PharePlay.com – Theater world

October 14, a new, 83th theater season will be opened in the Russian Drama Theater named after Nikolai Bestuzhev.

The premiere performance of “Three Sisters”, staged after the play by Anton Chekhov will be presented at the opening of the season.

This show will be the first directorial job by Anatoly Baskakov in the new theater walls, who was appointed the artistic director of the Russian drama.

The entire team which took part in the creation of the play, was invited to Buryatia from other regions.

Art director of “Three Sisters” was Alexander Plinth, chief designer of Irkutsk Drama Theater after Nicholas Okhlopkov.

Music specifically for the new play was written by Anatoly Baskakov’s children – Eugene Voronovskiy (a well-known organizer of underground festivals) and Daria Baskakova (a singer, lives and works in France).

A few days before the premiere, Anatoly Baskakov gave a brief interview to “Inform Polis online».

- Anatoly Borisovich, please tell us why you decided to stage a play after Chekhov?

- Those who know me for a long time, and my personal attitude to Chekhov. I believe that there has never been anything above Chekhov’s drama in the world culture. At least for my perception of life, art and the world. Chekhov for me is a dream, an ideal. This is the best what could be.

Regardless of culture, he is a kind of the top.

Besides, I do not know any other dramatist who would be more edgy than Chekhov.

All arts are collected in his works. He was strange, he was extraordinary.

Everything he wrote was absurd and paradoxical.

In his works, in a strange way laughter can be transformed into tears, tears into laughter, and a joke into a strange thing… I think that Chekhov gives rise to the theater.

- The play, which you have chosen for stage, is quite hard.

- No, it’s easy. The performance will not be about how people lived and suffered in the XIX century. I hope that after you watch “Three Sisters”, you would like to recollect it, think. I would be really glad it it were so.

We have tried to live the story of three sisters from the today’s position.

We will show the story of how time absorbs us and our dreams, about how the world is shrinking around us, destroying our illusions.

- How much time did it take to stage the performance?

- It took all of my life. I did not spend much time on stage, because the theater stage is constantly occupied.

In general staging a play after Chehov takes about half a year or more in other theatres.

Such performances require thorough work. Chehov is education.

Chehov literary changes a person. It is not always possible to stage it as it should be. We might be no exception.

This work requires great personal efforts, only a personality can do this. The less a person is a personality, the worse he is as an actor. For a person to start understanding that, making such efforts, it is necessary to become absorbed into the situation. And it’s not that easy.

Staging Chehov, i should use thorough thinking.

- It’s no secret that you pay much attention to set design, in particular light. That is why you invited a lighting designer from Moscow? Or are there any other reasons?

- This is a very tough question. In fact, the audience never thinks about light, and it is probably right. For decades nothing has changed in the theater – either props, or set designers’ work. I still admire those solutions that were invented 40 and 100 years ago.

But the technology has changed for the last 15 – 20 years. For example, to turn on and off only one projector, it is necessary to write it into the program, to develop speed, pick up colors.

It is a very hard work – to know the technology and have a taste and to calculate every step. That requires advanced technology.

For example, in the movie you see is what you need to pay attention to. It is a job done by operator, director, creator of the film.

The light in the theater is also a way of showing what people should see in the act of art – you, your eyes, your hands. It is not only an actor who does it, but also the light.

The light for me is the most important thing of all means of expression in the theater, more important than scenery, etc.

In the beginning, there was a lighting designer from Tomsk Natalia Gara. She invented and created the whole lightning, but, alas, she fell ill. So we had to take a remarkable artist who has worked with the biggest stars of the Russian theater. This is Sergey Grachev. He worked with Peter Fomenko, Kama Ginkas …

Everything that Natalia Gara created was preserved, just a bit improved and developed.

- You have invited an artist from Irkutsk, specialists from Tomsk and Moscow put the light, music wasn’t also written by the people from Buryatia … So, the whole staff are not local people?

- Yes, it happened so. In this performance, there is a different approach to everything, including the music. These are not just some illustrations and spacing. Music was written specifically for this show, for those tasks that I set. It was written by my children Daria Baskakova and Eugene Voronovskiy. I trust them.

Even the theatrical posters and applets were developed specifically for us by Andrei Bondarenko. This is a cult figure, he designed many books, collaborating with the best publishers of the country. He is a great friend of mine.

Everything is very interesting, and I think that “Three Sisters” is worth seeing.

- So, you expect the premier to be a success?

- In my experience, the premiere is always far from the best performance. Premiere is a test. The performance is getting better after 10 – 12 times.

- Tell us about your future plans.

- I do not know what will happen. A lot of things are planned, but I do not know when I can start all this. By the end of the year, all is scheduled that is why it will be possible to start rehearsals only after New Year. In general, I dream a lot. Just do not know whether everything works.

Information from “Inform Polis online”

Anton Chekhov’s work “Three Sisters” is staged in the Russian Drama Theatre for the first time. Honored Artist of Russia Marina Lanina, actress Catherine Belkova, Tatiana Belova, Svetlana Polyanskaya, Liana Schetilina, Anastasia Turusheva take part in the play.