They have met to look deep into each other, Moscow of Famusov and Moscow of Luzhkov. It seemed as if they were ready to embrace each other and join in ecstasy.
But Moscow can't stand without Chatsky. As in the lyrics he was lone, though not sad, but joyfully affable. "I like it!" said Sergey Yuryevich Yurski easily without a back-thought, whose Chatsky, performed in the "bygone days" on the famous stage of Bolshoi Drama Theater (the main State Drama Theater in St.Petersburg - J.), has become a classic example.

- Would you, Sergey Yuryevich, agree that there are lots of wonderful plays, but "Woe From Wit" just as "Hamlet" is special and symbolic? An epoch manifests itself through them, even despite the will of the performer. In a word, you don't send for Chatsky to Europe just for nothing.
- Of course. That's why there is such a fuss about it. Sometimes exaggerated. It was expected that the director would insert a rape scene of Sofia into the lyrics of Gryboedov, even better a group rape - by Skalozub, Molchalin, and Chatsky. They anticipated love scenes or at least some striptease. They expected a fresh departure. People got used to the fact that a classical play must be sexualized and ought to breathe with trembling passion. Absence of such tricks is the prime merit of Menshikov's performance. The play begins with the beginning and ends with the end.

- Speaking in high terms, I expected, for instance, a statement of the generation about its epoch, about itself. After all, the performance of the BDT was just like that.
- The performance staged by Tovstonogov (famous Russian theater director who worked in BDT - J.), where I had an honor to play Chatsky, is without a doubt a starting point for me, though it doesn't have to represent a model for the following generations that read the comedy by Gryboedov. That was a public statement, a social art phenomenon. The great play with such a short title, that even Latin wouldn't surpass, is defined by the two words "woe" and "wit". And its genre is comedy. If I were to review Menshikov's production in a concise style, then I would call it a witty performance that lacks woe. It's not a shortcoming, but an enormous change that is portrayed in the performance. The new generation of people, actors, creators experiences life much more joyfully and peacefully, less pessimistic than we did, more Olympic. This generation is neither better nor worse. It's new. Their attitude to life lacks deficiency that existed in us, that we valued and propagated.

- Your Chatsky addressed the majority of his cues to the audience and didn't cast pearls before other characters in the play. He was the forefather of the dissidents. Was it a feeling of deficiency?
- Oh, yes, indeed. I was glad to see that the characters of today didn't have to appeal to the audience. In Tovstonogov's staging Chatsky was surrounded by mugs and monsters. Here there's no caricature and therefore no horrors of life. These young people are not infected with continuous suffering as a form of decency. We thought that if you didn't suffer, were content, then you were indecent. The question "How are you?" had to be answered with "Well, just like the others. Awful!" Those of today are not like that. They don't want to foster the cult of suffering. Moreover, to propagate it. They would reason and argue on different questions, but wouldn't find it sensible for the seven of them to go out and withstand the tanks, just like then in Prague. Because this leads to nothing.

- That means such Chatsky would in no way appear on the Senate Square.
- Exactly. But that's what today is about. The Decabrists (the Nobility Rebellion in St.Petersburg on December 14, 1825 - J.) are not only the object of ridicule, but of irritation. Appearance on the stage of zealous and hot-tempered Chatsky, who's willing to turn the country upside down, would be seen as violence today. What we experienced was not woe but despair. "Away form Moscow!" - But where to? To Khabarovsk? Only into the grave. There's no sentimentality in it any more. All right, away. Away - I'll go on a shopping-tour or just on tour. Or even emigrate. We'll see.

- You don't mean that it's the merriest play of the world repertoire that depicts joyful attitude to the world.
- It is the most joyful production among all others that appeared now. Here I'd like to pay attention to the fact that gave me pleasure: there's no cynicism in it. In the past years the stage and the audience were in collusion with each other: we understand that there's no life, that everybody is cheating and is spoilt - let's talk about it and giggle together. And then this sudden change. Here there's no cynicism either towards people - the characters, or towards the play, the audience. There's no blasphemy, mockery so typical for the modern theater.
They are rejoicing, and so am I at the opportunity to participate in a large, multi-character play in a theatrical company, rather than in an exclusive performance with a couple of stars.
I think the characters are carefully worked out, even the smallest characters are played with psychological authenticity, simply and naturally. That's why the familiar lyrics I know by heart sounded afresh. The public even laughed at the right moments, as I see it.
At one time, Erast Garin came to see me in the dressing room after the performance, left his signature on the ceiling and said to me in a high spirit, "Everything goes well! Kachalov played Gryboedov, I - Kuchelbecker, and you - Pushkin." Now I hand the torch over with great pleasure. In Chatsky Menshikov played Oleg Menshikov - a talented, versatile, successful European actor who has learned that you get into trouble when you stick out.