"Since this is my anniversary, I was asked to choose the play myself. I've been choosing it for a very long time. It seems to me that the play is very deep and highly moral. This is exactly what our theater needs, with the most complex characters and dramatic line. My heroine is a woman with a difficult human fate who has been looking for love for a long time. She finds this love, carries it through life, fighting for it, and as a result finds everything: her husband and children, and becomes truly happy," Natalia Ivanovna said.

Natalia Ivanovna graduated from the Tambov Music College named after S.V. Rachmaninov in the vocal class, then from the A.V. Lunacharsky GITIS in Moscow. Her creative career began in 1979 in Frunze (Bishkek) at the N.K. Krupskaya State Academic Russian Drama Theater, where she worked for about twenty-five years under the guidance of the legendary V.B. Pazi. Natalia Matveeva was accepted into the troupe of the Gorky State Academic Russian Drama Theater in 2003.

"The Gorky Theater is really considered my native theater. This is my home, my family and my love. This is probably my destiny. I've spent my theatrical life here, which is quite interesting. Here I met my favorite heroines, Sarah from Chekhov's Ivanov, Anna Andreevna from Gogol's The Inspector, Anna Atueva from Krechinsky's Wedding. I also played Elmira from Tartuffe here. The roles are big and small, episodic, but they are all my favorites, and they were all created in this theater. Our actors are wonderful, we have talented young people. Every time new actors come from our course - my students and Sergei Fedorovich, they join the troupe of the theater. (Approx. graduates of KazNUI). And I am infinitely grateful to our theater that we are given such an honor by hosting our students, our graduates. I love the theater, let it flourish," Natalia Matveeva wished.

The performance for the anniversary of Natalia Ivanovna is staged by a guest director from Russia, Mikhail Filimonov. He has a long-standing friendship with Sergei and Natalia Matveev, which began back in the 70s at the N.K. Krupskaya State Academic Russian Drama Theater.

"We have known Mikhail Evgenievich for a very long time, since 1979, when Sergei Fedorovich and I came to Frunze. And there I met Mikhail Evgenievich and his wife - this amazing family of bright, beautiful people who are deeply devoted to the theater. With great and pure love for the theater, they serve it all their lives, worship it. Mikhail Evgenievich and I met a lot in performances as partners. I even remember a fairy tale in which we were engaged together. He played the beetle, and I played Thumbelina. Then I played in his plays, after he studied to be a director in Moscow. I remember his first productions. He had very vivid productions, one of them was "Caligula", which stuck in my memory for the rest of my life. It was invented so wonderfully that this performance conquered everyone from the first minute and kept the viewer in suspense until the last. In general, Mikhail Evgenievich is a wonderful director, a visionary. He is an incredibly clean person, whom I love very much," Natalia Ivanovna said.

Filimonov Mikhail Evgenievich has staged more than 40 performances, including —An Evening in Copenhagen", "Caligula", "Rhinoceroses", "Romance of Love and Death", "Outrageous Comedy" and others. All productions are distinguished by a characteristic musical and plastic solution. Filimonov's play "The Lion in Winter" (based on the play by J. Goldman), recorded in 1996 on Russian radio among the best performances, was broadcast several times on federal channels. Mikhail Evgenievich's name was entered in the Book of Labor Glory of the Kyrgyz SSR in 1986.

"There have been many different theaters in my life. I directed some of them, and some invited me to stage plays. Here, in the capital of Kazakhstan, I discovered a good Russian theater with a broad, intelligent soul. This is true, because I myself am primarily a fan of an intelligent and creative team. And the leadership, especially. A good team. He is recovering from, as they say, "five years of wandering through the deserts." (Approx. the theater building was under restoration). I believe that the team that gets back on its feet after this ordeal of life is worthy of all attention and respect," Mikhail Evgenievich noted.

The Italian playwright Eduardo de Filippo wrote the play Filumena Marturano in 1946. The main characters, Filumena Marturano and Dominico Soriano, have been together for 30 years, but are not married. Dominico doesn't want to hear about marriage. He was used to the free life of a carefree bachelor. Filumena forgives her beloved for his hobbies and patiently waits for a marriage proposal. This is a fascinating story of a woman doing everything possible to preserve love and self-esteem.

"I think the performance will be interesting to the audience, because every woman still strives to live by the laws that dictate her feminine essence. The topic is exciting. We were thinking about the name. "Filumena Marturano" seems to be known from the film with Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroiani, but this name also does not say much. And then I took it straight from the text of the play - "A woman living by her own laws." I think the viewer will remember this name," Mikhail Evgenievich said.

The play "A Woman living by her own laws" takes place at the Gorky Russian Drama Theater at the address: Astana, Zheltoksan str., 13