"He does not cost anything to live on Western contracts"

Marina Davydova - about Kirill Serebrennikov and his reputation abroad

Kirill Serebrennikov is the artistic director of Gogol Center, the holder of the Kinotavr award, a participant in the Avignon review is one of the few Russian directors who are known and works abroad. On May 23, Serebrennikov and the Gogol Center in the Moscow apartment weresearches in the case of the theft in the “Seventh Studio” found by him-the director himself takes place as a witness. These events caused a great resonance not only in Russian, but also in foreign media - many cultural figures associated searches with pressure on the director and his theater. Marina Davydova, editor -in -chief of the theater magazine, told about the work and demand for Kirill Serebrennikov abroad.

The value of any creative person is that he is talented. Talent is the only news that is always new. Kirill Serebrennikov is known in the world because he is a talented director.

As soon as all this happened [searches with Kirill Serebrennikov and the Gogol Center], I began to break the phone not only the Russian media, but also foreign ones. I will now write an article for the main German magazine - Theater Heite. Yesterday they called me from the Washington Post with a request to comment, the French media also immediately intensified. This happened almost instantly. And in itself it indicates that Kirill Serebrennikov is the name that they immediately react. In our country, there are several people in the theater sphere who are now actively operating in the West - they are well known outside the country, they have not only all -Russian, but also global, pan -European fame. And of course, Kirill Serebrennikov is part of this three-five directors. This is just an objective fact.

Also, an objective fact is on one of the largest and most prestigious festivals, in Avignon, the Russian theater has not appeared if my memory has not been cheating on me since 1998. Since then, this festival has generally lost interest in the Russian theater, although its emissaries came here quite regularly. And so, after 17 years, in 2015 they truly discovered Kirill Serebrennikov and called him to Avignon with the play “Idiots”, and-incredibly-the next year again, with the play “Dead Souls”.

For two years in a row to call the same director, the same team, the same theater - in general, this is not accepted. The moment of rotation is important here. And when the leadership of the festival is calling for two years in a row [director], it means that some special focus is being made on it. And this is also a unique case - there is not a single Russian director who would be invited to one of the most prestigious forums for two years in a row.

In the same 2015, Serebrennikov’s “dead souls” were shown at another, the largest festival, Vienna (Wiener Festwochen), which I had to do with-but in 2016, when she was responsible for his program. And there was also a triumph. And the third festival ... "Bateph" in Belgrade, the legendary festival. Cyril performed there in 2015. This is such a level ... as if the films of some film director appeared immediately at the Venetian festival, Cannes, Berlin and somewhere else in Toronto. It is very difficult to break there, especially from Russia; Still, they perceive our space as distant, not very understandable and even alien. This is about the objective side of the issue.

As for Cyril’s directorial style itself, I must say that he is a rather rare type of director, who, on the one hand, works on a large platform, sometimes with star artists, and at the same time makes complex performances, always saturated with thought, a little arthausal. Usually in the modern theater this is not combined-a division took place: the theater as entertainment and the artist art, pedmatic, which often exists on some small venues. Yes, it is experimental, it is not designed for the violent reaction of the audience and for some kinds of applause in the final ... This is usually a different way of interacting with the viewer. Combining these two things is very difficult.

If we consider in the context of the world theater, I know only a few directors - there are not so many of them - who manage to make performances of large forms, bright, spectacular, attracting a wide audience, and at the same time remain in the field of the festival, arthouse, advanced theater; In our area, it is called the "Actual Theater." Cyril is just such a director; It is no accident that the Gogol Center is a very audience theater, although it is considered one of the most avant-garde. Usually these are two mutually exclusive concepts. For us, this is a joy - we are just an urgent in search of such performances, any producer needs them.

And Cyril is one of the few who make a very social theater. For many years this was not accepted-in the 90s the tradition of such a sharp, political, social theater disappeared. Unless she more or less continued to develop Leo Dodin. And in the zero social theater he began to engage in Silobrennikov-somehow I immediately remembered this and fell in love with this. Cyril is incredibly strong when he makes a social burlesque, this is his genre. And it doesn’t matter where he works - in the opera, in the drama theater, in the cinema - when he is in this genre, he has practically no competitors.

After the festivals, they began to invite him to put in the West. Serebrennikov had several opera productions, for example, Salome, which was very successful in the Stuttgart Theater. Unfortunately, I did not see in the Berlin “Comer of the Opera” - there was a very loud performance “Seville Barber”. Yesterday, by the way, the Chekhov festival was opened by the Comesche of the Opera - and the entire team of the theater, including Barry Koski (the chief director of Komisch Opera - approx. Medusa) rolled a huge letter in support of Cyril and about what a wonderful performance he staged from them.

Cyril will have a production at Deutsches Theater, he puts in the Latvian National Theater. This is the beginning - one contract goes after another. In essence, he does not cost anything to move and just live on Western contracts, there will be many of them, it is already absolutely obvious.

We talked a lot about this-whether it is necessary to leave, because they are crushing to the theater ... This is not some kind of unexpected story, he felt it all the time, there was constantly talking, whether it was necessary to stay or emigrate, because they would not let them work. And every time it was decided that it was necessary to stay, because I want to work with my artists, because a unique theater has been created, it would be impossible to replace it within Russia. And there, of course, nothing like this can be repeated. Unique - it is unique.

For me, he is primarily a theater director. For Kinommir, he is one of the bright figures, and for the theatrical one, he is just a unique person. People who manage to create such theaters as the Gogol Center-theaters as some artistic whole ... You can count on the fingers. He has already entered the history of our theater-like a Taganka once. And maybe even more. We must not lose it.

Recorded Sasha Sulim