Translated material
Maxim Isaev
Maxim Isaev was born in 1965 in Leningrad. He graduated from LHU to them. Serova, as an artist, took part in all major exhibitions held in Leningrad and St. Petersburg from 1986 to 1993. In 1989, together with V. Vasiliev and P. Semchenko, he was created by the Ahe Engineering Theater. Since 1994, with the strengthening of the activity of the Ahe group, a participant in all major theatrical festivals of the world. Plus, since 2006, Maxim Isaev is an independent playwright.
This fall, the premieres of your plays “Gardeners” in the Alexandrinsky Theater and “The last four things” at the Satire Theater on Vasilievsky took place. Are they about the same thing?
No, of course, about different, but both plays about love. Now I am interested in it.
Wait that there are no more important topics? Orphan children, for example.
Yes, this is an important topic. Many important topics. Apartheid. The death of white whales. Collider.
So why love?
It seems to me about love about everything about everything, about a lot. And then this is all the same, it’s not so interesting about another. This is one of the most striking, powerful feelings that provokes people to actions, in drama - a clash of interests, desires. Conflict. One character wants one, and the other character wants the exact opposite.
That is, in life, it happens, as in your play, for example, “The last four things”?
Yes, a very real human story. The only thing I invented is God. There is no God. It’s fun to invent God. It is a pity that he does not appear in the performance.
What other do you want to tell stories?
The next play will be about love.
It turns out that you have all the plays about love.
No, these three, including the “Solneskbra” - through love, but about another. The “gardeners” raise the themes of the present and fake, real and unreal, genuine and unreasonable, and is conducted in this direction. Love serves as a magnifying glass through which we see everything. In the “last four things”, of course, there is love, but this is not the topic of the performance, the topic is wine, forgiveness, and this is all the turbidity, which in itself is not very interesting.
And in order to write about love you need to be in love?
It is desirable, but I'm sure that it is possible without it. But it is better to be in love, of course. It is necessary to go through this.
Are you attached to your characters?
No. Yes.
And the character that the viewer and the character you created ...
Two big differences. Sometimes what the viewer sees is richer, very often, sometimes I am sure that I was invented thinner and brighter.
What is it connected with? The fact that the actor could not cope or the fact that the viewer was not prepared?
This is connected by a) with what he could, wanted and pulled out the director and b) as the artist did.
Is the viewer important?
There is no theater without a spectator. Those words, the image, the idea that was born in your head, it is recorded by a pen on paper or on a computer there, it is recorded. So the viewer is the same paper without which the theater cannot exist. You can not record the message of the theater if there is no carrier to which it is recorded. There is no theater without a spectator. In the performances of Ahe, the viewer makes a story, the viewer composes a story. He is the author. Of course, there are performances, such as “Faust”, where the text sharashit and the viewer is difficult to insert his own and then there are attentive, rich and liberated spectators who see more than the words said.
What people inspire you?
I was inspired and continues to inspire Boris Ponizovsky. Boris was a mystifier, Boris was momentarily equal to absolutely any interlocutor, absolutely anyone! In general, by and large, in people I like those qualities that I do not have, then there is a large list. Openness. Sincerity. All are so ordinary. How did you ask a question? Set again.
What people inspire you?
Nothing inspires me at all. I do not believe in inspiration.
And then what does it look like, this moment, the need for creation?
It looks like a job. There is time - you write. Work is a process that must be done in any way, and inspiration is a bonus in the process of work.
And where do you take strength for all this? Some doping?
The blood of Christian babies. Well, if seriously, then five hours of sleep per day should be enough, of course they are not enough, but otherwise nothing to have time.
Are there any things that you definitely want to have time or is it unimportant?
Of course there is. And important. I would like to have time to visit one restaurant, which is located in a very distant city, in one distant country.
Is it connected with something personal?
No, this is not related to personal, abstractly, I just want to go there.
Is there some special food?
I don’t know, I have never been there. So I want, there is such a need, I would like to do it. What else? Passing the elasticity, maybe do nothing for a year, relax.
What do you think the main thing in people?
Undoubtedly one of the most important qualities I consider tolerance. And from tolerance, a lot follows - delicacy, attentiveness, sensitivity. I would like to say sincerity, but I know too many people with whom I would least like to meet again, and they were so sincere in my behavior! So sincerity is probably not the most important quality.
What was your Revelation?
Not so long ago, I analyzed some of my actions, my life, formulated something to myself and this formulation became a revelation for me. This revelation from the inside, there are revelations outside. I walked down the street, I saw one profile and everything turned out, the picture was closed. It looks like a revelation.
I understand correctly that now you have a person’s theme, the topic of personality is the main one?
That's right, yes. The theme of the subject was worked out in previous works, wordless. And now it’s interesting about people, about living. Living and not living.
You traveled a lot with tour, tell me, where did you see the happiest people?
In Brazil.
What does a happy person look like in Brazil?
He is wildly poor, much more poor than we can imagine. But he is not steaming! Why else? There is no rack of hatred, this: white-black, Jewish trucks, this is not all there and I have never seen this anywhere else.
In the view “Plag and Plai”, on which I was in your Antresol Theater on Small Prospekt, you talked about happiness. Including, referring to the words of the Dalai Lama XIV, they strongly recommended that the audience become happy “here and now”. Let's talk about happiness?
It seems to me normally and appropriate to be in a state of happiness so much, I showed my fingers, well, it is 5-10-15 minutes a day. If you are in a state of happiness longer, then you need to think about whether you are an idiot.
And what is fifteen minutes of happiness per day? Are happiness and time connected?
Certainly. It seems to me that happiness is connected with harmony, but for now we are in the human body of harmony, it has an end.
What is the goal?
To die without suffering.
To die without pain?
No, not suffering. After all, suffering is an unrealized desire. To implement it and not regret it.
And a lot of desires?
Enough)
Plays Maxim Isaev:
“Human posthumous composition of Dr. Faust”, the theater “Ahe”, the premiere in 2006
"Salt" dir. Yana Tumina, Satire Theater on V, premiere in 2007
"Gardeners" dir. Andrey Mogeliy, Alexandrinsky Theater, Prime Minister in 2008
"The last four things" dir. Yana Tumina, Satire Theater on Vasilievsky, premiere in 2008
Useful links:
- About the theater "Ahe" on Lookatme