On April 30, at the stage “under roof” of the Mossovet Theatre Oleg Menshikov will appear as the Demon. The director of the performance, Kirill Serebrennikov talked about the coming premiere to Elena Afanasieva, the reporter of the “Politburo” Magazine.

Every next premiere of the Theatrical Company 814 is destined to enjoy the special attention of the critics and professionals and the success within the spectators. The reason for this attention and success has a proper name – Oleg Menshikov. The leader of every project, in which he takes part, he has been producing all his latest productions himself. In “Woe From Wit”, “Kitchen” and “The Gamblers” Menshikov was not only an actor, but a director as well. The fact even caused the claims of his admirers that having taken interest in directing, he intentionally constricts his own acting abilities, and working in the ensemble, which he creates on the stage, doesn’t give himself a chance to demonstrate what he is really capable of.
It is hardly worth guessing, if Menshikov has heeded such admonitions, satisfied his lust for directing and decided to concentrate on acting only, or simply found “his” director. But anyhow, the new project of the Theatrical Company 814 – stage version of Lermontov’s “The Demon” – was directed by Kirill Serebrennikov, whose name is on everybody’s lips in Moscow’s theatre society during the last two seasons.
Serebrennikov started as theatre, film and television director on Rostov-na-Donu. In 1999 he won the “Tefi” National Award as the best television director, and after his Moscow theatre debut in 2001 with Vasiliy Sigarev’s “Plasticine” he became on of the most claimed directors, who receives offers from the best theatres to work with the best actors. Only during the last year Serebrennikov produced three performances: Mark Ravenhill’s “Some Explicit Polaroids” at the minor stage of the Pushkin Theatre, the Presnyakov brothers’ “Terrorism” at the minor stage of the Art Theatre, and “Sweet Bird of Youth” starring Marina Neyolova at the main stage of the “Sovremennik” Theatre – and filmed a TV-serial “The Murderer’s Diary”, which was broadcasted at the “Russia” Channel this winter. Immediately after the premiere of “The Demon”, Kirill starts rehearsals of Gorky’s “Philistines” at the Art Theatre.
That’s why Menshikov’s decision to work with Serebrennikov didn’t excite a surprise in theatre circles. Rather, another fact amazed: the choice of the play. Everyone who heard that the next premiere would be Lermontov’s “The Demon”, nodded in agreement: “Only Menshikov can play it!” – and immediately shrugged their shoulders: “But how can it be put on the stage?”

- Why “The Demon” after all?
- Oleg saw my performances and offered to work together, and we looked over different plays. When I suggested this title, Oleg was really surprised! He said he didn’t understand how it can be put on the stage. I explained how I saw it; he started to invent, and it was interesting. We agreed that starting from January we put aside all our business and dedicate three months to this project. Everybody knows “The Demon” by the first two lines and Vrubel’s painting, but actually nobody knows it. But there’s everything in “The Demon” what is needed for a real performance: love triangle, jealousy, murder, transformation, world of spirits, and attempts to overcome oneself. It is such large and extensive work of literature, that it is good enough for a blockbuster.

- But you produce it on the minor stage.
- Yes, the audience will be 120 spectators. But it’s not the size of the stage that determines the scale of the performance. It is a large work in the quantity of passions, emotions, and collisions. Lermontov was writing it all his life. And I’ve been living quite a long time “attached” to this text.

For Serebrennikov, it is the third attempt to approach the mystical Lermontov’s creation. The first one was 7 years ago at the minor stage of the Rostov’s Theatre of Young Spectators. Unlike most of the critics, who will soon analyze Kirill’s new production, I saw the old one, but I must confess I can’t remember the character of the Demon in it at all. Only the mystical Tamara remains in my memories, performed by a talented Rostov actress Irina Blinova.
The second attempt to approach “The Demon” occured three years ago in the serial “Rostov-papa”, where each part was a kind of translation of a classical plot into the contemporary language. In the part “You Are Me” the new Demon (Yegor Beroyev) appeared in a noisy southern town to commote the new Tamara (Natalia Shvets). Interesting fact: Serebrennikov invited Natalia Shvets to play Tamara again in his new production. On the first day of the rehearsals the young actress got into a terrible accident. The car was smashed by the truck, but there was not a single scratch on the passengers. One can only guess after that whether “The Demon” warns or protects...
I ask Kirill, why he so insistently tries to enter the same river for the third time. Why doesn’t this story let him go?

- There’s no explanation. I don’t want to theorize, but this story is absolutely modern. And the qualities of Lermontov’s hero are equal to those of a contemporary person, whose main feature is unconquerable pride. The whole contemporary world is based on pride and vanity. They are the engines of the world. And everybody forgot that pride had always been a deathly sin, but we don’t even understand why it is sin actually.

There’s an impression that Serebrennikov is so insistent in his attempts with the Lermontov’s text, also because his previous interpretations lacked the most important – the Demon himself. The personality that could be compared to the personality of the hero.

- Menshikov is the only one who can play it. He is maybe the only romantic hero of our times. Not in the sweet lyrical sense, but in the deep dramatic one. Romanticism is not a beautiful vignette, but serious relations with the world, the God, the Nature. And Oleg can express it. He treats the material as a lynx. He enters on the soft pads, and smells, and tastes. And he has a hyper intuition. Sometimes he says: “I don’t know why, but I feel it must be this way”. I argue with him for a long time, but after a thought, I understand he is right. He’s got an animal scent.

- You have always been inclined to what is called “director’s theatre”. And Menshikov seems to need actor’s theatre.
- Any theatre needs an Artist. Otherwise it will be a function, and all the seams of the director’s theatre will become visible. I am very comfortable with good actors.

- Who is engaged in this project besides Oleg Menshikov?
- Natalia Shvets. Anatoly Beliy. Three wonderful dancers – Sergei Arkhipov, Konstantin Mishin and Konatantin Grouss, who are educated by Abramov and worked with such stars as Sasha Waltz and Min Tanaka. In our production they act both as actors and dancers. We have magnificent musicians. Grant Airapetyan plays kemenche, an ancient oriental instrument. Mikhail Korzin plays violin and sings. Mikhail Zhukov, a very famous musician who worked with Pekarskiy and Yuri Lubimov, plays percussions in our project. And it is live music, without any phonograms. The music is composed by Alexander Bakshi. The costumes are designed by Igor Chapurin.

- It is a strange situation: on one hand, any Menshikov’s project is destined to enjoy the spectators’ and commercial success, but on the other hand, both of you take great risk…
- Of course, nothing may come of it. Perhaps, we are coding some intimate emotions, which won’t be perceived by the spectators. People will come and say: “What nonsense!” Nobody is insured against it. And when we launched the project, we decided that we can afford a luxury to enjoy the process itself, but not just worry about the results. We said to ourselves, “let’s spend three months and make a performance, and if it doesn’t result in anything, we’ll cancel everything and say: we are sorry, but we failed!”

- But you didn’t cancel it. It means you succeeded?
- There’s a feeling that something is coming in. The text is so amazing and powerful that it seems not we direct it, but it directs us. The scenes, which were composed approximately and against the material, failed. And those, in which we followed the text, form up. Lermontov has a powerful sounding, alliteration, which transmits energy. It is strange, but you creep, when you simply read this text, without any expression. There’s some magic in it.