The Russian Comedy Theater in Saratov is one of the youngest in Russia. For the first time, its doors opened for spectators in 1998, when most theaters, on the contrary, closed, having lost material support from the budget and having lost spectators.
For nine years, the team worked independently, and in 2007 it became a branch of the I. A. Slonov Academic Theater. Having changed the status, the Saratov Theater has not changed the principles of work and continues to delight the audience with frequent premieres. The troupe is involved in productions not of classical drama familiar to the province, but of “sharp” plays, although there are also works by recognized classics of the comedy genre on its stage.
Where is?
The Russian Comedy Theater was located in Saratov at the address: Leninsky district, the building of the famous Tehsteklo recreation center. You can get to it from any part of the city by buses or trolleybuses, passing through the stop of the same name with the recreation center or following Stroiteley Avenue.
How to get to the play?
Tickets for the Saratov Theater need to be bought in advance. There are always a lot of spectators in his hall. Regardless of the name of the play, the best places are steadily occupied. This is due not only to the repertoire and work of the artists, but also to the way tickets are organized.
They can be purchased at the box office of the theater on the street. Lomonosov St., 20, open from 10:00 to 19:00, and in city shopping centers, galleries and distributors.
For what age?
The Russian Comedy Theater in Saratov offers performances for family viewing, for teenagers and youth (with a restriction of “12+”), and there are also plays only for adult viewers.
Recently, performances “Little Red Riding Hood and Aliens”, “All Mice Love Cheese” and the vaudeville “Misfortune from a Tender Heart” have been sold out with full houses for children and families.
The drama “Fanatics” and the lyrical kind comedy “Fate in a Suitcase” are constantly in demand among young people.
Among the popular productions for adults only, viewers celebrate the play based on the play by the Englishman Ray Cooney, “Too Married Taxi Driver”. The production is full of British humor, it unobtrusively talks about the life of a hired driver of a London taxi, living in two families at the same time. This is a comedy of situations, diluted with dialogues full of sparkling British humor, successfully adapted for the Russian audience.
Of course, this performance offers comedians from the street. Lomonosov, 20 is not limited, every season several premieres take place in the theater, and the announcement always contains “proven” performances for all ages and loved by the public.
When is the beginning?
The theater has morning and evening performances. In the morning, performances begin at 11:00, and in the evenings at 18:00. Of course, the performances in the mornings are addressed to children and are intended for family visits.
On weekends and holidays, in addition to evening and morning performances, there are also daytime ones. These performances begin at 14:00.
What show?
The Russian comedy theater in Saratov chooses a repertoire in full accordance with its own name. In the announcements there are only funny performances for all ages, staged both according to the favorite classical works of Zoshchenko, Shakespeare, Moliere, Chekhov, Ostrovsky, and modern drama.
All theater productions are distinguished by the quality of the scenery, bright costumes, musical and lighting design of the action taking place on the stage.
The repertoire is updated every season, which is why many of the performances loved by the audience go “to the archive” or are staged only several times a year. Such a policy of the theater leadership, on the one hand, causes dissatisfaction of conservative theatergoers, and on the other hand, attracts a new audience to the hall.
The works of Saratov comedians have been nominated many times in the framework of one of the oldest Golden Harlequin theater art festivals, and more than once have been noted by both the jury and the audience.
What distinguishes the Saratov collective from many other provincial troupes is that comedians are equally responsible for both adults and young spectators. On the posters of the Russian Comedy Theater in Saratov, one can constantly see the announcements of performances for children and adolescents. Moreover, the troupe approaches the selection of these plays no less responsibly than the choice of productions for evening performances.
In the morning and afternoon hours, there are often performances based on plays by contemporary authors: Urban, Fedotov, Ilyukhov, Novakov, Olshansky and others.
What to go with the kids?
For young viewers and family viewing, the Russian Comedy Theater in Saratov offers no less performances than for evening hours. When choosing a performance, you need to focus on age restrictions. The “0+” mark, as a rule, means funny tales that will not be interesting to the teenager, and the kids marked “12+” in the play will be bored.
The youngest theatergoers will like the production of “Visiting the Snowstorm” based on the tales of the Grimm brothers. The performance is distinguished by bright costumes, a funny make-up and is not overloaded with characters acting on the stage, which is especially important for kids.
