Theatre-cabaret “The Bat. Cabaret theater "The Bat" The emblem of the theater-cabaret "The Bat"

Near the Cathedral of Christ the Savior there is a red brick building, which stands out for its exotic beauty.

The Fairytale Castle is Pertsova's apartment building. In the people it is called the "fairy tale house".

The house was built at the beginning of the last century:

It is located at the intersection of Soimonovsky passage and Prechistenskaya embankment.

From the side of Kursovoy Lane, a wonderful view of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior opens up:

In 1931 the temple was demolished. During the war, the neighboring building was also destroyed. Surprisingly, Pertsova's house has been preserved in a fabulous way. How did the building manage to survive, having survived both the war and the Soviet regime? Perhaps the whole point is in the "dragons" supporting the balconies, which, as it were, guard it.

These monsters are not the only mythical creatures "inhabiting" the facade of the house

The bull and the bear "under the gaze" of the sun deified by the Slavs:

Wall panels are also full of images of birds:

Right above the front doors you can see the "bird of paradise" Sirin:

“A four-story box with small window openings” leaves some kind of fabulously epic image. This is no coincidence. After all, the building was erected according to the sketches of the artist Malyutin, who, according to some sources, is the author of the painting of the first Russian matryoshka.

The House-Fairy Tale entered not only the architectural, but also the theatrical history of Moscow, becoming the birthplace of the famous Moscow cabaret The Bat. Its founders were the artist of the Moscow Art Theater Nikita Baliev (later - the first Russian entertainer) and the rich oilman Nikolai Tarasov, who passionately loved the theater. They decided to arrange comic evenings for the artists of the Art Theater, and for their holding they rented the basement of Pertsov's house. According to legend, when Baliyev and Tarasov first went down to the basement, a bat flew out to meet them. This is how the cabaret got its name.

The opening of "The Bat" took place on February 29, 1908, a parody of the play "The Blue Bird", which premiered at the Moscow Art Theater a week earlier.

Very soon, the cabaret gained great fame in the theatrical environment, but did not last long. In the fall of 1910, Nikolai Tarasov, patron of the Bat, committed suicide. Having lost their livelihood, The Bat began to give paid performances for the general public, and in 1912 Nikita Baliyev, having separated from the Moscow Art Theater, formed his own theater under the same name. The address of the "Bat" has changed: since 1915, the theater has settled in the "theatre basement" of the famous lady Nirnsee in Moscow in Bolshoy Gnezdnikovsky Lane. Currently, Pertsov's house is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In Bolshoi Gnezdnikovsky Lane there is an old nine-story house built about 90 years ago according to the design of the famous architect Nirnsee. This is a unique building in architectural, historical and cultural sense. Episodes of many famous Soviet films were filmed on the roof of the house, such as: "Tales, Tales ... Tales of the Old Arbat", "Office Romance", "Courier"

"The Art Theater is the most serious theater, with heroic tension, in the seething of creative forces, resolving the most complex stage problems." "The Bat" should become a place of constant rest for the people of the theater, the realm of "free, but beautiful jokes, and away from the outside public." Thus wrote the critic N. Efros, close to the Art Theatre, who became a witness and adviser to the first, still preparatory steps of the cabaret. “Away from the outside public” - these words, a kind of motto of The Bat, became the first and main point of its Charter, which proclaimed the strictest intimacy and non-publicity of the cabaret of the Moscow Art Theater actors.

“It will be,” shared N. Baliev shortly before the opening of the "Bat", - a kind of club of the Art Theater, inaccessible to others. It's extremely difficult to get into a circle." The founding members of The Bat - and they were all the main actors of the Art Theater: O. L. Knipper, V. I. Kachalov, I. M. Moskvin, V. V. Luzhsky, G. S. Burdzhalov, N. F. Gribunin, N. G. Aleksandrov and, in addition, N. F. Baliyev and N. L. Tarasov - developed a very complicated ballot system for "outsiders" who could be included in the members of the circle only by unanimous election. “At the very first ballot, not a single new member was elected, because everyone had at least one “chernyak”.” This system had to be quickly abandoned.

The close circle of "artists" was expanded only by musicians, artists, writers, people close to the theater. After the first "executive meeting" - as the cabaret evenings were called - the newspaper chronicle reported that L. Sobinov, V. Petrova-Zvantseva, director of the Maly Theater N. Popov and artist of the New Theater A. Kamionsky were among the "outsiders".

The mystery of what is happening in the closed club of the Art Theater inflamed the curiosity of the audience around the theater. Rumors - one more tempting than the other - teased the imagination and excited "the whole of Moscow." Performances in the night actors' pub were like nothing else.

It was said that Stanislavsky himself was dancing the can-can with Moskvin; they said that the majestic Knipper hums a frivolous chansonette there, and Nemirovich-Danchenko, who had never held a conductor's baton before, leads a small orchestra, to which they dance a polka or a stormy-fiery mazurka Alisa Koonen with Kachalov ...

"Jokes of the Gods" - this is how a correspondent who admitted a year after the opening in the cabaret of the Art Theater will call his note.

Actors jealously guarded their intimacy.

Acting is the most public of professions, moreover, its whole essence, its whole meaning is in publicity - and suddenly it slams the doors in front of the audience! The Moscow public could not comprehend this paradox.

Meanwhile, the actors of the Art Theater, perhaps without suspecting it, were to some extent reviving the idea that had once inspired the creators of the first cabarets in France. The organizers of cabarets, different in style, distant for tens of years and thousands of kilometers, were brought together by common goals: to create their own, special world in the world of commercial civilization, where one could hide from the intolerable vulgarity and prosaism of life.

The “leaving” of artists into the world they created was carried out in the most literal way. The "Bat" should not have been entered from the front door Pertsova at home , which began with a luxurious hall in mural and stucco, where the doors of the elevator, finished with dark wood and mirrors, swung open, and from the alley, through a narrow, Gothic-shaped door, going down the stairs. Ten steps leading to the dungeon separated the actors' haven from "earthly" life. The basement came alive after midnight. The congress of guests was scheduled for twelve at night. Night life - quite natural for the actors (day and evening hours are busy for them) - also had a hidden meaning, intelligible only to the initiates. The mysterious night, opposed to the rational, dull-prosaic day, has long been known as an ally of artists.

Flying around like a bat

Among the night lights

We will embroider a motley pattern

Against the backdrop of dull days, -

So half-seriously-half-ironically sung in the hymn "The Bat". It was not at all by chance that the actors took the bat as patrons of their nightly vigils (as it is not accidental black cat on the sign of the Montmartre cabaret Rudolf Saly or a black owl on one of the St. Petersburg literary taverns) - a creature with a rather dubious reputation, as sane people know. "Sane" in the cabaret had nothing to do.

Kasyanov's Day was deliberately chosen for the opening of the Bat, February 29, an “extra”, some not quite legal and not quite serious day of the year (the anniversary was therefore celebrated only on leap years. The last anniversary of the Bat was arranged in 1920, when there was no time for jokes with the “Reverend” Kasyan).

In the club of "artists" everything strove to look different than in everyday life, everything emphasized the peculiarity, the exclusivity of the world created for themselves by the creators: walls painted by artists K. Sapunov (brother of the famous Nikolai Sapunov) and A. Klodt, from floor to ceiling covered with an exquisite patterned ornament. And the house itself - the famous Pertsov House in Moscow, recently rebuilt near the Cathedral of Christ the Savior on the Moskva River embankment, was a bizarre and very fashionable architecture at that time, reminiscent of a medieval castle and an old Russian tower at the same time.

