If you want to know if fate has a sense of humor, then you should definitely go to the theater for the play “Valentine's Day”. Reviews about him are different. Someone is delighted with the actors' play, but someone only aroused bewilderment. Therefore, as they say, it’s better to see once ... The plot of the play “Valentine’s Day” is familiar to the Soviet audience: once in the theaters M. Roschin’s play “Valentine and Valentine” was a success. And today we can observe how the life of the heroes developed after 40 years. So, go into the hall and get comfortable.
If youth knew ...
Let us turn to the play by M. Roshchin. 70s of the last century. Two young lovers with the same name (Valentin and Valentina) walk through the streets of the city and talk. They have something to discuss: love, the impossibility of being together, a future that is very foggy ... The most important obstacle is the mother of the girl, who believes that her daughter deserves more, and some son of a conductor Valentina is not a couple at all.
At the time of the meeting, the young people are still not eighteen, and therefore the parents' opinion matters to them. And then the times were different - the end of the 60s and the beginning of the 70s of the last century. To match the ideas of a potential mother-in-law about a “successful party”, Valentine leaves for the North (to earn money). And relationships develop in letters.
Third party concerned
There is a third character in this story - a young neighbor. Two families live in a two-room apartment: Valentine with his mother in one room and Katya with her parents in the other. An ordinary communal apartment, and the relations are fraternal. But this is from Valentin's part, and Katya has her own interest. She has long and unrequitedly in love with a guy, but without hope of reciprocity. Especially since he got Valentine.
So, 2 years have passed since the young man left for the North. He has continuous correspondence with his beloved, and Katya also writes to him, but he does not even open her letters. But one thing still ran his eyes. The very one in which he was told that Valentina went to rest in Vladivostok at the invitation of the naval officer Gusev ... This is the plot of history, the continuation of which was the play "Valentine's Day." Reviews of the production of M. Roshchin’s play were enthusiastic at one time. Perhaps because the story is very realistic.
Unexpected meeting
Valentine returns to Moscow in October. Until the previously agreed date (November) another whole month. Valentina is not in the city: she lives in Vladivostok and does not suspect the clouds that have thickened over her happiness. And the young man during a walk meets Katya, with whom they found common topics for conversation.
I must say that the neighbor did not say anything bad about Valentine. She even told how a girl came to the mother of her beloved every two weeks in order to find out the latest news. However, she is still in Vladivostok with a certain Gusev, and this fact does not fit in with "great and pure love," about which much has been said in the letters. The neighbor also does not say anything definite about this trip, although she knows a lot (as it turns out later).
Somehow it happened that Valentin and Katya turned to more personal topics, and as for her lover, "there is no need to worry about the one who betrayed." This phrase often sounded the leitmotif in the conversations of neighbors. And then they decided to get married, which Katya was very happy.
This is the story of 20-year-old heroes, which is woven into the main plot of the play "Valentine's Day." Reviews of the director's decision of the play by I. Vyrypaev are different and depend on the cast.
Roles performed
Heroes are represented by performers who are almost always interesting to the viewer. Firstly, Valentin - it was played by Konstantin Yushkevich; Olesya Zheleznyak and Svetlana Permyakova are sharp-witted actresses, but each in their own style, and therefore the heroine Katya, is different for them; Julia Menshova in the role of romantic Valentina was very organic. And one more character - the author and musician accompanying the production in one person, who was introduced by Alexey Sokolov.
The actors involved in the play "Valentine's Day" do not need to be introduced. Each of them has many interesting roles, as well as its fans.
Audience reviews of the play "Valentine's Day" relate more often to the character Olesya Zheleznyak.
The comedic gift of this actress is interesting for its unpredictability, which is the key to unflagging attention to the depicted events. Although those who happened to see Svetlana Permyakova in this role were also delighted with the enchanting grotesque with which the actress emphasized Katy's character traits.
The production of the director Roman Samghin allows each character to tell his story so that the performance remains the impression of an “equation with three unknowns,” which does not have the right solution.
"Turgenev girl" Valentine
The performance begins with a scene where Valentine celebrates her 60th birthday. She knows very well what will happen on this day, since all events, like "Groundhog Day", have been repeating for about 20 years.
