The play "Valentine's Day": reviews, actors, plot

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

If you want to know if fate has a sense of humor, then you should definitely go to the theater to see the play "Valentine's Day". Reviews about him are different. Someone is delighted with the game of actors, but for someone it only caused bewilderment. Therefore, as they say, it is better to see once … The plot of the play "Valentine's Day" is familiar to the Soviet audience: once in the theaters, M. Roshchin's play "Valentin and Valentina" was a success. And today we can observe how the life of the heroes developed after 40 years. So, come into the hall and make yourself comfortable.

If youth only knew…

Let's turn to M. Roshchin's play. 70s of the last century. Two young lovers with the same name (Valentin and Valentina) walk the streets of the city and talk. They have something to discuss: love, the impossibility of being together, a future that is veryvaguely… The main obstacle is the girl's mother, who believes that her daughter deserves more, and some son of the conductor Valentina is completely unsuitable.

At the time of the meeting, young people are not yet eighteen, and therefore the opinion of their parents matters to them. Yes, and the times were different then - 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: Valentin with her mother in one room and Katya with her parents in another. An ordinary communal apartment, and the corresponding relations are fraternal. But this is from Valentin, and Katya has her own interest. She has long and unrequitedly been in love with a guy, but without hope of reciprocity. Especially since he got Valentine.

So, it's been 2 years since the young man left for the North. He has a continuous correspondence with his beloved, and Katya also writes to him, but he does not even open her letters. But one thing still ran through my 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 such a plot of the story, the continuation of which was the play "Valentine's Day". Reviews of the production of the play by M. Roshchin were enthusiastic at one time. Perhaps because the story is very realistic.

An unexpected meeting

Valentin returns to Moscow in October. Before the previously agreed date (November) there is still a whole month. Valentina is not in the city: she lives in Vladivostok and is unaware of the clouds that have gathered over her happiness. A 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 Valentina. She even told how the 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 the "great and pure love", about which much was said in the letters. The neighbor also does not say anything specific about this trip, although she knows a lot (as it turns out later).

Somehow it happened that Valentin and Katya switched to more personal topics, and as for the beloved, "there is no need to worry about the one who betrayed." This phrase often sounded like a leitmotif in the conversations of neighbors. And then they decided to get married, which Katya was very happy with.

This is the story of 20-year-old heroes, which is woven into the main plot of the play "Valentine's Day". Reviews about the director's decision of the play by I. Vyrypaev are different and depend on the composition of the actors.

Role played

Heroes are represented by performers who are almost always interesting to the viewer. Firstly, Valentin - he was played by Konstantin Yushkevich; Olesya Zheleznyak and Svetlana Permyakova are sharp-witted actresses, but each in her own style, and thereforetheir heroine Katya is different; Yulia Menshova in the role of romantic Valentina was very organic. And one more character - the accompanying author and musician in one person, who was introduced by Alexei Sokolov.

The actors involved in the play "Valentine's Day" need no introduction. Each of them has many interesting roles, as well as their own fans.

Audience feedback on the play "Valentine's Day" refers more often to the character of Olesya Zheleznyak.

The comedic gift of this actress is interesting for its unpredictability, which is the key to unflagging attention to the events depicted. Although those who happened to see Svetlana Permyakova in this role were also delighted with the enchanting grotesque with which the actress emphasized Katya's character traits.

Staging directed by Roman Samgin allows each character to tell their story in such a way that the performance leaves the impression of an "equation with three unknowns" that does not have a correct solution.

"Turgenev girl" Valentina

The play begins with a scene where Valentina celebrates her 60th birthday. She knows perfectly well what will happen on this day, since all events, like Groundhog Day, have been repeated for about 20 years.

As always, her neighbor Katya will come to her with a gift cake containing 60 candles this year. Valentina suspects that each time the neighbor has a specialhappy to add one more to last year's quantity. 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 Valentina, who now lives with his beloved Valentina. Paradoxes of Fate…

Yulia Menshova in the play "Valentine's Day", according to reviews, with her usual 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 Valentina has changed in some way, adapting to reality. However, she still continues to love her departed Valya, mentally having daily conversations with him.

Grimaces of fate

Two women who once loved the same man and tried to share him, continue to do so after his death, living in the same apartment. It happened somehow by itself: after the death of her husband, Katya began to drink and sold his things in order to get money for drinking. The only person who needed these old reminders of the past was Valentina. When the movable property ran out, Katya started selling real estate (apartment). Valentina bought it.

So they began to live together. They are united by common memories, feelings and the opportunity to return every year to the past, since it was on Valentina's birthday (in 1992) that Valya passed away. Therefore, these were notas much a name day as a commemoration, although no one admitted it.

However, on Valentina's 60th birthday, many confessions were made that had previously been hushed up. For example, about the same letter from which Valentin learned about the trip of his beloved to Vladivostok. It was written by Katya. However, the confession did not change anything: Valentina guessed everything a long time ago and even understood her current neighbor - for the sake of love, you can not do such a thing …

Actors and characters

The play by I. Vyrypaev is interesting for many directors and actors. For example, Agrippina Steklova, Olga Lomonosova and Evgeny Stychkin took part in the production directed by Pavel Safonov. The performance "Valentine's Day" for each of them is an opportunity to play three characters in one, since time here is a conditional category. The characters easily move from the era of the late 60s of the last century, which was called the "thaw", to the period of the early 90s, and then find themselves in today's reality.

Pavel Safonov, as a rule, tries to match the author's intention, and therefore his reading of the play is especially interesting. You must admit that it is quite a difficult task to follow your reading of events while remaining within the boundaries of the playwright's concept. 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. It turned out to be an interesting spectacle, as evidenced by the reviews. In the play "Valentine's Day" Stychkin plays Valentine, for whom the choice isone of the women is impossible, as it will hurt the other.

About the genre of the play

It is difficult to determine what genre the performance belongs to. Everything is mixed here: from comedy to melodrama and, as a result, tragedy. However, such a life collision is difficult to pass without a sense of humor. Therefore, the responsibility of character 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 of living it. And here each performer has her own view on the portrayal of the role.

As for the reviews about the acting and the play as a whole, they range 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 to watch

If you want to watch the play "On Valentine's Day" performed by the actors of the "Commonwe alth of Taganka Actors" theater, then it is scheduled for April 4, 2019. However, all tickets for this performance are sold out. 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 is plenty to choose from. You can get to it by metro: the nearest stations are Marxistskaya and Taganskaya. Theater address: Moscow, st. Zemlyanoy Val, 76/21, p.1.

But you can watch the play "Valentine's Day" in the Zueva Palace of Culture on February 22, 2019. The performance starts at 19-00 and lasts 2 hours without intermission.

Address of the theater: 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…"