The cult of refined decoration reigning in the cabaret had little in common with the arrogant luxury of Russian bourgeois salons at the beginning of the century. The penetrating cabaret spirit of composition was ironically shaded - and supplemented! - the utility of a heavy unpainted table, stretching the entire length of the cellar, tightly knocked together benches, on which the night brethren crowded - the atmosphere of the tavern vividly resembled an artist's workshop.

There was a buffet counter against the wall opposite the stage. There were no waiters in the artistic tavern. Everyone approached the counter, put sandwiches on their plate, left money and returned to the common table.

All sorts of covert and overt polemics with the life that took place outside the walls of the cabaret gave its atmosphere a special attraction and poignancy: the community of policemen and townspeople was opposed here by the community of artists, the artistic brotherhood; bureaucratic stiffness, dull decency of bureaucratic officialdom - the naturalness and ease of behavior, the liberty and authenticity of communication between people.

Invited to the "Bat" certainly passed the rite of initiation into the "cabarete": the founder of the cabaret on duty, "wearing," N. Efros remarked in passing, "by the way, the All-Russian name" (by the way, that evening it was Kachalov), hoisted on him a paper cap. The jester's cap - a sign of involvement in a special world - seemed to free its wearer from the norms established in life "above". The one crowned with it thereby made a vow to leave tension, seriousness, vain vanity beyond the threshold of the "Bat" - the cabaret had its own, special laws enshrined in the Charter of the "Bat". The text of this peculiar document has not come down to us, but it can be assumed that the spirit of the charter came to life in it Theleme Abbey that said, do whatever you want.

In the cabaret, the hierarchical barriers that separated people in official life broke down, and the masks necessary for everyday life flew off here. “Faces that we are accustomed to seeing important and businesslike, moaned from a spasm of uncontrollable laughter. Everyone was seized by some kind of carefree frenzy of laughter: the professor of painting crowed like a rooster, the art critic grunted like a pig. This can only be found at an ebullient carnival in Italy or France, which is cheerful in its specialty, ”N. Efros wrote. century, embodied mainly in cabaret - turned out to be one of the few forms in the 20th century where, of course, in a narrowed, impoverished form, the remnants of carnival culture were preserved.

Free "outrages" did not exhaust the content of cabaret pastime. The unconstrained joy of the artists, their complete inner freedom were colored with a special lyricism, hidden poetry of unfettered spiritual communication. The spirit of the cabaret of the Art Theater was determined by close people who understood each other perfectly, talented, significant people, united by the service of genuine art. Perhaps that is why their gaiety was especially sincere and captivating. “We spent the night in the Bat,” O. Knipper wrote to M. Lilina, “there were only our own, they honored Vladimir Ivanovich ... From the old guard there were Luzhsky, Moskvin, Alexandrov, Burdzhalov and I - only. A military band was playing... a throne for the heroes of the day was erected in the corner near the curtain... The absence of strangers was pleasant. Sang glory. Baliev successfully wit. Zvantsev read poems on "Karamazovs". Everyone warmed up, dispersed, spoke kind words, remembered Konstantin Sergeevich; Vladimir Ivanovich gave everyone his attention, sat with everyone, talked, got tipsy, was sweet, as he had not been seen for a long time, conducted an orchestra, even walked a lezginka ... A Bulgarian sang some wild native songs, another played the piano, whispered in one corner Koreneva with Luzhsky about a new role, Deykarkhanova flirted with Tarasov, Koonen with Tezavrovsky they danced the oira, Bravich the mazurka...”.

In fact, what happened in bat ”, there were no representations in the usual sense. Performances for them, as a rule, were not specially prepared; light improvisations - companions of actors' gatherings and feasts - were not designed for strangers. Here everyone - or almost everyone - a second before his performance did not suspect about him, electrified by the previous performer, he flew up to the stage slightly raised above the floor, so that later, after his improvisation, he would return to the common table. In the cabaret, the spirit of artistic competition revived again, that excitement of merry rivalry, which once gathered ancient singers, musicians, storytellers for creative battles. The kabotin, savagely expelled from the walls of the theater-temple, was again reborn in the actors. (This was the attitude of the directors and actors towards the Moscow Art Theater.) The concert here returned to its original meaning: competition.

Someone brought the fruits of independent creative efforts to the stage of The Bat, finding a way out for those artistic possibilities that were not used in performances.

Here, talents were discovered that no one even suspected, often their owners themselves - the authors of talented improvisations.

The life of impromptu, born in a cabaret, lasted only those few moments while they were performed. Something was fixed later, but it turned out to be completely different - improvisations were alive only by the cabaret atmosphere and died with it.

But the actors cared little for the ephemerality of their cabaret creativity. Not because it was for them something frivolous, not worthy of attention. Improvisation helped to create what was the soul of the cabaret: the atmosphere of a holiday spilled throughout the hall, the freedom of easy communication.

And yet, for many actors, The Bat was something much more important than just a place of carefree pastime. Creative pranks, free play of forms led the actors beyond the limits of the usual expressive means, established professional techniques. Here L. Sobinov, the idol of Moscow, the romantic Lensky, sang comical Little Russian songs, funny dressed up and made up, playfully played in the popular popular duet of Dargomyzhsky "Vanka-Tanka"; here V. Luzhsky performed with verses, O. Gzovskaya - with chansonettes, I. Moskvin foolishly conducted the comical Russian choir, and K. Stanislavsky, pretending to be a prestidigitator, showed the wonders of white and black magic - with the help of his hands he took off the shirt from "anyone who wanted" without unbuttoning his jacket and vest. Of course, these numbers were performed in parody, and special poignancy arose from the fact that the great Stanislavsky demonstrated the simple tricks of a provincial magician, and one of the best and most significant actresses of the Art Theater, O. Knipper, portrayed a frivolous chansonette.

actors , however, they not only scoffed at simple pop couplets or farce tricks - they gave themselves up with pleasure to unrestrained acting, immersed themselves in artless, but requiring special virtuosity art - other than in modern everyday psychological theater. Improvisation brought the actors back to the roots of theatrical art.

The cabaret world is a special world, where its own laws reign, governing the behavior of people, their relationships with each other, where everyone acts in an unusual role, in an unusual role for him; world, demonstratively emphasizing its difference from life outside. And yet the cabaret is in a special way connected with the "day" life, art. Special -because this connection is negative, parodic.

In The Bat, almost all the "great" Art Theaters, starting with Stanislavsky, Nemirovich-Danchenko, Knipper, discover the gift of stage caricature. V. Luzhsky possessed an outstanding talent. His famous travesty "shows" by F. Chaliapin, L. Sobinov, K. Khokhlov were described by V. Kachalov, himself an outstanding parodist. “Vasily Vasilyevich,” writes Kachalov, “of course, had no Chaliapin bass, no Sobinov tenor, no Khokhlovsky baritone, in general there was no real singing voice. But with what excitement we listened to these singers from the lips of Luzhsky, in his program. How extraordinarily wonderfully he was able to convey both Chaliapin's power, and Sobin's tenderness, and Khokhlov's beauty of timbre. And then we no longer laughed, here we only thanked Vasily Vasilyevich with excited smiles and approving nods of our heads. We didn't laugh because it happened that, at our request, at our "orders" V.V. would begin to "give" Chaliapin - in "Boris Godunov" or "Mephistopheles", or Sobinov in "Lohengrin", or Lensky.

