The fact that women are unlikely to ever be able to understand men knows every member of the stronger sex. In turn, every woman from a young age understands that men are residents of one of the planets of the solar system, but certainly not the Earth, so finding a common language with them is unrealistic. And yet, they stray in pairs, make family nests and breed. But how is mutual understanding? Where is the love? And where are the emotions?
The creators of the play “Savage” undertook to discuss eternal topics, and, perhaps, they managed to find many explanations, but of course, not all ... Although, it was very interesting. The play "Savage" was held on the stage of the Madinat Theater in Dubai during the winter, fabulous Christmas days. Indeed, when, if not on the eve of Christmas, you can seriously talk about love and understanding. This time, the "Independent Theater Project" by Elshan Mammadov and the Stars Dome Group decided to engage all viewers in an interactive "one-man show", the star of which was the well-known emirate audience from previous productions, as well as from the series "Sasha + Masha" and " Voronin "actor George Dronov.
About what it is to hold the attention of the public for more than two hours alone, where good directors live today and how thorny the path to the acting profession was, we talked with George before the start of the performance.
Good evening, George. Once again, we are pleased to welcome you to Dubai, on the stage of the Madinat Jumeirah Theater. Today you have to play the whole performance alone, without being surrounded by partners who are brilliant in all respects. What are your feelings?
You know, I’m even glad that the last time we came to Dubai with the performance of the Moulin Rouge Hospital, my partners spoke mostly during the interview to your magazine. Because, firstly, they have not had such serious performances for a long time. And Lucy Artemyeva was not, and Tanya Dogileva. And secondly, it’s just wonderful that they got the opportunity to communicate with you, not only as representatives of the local press, but also as their audience.
Before the start of the last performance, you noted that this was your second visit to the tour in Dubai and said that the feelings from these tours will be slightly different than after the Boeing Boeing performance. Please tell me, with what feelings did you leave the UAE for the second time and come to us again with the production of "Savage"?
After the two performances played here, I can tell you with all responsibility that it is very pleasant to deal with people who are professionally involved in the theater, although they have begun to do this recently. I mean the company Stars Dome - the organizer of our tour. Because when we arrived here and saw the scenery for the "Moulin Rouge Hospital", there was a complete feeling that we had not left Moscow and were at home.
As for the upcoming performance, I’ll tell you this. This is an unusual performance. Indeed, even in the program it is written that this is not a one-man show, but “one man show” (one-man show - approx. Ed.). For me, by the way, this definition is not entirely clear. No, of course, the translation of the phrase is very clear. Just when working with the director, when we built this performance, we still did a one-man show, which is designed for a fairly lively reaction of the audience. Because, there is no “fourth wall”, and the performance is interactive in its structure. My hero constantly appeals to the audience sitting in the hall. How will the local audience react to this, which is not yet particularly spoiled by theatrical productions, and even more so by such innovations? I dont know. But I will watch. I will try.
I am pleased to work here, the walls of this theater have become so homely. They are already warming, yes. It turns out that we go to you almost as often as in St. Petersburg. And, by the way, it is surprising that this is not Saratov, not Samara, not Tver, not Penza, but Dubai.
Please tell me how from the very beginning you managed to agree to this adventure - to play alone?
It didn’t manage, because if a director or producer offers to play a one-man show, I think it’s unlikely that any actor will refuse. And I agreed. But the main gamble on my part was to agree as soon as possible. You know how in television quizzes, whoever presses the button faster, he answers. So I also, at first agreed, and then I began to think. To begin with, we went to Lithuania, and I watched the director play the “Savage”, which he put on for himself. True, then he introduced two more actors into the play, and now they are playing three together. Now this performance was staged in Poland with two actors. However, we also wanted a series of actors to be involved in this performance, that is, I was not the only one who played it. I had to become a pioneer, and then a few more people had to enter this drawing so that I could go on tour. But while they did not begin to introduce anyone, and it was not my whim. When I watched Denise play “Savage”, I thought: “Yes, nonsense, what is there to play?” Then at rehearsals I already realized that behind all this seeming lightness and simplicity lies such a complicated drawing that we only adapted the first act for about two weeks to the Russian language (translated and rewritten from Lithuanian). Today, in an already finished form in the play, I pronounce 65 pages of text.
