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Talk With Theatre Director Anatoly Ledukhovsky

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Anatoly Ledukhovsky is, perhaps, the most controversial star on the Russian theatre horizon. He is better known abroad than in his native country. In 1996 Ledukhovsky, who had been in the theatre for 10 already, was invited to take part in the 4th Salvo Randone festival in Italy, one of the most prestigious national forums featuring best theatre productions from all over Italy. The only foreign performance presented at the Salvo Randone was Alexander Ledukhovsky's version of Henry IV by Luigi Pirandello. It didn't appear on the competition program and was shown on the very last day of the festival. The success was enormous. The following day the jury announced an unprecedented decision: the Grand-Prix in breech of all of the festival's rules went to the MODELTHEATRE from Russia. Italian newspapers compared Ledukhovsky with such masters as Vsevlolod Meyerkhold and Peter Stein, calling his theatre “synthetic“, “liturgical“ and even „mediumistic”, and drawing parallels with the Japanese „NO” theatre, early European expressionists and the early 20th century Russian avant-garde.
Says Sergei Bakhrin, a prominent Russian theatre critic and professor at the Russian Academy of Theatre: “I saw many of Ledukhovsky's productions. It's difficult to find words to describe what it looks like. You've got to see it with your own eyes. This is a thrilling sight. I am sure his future performances will be as congenial“.
What's the secret of Lekukhovsky's success? One reason may be that he has never stuck to any cliches. “The word “can't“ doesn't exist for me“, the director says. “I was frequently told, especially when I was just beginning, “You can't do it this way“. But who knows how it really should be done? I have thoroughly studied Stanislavsky's theory and the Russian drama school, but I don't keep to any traditions“. Ledukhovsky's largely innovative style spans beyond the mere notion of “theatrical avant-garde” or what's commonly implied by it. He may be called an avant-garde director only if we use the word „avant-garde” in its initial meaning: „an advanced detachment”. Last fall his MODELTHEATRE, finally, got a building of its own, where it premiered „Florentine Nights” based on Marina Tsvetayeva's poetry and Leopold Zacher-Mazoch's play „Venus in Furs”, combining bold and sometimes shocking staging with traditional „realistic” forms and a deep psychological approach. «When I am working on a new production, I don't care what it will be like — an avant-garde or traditional performance. There is a concrete dramaturgical material, which I interpret the way I feel it. For each play there is a clue. I will never make actors to stand on their heads for the mere sake of making an “avant-garde» performance. I will do it where I feel it's necessary“. Looking at this fairly short man with a velvet voice and pleasant manners, nothing in his appearance bespeaking a “brazen reformer“, one still has no doubt that this is what Ledukhovsky really is and that future textbooks on the history of theatre will, by all means, include a chapter devoted to his legacy. Anatoly Ledukhovsky staged “A Voice from the Shell”, a psycho-plastic composition based on paintings by Hieronymus Bosch, Honore Daumier and Salvador Dali at the GALATHEATRE in Stockholm followed by „King Houbu” by Alfred Jarri and „Venus in Furs” by Leopold Zacher-Mazoch at the Satirikon theatre in Bremen. His MODELTHEATRE frequently performs in Europe. Every tour is a tremendous success, despite the fact that some plays show without translation.

Y. Kislyarova

16.04.2002



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