Nemirovich-Danchenko Memorial Flat, Moscow 2019 ✮ Museums in Russia

KEY FACTS

Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko is a renowned Russian theatre director, playwright and drama critic.
The flats where the founders of the Moscow Art Theatre lived and the Moscow Art Theatre’s museum are located in the lanes surrounding Tverskaya Street.
Nemirovich-Danchenko’s flat has only three rooms and a half. One feels like the owner has just left it and is about to come back.
Exhibitions and free lectures are regularly held here (see the schedule on the official website of the Moscow Art Theatre’s Museum).
All information in the memorial flat, lectures and guided tours are in Russian only.

The capital of Russia boasts a great number of Moscow attractions connected with its eventful theatrical history and those associated with it. Some examples are the Bakhrushin Theatre MuseumRussian: teatralnyi muzey Bakhrushina or театральный музей Бахрушина, the Stanislavsky memorial houseRussian: dom-muzey Stanislavskogo or дом-музей Станиславского and the Nemirovich-Danchenko memorial apartmentRussian: memorialnaya kvartira Nemirovicha-Danchenko or мемориальная квартира Немировича-Данченко. The memorial apartments of the founders of the Moscow Art TheatreRussian: Московский художественный театр and the Moscow Art Theatre museum itself are tucked away in several side streets around Tverskaya StreetRussian: Tverskaya ulitsa or Тверская улица. During your visit, you will have the opportunity to learn about the past and present of academic theatre.

In the memorial apartment of the famous theatre director, playwright, and educator Nemirovich-Danchenko (1858-1943), there are a lot of his personal belongings. Throughout the apartment prevails an atmosphere typical of that incredible era. This was a time when the Moscow Art Theatre and the national theatrical tradition in general were created. It almost feels like the owner has just gone out and is going to return home any minute.

ON YOUR WAY

It is quite easy to find the building which houses the V. Nemirovich-Danchenko memorial apartment. When on Bolshaya DmitrovkaRussian: Большая Дмитровка street, take a turn into Glinishchevsky side streetRussian: Glinischevskiy pereulok or Глинищевский переулок. Facing you is a tall grey building with a dense row of memorial plaques on its facade. This location is irrevocably associated with the history of Russian theatre. A number of prominent people used to live there, including: Nemirovich-Danchenko, A. Chekhov’s wife and a Moscow Art Theatre actress Olga Knipper, actor Sergei Obraztsov among many others. Then walk into entrance 5 (to the right and under the arch), up to the third floor, and find apartment number 52: you are now visiting the famous theatre director, teacher, playwright and critic Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, whose name was given to the famous Moscow Art Theatre SchoolRussian: Shkola-studiya MKhAT or Школа-студия МХАТ. As one of the founders and directors of the Moscow Art Theatre, he spent the last five years of his life here – his memorial museum opened only a year after his death.

MUSEUM’S INTERIOR AND SPIRIT

Nemirovich-Danchenko’s apartment has only three and a half rooms. The well-preserved furnishings of an old Moscow apartment embody the spirit of the time as well as the the creative energy, talent, commitment and passion that distinguished the owner. On the walls of his study, there are portraits and photographs of Nemirovich-Danchenko’s friends and acquaintances with dedicatory inscriptions, in the bookcase are the owner’s manuscripts and books, above the bed there is a bas-relief depicting his beloved wife, and by a wall there is a dresser built to Nemirovich-Danchenko’s design.

Feel free to ask the museum attendants questions, as its employees know, appreciate and cherish the theatre-lover’s family history, know all about the exhibits and their origins, and cite the memories of the owner’s contemporaries by heart. They can tell you a legend or an anecdote from the director’s biography, for example that next door lives his grandson, composer Vasily Nemirovich-Danchenko, head of the musical section of the Chekhov Moscow Art TheatreRussian: MKhT im. Chekhova or МХТ им. Чехова.

The Nemirovich-Danchenko memorial apartment hosts exhibitions and free talks on a regular basis; their schedule is published on the Moscow Art Theatre Museum official website. At these talks you can learn about the theatre’s cult productions staged during the epoch of Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko, view restored video versions of some performances and discuss their impact on the development of theatrical art. For example, in the memorial apartment you can learn the story of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark’s tragedy by watching the 1939-1945 production of the same name, for which rehearsals took place in wartime Moscow, or you can attend a literary or poetic event. This museum truly leaves a lasting impression that you will definitely want to evoke again.