Engineers on the stage

On April 5 OMSKNEFTEKHIMPROEKT JSC (ONHP) specialists presented their own version of N.V. Gogol’s famous play to their colleagues and guests.

The quotation set at the beginning significantly reflects the atmosphere which was laying in ONHP assembly hall. It was absolutely impossible to leave the play “Marriage” performed by ONHP theatre club. Magnificent actors’ play, delicate humor, background music were holding the audience attention for 2 hours which passed by like a minute. There wasn’t an inch of room in a spacious ONHP hall, even though the plot of the play is familiar to everybody. The story is about bridegroomery of a feeble bachelor Podkolesin, his tireless friend Kochkarev’s vigorous interference into friend’s matchmaking, Podkolesin decision to get married and desperate final jump out of the window. The main conflict of the play is the contradiction between portrayed and ideal reality. The world is imperfect, awkward and full of contradictions. ONHP theater club stage director, People's artist of Russia M.F. VASILIADI decided not to ignore the original plot of the play. According to him, choosing the classics of the theatre genre is always a safe bet.  

 

-          The play is very complicated and grotesque, - says the stage director. - The roles are very distinctive. The majority of theater club participants are ONHP young professionals. Although so

me of the roles are age-specific, the guys managed to cope with them brilliantly. It is obvious that playing on the stage is a great pleasure to them. 

The play first night coincides with two anniversaries. This year will be the 180th anniversary of N.V. Gogol’s play “Marriage”. Even nowadays a play written in 1833 is one of the most famous plays of Russian classical repertoire. This performance became an excellent gift for the staff for another anniversary which is ONHP’s 60th anniversary.

-          It was exciting to play on the stage in front of the colleagues on the eve of such an important event,- says an engineer Mikhail Naboka who played Kochkarev’s role. - Many people came to me after the performance and shared their impressions. Everyone was pleased. My mother Olga Mikhailovna also attended the performance. For her, my acting experience was a great discovery.

Initially, Denis Madgasin was supposed to play the role of Kochkarev. But the young man was promoted to become the Director of ONHP Serbian Branch Office and moved to Belgrade. He was replaced by an engineer of Petrochemical Process Design Group Mikhail Naboka.

He managed the role so brilliantly, that the stage director of ONHP theater club said that he would, without any doubt, invite Mikhail to perform on professional stage. The engineer was showing a real hurricane of emotions on the stage, being at the same time a friend of the bridegroom, a wedding planner and a gentleman of fortune. The features of other characters turned out to be equally bright. A calm marriageable girl Agafia Tikhonovna (Process Units Design Group specialist Ms. Irina Oleynik), an emotional matchmaker Fyokla Ivanovna (Off-Site Facilities Design Group Leader Ms. Anastasiya Redkina), diffident Podkolesin (a specialist of the Pipeline Calculation Group Mr. Denis Bichev) were among them.   

This performance had been waited for both by audience and the actors. The rehearsals of the play began last year in May, right after theatre club first night opening, which consisted of two A.P. Chekhov’s one-act plays “Proposal” and “Bear”. It should be noted that the play “Marriage” will be performed once again on ONHP stage on April 19 for the students and the pupils of sponsored schools. New rehearsals await the actors in future. A work on the new play has already begun but the details are kept in strict secrecy.

09 April 2013