This is not a review or a critical essay. This is a very subjective and emotional estimation of this experience…

Many things were written about a new production of Oleg Menshikov and "Theatrical Company 814" based on the play by Maxim Kurochkin. Critics didn't favour "Kitchen" too much, which, however, seems quite natural to me. I won't deprive others of their livelihood trying to compete with the masters of the genre examining strong and weak points of the work. What's much more significant for me is to analyze all the feelings and emotions caused by the story that was told us that evening…
It became the custom to discuss the most personal things in the kitchen. Indeed, the kitchen of a mysterious castle becomes the stage for events that are to lead characters and the audience to themselves, demons and angels inside themselves, to urge them to view their lives through the prism of the medieval epos.
We are used to thinking that the main human quality is his ability to feel different emotions: love and hatred, joy and sorrow, fear and confidence, despair and hope - everything that allows us to perceive the outward things. Gunther, the owner of the castle, thinks that the main human quality is the ability to forget. He considers himself a "no human", as he "learned to exclude qualities, natural to human, and ignore circumstances". He exists beyond time and space, free of any personal affections and obligations, but hurt by events of the distant past.
Many years ago, at the earliest stage of the Middle Ages, Gunther, king of Burgundy, helped by his loyal vassal Hagen, killed Siegfried, king of the Nibelungs. Siegfried's wife Kriemhild, who showed the only vulnerable spot on her husband's body to the murderers, became their involuntary companion in crime. Love and fear for her sweetheart made the woman believe in Hagen's kind intentions. And she embroidered a cross on Siegfried's shirt there where a murderer would strike a blow. As it usually happens, Kriemhild forgot her betrayal, unpremeditated though, and dedicated her life to taking revenge on the murderers. When she married again and became a wife of Attila, king of the Huns, Kriemhild got the opportunity to fulfill her plan.
To investigate the events that happened many centuries ago, Gunther models them in the modern kitchen. He arranges the marriage of charwoman Nadya, who lost her husband by incident 20 years ago. The poor widow can't understand why the master is so interested in her new marriage. She hasn't recalled yet that her name is Kriemhild and she betrayed her husband and longs to take the revenge on the murderers. The soul of the queen of the Nibelungs awakes in her only after Gunther kills Siegfried again in her presence and with that, makes her remember hurt and suffering, excites hatred that seemed to be gone.
Insisting on Kriemhild's new marriage with Attila and bringing her dormant passion to life, Gunther wants to make her realize that her craving for revenge ruined the remains of her bygone love long ago, that the fulfillment of her idee fixe won't soothe her, on the contrary, because of it she will never free herself from the past. Kriemhild doesn't hear him: she doesn't understand why Gunther tries hard to explain her the meaning of Siegfried's murder, the very existence of this meaning. She has to take revenge and nothing will stop her - hordes of the Huns have already encircled the castle, ready to implement the will of their new queen…
Gunther's wife Brunhild is Kriemhild's antipode in the play. She's not that passionate, and it seems on the face of it that she doesn't love her husband at all. She doesn't show a slightest interest in what's going on. Manicure, pedicure, coiffure and make-up - these are the only things that excite her. Forget about the approaching Huns, victims among the inhabitants of the kitchen can't divert her attention from a modern women's magazine. Still, she is more of a wife to her husband, than Kriemhild - to hers. The external indifference is simply a cloak of offence at Gunther who doesn't pay much attention to her feelings and is always busy with his own problems. But this mask hides Brunhild's thorough knowledge of her husband, "Don't listen to my husband. When he's speaking, think your own thoughts over. Then you'll probably understand him…" She reveals the main thing about Gunther, explains all his words, deeds, aspirations.
In a way, Brunhild is a connecting link between the modern inhabitants of the kitchen and "those from the past". She knows the situation from within, but is rather an observer than an active participant of the events. That is probably the reason of her offence at her husband - Gunther "debars" her from exerting influence on the situation, but without her the scene would be incomplete. This is Brunhild who makes everyone stop being just a passive observer and face their problems, revalue their lives, find what prevents them from moving ahead and living a full life. Among all the participants of the drama, Kriemhild is the only person who doesn't listen to Brunhild. She keeps holding on to her hatred as if it were her last chance to survive…
In the final scene "the five people of the eternity" (Siegfried, Gunther, Attila, Hagen and Brunhild) calmly discuss their visit to a modern kitchen and then leave for the shining emptiness with the final words said offhandedly to Kriemhild, "Clean it up here…" She remains charwoman Nadya. And in every life of hers she is doomed to find a husband, betray him, mourn over his death, long to take revenge on his murderers, but… never understand why it happens again and again.
That's how I see the main plot line of the performance. In fact, the play has so many sides and facets that it is almost impossible to embrace it completely in one article. I admit that everyone who already has seen or is about to see the performance will have his own impression that may be different from mine. However, there is one thing I am sure of: one should go to the theatre and spend an evening in the "Kitchen".