He will start, joking and chuckling, slightly exaggerating the sweetness of Sobinov's pianissimo, suddenly hook the "live Sobinov", give a hint of the sound of his unique timbre - and immediately everyone around will hold their breath and Vasily Vasilyevich continues to sing seriously and excitedly "Sobinov to the mute". In the same way, joking and mischievous, he will begin to parody Chaliapin - "And you, flowers, with your fragrant-m, thin poison-m-m", parodically emphasizing these double and triple "m" at the ends of words - this famous Chaliapin "stamp", but when V.V., having reached "and pour into Margarita's heart," he began to inflate in the "seeeeerd" in Chaliapin's way, he was suddenly really captured by Chaliapin's temperament, a wave of spontaneous Chaliapin power rolled over.

The uniqueness of the "Bat" was that she ridiculed, first of all, the theater in which she was born. The "Crooked Mirror" of the Moscow Art Theater - the so-called "Bat" - was sent to its theater. “This semi-mysterious animal,” wrote one of the constant reviewers of The Bat, a few years later, “trained by the young actor of the Moscow Art Theater N.F. Baliyev, bared his sharp teeth and, in evil parodies, poisonous and well-aimed jokes, made fun of his patron - the Art Theater.”

The "Performing Evenings" of the Moscow Art Theater cabaret always opened with parodies of the performances of the Art Theater - "The Blue Bird" (1909), "Anatema" (1909), "The Brothers Karamazov" (1910), "The Living Corpse" (1911), "Hamlet" (1911) ) and others. Moreover, the premieres of "satire dramas" cabarets immediately followed their prototypes. It even happened that parodies were played the night after the first performance. In 1909, Russkoye Slovo reported: “On September 19, the Moscow Art Theater will open with Anatema by Leonid Andreev, in The Bat on the same evening after the main performance, Anatema will go inside out” (this time the intention was not carried out: the premiere of Anathema ", as you know, had to be canceled at the request of the Synod. In the previous year, 1908, The Bat played its Blue Bird a week (October 5) after the premiere of Maeterlinck's play (September 30).

According to all the rules of travesty and burlesque, the "comic understudy" took over from his original everything that was possible: in his "Blue Bird" the same 7 paintings, arranged in the same order as in the performance of the Moscow Art Theater (he even restored the scene "in the cemetery ”, shortened in the stage version of the play by the Art Theater); the parody of Anatema, like the performance itself, consisted of a prologue, five scenes and an epilogue, repeating, of course, in a grotesquely inverted reflection, the structure, details, and rhythmic structure of the original.

The texts of these parodies have not been preserved, which is not accidental. They did not claim to be literary. These are instantly recorded impromptu, full of improvisational spirit, hastily collected jokes from inside theatrical folklore, responses to events that were currently occupying theatrical and near-theater Moscow. They went right after the life of the Moscow Art Theater and were designed for one single performance.

And yet in the parodies of "The Bat" one can detect purposefulness. One of the main "lines" of the Moscow Art Theater in those years - "the line of symbolism and impressionism", as Stanislavsky defined it, which found implementation in the performances "The Blue Bird", "Anatema", "Hamlet" - became the objects of their comic retellings.

"The Bat" arose in a rather difficult period in the history of the Moscow Art Theater. Theater directing made experiments in the field of a different theatrical expressiveness, trying to take the theater beyond the already familiar "Chekhovian" methods of acting and staging decisions or to expand the range of their influence on non-domestic forms of theater. Many actors did not understand and did not accept these searches.

Here, to some extent, the actor's conservatism, the desire to gain a foothold in the usual methods, and the quite understandable resistance of the "Chekhov" actor to the sometimes alien demands of the directors revealed themselves. “Troup X.T. met the production of "The Blue Bird" very hostilely, - A. Mgebrov recalled, - the actors were angry that they were forced to portray some inanimate objects. Irony, ridicule was not the end. But they were on the sly, somehow around the corner. The actors were annoyed by the ecstatically intense nature of symbolist performances - Hamlet, Anathema.

The parodies of The Bat played a kind of role of "satire dramas", served as the valve through which the destructive energy of discontent came out.

One of the cabaret evenings, arranged in the autumn of 1909, was entirely devoted to Anatema. First, “in the form of an introduction, N. Zvantsev read the “libretto” of the play, composed with great wit. Homeric laughter stood in the tavern all the time while this joke was being read. The parody of the performance, which after the introduction was played in puppets by its author and the only performer N.Baliev, was built on some details and phrases of Andreev's play cleverly translated into a caricature - in the last picture of the parody, the shadows of Byron, Goethe, Hugo, Lermontov, Voltaire crawl towards Andreev and many others (from whom, as the parody hints, the author borrows) "and they cry out: give us back what is ours, give back what has been taken away." After the parody performance, the narrators spoke: Maly Theater actor V. Lebedev “summed up the idea of ​​the play from the point of view of a merchant who saw Anatema: “And this is the kind of lisurtat I received,” the merchant philosophized, “you should never give to the poor” ”; writerV. Gilyarovsky, who conveyed the impressions of a peasant who, by chance, thanks to his acquaintance with the stage worker, got to the rehearsal of "Anatema": "And this very Anathema is standing, huge, all iron, terrible," the man, who mistook the guard-angel for Anatema, narrated with sacred horror. Gilyarovsky, however, parodied not only the inexperienced spectator, on the contrary: simple-minded sanity ironically set off the grandiloquence, pretentious mysticism of the Andreev tragedy.

"Hamlet" by Nikita Baliyev, played at another "performing meeting", touched upon those key points around which disputes flared up both in the Art Theater itself and on the pages of newspapers: the famous Craig screens, Claudius' courtyard flooded with gold and V. Kachalov - Hamlet. The evening began with an introduction written by Lolo (L. G. Munshtein, editor of the weekly Rampa and Life). Vakhtangov, disguised as Kachalov-Hamlet, imitating his voice with incredible resemblance, read the monologue "To be or not to be" ... to Craig's screens. “Kachalov complained that he had to play Hamlet in Crag style in screens, bitterly recalled how he played in Kazan, how he felt, how he wanted to.” After Vakhtangov's performance in The Bat, a comic performance began (unlike the previous ones, which were staged in puppets, Hamlet was played by young artists of the Moscow Art Theater and the Adashev school). Claudius (played by an actor disguised as Stanislavsky) and Gertrude (actor A. Barov in the guise of Nemirovich-Danchenko) sat on a tiny stage, dressed in sparkling robes and crowns in the form of a samovar and a coffee pot. The outburst of laughter that the reviewer writes about is quite understandable: in one of the articles about Hamlet in the Moscow Art Theater, it was written that Claudius and Gertrude in their golden robes resemble the above-mentioned household items. Using the same technique of realized metaphor, the posters hung, as always, on the walls of the cabaret. They depicted the successive transformation of the Tula samovar and teapot into the king and queen. Craig screens were parodied with canvas cubes - extras sat in them, and at the most inopportune moments they began to randomly move around the stage. The parody was very evil. "Craig had enough time to feel the wings of the Bat, hurting him painfully." The parody ended with a "sepulchral word", which was pronounced by the actor who portrayed Fortinbras - A. Stakhovich. After the parody, there were, as usual, separate numbers, V. Lebedev, on behalf of his constant hero - the merchant - shared his impressions of Hamlet; B.Borisov and N.Baliev in costumes and make-up of a boy and a girl sang verses about Hamlet to the motive of the children's song "There are two hens on the street".