As always, her neighbor Katya will come to her with a gift cake in which 60 candles will burn this year. Valentine suspects that each time a neighbor with particular pleasure adds another to last year's amount. Before entering, Katya will knock loudly on the door with her foot, declaring that her hands are busy, then traditional congratulations will follow, then she will get drunk, and the annual showdown will begin. The fact is that Katya is the widow of Valentine, who now lives with his beloved Valentina. Paradoxes of fate ...
Yulia Menshova in the play “Valentine’s Day”, according to reviews, with her inherent tact, was able to emphasize the level of culture of her heroine, and her many years of patience, and deeply hidden memories, but also ambivalent feelings for her neighbor Katya. Her matured Valentine in something has changed, adapting to reality. However, she still continues to love her departed Valya, mentally conducting daily conversations with him.
Grimaces of fate
Two women, who once loved one man and tried to divide him, continue to do this after his death, living in the same apartment. This happened somehow by itself: after the death of her husband, Katya began to drink and sold his things in order to get money for a drink. The only person who needed these old reminders of the past was Valentine. When the movable property was over, Katya started selling real estate (apartments). Valentine bought it.
So they began to live together. They are united by common memories, feelings and the opportunity to return to the past every year, since it was on the birthday of Valentina (in 1992) that her Valya passed away. Therefore, it was not so much a nameday as a wake, although no one admitted it.
However, on the 60th birthday of Valentina, many confessions were made, which until then were hushed up. For example, about the same letter from which Valentine found out about his beloved's trip to Vladivostok. It was written by Katya. However, the recognition did not change anything: Valentina had guessed everything for a long time and even understood her current neighbor - for the sake of love, one might not do that ...
Actors and characters
The play by I. Vyrypaev is interesting to many directors and actors. For example, Agrippina Steklova, Olga Lomonosova and Evgeny Stychkin took part in the production of director Pavel Safonov. The play "Valentine's Day" for each of them is an opportunity to play three characters in one, since time here is a conditional category. Heroes easily pass from the era of the late 60s of the last century, which they called the "thaw", to the period of the beginning of the 90s, and then find themselves in today's reality.
Pavel Safonov, as a rule, tries to comply with the author’s intention, and therefore his reading of the play is especially interesting. You must admit that it is a rather difficult task, remaining within the boundaries of the playwright's concept, to follow your reading of events. According to the director, he was interested in the story of two women, and he tried to convey the fantastic world of illusions and reality in which they are forced to live. The result was an interesting sight, as evidenced by the reviews. In the play "Valentine's Day" Stychkin is played by Valentine, for whom the choice in favor of one of the women is impossible, since this will hurt the other.
About the genre of the play
It is difficult to determine which genre the performance belongs to. Everything was mixed here: from comedy to melodrama and, as a result, tragedy. However, it is difficult to pass such a life conflict without a sense of humor. Therefore, the responsibility of the characteristic actresses, such as Olesya Zheleznyak and Svetlana Permyakova, as well as Agrippina Steklova, is very serious. They have to balance between the drama of the situation and the ways in which it resides. And here, each performer has his own view on the rendering of the role.
As for the reviews of the acting and the play as a whole, they vary from enthusiastic to sharply negative. It seems that the audience’s perception depends on the presence of life experience (and these are viewers over 45-50) and the desire to completely immerse themselves in the atmosphere of that distant life, and this is not the prerogative of any particular age category.
Where can i see
If you want to see the performance “On Alentine's Day” performed by actors of the Taganka Commonwealth Theater, it is scheduled for April 4, 2019. However, all tickets have been sold for this production. Therefore, you will most likely have to remember the phrase popular in the last century: "Is there an extra ticket?"
However, the repertoire of this theater has about forty performances, so there are plenty to choose from. You can get to it by metro: the nearest stations are Marxist and Taganskaya. Theater address: Moscow, st. Zemlyanoy Val, 76/21, p. 1.
But you can watch the play "Valentine's Day" in Zuev DC February 22, 2019. The production begins at 19-00 and lasts 2 hours without intermission.
Theater address: Moscow, st. Lesnaya, No. 18. The nearest metro stations are Belorusskaya, Mendeleevskaya.
Summing up, we can say that this performance is filled with belated regrets about the impossibility of returning time and changing the past: "If youth knew, if old age could ..."