How can such a volume of text be learned? This is not a movie, where can you repeat the text before shooting the next episode?
Now, look, this is my "score". Here are the marginal notes, comments ... This is my text. When three weeks of rehearsals of the first act took place, and I returned from Lithuania, I didn’t go anywhere for two days. This was my information overflow. And we also did the second act for a long time. And all this flour lasted until the premiere. Because, as soon as the spectator appeared, I’m my immediate opponent in the hall, to whom I constantly turn and ask all these questions, as soon as all these men and women who make up families appeared, because the main theme of the performance is the relationship between men and women, how only a lively reaction appeared, and people began to recognize themselves, everything fell into place. Because working one on one, even with a very talented director and actor, such as Denis Kazlauskas, is very difficult. After all, I want to not just fit, I want to be better, but you do not immediately succeed. Only with the audience does everything go smoothly.
I’ll tell you honestly, I’m much less tired of the play “Savage” than of “Boeing Boeing”. Although I am alone on stage here, but there are many of us in Boeing. All because there is a powerful energy exchange with the audience. If I do something accurately and correctly, then there is a back reaction from the audience in the form of laughter, as an assessment of my work, and we get mutual emotional and energy nourishment. I don’t know how everything will turn out here, but I hope that the audience will be mainly Russian-speaking and for her, I think, the performance will be understandable. Although, of course, there may be nuances. For example, here is a hot country, and, probably, women do not warm their cold feet about their husbands .... Is not a fact. Here a hot country and everywhere air conditioners are installed, from which you sometimes freeze even more than just being in a cold climate ...
Yes? So, everything will be clear (laughs). To be honest, I was most worried about the fact that people do not freeze their feet in a hot climate. And so ... So everything is fine! So, we will find a common language with the audience.
George, graduating from high school in 1988, did you immediately know that you would become an actor and went to enter a specialized university?
If I knew that after graduating from two institutes, I would eventually become an actor, then maybe I would jump less from the trees in childhood, take care of my face and play hockey less, taking the puck ... also my face. I would probably try to save him in order to play on stage and in the movies ... But, you know, as they say: "I would know the buy-in, I would live in Sochi." In general, my road to creativity, to art (I’m not specifically talking about acting), was a case. I didn’t know about it.
As far as we know, are you also a professional director?
Yes, I’m also a director. Sometimes it seems to me that someone is protecting me from above. While I am doing something right and not angry that whose Christmas we will celebrate together in Dubai today, He basically saves me. I’m very lucky in life for people. In any case, until now it was lucky for people who met me at the right time, just when fateful decisions had to be made. In each of these moments there was a person who directed me in the right direction and helped me make the right choice. Most often, this choice was right, although everything happened very spontaneously and very unexpectedly for me.
Since you mentioned Christmas, please tell me how you managed to fly away on Christmas Eve to tour Dubai, because traditionally Christmas is a family holiday?
Learning about these tours, I have all my home
the children said: "Yes, you must definitely go. Especially on the Christmas Eve! Especially in Dubai." And I gladly went. After all, I brought with me a play that talks about love, about mutual understanding and mutual respect. The play just says why and why we love each other, because we are so different. And from the fact that we are so different, this is exactly the situation when negatively charged poles are attracted to each other. Like in physics. And it is wonderful that men will never understand women to the end. And let all men be mysteries for women and even somewhere scum, but still loved.
You once acted in film with very famous Russian directors. Did they push you to choose the director's path?
To be honest, my specialty is directing theatrical mass performances. This is a little different from what our directors do in the theater, cinema or on television. From directing in our traditional sense.
