felt and understood it. The young critic Krymova wrote her first theater work on the play of Wirth, which was presented by the capital's theater of transport. Here she, in Shakespeare's comedy Twelfth Night, saw Anatoly Efros as Malvolio.
Krymova herself writes the following about this bright page of her life:
... The meeting with Malvolio decided everything in my life - I fell in love with Tolya. How did he play Malvolio? I was completely amazed and stunned by this performance. At the same time you laugh and cry.
Could Anatoly Efros, in turn, not fall in love with her? I think no.
Personality traits
What did millions of viewers of the author’s cycle about the theater remember in her appearance? Her characteristic branded bangs with gray hair, an eye-catching insight and, of course, a stylish silver ring.
Rather, she was not like a critic, but an old-school actress with a slow bewitching voice, not vulgarized by volatile emotions. So it was instituted by default: directors and actors took her opinion as final, as the decision of the arbitration theater court in one person.
The little woman had no courage. She was the first to create a theatrical production in memory of the disgraced great Russian actor Vladimir Semenovich Vysotsky. Contrary to the timidly bureaucratic “there is an opinion”, contrary to official propaganda, contrary to human misunderstanding of the role of this person in culture.
I wanted to listen to her speech without stopping. At the same time, Natalya Anatolyevna, as real actresses do, never used gestures. The eloquent pauses were eloquent of them, sometimes expressive silence, and, of course, precise and appropriate fixation of the look. She was the most influential theater critic of her time.
Work in the magazine "Theater". Stellar years of criticism
Krymova’s first publication appeared in the journal Theater in 1956. It was an analysis of the role of Jalil by actor Provatorov.
Two years later, Natalya Krymova, a theater critic accepted and understood by the creative community, became a literary collaborator, and then editor of this publication. The editor-in-chief of the magazine, the famous playwright and screenwriter Nikolai Fedorovich Pogodin, appreciated her vision of the dramaturgy of works. Natalia worked as the head of the criticism department. Her activities in this publication have become stellar years of recognition and authority in the theater world.
“Theater” was a real community of talents, such Personalities as Solovyova, Turovskaya, Krymova, Svobodin worked in it. Due to the unbiased views and adherence to the classical theatrical canons, this publication in the Soviet Union was considered the "bastion of semi-dissident art criticism." In fact, the ideologist of the neoliberal movement was Natalya Krymova. She seemed to feel the theater almost physically, catching the slightest falsity.
In the early 70s, the decision from the magazine “Theater” was closed.
TV and radio presenter
Having gained wide recognition and authority in the theater world, Natalya Anatolyevna Krymova has been conducting specialized television and radio broadcasts on theater issues since 1972. She created a highly acclaimed viewer and actor series of television shows “Screen Masters”, which tells the story of famous actors and directors. The plot of each such program was unbroken and unique. The woman’s critic’s voice addressed to the audience helped them capture the unique beauty of the game, made them admire the manifestations of this talent, and were sensitive to the secrets of the theater.
How did she just do everything? Despite a significant communicative load, her theater articles still appeared regularly in almanacs, collections, and magazines.
Professor
Since 1989, Natalya Anatolyevna Krymova has been working as a professor in her alma mater (Lunacharsky Institute, later renamed GITIS, which gave her a higher theater education). She graduated two courses. Her students recall the broadest erudition of a woman professor, who did not need to emphasize key points with pathos, literary tricks, simplifying generalizations.
All this was not necessary for the one who, with the help of a specially bleached voice, was able to present such a phenomenon as the art of the game to a wide audience. She taught her students to love the theater without the slightest hint of snobbery, not blindly and recklessly, but, on the contrary, capturing all its nuances, to love with exactingness and integrity, and if necessary, showing rigidity.
Moscow Observer Magazine
From 1990 to 1998, Krymova worked as an editor of the Moscow Observer. The magazine was named in tune with the metropolitan historical and literary publication, published from 1835 to 1839 twice a month.
