"The Great Taciturn" - as Oleg Menshikov was once called by the writer Zoya Boguslavskaya - begins to talk...

- Your position in the Theatrical Company "814" is called the chief, isn't it?
- I hate all these titles and positions.

- But what are you then?
- Well, I guess, I am an art director.

- Are all directors businessmen?
- You know, our business is rather feeble. We have just one performance and we exist on the money earned from this very performance. So, what kind of business is that?

- What I'm trying to say is... Well, I have invented a smart question.
- And that is...

- Tell me as a director: Does woe comes from wit in Russia?
- Woe always comes from wit in Russia. Always. But there may be certain happiness in it. Because it gives some extra strength.

- Everyone tells about your astonishing, supernatural intuition...
- Who tells that? (Laughs)

- People, those who know you in person. Did you choose Maxim Kurochkin's play "Kitchen" for your new stage production intuitively?
- We didn't choose it; we put it in an order from Maxim exclusively for our "Company". Before that, I had been searching for modern plays, for young playwrights for quite a long time.

- Kurochkin is very young, isn't he?
- Yes, he is. I don't know exactly how old he is. He's 27, I think.


Woe always comes from wit in Russia

- One strangely wise person told me once that people who are more than 50 years old must be shoot. What kind of people do you prefer to have around you - young and inexperienced, or aged and sophisticated?
- Oh, I wouldn't shoot (laughs). Age is not important to me. What matters is the common outlook, common interests and so on and so forth. So, what's the difference how old a person is?

- What can't you stand in your actors?
- I can't stand the thing that abounds in them and not only them. Lack of professionalism. I think an actor must be well trained, have many skills. And do everything quickly, straight off. But here we… In this case, I agree with Yuri Petrovich Lyubimov, who thinks that Russian - former Soviet - actors are spoilt with attention and directors' fussing over them. A professional actor... Do you know what Grybov used to say? "You've come up on stage - so, please, do everything".

- But do you teach young actors anything?
- Well, yes. It is important. Because now it's very hard for them to force their way in cinema, theatres, where nobody except for relatives and friends knows them at all. But there must be many talented people. And they do exist. Somebody should help them, right? If I help, I consider it right. If I manage to do it right, of course.

- What's your opinion on the theatre youth of today? Do you consider them insane? It's impossible earn your living in theatres nowadays.
- All right, what is a good way to earn money today then? By selling flowers, standing in a booth in the corner? You won't earn much more there. Not everyone can become a lucky businessman. And what if a person likes to perform on stage? Moreover, I believe, the theatre is a much more interesting place.

- You worked in the West. Their attitude towards actors has almost become a legend here: everyone has a van, an assistant. And our actors go by metro.
- Their unknown actors also work as caretakers and waiters. As for ours, let them go by metro as long as it takes. They'll achieve everything. When the time comes.

- But what does it depend on - talent or abilities to force one's way in the right direction?
- On talent, on luck. On the way you live and treat yourself. Whether you do the right things while going your own way.

- And who determines the direction?
- Everyone does that for himself.


I don't like much responsibility

- Are you happy with your "Woe From Wit"? The opinions on the performance vary greatly. Some people think it is a flop, that's why you are withdrawing it from the stage.
- A "good" flop it is - we have drawn full houses for 2 years. I can't say I'm absolutely happy with the result. Let's say, the aims I had set for myself are fulfilled. I can't comment on the artistic result. Of course, there were plenty of blunders, mistakes. However, I think the direction we worked in was the honest and right one. And that's the most important thing. The fact that the performance has changed within these 2 years is, by the way, an indicator too. Because the performances usually become worse. And ours became better. It means it had something in it. It was a living organism that - like every other organism does - grew and, as years went by, gained some better qualities it had lacked in the beginning. And as for the opinions about the so-called "flop" of "Woe From Wit", what is success then? For two years, we have performed in overcrowded houses in 15 cities of our country and abroad.

- So, you want to say that success means full houses, right?
- It is one of the main constituents of success. And a very powerful one.

- While I was sitting in the hall of your "Theatrical Company 814", I noticed how many people called to buy tickets for "Woe From Wit". And you are taking it off the stage. Isn't it too early for such a move?
- If we were a repertory theatre, the performance would probably be still on then. But our "Company" is to release a new performance in September, and since we depend on rent (in this case from the Mossovet Theatre), we have three, maximum four free days. While keeping on playing "Woe From Wit", we will sacrifice the new performance, which is not always the right thing to do.

- Is there a possibility that one day you will become a repertory theatre?
- You know, I don't think about it. I don't even have any interest of the kind. First, there is too much responsibility. And I don't like it. Second, I worked in many Moscow theatres and such organization, as a "repertory theatre" does not suit me at all. Such theatres should exist, of course, but there should be few of them. Let's say, Maly Theatre, MKhAT, and some other.

- A few years ago, in the round hall of our editorial office, you were to play the performance about Nizhinsky, who used to be called the crazy God's clown. What did the performance mean to you - just a through-passing work or a certain period of your life?
- All performances become through-passing sooner or later. When it is the first night, you think, "Oh, such a period of my life!" And after a couple of months, something else becomes more important. "Nizhinsky" - this performance is dear to me, as well as the people that surrounded me. But it's all gone now. Besides, it was long ago. Then we wanted to make a performance …well, I don't know, about a genius, not a genius. About a different world. You can't call Nizhinsky just a ballet artist. Because he was more than that. We could have chosen somebody else as our hero. But we simply wanted to talk about the life of a genius, a gifted person, insanity, correlation of the two worlds - real and unreal - and base this conversation on Nizhinsky's biography.


It's hard to make me do something I don't want to do

- Will you act in "Kitchen"?
- Yes. I'll be honest, I didn't want to in the beginning. It's not that I was forced into it… It is hard to make me do something I don't want to. But it happened so. What kind of role do I have? Let's say - one of the leading ones.

- What is the genre?
- A parable. Is there such a genre? There is some trickery in the play… But frankly speaking, I don't quite know yet how to describe it.

- And how long will the performance be? Is it important for you?
- Absolutely. In my opinion, I have no right to keep the audience for four hours. Even Nekroshus's performances that are four hours long won't hold more than 6 months in Moscow. All the talks about the elitist and unelitist performances appear when people stop coming to the performances. Like, why doesn't anybody come to your theatre? Because our performances are elitist. We don't have such right. For example, yesterday I watched a film where nothing was happening for 20 minutes. By the way, this film received one of the main awards on the Berlin Film Festival (I won't name it). We cannot abuse our spectators' patience. And it does not mean "to be under somebody's thumb". You see, I am also a spectator when I come to the theatre. And if nothing "befalls" on me for 40 minutes, nothing happens to me, it means I've just wasted my time here.

- Once I read this in an article about you, "Menshikov has a line of a simpleton, and to turn him into a sex-symbol is a big mistake". Who is your hero?
- Who is my hero? I don't know.

- But the hero is yours. Who can know it better than you do?
- (Long silence) ...I don't know... A madman!..