Communal
Salon

In the early sixties Asya Pekurovskaya, Sergei Dovlatov’s wife, set up something like a literary salon in his room on Rubinstein Street. Authors almost no one knew at the time read their work here — Sergei among them. It was here that the young Joseph Brodsky read his poem «Procession» for the first time. The reading ended in a scandal: Brodsky did not finish, walked out of the room and flung from the threshold, “You didn’t understand a genius”.

This is the evening the Lusores theatre recreates — in that very room. The audience does not watch from the sidelines: you sit at the shared table, tea is poured for you, and the conversation about literature and about the relationship between the two authors goes on in front of you and with you. Venues like this in the city can be counted on one hand: we have put together an honest guide to St Petersburg’s unusual theatres.

The salon did not end at the threshold of the room: Dovlatov would step out onto Rubinstein Street “as if into his own corridor” — even in autumn, in corduroy slippers on bare feet and a towelling dressing gown — and walk to the corner of Liteiny and Nevsky. There, at the bus stop, people would come up to him to swap manuscripts, return or borrow money, discuss gossip and high literature. That is how Anastasia Printseva, director of the «D Day» festival, described this street salon in Komsomolskaya Pravda.

This is an evening at a shared table, and the guests take part in it — right down to taking tea together. The evening rests on two voices: Dovlatov is played by Platon Mavromatis, Brodsky by Nikolai Vorobyov.

Between the reading and the scandal — tea. The table is laid in earnest: Leningrad sweets, the «Autumn Flowers» service of the Lomonosov Porcelain Factory. Real neighbours live behind the wall, Rubinstein Street is outside the window. The flat is no stage set: Dovlatov lived here from 1944 to 1975. The tiled stove in the room was lit in his day. As Elena Dovlatova recalls, in the heat of a quarrel he threw his manuscripts into it, and she pulled them out of the fire.

Alexander Savchuk — director. Founder of the «Lusores» theatre, curator of the «Taetr» school, a director at the «Inclusion» centre. Author of several hundred productions, performances and workshops in cities across Russia and abroad. Winner of special prizes from the «Golden Sofit» and «Proryv» awards, nominee for the «Golden Sofit» and «Arlekin», laureate of international festivals.

Platon Mavromatis — Sergei Dovlatov. Director and actor, a co-founder of the «Dolgauz» art group, played Dovlatov in the promenade play «Filfak — Vokhra».
Nikolai Vorobyov — Joseph Brodsky. Director and actor, a co-founder of the «Post-Traumatic Theatre».

You are met by the flat’s keepers: the museum is run by Ivan Eikhenbaum and partners, for whom this communal flat is not a set but a place they look after every day.

A stage inside a lived-in communal flat is a rarity, and one that gets written about. Kommersant shot a photo report in these rooms at last year’s festival performance, Sobaka.ru covered the launch of tour-performances in the communal flat, city television channels aired stories from these rooms, and «Cultural Evolution» on Channel «St Petersburg» showed the salon’s premiere at the «D Day» festival. «Dovlatov’s Communal Salon» is performed in the same rooms.