However, unlike the latter, the Soviet edition had a pronounced professional theatrical character. The magazine played a positive role in maintaining theatrical traditions in a transitional state.
Books
The works of Natalia Krymova published in a three-volume collection. All three books are united by the name “Names. Stories about the people of the theater. " The object of comprehension of all the work of this critic was precisely people who fully devoted their strength, intellect, and consciousness to the comprehension of the art of Melpomene and Talia. Natalia Anatolyevna has never been an ordinary extras life scene. Showing a delicate taste and integrity in the evaluation criteria, she actually created a bright textbook filled with living examples for people trying to comprehend the very soul, the core of theatrical creativity.
Her books “Names” and “Do you like the theater?” Are also known.
Criticism Reviews
It is noteworthy that when reading Krymova’s articles, you understand that the critic does not distance himself from the theater in these works, he simply lives, breathes, is filled with it.
With an easy, boring and entertaining syllable, Natalya Krymova expressed her views. Her books are not only intended for reading by experts and humanities, they are of interest to ordinary people - theatergoers. The collection includes 300 of the most striking works of literary critic.
A family
In 1953, they married Efros, and the next year the couple had a son, Dmitry, who later became a theater director and artist.
It is extremely rare in art to find an analogue of a similar union of creative personalities, such as more than thirty years of marriage between Natalya Krymskaya and Anatoly Efros. Is that Mstislav Rastropovich and Galina Vishnevskaya da Rodion Shchedrin and Maya Plisetskaya.
A wise, loving woman with a steel character set up her family structure in such a way that Anatoly Efros was always the host. The wife constantly helped him, surrounded the creator with care, understanding. “Tolya has such a character,” she said, “the wounds inflicted on him never heal.” Contemporaries talked about this couple, that their relationship was notable for a rare understanding, help and compassion.
Marriages are made in heaven. Some fans of their talent see the harmony prevailing in this family, even in the dates of the departure of these people: Anatoly Efros died on January 13, the Old New Year, and Natalya Krymskaya on January 1, the New Year.
Awards
In 1997, Natalya Anatolyevna Krymova by the Presidential Decree was awarded the honorary title of Honored Worker of Culture of the Russian Federation. Indeed, she more than deserved it. However, thinking about this award, a number of thoughts and questions can be raised.
Unfortunately, the state appreciated her contribution to theater criticism only five years before her death. So what is this award in fact? A statement of fact or an incentive to creativity? It used to be awarded! Indeed, for many years, thirty years, Natalya Krymova was considered the leader and tribune of theatrical thought, completely devoid of all snobbery and conjuncture, which is not often found. In the theatrical world, Krymova was not an official, but she used the real Power thanks to the Word.
A reward should inspire a person when he is still full of strength, but not when he is seriously and completely ill. The last years Krymova has not written anything. She, a surprisingly solid person, simply lived in the memory of Anatoly Efros, the deceased and beloved husband.
Conclusion
In the old days, if the theater knew that Krymova was present at the play, the actors did not go on stage indifferently. They gave all their best, played at full strength, and then waited with awe for an assessment. Indeed, for each creative person it is important to know whether the divine spark of talent really lives in him. Natalya Anatolyevna, thanks to her incomprehensible instinct, saw her essence in any game, separated falsity from inspiration, distinguished creative burning from the mechanical repetition of a memorized one. Now you can relax: Krymova will not come.
Unfortunately, there is really not enough theater criticism of this level in our time. Throughout her life, she answered the question of whether such a Master, Natalya Krymova, is in demand by society. The theater is now especially dysfunctional, it really suffers from many negative phenomena: apostasy from the ideals of morality allowed by the directors of permissiveness, lowering the bar of aesthetic and ethical standards.
Actors and directors, in pursuit of the box office, sometimes forget that they should treat their profession with trepidation, that the result of real, real creative activity should always be the creation of some kind of intangible miracle called art.