Nikolay Lakutin - Plays for 1, 2 people. Collection №3

Tired to complain about the fate,

The head was replaced by the power.

Alexander coughs, tired of speaking in a thin female voice, furiously folds the fan and throws it backstage on his nerves.

She casually pulls off these feminine garments and wipes her face.

He is, to put it mildly, dissatisfied.

ALEXANDER (in a rage, in his own voice): There are a lot of people in the troupe. Actresses sit idle, so no, the Director saw some of his own zest in dressing up a man as a young lady. (As emotionally as possible, pulling off the remnants of outfits, wiping the Marafet from the face) What should I do with my voice? With your belly? (he shakes his stomach with his hands.) It's not very clear what happened here. I had to not eat for a month, and what is most offensive – not to drink!

Artist – do not drink! Can you imagine what it's like? This is crazy! This constant transformation of learning roles, a change of scenery, environment and even time! The emotional state from the frying pan into the fire. And I don't have to drink? And then here on the stage to play a secular young lady and a gentle, not squeaky voice to release thin, pliable passes to representatives of the Palace intelligentsia? I'm ready to run them down with my bare hands, because they sneer at me, and I'm here in this rags anneal… And at the same time, I need to be playful, high-minded, moderately frivolous, but still high-minded young lady with them.

He puts his hands on his hips and exhales hopelessly.

ALEXANDER (somewhat distantly): Business… the

Director's annoyed voice is heard through the megaphone (a businesslike, not too positive voice in the recording): something doesn't suit you, Alexander? We can find a replacement for you, if everything is so fundamental!

ALEXANDER (apologetically, making excuses, looking for the Director in the audience): No,no, it's all right! I agreed to this. And lost weight and prepared… This is all true… a moment of weakness. Stress comes out. It seems to be out, we can continue. (After a short pause, changing his tone) Excuse me. (Somewhere behind the scenes) Bring a fan, please.

The music for ballroom accompaniments corresponding to the time of the episode is played again.

Alexander reluctantly pulls on ladies ' outfits.

ZTM.

6 SCENE. REVELATION

Dim lighting.

Alexander weary gait goes on stage in his. In ordinary everyday clothes, without makeup, hairstyles, as I used to go in everyday life.

Tired, good smiles.

ALEXANDER (somewhat self-denying):

now the troupe has dispersed… and the Director has Left the theater.

I'm here alone now, as often in the evening.

Yes, not always successful, but still an innovator,

Not so the soul trembles when people are crowded around.

He sits on the stage floor and looks around the room with a warm, kind smile.

ALEXANDER (heartfelt, from himself): I'm so tired of playing other people's roles… living other people's lives. I gave so much energy, effort… left so many other people's emotions here on the stage… I miss my life so much, the moments when I don't have to play… When I – I! And this almost never happens. The rehearsal, the game, the circumstances in which I, (addressing the audience) like all of You, have to play certain roles. The role of father, mother, husband, son, friend, girlfriend, mistress, and so on…

You know… there are a lot of people… people who like to live other people's lives. That's right love! They like to stick their nose everywhere, which is not very desirable for a visit. They try to command, or manipulate other people's lives…, teach and teach everywhere, especially when no one asks them to. Especially when no one needs it. There are people… who just can't… they just don't know how to live their own lives… Most often, only because they simply do not have their own life as such. Either because it failed, or because once, for some reason, their lives just ended. It happens. I do not judge, but rather sympathize. Anything can happen. .. it also happens that life is over, but the person still exists. And he has no choice but to meddle in other people's lives, to live other people's lives…

What I want to say… Perhaps such people… They would be able to bring great benefit to society not by forcing others to live, or relatives, or friends… in a word, other people by interfering in their lives and trying to rule something there in their own, as it seems to them, the right way. And… perhaps such people would be useful in a different way… maybe just the actor's fiefdom needs such people… Imagine what artists, writers, and screenwriters would be like today… artists and musicians… If these people only lived by what they did. And not because this is their job, but because these people simply can't live any other way, and they don't want to. If such people would give themselves with complete immersion, with complete self-denial, with complete dedication in the lives of others that are necessary to society, expressed in lines, paintings, music, or in acting on stage or in movies…

It seems to me, history knows such cases… And all these cases, as a rule, Yes… they cause trembling feelings and sometimes pity for the fates, but always admiration for what and how a person did… How he lived someone else's life.

Be an actor… Or any creative figure – this in the eyes of many people is nothing more than pampering. It hurts me to hear how the children of actors in schools classmates shout with mockery: "Yes, your dad except for making faces on stage and nothing else can do." Low bow to parents who, hopefully, inadvertently, Express such conclusions, especially with children's ears. And then this mechanism is unwound to the harassment and psychological trauma of children whose parents put their other people's lives on the altar of art…

After all, art… this is all done not for the sake of money, not for the sake of profit and not for the sake of fame… if we are talking about real art, art by vocation, and not by the breath of a magic powerful wand. This is why we are often not taken seriously. We simply cannot be understood, and misunderstanding, alas, often generates condemnation.