Of course, the theme of the Bat parodies was not exhausted by mockery of the symbolism. With merry passion, the cabareteurs fell upon all the explicit and implicit opponents of the Art Theater. In one of the paintings of the "flying" "The Blue Bird", wandering in the "land of memories", Tiltil and Mitil found themselves in ... the Maly Theater. "How are you, kids?" - asked the "malo-theatre" grandparents. “Yes, every evening a full house,” answered the “MKhAT” children. “What is it, kids? We don't remember that." In the film "Night" among all the horrors, the most terrible was theatrical criticism. Moscow newspapers were represented by hostile to man "trees of the forest", the trunks of which - ribbons with the headlines of periodicals - ended with crowns - portraits of theatrical observers of this newspaper. (The spectators recognize them instantly: each of those sitting in the hall knows any of them by sight.) The trees sway and make noise, argue about the merits of the Moscow Art Theater "The Blue Bird", build various intrigues with reviewers' pens, revealing their bestial temperaments; they explain their unwillingness to give Tiltil and Mitil success, based on very vulgar and banal considerations - "because then there will be no sweetness with them."

Parodic performances that began after midnight, with dashing mischief, overturned what was surrounded by reverence and reverence during the day - here the authorities, given over to blasphemous and cheerful scolding, flew head over heels. Well-known and respected people became the comic heroes of parody reviews, quotations from symbolist dramas, philosophical tragedies were used to discuss purely worldly, human, too human matters.

In the parody "The Brothers Karamazov" (consisting of episodes named the same as in the Moscow Art Theater), in the scene "For cognac" instead of Dostoevsky's characters (but in their guise), they peacefully drank cognac, discussing the right to first stage the "Living Corpse" (this delicate issue at that time exaggerated everywhere), A. Yuzhin and Vl. Nemirovich-Danchenko; the scene “Another Lost Reputation”, where Chaliapin was depicted in the costume of Mephistopheles, who was chasing the “Tyrolean cows” - the chorus girls of the Bolshoi Theater who were running away from him, alluded to the incident that happened to F. Chaliapin and became a newspaper parable.

The grotesques, travesty and burlesques of The Bat, which turned the performances of the Moscow Art Theater inside out, gave their patron a merciless test - a test of viability. After all, the "uncovering of the device", which involuntarily occurred in parody, for the Art Theater as a psychological theater should have been tantamount to death. But a parody of the art of the Moscow Art Theater could not cause any damage. The essence of the art of the Art Theater, its core remained intact. Moreover, the constant presence inside the theater of its parody double, the sly mockingbird, proved that it was a living theater capable of constant renewal, that its corefei were young and full of creative powers. Laughing at themselves is a sign of their spiritual health. In the Art Theatre, as V. Shverubovich shrewdly noted, they did not like anything that was not to be laughed at.

The spirit of the comic in "The Bat" was determined by the atmosphere of festivity, full of creative joy and freedom.

The “mouse” did not place itself outside the ridiculed phenomenon, did not lose spiritual contact with it. It is precisely in this that her parodies differ from many other parodic forms that rapidly emerged on Russian soil at the beginning of the century.

In the basement of Pertsov's house, "Mouse" did not stay long. The spring flood in 1908 was stormy. The Moskva River overflowed its banks and flooded the refuge of the cabareteurs. When the water subsided, they saw that the painting, the stage and the furniture had perished. The basement had to be abandoned. "The Bat" moved to a new building in Milyutinsky Lane.

The “official opening” of the cabaret of the Art Theater took place here on October 5, 1908.

The evening began with the famous parody of the "stupid circus", described by K. Stanislavsky in the book "My Life in Art". Stanislavsky himself played the role of a circus director in it. “I appeared in a tailcoat,” wrote Stanislavsky, “with a top hat worn on one side for chic, in white leggings, white gloves and black boots, with a huge nose, thick black eyebrows and a wide black goatee. All the servants in red liveries lined up in tapestries, the music played a solemn march, I went out, bowed to the audience, then the chief master of the horse handed me, as expected, a whip and a whip (I studied this art throughout the week on all days free from performances), and a trained stallion flew onto the stage, which was portrayed by A. L. Vishnevsky.

But the score of the role of the director, preserved in the Moscow Art Theater Museum, written by Stanislavsky's hand, allows us to see that this number did not concern the circus, which was only a comic device of parody, but the Art Theater itself: the barriers over which the trained horse jumped - Vishnevsky, denoted the names of the Moscow Art Theater performances .

The comedy of parody arose from the travesty likening of the Art Theater to a circus, its performances to circus barriers, actors to dumb trained animals, the head of the theater to a formidable director. Wasn't there a hidden hint in this about the "tyranny and bourbonism" of the leader of the theatre, against which the actors murmured "quietly, from around the corner"?

The cabaret parodies of the Art Theater thus had a therapeutic effect: they brought out - and thus filmed - hidden conflicts.

It can be said that the parodies - without any conscious intention of their authors - were aimed at preserving and preserving the living soul of the Art Theater, just as at the end of the triumphal processions of the ancient Roman generals there were soldiers who scolded and made fun of the heroes in every way - the only thing to curse with laughter and save them from the envy of the gods. Let this comparison not seem violent and too academic, far from the unpretentious amusements of the acting theatre. For in the intimate art of the cabaret - let us once again refer to M. M. Bakhtin - paradoxically, the ancient traditions of ritual laughter were resurrected, in accordance with which festive blasphemy is part of the sacred rite.

Only in this context can the parody of the anniversary of the Moscow Art Theater be understood, shown two weeks later (October 27, 1908) after the celebrations dedicated to the tenth anniversary of the Moscow Art Theater. The parody anniversary of the Moscow Art Theater in "The Bat" repeated step by step almost word for word the one that took place on the stage in Kamergersky on October 14th.

An exact copy of the stage of the Art Theater on that significant day was presented on the miniature stage of the cabaret. As well as there, the gray-green curtain, pushed back into the depths of the stage, served as a backdrop for the anniversary action. As well as there, chairs for Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko were placed near the stage.

Only the atmosphere that reigned here was completely different. On October 14, M. Savitskaya wrote about the anniversary celebration, when Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko “appeared in the hall, our choir and almost everyone who was there began to sing Glory and shower them with flowers. And such a tremendous excitement seized us that we wept like children. Vladimir Ivanovich and Konstantin Sergeevich kissed and hugged everyone and also could not hold back their tears.

At the anniversary in The Bat, tears came out from incessant laughter. Everything that was touching, spiritually sublime at that anniversary was then noticed by the parodists and repeated with mocking laughter. Instead of a soaring seagull, they put a sprawling black bat on the curtain. Instead of solemn and respectable representatives of theaters and various cultural institutions, “deputations” were held in front of the heroes of the day from ... the “Union of Moscow bathhouse attendants”, who recognized their brothers in the leaders of the Art Theater, who care about the purity of the soul just as they care about the purity of the body; from the Society of Poultry Breeding, which highly appreciated the activities of the theater in the field of breeding birds - the domestication of such a delicate bird as the "Seagull", the capture of the "Blue Bird", although it noted the failure of turning the "Wild Duck" into a domestic one.

If at the solemn anniversary the actors of different theaters read serious poetry and prose, the opera singers sang a whole cantata in chorus, then here the famous doctor performed a dashing chansonette. Instead of Chaliapin, who on that solemn day sang a musical joke specially written by S. V. Rakhmaninov for the anniversary, in which the church motif “Many Years” was elegantly combined with the accompaniment of the polka by I. A. Sats to “The Blue Bird”, the actor N. A. Znamensky and, hilariously copying the great singer, performed a humorous musical greeting letter to the hero of the day from Sats. “There was a lot of well-aimed and even evil,” N. Efros recalled, “but talent and artistry made all the pills so golden that their bitterness seemed pleasant.”

Parody anniversaries "Bat" will arrange throughout its short history.

Here, the hero of the day was not glorified, they did not smoke incense for him, on the contrary, they bullied him, showered him with a hail of ridicule and familiar jokes. At the celebration of L. Sobinov (1909) - one of the regular participants in the evenings of "The Bat", - V. Luzhsky read a greeting from the Moscow Art Theater, written in a deliberately ugly style under Trediakovsky. Evening in honor of B. Borisov - an artist of the Korsh Theater and a permanent participant in the "performing meetings" of the "Bat" - began with the opening of a monument to the artist.

