And a very real one, too. On the first performance of "Kitchen" in the former October Palace, something suddenly crushed, banged, flared up - and smoke belched. For a moment Menshikov stood confused. Nevertheless, he went on with the show.

On Friday and Saturday Oleg Menshikov and his Theatrical Company 814 were busy cooking. On the first performance of "Kitchen" in the former October Palace, something suddenly crushed, banged, flared up - and smoke belched. For a moment, Menshikov stood confused. Nevertheless, he went on with the show.
The play was written by a Kiev author, Maxim Kurochkin. There was a time he earned his living selling newspapers in Moscow and barely managed to make ends meet. Then suddenly, fortune smiled upon him. His plays began being published. He won awards. Menshikov himself showed interest in the creativity of the capable young man. The answer to the question - what kind of director Menshikov is, became clear after his production of Griboedov's «Woe From Wit». That's why the author of this article expected the hero of the night to turn into somewhat different acting quality with the help of an experimenting playwright's work. The talented Menshikov is charming, youthful, daring. When on stage he isn't 40, but 25. He playfully shakes his wild shock of hair. With the lightness of a gutta-percha boy he exists in the kitchen's middle aged machinery. Still, «Kitchen» produced no breakthrough (the way it occurred to the actor in Caligula and Nizhinsky days), and no unpredictable color splashes in a very well-known Menshikov's palette of roles.
Many talented Moscow artists are engaged in the project. Unfortunately, for some reason their acting is much poorer in this very play, than anywhere else. In particular, the incredible Oksana Mysina. Cautiously the performers enter the thicket of Kurochkin's composition. The text itself is a mixture of times, eras, subconscious soul-baring Oleg Evgenievich's impulses. However, it's rather a light cider, than a «Bloody Mary». «New Russians»' kitchen shining with «Zepter» dishes is being invaded by a German epos; Menshikov has committed a mysterious murder, and then lost his way in time and in the depths of his own soul... Gorin's skills are required to integrate such a variety of ingredients into a witty and clear fable scheme. And even though the analysis of the production could be deeper and wider, the first performance had already revealed that the prestigious and equipped «Kitchen» breathes not with fragrances, but with playwright's and producer's infantilism.
The first night the creators were, naturally, nervous. Indeed, they were offering their menu at pretty high prices. And who is to blame, that you must spoil before you spin…