2023-12-11 21:39:12
Under the leadership of Ariane Mnouchkine, the American director Richard Nelson directs the actors of the Théâtre du Soleil troupe in a play that he composed around the tour to Chicago, in 1923, of the Théâtre d’Art de Moscow. At this time, Stanislavski directed Russian actors in the plays of Anton Chekhov, who had just died. Everyone gathers around a festive meal to remake the world while their return to Moscow is dreaded. A show of luminous humanity, of quivering concern, which could not be performed in Russia due to the invasion of Ukraine but which could be produced here thanks to the Autumn Festival.
A birthday party
In a Chicago guesthouse, Russian actors from the Moscow Art Theater, invited by to continue a tour in the United States, are celebrating the anniversary of the creation of their theater born in 1898. It is Sunday, spring break, and we prepare a good meal thousands of kilometers from our native Russia. There is Constantin Stanislavski, actor and director of the troupe, author of the memorable My Life in Art in which he expresses all his thoughts and experiences on the theater and the art of acting. Patriarch, modest, conscientious, with a lively intelligence, the “boss” organizes the troupe, distributes the roles, fights against the histrionics and artifice of the old theater. He was the master of Jacques Copeau in France, of Lee Strasberg in New York who founded the Actor’s Studio, the drama school from which all the greatest American actors, from Marilyn Monroe to Marlon Brando, came out. by Al Pacino and Robert de Niro. It’s 1923, and everyone has come to America to perform Chekhov’s plays on a grand tour. The situation is precarious, the money is managed by a producer who will ultimately keep everything, and the return to the USSR is feared because of the betrayal of which those who crossed the Atlantic are accused and who also play in front of those who have fled the Bolshevik regime, the White Russians. While on this side, they are called Bolsheviks.
To Moscow!
©Vahid-Amanpour
Richard welcomes them warmly, he who has chosen to stay in America, while his wife cleans for rich people. This former actor is responsible for acting as an intermediary between the producer and the troupe and organizing the tour. Around him, strong personalities. Olga Knipper, actress and widow of Chekhov, Vassili Kachalov, actor with his wife Nina, Vanya, Petia, Lydia, Masha, Lev Bulgakov and his wife Varvara. All are actors, all are engaged in this crazy adventure, playing in front of audiences of rich Americans or white Russians who are ecstatic at the talent of the troupe. Their first names are those of Chekhov’s characters, who himself was inspired by his performers, and all this, concocted by the generous, fine and terribly human pen of Richard Nelson, gives dialogues of incredible vitality, of vibrant generosity, astonishingly close. What exactly are they doing during this meal washed down with Vodka, where golden pirojkis – famous turnovers stuffed with meat – are served with beets on beautiful plates decorated before our eyes? The very Stanislavskian staging placed the spectators on wooden seats, in a quadri-frontal manner, all around the table, and a feeling of familiarity, of proximity, in the beautiful lights of Virginie Le Coënt, invades the entire space.
An artist’s life
What is striking about this show is this mixture, this in-between which takes us into one of the most famous historical troupes, even though it crossed the Atlantic, playing Chekhov while he has just died and each of the actors pursues a path which is guided by only one axis: the love of theatrical art, the gift to the public and the ability to give people happiness. We talk about everything and nothing, feelings and politics, boredom at mass and the vulgarities of an actor who just cheated on his wife last night. We argue and kiss. The discussions are adolescent, almost childish, but the seriousness and precariousness of the situation interfere with this drunken evening. Obviously, we stick together because the future, in America for exiles from the East, or in the USSR for artists who do not adhere to the dictates of art useful to the Revolution, is far from rosy. Maurice Durozier who plays Stanislavski, Arman Saribekyan, Hélène Cinque, Duccio Bellugi-Vannuccini, Nirupama Nityanandan, Georges Bigot, Tomaz Nogueira, Clémence Fougea, Judit Jancsò, Agustin Letelier and Shaghayegh Beheshti are all magnificent in their simplicity and grace, embodying these performers with the energy of dancing on the water, with finesse and a sense of balance. Nothing didactic, nothing artificial or imposed in this show dedicated to Russian and Ukrainian artists who are currently suffering and which Ariane Mnouchkine claims is necessary. A show like a cry from the heart to play, to mix stories and to unite the forces of art and life. Of Stanislavski, whom he admired as a master, the director Jacques Copeau wrote in his preface to My Life in Art: “Theory, countless little facts collected in practice, intimate notions suggested to the actor, happy coincidences, misunderstandings, errors, abuses and weaknesses (…) everything is recorded by a man of integrity, sincere, modest and conscientious, who knows what he is talking about because he has done it and who is a living and creating master “at the light of what is eternal in art.” And we, modest spectators, watch these actors from many countries embody those who risked their lives, and often then lost them in the Stalinist purges, in the light of an art that mirrors other artists and other spectators who are currently suffering in Eastern Europe.
Helene Kuttner
1702349291
#life #Art #ode #humanity #Théâtre #Soleil