When, to the sound of the carcass, they pulled off the cover, under it a huge image, in the whole scene, was revealed ... the bald head of the hero of the day.

Far from solemnity, the atmosphere that reigned at parodic anniversaries did not in the least detract from the merits of the hero of the occasion. Against. Parodic decline to shreds tore the official uniform of state anniversaries. Solemn words and lofty feelings, “worn out and compromised,” as B.I. Zingerman wrote on another occasion, “in their serious and official existence, having passed through the system of clownish stick blows,” were reborn to a new life, “rejuvenated and prettier.” One of the journalists wrote about the parodic honoring of O. O. Sadovskaya: “Through the joke and laughter, a hot, deep admiration for the great artist (or rather, it would be written like this: thanks to the joke and laughter), expressed in playful veiled words, ironic music, made its way fuller than in all the solemn doxologies. Parody destroyed, debunked not genuine idols, but fell upon clichés and falsehood, on inflated swagger. Sincere feeling, subjected to a test of laughter, she released, real values, passing them through the crucible of the comic, returned their former brilliance.

The soul of the cabaret was one of its main founders, Nikita Fyodorovich Baliev, a born entertainer and cabaret.

“The round face smiled broadly, closely mixing good-naturedness with irony, and one felt in it the joy of what was still new for him, retaining all the exciting charm of original creativity.

Happy are those who have guessed their calling,” N. Efros wrote about him. Baliyev, however, did not immediately guess his vocation.

A gifted amateur, an ardent admirer of the Art Theater, who was friends with its actors, in 1907 he was accepted into the troupe of the Moscow Art Theater. The history of his invitation to the Art Theater is also unusual. When the theater went on its first European tour in 1906, two young men - rich Moscow man N. Tarasov and his distant relative N. Baliyev - followed their favorite theatre, moving with it from city to city. And in the evenings, together with the actors, they sat in the famous cabaret. The artistic success of the Moscow theater was enormous. But the fees could not recoup the gigantic costs associated with the tour. To return home, the theater needed an amount that was nowhere to get. And then Tarasov gave indefinitely and without interest 30 thousand rubles. In gratitude, the theater leaders offered him to join the shareholders of the Moscow Art Theater, and Baliyev was first accepted as the secretary of the directorate, and after a while - into the troupe.

However, his acting fate in the theater was not happy. He failed one after another the small roles entrusted to him, “having discovered, as V. Luzhsky considered about Kister played by Baliev in Brand, a complete lack of dramatic talent.” His talent really did not suit the theater - not only the Artistic, everyone. His talent was exclusively pop. His appearance did not succumb to any make-up. Through any of its layers, a completely round, cunning physiognomy with sly eyes-slits showed through, barely looking at which, the audience, no matter what happened on the stage, was already beginning to have fun. “My face is my tragedy,” Baliyev wrote in despair to V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, seeking the role of Purikes in Andreev’s “Anatem”, “a comedy is coming - they say Baliev cannot be given (Bobchinsky) - he will put the whole theater down, there is drama - Same. I start to think tragically why God punished me so<...>. I will play the role of Purikes<...>and maybe I can: show you tragic humor in this role. Believe me once in your life, dear Vladimir Ivanovich, otherwise, by God, my situation is tragic. Either a southern accent, or a too comical face. What to do? Shoot? Especially if you love theater. I believe, Vladimir Ivanovich, that this year you will give me a role. Oh my God, this is necessary. I will not disgrace you, dear, dear Vladimir Ivanovich. Moreover, a good episodic role is yours. You promised it to me, and I know you keep your word. A letter like this would make anyone's heart tremble. And in any other case, the heart of Nemirovich-Danchenko would probably tremble if it were not for the art of the Art Theater. If Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko were a little less demanding and strict, the theater would have acquired a mediocre dramatic actor for a long time, and the stage would have forever lost one of its most talented directors, the artist who became the founder of the Russian entertainer.

The role of Purikes, about which Baliyev worked hard, he never got. In "Anatem" he played an organ grinder. "Lamp and Life" immediately posted a photo of Baliyev in this role. She did this, most likely, not because the organ grinder was a great achievement for the artist, but because by this time Baliev, as an entertainer and chief cabaret performer of The Bat, was becoming one of the most popular people in Moscow.

Luzhsky, in response to Baliev's complaints about Purikes, promised him that he would be busy in the performance where "his comic gift, resourceful jokes and belly would suit." Having already mastered the lessons of art theater quite well, Baliyev understands that this is a diplomatic refusal. Gradually, he begins to realize that he has nothing to do at the Moscow Art Theater. He had a role where he already used his data - Bread in "The Blue Bird" (it is curious that in many years another future entertainer - M.N. Garkavy) will play the same role. Funny and not very good-natured Bread rolled around the stage like a kolobok on short legs. His role turned into an insert number, in the general performance he played his little performance, hopelessly breaking out of the ensemble. He tried to draw attention to himself with all sorts of tricks, various funny tricks, trying to prove that his "comic gift, resourceful jokes and belly" could be useful in the Art Theater. He argued so diligently that Stanislavsky, as L. M. Leonidov recalls, “once, as if by chance, asked Baliyev if he liked the circus.

Oh yes, Baliyev replies.

And the clowns? - asks Stanislavsky.

I love it, - continues Baliev.

It can be seen, you have a solid farce ... ".

However, this characteristic, which is deadly for a dramatic actor, was almost a praise for a variety actor. The theater was not Baliyev's vocation. He was born for the stage. Only here he turned out to be talented, bright and interesting. He couldn't play different roles. But then all his life he brilliantly played one and only - the owner and entertainer of the "Bat" Nikita Baliyev. Everything that interfered with him in the theater became here not only appropriate, but necessary. And a characteristic face that was instantly remembered, and a peculiar personality.

Baliyev did not fit into the rigid framework of a rehearsed, verified and forever built performance. An unknown force tore him out of the measured course of the performance, pushed him to the forefront, face to face with the audience, one on one with the audience. He was by nature an actor-soloist, a "single-owner", here, on the spot, in front of the public, creating his own performance, independent of anyone and not connected with anyone, all parts of which are fluidly changeable, subtly mobile. Performance-improvisation. It is no coincidence that his gift as an entertainer was revealed at impromptu cheerful evenings. He supported, slightly directing, the general course of fun, at the same time dissolving in it. It was at these evenings that those techniques were spontaneously born that will be included in the arsenal of artistic means of the future entertainer. “His inexhaustible fun, resourcefulness, wit - both in essence and in the form of presenting his jokes, courage, often reaching impudence, the ability to hold the audience in his hands, a sense of proportion, the ability to balance on the border of impudent and cheerful, offensive and playful, the ability to stop in time and give the joke a completely different, good-natured direction - all this made him an interesting artistic figure of a new genre for us, ”K. Stanislavsky wrote about him. Baliyev’s success as an entertainer grew in inverse proportion to his success as a dramatic actor. Barely passed the day of the “executive meeting” of the cabaret or the annual “skit”, which, as L. Leonidov wrote, N. Baliyev came up with on Monday in the first week of Great Lent to arrange in the Moscow Art Theater, where “he showed a lot of wit, ingenuity, taste”, where “Stanislavsky, Nemirovich-Danchenko with the whole troupe and workshops gave themselves under his control”, Baliyev again found himself out of work. His position in the theater was getting worse and worse, in the performances he was almost not occupied - in the 1911/12 season he played two small episodic roles, one without words. There was no hope for any change. “Maybe, in fact,” Baliyev wrote shortly before his departure to Nemirovich-Danchenko, “The Art Theater, where fate pushed me, is not my theater. I am rude, unintelligent for him. And then, no matter how hard it is, no matter how ideals collapse, you have to make up your mind and leave - until they say: leave, we don’t need you, but this can also be.