Friends…, do not try to judge…, do not try to judge anyone, because life is really not a simple thing, and it is not easy to understand it with the human mind. Isn't it better to put in a good word for an actor, writer, musician, sculptor or artist, even if he drew a black square, and caused countless people to ecstasy and admiration… Yes, let them… He's good. There are many things we don't understand, and many things we try to condemn. .. if each of us tried to highlight positive, understandable positive aspects from any situation, and not focus on ignorance, which, alas, Is a lot without our participation, then… maybe the world would become a little brighter, more colorful, iridescent and all this a little more beautiful.

Alexander gets up from the floor, goes to the front of the stage for the final line.

ALEXANDER (heartfelt, from himself): Yes… Every one of us, no matter what kind of profession we are, we are all actors. William Shakespeare spoke the truth: "The whole world is a theater. In it, women and men are all actors. They have their own exits and exits. And everyone plays more than one role."

In the end, it is not so important what role you played in the theater of life. Positive, negative, major or minor, or maybe just episodic… What matters is how you played it!

Friends… whatever it was… let's play our roles efficiently! With the soul, so that the second take was not needed! So that the first attempt mesmerized with its game. After all, our presence here, it is in any case episodic, no matter how many years we live ten, fifty or a hundred. Against the background of eternity, this is less than the smallest fragment. And if so, then let's at least strive to wear the proud title of "King of the episode".

If we succeed, it is already a success!

Music!

A CURTAIN

Novosibirsk, September 2020

Dramatic Comedy for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

ACTOR

GAVRILA is not the luckiest person, to put it mildly, who, as he communicates with the audience, reveals the most dangerous mistakes in his life, those mistakes that are inherent in 99% of people. Male about 40 years old.

ACT ONE

1. GAVRILA'S APARTMENT

Uncomfortable bachelor apartment. Pretty poor environment. Small table. There's a dirty teapot on it. Cup. Almost empty coffee can, sugar bowl. An old wardrobe, a Cabinet with open drawers that do not close, from which crumpled things stick out. A chiffonier with a sagging door that holds on to its last breath. The old sagging bed is supported by a stack of books instead of one leg. The bed is unmade. On the floor is a crumpled "drunk t-shirt", a sock is lying, of course, one. Everything is piled up on the furniture and in every corner. Cutlery, glasses, plates, forks. Beside the bed is a saucer with the remains of dried fish and an empty beer bottle.

Gavrila runs into the apartment screaming. First, there is the cry, and then his carrier.

GAVRILA: AAAAAAAAAAA! NO! NO!! NO!!! This can't be happening, I don't believe it! Once again on the same rake. Well, it should have worked! After all, once you must be lucky!

Casually throws some tickets around.

GAVRILA: that Chubais with vouchers warmed up, then Mavrodi with their crazy interest rates. And twice and both times me! And so… state all-Russian lottery! Everyone wins. Everything! (to the audience)Here, watch it on TV. He won the car, the apartment. Those who went on a trip on the won vouchers, these broke the cash jackpot! Well, everyone… (irritated) everyone wins. Alone, I fly like plywood over Paris all the time. I'm probably the only one in the whole country who invested everywhere and lost everywhere. I, Gavrila Sergeyevich Mindryuchikov, a law-abiding, God-Fearing person everywhere as if I didn't sew a sleeve to anything…

walks across the stage to the far corner, looks from there indignantly, remembering something.

GAVRILA: Alyosha, the neighbor's boy! I took part in the contest only once. I went to the dacha in need, picked up a newspaper as usual, but while I was sitting there, I had nothing to do. Well, so I read there that, they say, a lottery, cut out the coupon, send it to such and such an address. Well, he cut it out, sent it, won the camera. True, almost no one uses them anymore, but it doesn't matter. What matters is that you won. Immediately! Do you understand? And I have already tried everything, and cut out Newspapers and bought tickets at kiosks and at the post office, and spat over my left shoulder and circled the tickets around my right leg seven times (shows). I've already devoured so much waste paper while I was diluting my desires in champagne to the sound of chimes! (pauses)

I have a niece, fifteen years old. In the lottery already, that just did not win. Wrist watch! Phone – smartphone new-fangled! Laptop! (waving her hand) I didn't win anything… (laughs mockingly, but then adds seriously) She's one of my consolations…

Goes to another part of the stage

GAVRILA: or here is Ilyich, a neighbor in the garage. Fool for fool. Complete, simple, incompetent. Nothingness. My ex-boyfriend. We were homeless together. Ah kaaaaak bum, as all, from payday until payday. They survived in General. And then on! The inheritance gets. In Kazakhstan, his uncle was a big man. He didn't know about it himself. He doesn't have any children. I left everything to this idiot. So he, Ilyich, bought nineteen apartments for himself. Nineteen! Isn't he a fool? A complete idiot. (Pause) True, now he rents them all, gets something like three hundred thousand a month, or more… he left the factory. Of course, why would he? That's how I lost my partner, drinking buddy, and friend. Normal because people won like what a penny extra scolymia, so what is not a reason to drink! And this one has given up drinking! .. And why do I need such a friend? Become Depraved Ilyich. In a word, it lost its human form.