Su Vishnevsky
"Optimistic tragedy"
“Optimistic tragedy” by Vsevolod Vishnevsky is one of the most remarkable plays of the Soviet era. It is about heroes, it is about those who wanted to change their lives, build a new bright future, not sparing themselves, dying for an idea.
Unfortunately, this play is forgotten today and is rarely played on the stages of theaters. Probably because there is a certain ideological seal on it. But the play is not stilted, alive, today's, modern. And it begins with simple words, the appeal of the heroes of that time from the stage to the auditorium:
“... First (considering those who came to the tragedy). Who is it?
Second. Public. Our descendants. Our future, which, remember, we longed on the ships.
The first. It is interesting to look at the realized future. There are thousands and a half, and watch us. Have not seen the sailors!
Second. They are silent. They came to see the heroic deeds, the heroic people.
The first. Then it is easier for them to look at each other.
Second. What a polite silence! Is it really impossible to get up to someone and say something? (Addressing someone from the audience.) Here you are, comrade, frowned at something. Here, de not the draft board, and the theater. Perhaps you think that in this case the military registration and enlistment office and the theater have different business? Yeah, don't think so. Well, well, let's start! ... "
The new performance “Kolyada-Theater” is built on this contrast: the past and the future. Who do those people die for? What has grown, what has become of us with all? Do they, the heroes of the civil war who made the revolution, see our present life and smile at us from heaven? What happened to Russia in these hundred years after the revolution?
The answer to this question is looking for a theater.