On January 21 in Paris, in Champs Elysees, the production "When She Danced" based on the play by British playwright Martin Sherman hit the stage. Isadora Duncan was performed by a popular Franch actress Anny Duperay, and as Sergey Esenin acted our compatriot, no less popular Oleg Menshikov.
The performance will be on for six months.
Today Oleg Menshikov is the star of international shine. Abroad he is valued much more than in our country: in 1992 he received the most prestigious European award - The Laurence Olivier Prize for the part of Esenin in the same play but in London and in partnership with Vanessa Redgrave. For the first time in history a Russian actor was honored such a prize.
But here, in his homeland, he is not spoiled with any popularity ratings, he's never been called "the best actor of the year", has never received State Prizes and never won "Nika" though was nominated for all these awards. Seems, he could "strike a pose", but Menshikov…
"We have never been in justice to our homeland, to our past, and you can't say for sure what we would've become, if we were born and educated not in Russia", he says. "Our past is our memory, and we shouldn't be ashamed of it. Whatever your Motherland is, it has brought up sons like Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, Pushkin and Chekhov, Tchaikovsky and Rakhmaninov… Name at least one more country with so many geniuses. And before "throwing stones" to it, everyone should think: "Do I deserve Russia?"

"Kultura", January 22, 1994, Lidia Galushchenko, "Menshikov's Seasons in Paris".


About the performance

• Anny Duperey's Letter
  Anny Duperey, August 6, 2002
  
• "Oleg Menshikov's Torments"
  N.D.,"Moskovsky Nabludatel", No. 7-8, 1994
  
• "Russian Plays in French Land"
  N. Todria, "Ekran I Stsena", No. 39-40, October 13-20, 1994 (fragment)