There are only 6 heroes in the play: a pair of buffoons, a good and bad girl, Mrs. Metelitsa herself. In addition to them, a big toy cat is involved on the stage, successfully arising at those moments when young spectators begin to be distracted from the ongoing action.
Children of 6–8 years old will be interested in the play “All Mice Love Cheese”, based on the tales of the Hungarian writer and director Dul Urban, author of the beloved story “The Blue Puppy”.
The content and the course of the play resemble a sitcom, it looks very easy, there are a lot of jokes in dialogs and funny situations in which a gray mouse and his girlfriend, a white mouse find themselves. They are united by sympathy for each other, difficulties with mutual understanding in families and love for cheese.
In one breath, the kids are watching the events in the play "About the cat and about love." The play is based on the adventures of a well-known Cat in boots. All children's productions are distinguished by the sincere play of artists and evoke a response among the youngest viewers, therefore, going to the theater, you can not worry about the name of the play.
What to see with a teenager?
Transitional age is the period when many parents cease to understand their own children. There are many reasons for the loss of mutual understanding, but one of them is the lack of joint leisure, because they are not in the same apartment, and going to the store does not give the child a reason to share his thoughts, and adults to find out what their child is thinking about.
The best discharge of any crisis, both brewing and already happened, is laughter. A visit to the theater is an occasion for communication and “building bridges,” because, unlike the movie, the performance gives the audience lively emotions that evoke a real response.
Teenagers will be interested in such productions as “Fate in a Suitcase”, and others with a mark of “12+”.
The mentioned performance is both funny and sad. This is a sitcom, events in which unfold around something filled with a large travel bag. There is something to laugh about, and something to think about, and, of course, what to discuss after watching.
For adults
Now it’s quite fashionable to visit bars and restaurants during dates, but to go to the theater. But, unfortunately, boring, “moth-beaten” productions, filled with unemotional, empty “antics” of actors indifferent to their work, can completely ruin a romantic evening.
There are no such productions at the Saratov Russian Comedy Theater, partly because the team lives on the money that comes from selling tickets. In addition, the troupe has many recent students, graduates of the local institute, who have not yet had time to become disillusioned with their chosen profession and infect older colleagues and, of course, spectators with their own enthusiasm.
When planning to spend a good evening, you can safely purchase tickets for any performance with marks “16+” and “18+”. All such performances are distinguished not only by the abundance of humor, but also by the presence of content and complex scenography.
In order to find out what to see, just read the annotation of the play that interests you on the Internet.
Spectators who do not like romance will be interested in comedies with elements of a riddle, for example, “Play a Detective.” The play was staged based on the well-known work of Robert Tom “The Trap for a Lonely Man”.
Although this play is staged by many theater groups, you can go to the performance without hesitation. The approach to the material is nontrivial, therefore the content of the work is revealed from a rather unexpected side. The premiere of the story about the man whose wife was substituted was held in Saratov in 2014, and since then the performance has been one of the favorites in the theater’s repertoire.
What do they say?
Reviews of the Russian Comedy Theater in Saratov are left at local forums and portals involved in the sale of tickets to various events.
They write different things: both bad and good. For example, if you look not only at the content of the text, but also at the time the review is left, a curious fact will become apparent - the statements of the audience, published two hours after the curtain, are full of positive, they note the work of the artists and their own reaction. As a rule, the description of the emotions received is expressed by the phrase "laughed to tears."
Negative reviews were left at a time when a person clearly could not visit the theater simply because of the lack of performances. As for the responses of the audience who watched the performances with the children, they are filled with wishes, gratitude and the intention to come again and again.
There are reviews and not related to what is happening on stage. For example, among the opinions expressed on the forums of Saratov, there are complaints that the theater is located in the Palace of Culture, because of which there is no feeling of “going to the temple of art”. Complaints that it is far from the center, therefore it is inconvenient to go to it from a bus stop, there is no possibility to park the car.
Although such reviews can hardly be called relevant to the repertoire or characterizing the work of the troupe, they are useful in that they indicate inconveniences that can spoil the impression of the performance if the person is not ready for them.