Interview before the premiere: Alina Chernobrovkina and Kirill Fedorov about the play “Darling” at the School of Dramatic Art

October 31 at the theater “School of Dramatic Art” the premiere of the play will take place “mattress” based on the story of the same name by A.P. Chekhov. Director Artem Cherkaev (who is also the author of the staging and musical design) uses only two actors in the production, playing several roles at once. They are faced with the difficult task of quickly transforming externally and immersing themselves internally. Sharp “jumps” into characters and a dynamic “cardiogram” of emotions open up new facets of an actor’s existence on stage.

Artem Cherkaev: “This performance is like a cry from the soul, in which the heroine’s feelings are exposed, like electrical wires with damaged insulation. We speak to the viewer in the language of symbols. From the household plan we move to the conditional plan. Basically, scenes are built not on the text itself, but on the sensations generated by this text. Quite ordinary events, told through body language, the language of metaphors and symbols, rise to the level of a universal human tragedy.».

Shortly before the premiere, we stopped by the rehearsal and talked to Alina Chernobrovkina And Kirill Fedorov about the birth of a new performance.

Photo: Anna Smolyakova

Alina, Kirill, please tell us about working on the play, how did your relationship develop with the young director?

Kirill: Alina and I have good experience as an acting duet, partnership and working with experienced, venerable, and proven directors. In my opinion, the work with the young director turned out to be more intense, unpredictable, and it was a little scary. We don’t know the person and the person doesn’t know us, so the process of mutual knowledge was long, we were looking for a connection, a language of communication. The first rehearsals were based on recognizing each other and the material, on connecting the acting nature. To be honest, I’m already enjoying the final rehearsals immensely, because in the process we developed a rapport, and Artem has already become like family.

Alina: Artem captivated me first of all with the performance he brought to us at our first meeting. For me, this is a clear indicator of the director’s preparedness; he does not expect anything from us, although we, of course, offer a lot and create a performance together. Artem gives this opportunity for co-creation, although initially he knew exactly how he wanted to do it. And with this confidence he came to us. For me, his willingness to work is a moment of respect.

Photo: Anna Smolyakova

Kirill: The most important thing is probably that we trust him. Trust, in general, is very important in work, and even more so in such a chamber, one might even say intimate, performance for two. Artem draws his own world, which you need to enter, to which you need to get used and accept the aura that he creates. We agree on our temperament and interest in each other, and the search becomes incredibly interesting in the process. Artem is a holistic person and, in the good sense of the word, stubborn, he clearly sees the goal and goes towards it.

What is the difficulty of a play with only two actors?

Alina: A chamber performance is more complex in terms of concentration and volume of constant inclusion. In a big production with a lot of partners, even if you have the main role, you still don’t spend all the time on stage. And here you need to constantly act.

Kirill: Alina has a very difficult task, she does not leave the stage, she is constantly in her character, and the change in her character over time and situation occurs in front of the audience. This is difficult to do while maintaining the design that we came up with. My score suggests several characters, but I think about Alina all the time, I feel her, and she feels and waits for me. It’s a great happiness when someone needs you on stage.

Photo: Anna Smolyakova

Alina: Kirill has an equally difficult task – to show four characters, each with their own character, their own destiny, in a very short period of time. Kirill is right, I’m really looking forward to it, because without him my changes will not happen. It’s nice that he always comes to me.

Kirill: The pleasure of this work is that Alina and I know each other very well and feel each other as partners, as a duet. In a very short period of time (the performance runs for just over an hour), your reactions to your partner and your partner to you should be very fresh and different from what happened before: your inclusion and readiness to play, to perceive, to feel, and you also need to remember a pattern that is quite lacy and replete with elements. And all this despite the fact that we play on a small site with rather ascetic decoration. And out of nothing, we make this space only with ourselves and change it, we create the world around us. And without some kind of human energy magic this is impossible.

Photo: Anna Smolyakova

How do you see your characters? How do you feel in them?

Alina: Artem initially came with the idea that we would talk about the soul, about the unformed soul, about the little soul that did not become a spirit, a big soul, it did not grow. Like many of Chekhov’s characters who could not grow up. Thanks to men, Darling prolongs her existence. He tries to copy them, to live off them. We determined that this is a male donor, a male guide, without him she is nothing, emptiness. For me this is very interesting, it is almost impossible to play, but I strive for this, it is such a vertical goal. It is necessary to comprehend the essence of the soul that wants to be filled. I really feel sorry for this little darling, who due to some circumstances could not become big. Chekhov wrote it in such a way that the reader and viewer get a double impression. It seems to me that she should be annoying because she is so narrow-minded, and she should feel sorry for the fact that she is not able to comprehend this. It is very different, and each viewer, due to their own experience, will see it in their own way.

Photo: Anna Smolyakova

Kirill: It seems to me that in the Russian mentality the word pity also means love. That is, to regret means to love. And when you look at Alina in this role, how thin, vulnerable, fragile, and somehow unlucky she is, you really love how she overcomes the suffering that befell her. Here, a lot depends on the organic nature of the artist himself, and Alina knows how to do this. With her inner core, character, temperament, she creates a world completely different from her, playing simplicity, emptiness, nothing… This is an incredibly difficult task, to reach this zero, not of inaction, but of a very strong action that characterizes zero, precisely in the professional sense this word.

Photo: Anna Smolyakova

Alina: We ourselves are very interested in playing this. We invent something invisible at first glance, our little world, the entry and exit of the soul from the shell. Anyway, this story is about love. Darling loves each of these men, not because she’s flighty, she just can’t do it any other way. Falls in love immediately and, it seems, forever.

Kirill: At the center of the story, of course, is the character of Alina; my heroes simply help to reveal this story. I have favorite and least favorite characters, easy and difficult ones. For example, I really like Pustovalov, I just feel pleasure when I play him. It’s impossible to explain, it just happens. And there are characters that are difficult for me. All this is also because switching from one to another occurs very quickly. My task is to emphasize the story of Darling through these characters, so that she can be seen differently, so that some other meaning can be found.

Photo: Anna Smolyakova

The audience will see the performance very soon. What will it be like?

Alina: Work on the play is still ongoing, we are still in a state of search. It happens that suddenly something is found that we have not seen before. Some symbolism, a random gesture – and everything blossoms in a completely different way. Just as an artist’s painting acquires colors in the process, so our performance comes to life in the work. First of all, we have to find the right tone in each scene, and the path to this can be different.

Kirill: At the stage of forming a production, the audience’s reaction is very important to us. The final composition of the performance will take place with her. But the original plasticity inherent in the existence of these characters, their subtle worldview will certainly remain.

Photo: Anna Smolyakova