Baliyev has long had plans related to the "Bat". It remained to take the last step. And Baliyev does it. In the spring of 1912, newspapers reported for the first time that from next season Baliyev was leaving the troupe of the Moscow Art Theater and arranging a large cabaret with the right of wide access to the public.

This is basically what it all came down to. Back in 1910, the cabaret began to issue tickets, they were called merchant tickets - they cost from 10 to 25 rubles and so far were bashfully called back marks, and were distributed according to notes among friends. But the trouble is the beginning - at first, only slightly opening the doors to the outside public, it was soon forced to throw them wide open. And already in 1911, the journalist ruefully notes that “the best places are occupied by representatives of the largest commercial firms in Moscow. But there is neither Stanislavsky, nor Nemirovich-Danchenko, nor Knipper. From the refuge of artists, the Bat turned into a commercial enterprise. The evolution of the Moscow cabaret was no exception. It was a natural and logical path that all cabarets - Russian and European - went through sooner or later.

The history of the Artistic Theater's artistic cabaret has come to an end.

The history of the theater of miniatures "Bat" began.

Cabaret Theater N.F. Baliev "The Bat" changed several addresses in Moscow:

• the theater began in a small basement of Z.A. Pepper at the address Soymonovsky proezd, 1. In it, after the performances in 1908-1912. artists of the Moscow Art Theater (MKhT) gathered;
• then three years, from 1912 to 1915, the Bat Theater spent in the basement of a house at 16 C1 Milyutinsky;
• from here, for the new season in 1915, the Bat Theater moved to the basement of the newly built Nirnsee house at B. Gnezdnikovsky, 10. The third refuge turned out to be the last: in 1922, the Bat Theater in Russia was closed.

In addition to the artists of the Moscow Art Theater - Kachalov, Stanislavsky, Knipper-Chekhova - many invited celebrities performed on the stage of the Bat Theater. Among them were Fyodor Chaliapin and Leonid Sobinov.

The emblem of the theater-cabaret "The Bat"

Emblem-caprice "The Bat" on the curtain of the cabaret theater appeared in contrast to the academic "Seagull" on the curtain of the Moscow Art Theater. From the "Seagull" I wanted to take a break.

"Bat" - an attempt at revival

On June 12, 1989, the theater-cabaret of Grigory Gurvich "The Bat" opened with the play "Reading a New Play". He did not last long. After the sudden death of Gurvich (1957-1999), the theater lasted two years: on December 30, 2001, he stopped giving performances.

“When Russia laughs, the heavens shake with her laughter; when she cries, her tears sweep across the countries like a storm "N.F.Baliev

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of N. Baliyev's theater-cabaret "The Bat". The opening took place on February 29, 1908, as a parody of the play The Blue Bird, which premiered at the Moscow Art Theater a week earlier. Then for the first time the cabaret anthem was performed:
Flying around like a bat
Among the night lights
We will embroider a motley pattern
Against the backdrop of dull days.

The main rule of the comic charter of "The Bat" was: "Do not be offended."

BALIEV, NIKITA FYODOROVICH (real name and surname Balyan, Mkrtich Asvadurovich) (1877, according to other sources 1876 or 1886–1936), Russian actor, director, theater figure. Honorary citizen of Moscow.

Born in 1877 in Moscow (according to other sources, in October 1876, the region of the Don Cossacks, or in 1886 in Nakhichevan). From a merchant family. Graduated from the Moscow Commercial (Practical) Academy. During the first foreign tour of the Moscow Art Theater (1906), he provided financial support to the theater. In 1906 he joined the Moscow Art Theater as a shareholder, was the secretary of Vl.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko. Since 1908 - actor of the Art Theater, played episodic roles: Kister (Brand H. Ibsen), Rosen (Boris Godunov A. Pushkin), Guest of Man (Life of Man L. Andreev), Bull, Bread (Blue Bird M. Maeterlinck), Organ Grinder (Anatema L. Andreeva), Leibovich (Miserere S. Yushkevich), Cousin Theodore (In life in the paws of K. Hamsun), Passerby (A. Chekhov's Cherry Orchard). An obstacle to Baliyev's stage career was his non-artistic appearance. In 1912, Baliyev left the troupe, remaining a shareholder of the theater.

He was one of the initiators and participants of the Moscow Art Theatre's "skits", from which the Moscow Art Theater artists' cabaret "The Bat" arose: together with the Moscow Art Theater patron N. Tarasov and some theater artists, Baliyev rented a basement for the cabaret in Pertsov's house opposite the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. The opening took place on February 29, 1908. It was a club for relaxation and communication of people of art, V. Kachalov, I. Moskvin, O. Knipper-Chekhova, V. Luzhsky and others performed in the cabaret. 16. Paid performances were occasionally given here. Baliyev led the entertainer, sang verses, staged theatrical parodies of the performances of the Moscow Art Theater.

Gradually, The Bat turned into an open theater-cabaret, performances began to be sold with tickets. Baliyev invited T. Deykarkhanova, E. Khovanskaya, E. Marsheva, Vl. Podgorny, Y. Volkov and others to the troupe of artists from Moscow and St. Petersburg theaters. .Goleizovsky, music was composed by A. Arkhangelsky, V. Garteveld. In 1912 the theater made its first tour - Kyiv, Dnepropetrovsk, Rostov. Became an annual tour to St. Petersburg. In 1914 the theater was located in the Nirnsee House in Bolshoy Gnezdnikovsky Lane.

In his productions, Baliyev used everyday dances, anecdotes, puns, charades, riddles, impromptu songs, songs, romances, etc. Baliyev's directorial principles found their perfection in stage miniatures. He staged performances based on classical works: Treasurer M. Lermontov, Count Nulin and the Queen of Spades by A. Pushkin, Overcoat and Nose by N. Gogol, stories by A. Chekhov, poems by I. Turgenev.

After October 1917 the theater could not adapt to the new conditions. Soon after the next anniversary of the "Bat", solemnly celebrated on March 12, 1920, Baliyev went on tour in the Caucasus, and from there he went abroad with a small group of artists. The Bat was revived in Paris. For the first time the performances were held in the Paris theater "Fellina". This was followed by tours in Spain, England. From February 1922, the Bali's "Die Fledermaus" toured New York, followed by performances on the US West Coast - Hollywood, Los Angeles. At first, old programs were played. Gradually updating the troupe and repertoire, playing in English and French, the theater toured European countries, the USA, Latin and South America. The Great Depression of 1929 ruined Baliev. In 1931, the "Bat" moved to Europe and soon ceased to exist.

Baliyev actively participated in the cultural life of the Russian diaspora. In Paris, he tried to create a "Theater of Russian Fairy Tale". In 1934 he returned to the USA, where he acted as an entertainer in large revues. He made an attempt to act in Hollywood, worked in a small cabaret in the basement of the New York St. Moritz Hotel.

