The chief expert in modern drama, outrageously talented and boldly courageous Kirill Serebrennikov, made a sharp bend in his theatrical life. On the stage of the Mossovet Theatre (very likely, for the first time in theatre history) he staged Lermontov’s “The Demon”. The restless sufferer flying about the starry sky is performed by the first-rate star Oleg Menshikov. Marina Davydova, the “Izvestia” reporter, talked to Kirill Serebrennikov on the eve of the premiere.

- When we talked last time, you said “Hell with the classic texts. I can’t neither produce them, nor see them on the stage. I will produce only modern drama and it is my credo”. And now you release “The Demon”.
- I think it is rather silly to follow slogans and credos. In fact, I wasn’t cunning. First, I will keep working with modern drama. Second, I’m sick not of the classics in general, but of those plays which are being staged from year to year. Theatre today is a kind of boutique. Boutique of culture. And very expensive and exclusive things should be on sale there. And now imagine that all the things at a boutique are the same. Shirts and jackets of the same cut, but of a bit different colors. It is terrible. You must try to make piece-goods in theatre. Or it will become a stock-market or, who knows, a second-hand shop. Dialog with the present is very important for theatre. It is important to understand that, yes, we are involved in an ancient art, but at the same time it is a part of modern culture with its pop art, rock music, media technologies and, finally, television. And modern texts in this view are like modern fabrics. They are easier for sewing a dress, which will correspond to the spirit of the age.

- In the beginning of this season you intended to stage “Doctor Faustus” by Christopher Marlowe, but instead you produce “The Demon”. Are there any inner connections between them?
- I think the connections lie in the fact that they are both passionate works. Especially “The Demon”. I don’t mean cries and tearing passions, but the deep inner strain. There’s a feeling of instability in Lermontov’s poem. An earthquake that is about to begin. The Caucasus, shortly speaking… Maybe we lack these passions in our everyday life, and in our environment…

- But there are many passionate works – Lermontov’s “Masquerade” or Schiller’s “Intrigue and Love”. “Doctor Faustus” and “The Demon” are connected not by passions (there’s not much passion in Marlowe’s play), but by communicating of an earthly person with a non-natural power, which is at that not of divine origin.
- I tried to avoid this question, but seems that I failed. Remember Bulgakov – “I am the power, which…”

- Goethe, rather: “…part of that Power which would the Evil ever do, and ever does the Good…”
- In Lermontov’s poem the power, which seems to be almighty, turns out to be miserable, lonely and sorrowful. In Marlowe’s play, Mephistopheles is at a loss in front of human vileness – his play differs greatly from Goethe’s masterpiece. So, I stage a play not about a non-natural power, but about human nature. “The Demon”, if we speak about its heroine, is in fact about perfection. Tamara is no less important in the performance than her celestial tempter.

- Did you choose “The Demon” yourself, or was it Menshikov’s idea?
- It was my idea.

- In other words, it was not a spontaneous decision, but a long-cherished one.
- More than that. What I produce now is not the final variant. I think, I will return to “The Demon”. I realize that there’s no other actor like Menshikov, but maybe it will be a puppet theatre. Or equestrian theatre. Or theatre for children. It is the title, which is hard to deny. It raises the most unexpected questions. For example, what is hell, and what is heaven. I learnt that according to some mystics (Swedenborg, in particular), heaven is like some transnational corporation, “Coca-Cola” let’s say. There are many levels. There are managers – the angels that communicate to people’s souls. There are higher angel’s ranks. They are the solicitors of those souls. There are top-managing angels. This is a kind of order with a capital “O”. Heaven’s Chancellery.

- As far as I remember, Swedenborg’s theory, or rather insight also states that all these angels and demons are ex-humans. And is Lermontov’s Demon for you a human, only uncommon and almighty, or yet a higher power?
- In the theatrical aspect it is an actor. And it is the answer for you.

- And you think that Oleg Menshikov is the actor, who can play the Demon.
- He is the only actor who can play the part. Due to his charisma. His personal qualities. The Demon is very complicated. He is ironic, cruel, lyrical and terribly lonely at the same time. And inside of Menshikov there’s all that.

- But there’s much of heartiness and charm in him…
- And it is great. I want everybody to sympathize with him as much as possible…

- “The Demon” is not just a classical text. It is also a poetic text. How do you manage it and how much were you influenced by the method of Anatoly Vasiliev, who invented a very special manner of reciting poems and making stress on each word – “I! love! you!..”
- Vasiliev’s technique is very exotic and immaculate as a method, but for me it is arguable. Vasiliev’s method appears a bit autistic to me. It is more important for the inner state of an actor, than for a receiving subject. I tried another way. I and our speech and poetic director Vera Kamyshnikova found plenty of alliterations in Lermontov’s poem, which are more characteristic for the modernist poetry. “A joylesss tasssk without remisssion, / Void of exssscitement, opposssition - / Evil itssself to him ssseemed tame”. And the beginning of the poem: “His way above the sinnnful earth / The melannncholy demonnn winnnged…” Plenty of “n”s. And “n” is “no”, “numb”, “night”, and the main Demon’s word – “nothing”. By means of sounds Lermontov creates his characters. And disclosing them means playing them. Now I talk to the actors this way: “Tolya, you pronounced the monologue about “l”, but not about “m”.

- Any text, when put on the stage, changes your life. Especially the one like “The Demon”. Aren’t you afraid of it?
- I would put it differently: not you make it, but it makes you. It yields to you as much as it wants to. Turns to you as much as it feels like. After a month of rehearsals and diving into this abyss, you begin to see things differently. Once I came to the rehearsal and said: “Oleg, do you know how the word “demon” is composed?” – “How?” – “The first letter is “D”, which means “day”, “do”. The last letter is “N”, which means “night”, “no”. And in the middle there are letters “E”, “M”, “O”. Menshikov Oleg Evgenievich”. He said I had gone mad, but he seemed to be stung by it too. I can’t stand hysterics and domestic mystics, but there are truly mystical and deep-laid things in everything that has something to do with “The Demon”. I don’t want to speak about them in vain. We finish the performance with a long Oleg’s monologue, after which he simply leaves the stage. I think it is my first performance in many years without some music to support applause…