#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. Firstly, its name did not include the name of V. Mayakovsky – it was awarded only on the theater’s 20th anniversary. Secondly, it did not have the current name either: at first the theater was called the Second Polar (taking into account that the First Polar one was in Igarka), and then – the theater of drama and musical comedy. Thirdly, there was no special building for the Melpomene temple – they played in the former camp canteen.
The Norilsk theater waited for its current building for more than three decades. In the first general plans for development, it was allocated a place in the area of today’s Dzerzhinsky street. Then they planned to build it on the future Metallurgov square. It was only in 1983 that the construction of a modern building began with a ceremonial meeting on what is now Teatralnaya square. The project was carried out by a group of young local architects. The head of this group of authors was Anatoly Chernyshev. Here he is in the picture – in a jacket and glasses – in the thick of the theater’s builders.
The theater’s construction lasted almost four years. They barely managed to hand it over in 1986: the commission accepted it on December 31 with an “excellent” rating. The building, designed for 600 seats, turned out to be very elegant: marble cladding, double floors, pylons. Anatoly Chernyshev came up with an interesting solution for the lobby group: coffered beams and built-in chandeliers. And the large slope of the roof, for which the theater was popularly nicknamed a trampoline, was made so that snow would not linger and snow bags would not form.
As Norilsk architect Leonid Skryabin later recalled, young specialists from the Norilskproekt Institute helped put the finishing touches at the end of the construction. They suggested something, decided something right on the fly, for example, the color scheme of the offices. They helped with the installation of mirror ceilings in the toilets, which was a novelty in the interior at the time. They laid the parquet in the foyer with their own hands. More precisely, they made pseudo-parquet from boards: they did not have time to deliver the real oak. They laid it in a semicircle, pulling the strings to maintain the radial direction, and then covered it with stain. And the night before the theater was handed over, the architects pasted names on the offices – not just signs, but separate three-dimensional letters. Each letter had to be glued symmetrically, maintaining the height and a certain interval, so as not to spoil the composition. This was the final touch in the construction of the theater. Everything was completed in time for acceptance.
The first performance, Special Purpose, was performed on January 8, 1987. Its first spectators were the builders and designers. The performance itself was unusual: a new era was to begin in the new house. The new director, Anatoly Koshelev, commissioned a play for the season opening from the writer and playwright Victor Levashov. He himself was one of ours, from Norilsk: Levashov once worked with local geologists, then at the Norilsk television studio. The play Special Purpose was about the heroism of Norilsk builders. Those builders were prisoners. For us today, accustomed to any degree of frankness on stage, the play Special Purpose would not be a surprise, there was nothing particularly seditionary in it. But then, in 1987, the Norilsk theater for the first time brought prisoners onto the stage right up front.
This is how playwright Victor Levashov recalled the creation of the first play on the new stage:
– Already good, you are in the know, – Koshelev rejoiced. – We need a play about Komsomol volunteers, the Arctic, black snowstorm and all that. Well, you understand…
I understood. But I had no desire to write a play about Komsomol volunteers.
– Norilsk was built not by Komsomol volunteers, but by prisoners, – I reminded.
– Yes, yes, I know, he nodded sadly. Sadly not because of sympathy for the prisoners, but because the theatre head would never let a play with prisoners pass.
– Zavenyagin, – I said.
– Brilliant, – Koshelev replied.
The last rehearsals of Special Purpose were held in terrible confusion. The usual pre-premiere bustle was intensified by the builders. As usual, they did not make it on time and finished the flaws in an emergency mode. The wonderful young actor Yuri Tsurilo played the role of Zavenyagin. One day, the chairman of the city executive committee, Yuri Smolov, came to the theatre to hurry the builders. He appeared in the hall with an extremely puzzled look: “There… is some man. Looks like… Zavenyagin”. – “That is Zavenyagin!” – Koshelev and I shouted in chorus. And only then did we believe ourselves: the play would work.
The play Special Purpose really did work. The authors’ unexpected boldness resulted in a month of sold-out shows and resonance throughout the city. There were also scandals: the indisputably authoritative chronicler Anatoly Lvov accused Victor Levashov of speculating on history. In response, he heard that in his books the word ‘camp” was found only with the adjective “pioneer” and therefore, “the pot calls the kettle back!”. And all this bickering took place on the pages of the city newspaper. This way did the free speech came in Norilsk.
In the History Spot’s previous publication, we told how the hospital in Oganer was built.
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Text: Svetlana Ferapontova, Photo: Olga Zaderyaka, of Norilsk residents and Nornickel’s Polar Division’s archives