LITERATURE
Efros N. Theater "Bat" N.F.Baliev. M., 1918
Rakitin Yu. Nikita Fedorovich Baliev. In memory of a friend. - Illustrated Russia, 1937, No. 45–57
Kuznetsov E. From the past of the Russian stage. M., 1958
Tikhvinskaya L. "Bat". - Theater, 1982, No. 3
Bessonov V., Yangirov R. Bolshoi Gnezdnikovsky Lane. M., 1990
Wreath to Baliyev. - Moscow Observer, 1992, No. 9
Tikhvinskaya L. Cabaret and theaters of miniatures in Russia. M., 1995

"BALIYEV, NIKOLAI FYODOROVICH" "KRUGOSVET" ® . Encyclopedia 2008

Based on an interview with Lyubov Alexandrovna Shapiro-widow Gurvich, director of the Bat Cabaret Theatre, published on 12/14/2000 in the Rossiyskiye Vesti newspaper.

This word is smut...

Nikita Fedorovich Baliyev was an artist of the Moscow Art Theater - the story of his life is very interesting - once he, along with his friend, philanthropist Nikolai Tarasov, a well-known oilman, came from Rostov. Baliyev dreamed of getting into the Moscow Art Theater. His appearance was peculiar - he was small, plump, funny, with a Rostov-Armenian dialect. Naturally, there was no question of getting into the most intellectual theater at that time, like the Moscow Art Theater. But once there was a misfortune at the Moscow Art Theater - they went bankrupt, having gone on tour, and Nikolai Tarasov said: "I will give money to the theater if you take Baliyev." They took Baliyev ... Unfortunately, he played only one role - Bread in the "Blue Bird" - he was not given any more roles because of his dialect and specific appearance, but once a year he became the king of the Moscow Art Theater - during Lent. As you know, you can’t eat meat during Lent, you don’t have to work either, but you always want to have fun.

Artists of the Moscow Art Theater had fun with all their hearts.

Starting from 1902, Baliyev made the so-called "novkapy", that is, New Year's skits, and also skits for Easter. The very word "skit" did not come from the Moscow Art Theater, it was introduced by Shchepkin at the shows of the Maly Theater. But nevertheless, it was fixed for the Moscow Art Theater.

The Easter holidays were truly unique, their description, which exists in the Bakhrushin Museum, is simply amazing. During their conduct, such orders were given - to surround Kamergersky with mounted police, as the crowd poured inside, dreaming of getting into the theater for these holidays.

How to cut cabbage

The jokes that existed then now just seem unfunny or, I would say, vulgar. Baliyev had a favorite joke, for example, this: "Sobinov was punished so that he would not crawl along Koralie." Sobinov was a famous singer, Koral was a famous ballerina. The situation was that the ballerina was the mistress of the Grand Duke, and she was not disgusted with Sobinov either. But when he sang at the Bolshoi Theater, he was shown his place. And such an unpretentious joke appeared, which enjoyed insane success in Moscow and has even come down to this day.

Flapping your wings...

Gradually, it became clear that the skits, which are made at the Moscow Art Theater, are turning into an independent action, and not just remain acting gatherings. And Baliyev created a Club in Zamoskvorechye - a closed acting club "The Bat" - as opposed to Chaika. From 1908 to 1912 they were in Zamoskvorechye, and when the Neerensee house was rebuilt, they moved there.

The fate of Tarasov

Baliyev's friend, Nikolai Tarasov, also had a strange, typically decadent fate. He was a very handsome man, but for some reason he thought that women like him because of the money. Although, looking at him, it was hard to imagine. He had a mistress - a woman of light, who, in turn, had another lover - either a cornet, or a cadet who once lost. She came to Tarasov with a request to pay a card debt for him. Tarasov replied that the request itself was absurd and that it was unrealistic. "But you understand that he will shoot himself?" she asked. "Let him shoot," was the answer. "Then I'll shoot myself," she said. "Well, then I'll shoot myself..." Tarasov replied. And they all shot themselves on the same day.

Baliyev, who was informed of the death of Tarasov during the performance, rushed from Gnezdnikovsky Lane to Bolshaya Dmitrovka. There is a description of how he flew there, but, unfortunately, was late. Tarasov died at the age of 28, he was buried in the Armenian cemetery. There was an absolutely stunning monument, such a strange sculpture by Andreev: a helpless figure, a helpless young face, very tragic, very beautiful. During the war, the then head of the Moscow Art Theater took it off on purpose so that it would not be melted down into tanks, and some time ago, the Moscow Art Theater called the "Bat" and invited them to the opening of the monument. As many years ago, there were two wreaths on the grave - one from the Moscow Art Theater and one from the Bat. The monument was rediscovered by the same composition.

Hostel with Mice

Baliyev, unlike the very handsome and rich Tarasov, was a very realistic person. He believed that life was given to a person in order to live it. Perhaps that is why all the actresses of "The Bat" were either his wives or mistresses. He was picky about Russian women, but he loved Armenian and Jewish ones ... They lived with the whole troupe in the same Neerensee house, in which there were hotel-type apartments, without kitchens, with buttons with which food was called upstairs, in the same house there was a workshop... and a rooftop cinema.

Relations between the LM and the Moscow Art Theater

Baliev's success was enormous - I must say that the Bat, unlike the Moscow Art Theater, never burned out, moreover, Baliev, after his departure abroad, saved the Moscow Art Theater from another economic crisis - he saved them from a burned-out tour. Stanislavsky believed that the whole troupe should go on tour, and extras too, since every person in the troupe is important, and even the actor who voices the grasshopper must know the biography of his character to the seventh generation ... so they went with at least 100 people. It is clear that under any conditions this is madness, but, nevertheless, Stanislavsky went for it. Without burning out creatively, they burned out economically.

The fate of Baliyev

The fate of Baliyev turned out to be tragicomic. One fine morning, realizing that nothing was waiting for him here, in Russia, he left ... First, to his place in Rostov, to say goodbye to his sister, to whom he left his bowler hat with money - either Kornilov's, or Denikin's. ..

And one fine morning, the troupe woke up and found that the other half of the troupe, mostly its female part, headed by Baliev, sailed to Constantinople. They went to Paris, where they were already called "La shouve sourrie" - "The Bat", and I must say that they worked quite successfully in Paris and toured on Broadway with great success. The end of Baliev's life story was told by one elderly actress - Faina Georgievna Zelinskaya-Kalkanya, one of the actresses of "The Bat", who sang the famous "Katenka" at that time. Here is what she said: “You know, Baliyev was a player and played on the stock exchange. And he lost. And he died of frustration at the age of 60-something. That year the theater ceased to exist. Actors ... someone returned home , someone stayed there.But "Bat" ceased to exist.

There is an absolutely amazing American booklet, where both Melanie Griffith and Charlie Chaplin left their (rave) reviews of the theater. Of course, the theater's repertoire remained Russian, Russian.

Influence of Mr. Baliyev on the cabaret genre

Baliyev raised this genre to a unique, unprecedented height. He was engaged in the creation of not only such unique divertissements and funny parodies, in which both Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko took part, where Vakhtangov staged his famous "Tin Soldiers".

Baliyev staged both The Queen of Spades and Gogol's The Nose, now it would be very interesting to see it in this small room - after all, it was a special spectacle, a box, its own special world. Baliyev came to the conclusion that cabaret is a special look at the world of a free, ironic, intelligent person. Actually, this was the theater of Baliyev at one time and Grisha tried to make it this way. History, as is well known, does not repeat itself twice, or it repeats itself in the form of a farce; the same history was repeated partly in the form of a tragedy.

