Icons and personal belongings of Tatyana Doronina were taken out of her dressing room at the Moscow Art Theater

Three weeks before the birthday of the People's Artist of the USSR, the former artistic director of the Moscow Art Theater named after Gorky (since December 2018 - the honorary president of this theater) Tatyana Doronina (birthday September 12), she was deprived of her personal dressing room and an official car. The executive director of the theater, Tatyana Yaroshevskaya, who was transferred from Yekaterinburg to help the new artistic director of the Gorky Moscow Art Theater, Eduard Boyakov, to create a modern theater, by this decision has already forced the media and theatergoers to talk, if not about cruelty, then the tactlessness in relation to the legendary actress, full holder of the order "For services to the Fatherland". True, in light of the more frequent theatrical riots and unrest, facts emerge the unceremonious treatment of offices and other artistic directors who are no longer with us, but whose memory lives in our hearts. Sergey Garmash in his open letter to the theater staff "Contemporary", published through the efforts of the rector of GITIS Grigory Zaslavsky, reported that "Volchek's office was destroyed instantly". Most likely, "destroyed" is not in the literal sense of the word. It's just that the new artistic director of the Sovremennik, Viktor Ryzhakov, has settled there, who, judging by his actions, has different views on theatrical art. Certainly Heads appointed by the Ministry of Culture of Russia and the Moscow government are legally entitled to dispose of all the property of the institution for which they are responsible. But there are laws ethics, according to which "old people are honored for their merits and their name is considered". At least, this was not so long ago, when the so-called revolutionaries did not come to power in the theaters. Only for some reason, the first steps of the decisive artistic directors in places resemble the actions of the Bolsheviks in 1917 and in 1918 - to take away the houses, awards from the former masters, and from whom you cannot take everything - to add your people to them and create unbearable conditions of life. In this regard, one recalls "Untimely Thoughts" by Gorky, whose name continues to be borne by the Moscow Art Theater. Since they were written and published from the spring of 1917 to June 1918, and contain criticism of the Bolsheviks and even the leaders of the RSDLP, the author himself called them "untimely". I will cite only two quotes from this publicistic work of Maxim Gorky, which are very reminiscent of what is happening in the capital's theaters today after the change of the masters-leaders to creative managers and progressive artists:

- There is no poison more vile than power over people, we must remember this, so that power does not poison us...

- I say - our root enemies are stupidity and cruelty.

Surely, not everything was fine in the leadership of Tatyana Doronina at the Gorky Moscow Art Theater. As well as, for sure, there are bills that can be presented to Galina Volchek, and Oleg Tabakov and other titans of the theater. But it is ugly, petty and cruel to hit Tatiana Doronina, who is very ill (she is currently being treated in a sanatorium), holds the official post of honorary president of the theater and deserves the same car that can take her to the hospital. All the more so if this car was presented to the theater by sponsors, as was the case with the "white Mercedes" taken away by the theater's executive director Tatyana Yaroshevskaya from Tatyana Doronina. Everyone knows about the sponsored Mercedes in the Gorky Moscow Art Theater. Former theater actor Dmitry Korepin told about this NI:

"The fact that Tatyana Vasilyevna's dressing room was taken out of her things, icons, that Tatyana Yaroshevskaya ordered to take away her car - everyone in the theater knows about this. They say that Tatyana Yaroshevskaya is thus taking revenge on Tatyana Vasilyevna for not making contact with the new leadership”, - Dmitry Korepin, a graduate of the Shchepkinsky Theater Institute, theater and film actor, told NI.

- It can be assumed that Tatyana Doronina, who today is compared with King Lear, will not be very upset by the lack of an official car and a dressing room, but why do that? To show your absolute power? Moreover, this is far from the first cynical attack against Tatiana Doronina. A year ago, again, shortly before Tatyana Vasiliyevna's birthday, by the order of the new management, photographs and posters of the former artistic director were taken in the theater. We will no longer remember the events of December 2018, when a combat team came to lead the theater - Boyakov, Prilepin and Puskepalis, which immediately began to rearrange furniture in the theater, in the hall with portraits of legendary artists, without informing the president of the theater.

Why are government-appointed leaders behave like young futurists in bright shirts, shouting in their "Manifestos": "Throw Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and other classics from the steamer of our time." Haven't we been through this already? Many many times.

Fortunately, there are still theaters where both the dressing rooms of outstanding actors and the offices of great leaders remain. One of them is Academic Mossovet theater. The former artistic director of the theater, Pavel Chomsky, occupied a tiny study in one of the largest and most luxurious theaters in Russia. By the way, in the dressing room of the theater there are still plaques and portraits of Rostislav Plyatt, Vera Maretskaya, Sergei Yursky. Theater artists are proud to have the opportunity to be in these holy places before the performance. I will never forget - with what pride the actor Mikhail Gorevoy said that he had the honor to prepare for the play at the theater on Malaya Bronnaya in the dressing room of Lev Durov.

If the audience didn't like Tatyana Doronina? But they love the way they don't love anyone today. The new artistic director of the Moscow Art Theater named after Gorky Eduard Boyakov told me personally that "Tatiana Vasilievna is a hero of the era, the hero of the theater is a real hero". Maxim Gorky, in the same Untimely Thoughts, wrote that “we have always had few heroes, except for those that we ourselves unsuccessfully invented - Susanin, the merchant Igolkin, the soldier-savior of Peter the Great, Kuzma Kryuchkov and other physical heroes. action, so to speak". But the viewer's love for the artist cannot be thought of. People loved Rostislav Plyatt, Lev Durov, Sergei Yursky, Tatyana Doronina, and they will love it, and no one can do anything about it. And today the Gorky Moscow Art Theater has no authorities, idols and heroes - except for Stanislavsky, Gorky and Doronina. If you replace the signs and portraits with Tatyana Doronina with signs and portraits with the new artistic director and new artists of the theater troupe: Alika Smekhova, Alisa Grebenshchikova and Irina Lindt, then all this will be: funny, sad and unprofitable.

Angelica Dean