Tour poster in Paris. 1926 Artist - M. Dobuzhinsky

Sketch of scenery for the number "Date" Artist - S. Sudeikin
Backdrop sketch for the issue "Christmas" Artist S. Sudeikin

Noah's Ark at the turn of time.
Publication date: 11/30/2004
Source: "Antik.Info" magazine
Yuri Gogolitsyn
Our theatrical aesthetes took it into their heads to create in St. Petersburg what Paris was famous for, and for many Russian people served as the main bait of Paris. I mean the Parisian cabaret, this is how Alexandre Benois said about the new phenomenon in Russia. But Russian cabaret is something special, unique.
And it all started with artistic salons, which included the legendary "Stray Dog" and "Halt of comedians" in St. Petersburg, Moscow's "Bat". No, these were not ordinary gathering places to drink and relax, not "clubs of interest", and not a la the current "hanging out". Salons are more significant, more voluminous, they are a phenomenon in Russian culture... Those who have never danced in public danced the cancan here, those who did not sing and had no voice performed with solo numbers, purely "dramatic" personalities changed their roles, "comedians ” boldly tried themselves in tragedies ...
The founding father of the cabaret club "The Bat" was the actor of the Art Theater Nikita Baliyev. The club announced itself noisily in 1908. And what day was chosen for the opening! February 29 is associated with the memory of the Monk Kasyan - the unloved saint, even "harmful." Among the people, Kasyan was associated with Viy, and the name of the saint was considered "unclean", shameful. A symbol of trouble, outrageous? Not without it. The young graphic designer Saryan, who was born on Kasyanov's day, became the living embodiment-talisman of the salon.
At first, entrance to the cabaret was free, but unexpectedly resounding success, and then the war, made visiting the cabaret paid. Participants in artistic "taunts" moved from "amateur" to professional activities. Cabaret theaters become commercial enterprises - evenings with mini-performances turned into burlesque scenes, the level of which was determined by the level of invited actors, musicians and graphic designers. The phenomenon developed rapidly, but a revolution broke out, and the winds of change brought Baliyev to Paris.
Here he managed to do what many actors and directors who settled in the capital of France made efforts to organize a Russian cabaret theater with the old name "The Bat". Baliyev signed a contract with the Parisian theater "Femina" on the Champs Elysees. The organizational period fell on October-November, December was marked by the first program.
The performance was truly historic. Everyone was amazed - both Russian emigrants and spoiled Frenchmen. Nikita Baliyev, a Moscow joker entertainer, stepped onto the stage and, in fluent but deliberately broken French, with barbs and allusions, began to announce numbers that followed one after another with amazing variety and in contrast. Paris has never seen anything like it!
In The Bat, only the preface to the performance was based on a joke. Despite the fact that each scene did not last long, all its elements - dances, reprises, music, pantomime, excellent design - were subtly thought out and made up a single whole. Let's not practice epithets, let's give the floor to an eyewitness. Graceful and subtle, accurate in words and sharp in assessments, poetess and feuilletonist Nadezhda Teffi: “Give Baliyev a page from the phone book - he will order music for it, select scenery, dances, select actors - and you will see what kind of thing it will turn out.”
It is curious that the popularity of "The Bat" depended not only on the authors, but also on ... Russian artists, their characteristic enthusiasm, ridicule, buffoonery, even mockery - subtle and intelligent. Baliyev understood this well and, unlike Diaghilev, did not look for designers among the French.
Baliyev's main assistant was Sergei Sudeikin, who conquered Paris from the "first run". Against the backdrop of its scenery, artists were placed frozen in the form of dolls or sculptures, starting to come to life only with the first chords of music. After performing simple movements, they again froze in their original positions at the same time as the accompaniment was completed. This is exactly how the Marquis and Marquise Sudeikin acted from the miniature "Clock". The same thing happened in other scenes - "Chinese Porcelain", "Lucky", "Russian Toys". Or the delightful Sayings of Great Men, where Henry IV, Richard III, Louis XIV, and many others came to life. Grotesque, snickering, gayer lightness, kitsch are everywhere.
Sudeikin, with great tact, but not without humor, introduced the French to the “earthly” way of life in Russia, which was dear to the Russian public. The émigré artist Lukomsky attributed a significant part of the success of the cabaret theater to the artistic design: “Pictures of the Russian bygone life ... full of bright colors, the taste of life, which now evokes in us here, in a foreign land, pleasant memories, aching soul, like a sweet dream, magical."
The public was already waiting for the second program of the Bat. The amazing "cocktail" of the new numbers intoxicated and excited, beckoned and fell in love with yourself. There was a staging of the romance "The Black Hussars" with actor Mikhail Vavich, the unforgettable "Fountain of Bakhchisaray", spicy and fabulous in the Oriental style ... Theatrical chroniclers - Nothiere, Lunier Pau, Antoine, Brisson, Jean Bastiat - vied with each other in word creation and laudatory reviews .
Sudeikin did not have a monopoly on the new enterprise. There was enough space for everyone. Thus, the cartoonist and entertainer Nikolai Remizov used the style of the Russian popular popular print to caricature the design of the miniature "Song of the Prophetic Oleg". Of particular interest to the public was attracted by his design of the Parade of Soldiers. The actors in this act imitated the "puppet" movements of an inanimate toy. Live actors, dressed in uniforms, acted out on the stage marching in formation of toy soldiers. Wide canvas trousers hid movement. Pure mechanics and the iron will of the puppeteer-Baliev? Not at all. Without the talent of the actors, nothing would have happened - only they could convey both puppet stiffness and parody. The idea is good in the implementation. Again, a resounding success!
At one of the April concerts, Anna Pavlova and Sergei Diaghilev, Igor Stravinsky and Lev Bakst, Konstantin Balmont and Alexei Tolstoy appeared in the hall together ... Is this not an assessment of the level of performance! The new program of the theater-cabaret was very intense. Baliyev made new scenery and costumes for the miniature Horse Death, the short story Minuet after Maupassant, for the Trio to music by Mozart, and the Easter number, accompanied by Rimsky-Korsakov’s music, directly connected with the breadth and multicolor of the Orthodox holiday.
Over the next few years, the troupe of "The Bat" toured Europe and the United States, causing great admiration of the public in England and Scotland, Monaco and, of course, in French theaters. The success was so huge that even "fakes" under the "Bat" appeared. Maestro Baliyev is in constant creative search, making a lot of efforts to expand the possibilities of the cabaret. The unsurpassed Nikolai Benois appears, who for the number "A Soldier's Love" makes scenery with the Neva embankment, the buildings of the Senate and the Admiralty, a stylized outline of the Peter and Paul Fortress. In the "cage" of masters Vasily Shukhaev. He designs the scenes "Pastoral", "Return from Bethlehem", "Picnic on the March". 1926 Baliyev receives powerful reinforcements in the person of Mstislav Dobuzhinsky and his son Rostislav who came from Berlin to Paris.
The repertoire of "The Bat" is updated almost completely. Pantomime to Andersen's fairy tale "The Swineherd" was designed by Dobuzhinsky Sr. The staging based on the caricature of Wilhelm Busch went to the younger, who surpassed his colleagues, making parts of the scenery on the stage movable and changing in front of the audience. Among the unexpected novelties were "Platov's Cossacks in Paris in 1815", "Russian Wedding". No less unique is Verdi's La Traviata, staged specifically for ... "unlovers" of classical operas.
Emigrant Russia remembered and loved Baliyev not only in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kyiv, but also in Paris, London, Zagreb, New York. His theater was the heir and custodian of the experience of the theater of the Silver Age, a precious particle of the irrevocably departed Russia.
A brilliant connoisseur of the Russian theater, Prince Sergei Volkonsky, in essence, summed up the activities of the theater in exile: “Yes, the Bat was born in 1908, but her main life and her fame grew after the revolution, in exile, during wanderings, during abroad, as our nannies used to say. And that gives it a special tingle. She, this burningness, is free from any sensual regrets and lamentations; obviously free, since foreigners also feel it ... That is why the spirit that blows in this theater is close to us. That is why the very exaggeration of the images ... it has flourished from the root of the Russian.