But, again, I am grateful to my teachers who discovered me during the training. My teacher once studied with Knebbe, worked at the Moscow Art Theater. So, by chance, I ended up on his course and successfully graduated from the Institute of Culture.
Even then, I well understood that directing is a profession related to age. After all, what is the director doing? He puts the idea in shape. I think that at school I did not dream about this profession. All this happened to me in the process. In parallel with my studies, I played in an amateur theater, which I got at the institute. And there I realized that until I gain experience, I'd rather be an actor. Therefore, the acting path has become for me the second profession.
Starting to master acting, I quickly realized that it was very interesting to me. And already almost having a director’s diploma in my pocket, I first came across Nikita Sergeyevich Mikhalkov, who starred in two films. When we starred in The Siberian Barber, I felt how right it was when such wonderful films came out from under the pen of such directors as Nikita Sergeevich. Nikita Mikhalkov is a person who has no personal boundaries in his work. He has no separation, it does not matter to him whether it is an actor or a young one, recognized or not. If a person does his job perfectly and is open to creativity, he will communicate with you on an equal footing. As a director, he very tactfully knows how to insist on his own, he will always find some way, without humiliating a person, to achieve that he does what is necessary in the frame. Moreover, he will do so to the end so that it is a fact of joint creativity. For me it was a revelation. After that, I dismissed for myself all kinds of conversations about creative people, about how they look from the side and what impression they leave about themselves in the light or on the pages of the "yellow press". The truth is where a person leaves everything and immerses himself in work so that it remains only to enjoy, watching his work and his personality.
Because, there are no more people like Nikita Sergeyevich Mikhalkov, and there are no films like him either. Therefore, this person can be forgiven everything. I personally, working with him very closely, will always defend Nikita Sergeyevich, even if he will have some kind of creative setbacks, because I know for sure that he went very long even to this setback. And if failure happened, it means that he didn’t finish something or did not foresee it, but he did a very long way before it. And if you knew that, for example, the film "The Siberian Barber" was ruthlessly cut, because the producer rights to it belong to the French company. The total duration of this film, if we take all the material shot on it, should have been about 6 hours. It has a huge number of parallel lines that reveal the relationships of various social classes.
We can assume that in the final version, which appeared before the audience, half of the material was thrown out and only "fish" was left. Therefore, when many viewers say that it turned out to be a kind of "Russian popular", then they are right, because the film was cut and cut so that it fits the Oscar format. By the way, after the film by Nikita Sergeyevich, American film academics began to consider options for three-hour films, and The Lord of the Rings, which received three Oscars, consisted of three parts. But if at that time Nikita Sergeevich knew about this, then, probably, the film was not reduced. If our viewers could see all the monumentality of the “Siberian barber”, then there would be no talk of any “Russian popular pub”. But, most importantly, all this is.
Another famous director Timur Bekmambetov, I first starred in two commercials, then in the movie. One advertisement did not appear on the screens. I am so sorry. It was a commercial called Khlestakov for the Paris Match magazine. I played Khlestakov in it, who comes to this city N, greets everyone, says that he knows Patricia Kaas and Gorbachev, then says goodbye to Gorodnichy, and when they hug, he drops this magazine. And when Khlestakov leaves, Gorodnychik picks up a magazine and says: "Read the Paris Match, gentlemen." But, unfortunately, 1998 defaulted. And the video was shot in a very Gogol style, it was so historical. And if he came out, who knows, maybe I would have played Khlestakov somewhere else. But wait. While I am in an acceptable physical form to manage to play this role. And the performance of BoeingBoeing is proof of that.
Returning to the play "Savage", please tell me, are you bringing something from yourself?
More likely no than yes. For example, they often ask me if I bring something from myself to the TV series Sasha + Masha or Voronin. I always answer no, I don’t. Both of these series talk about family relationships, and I believe that there’s nothing to bring to them from home.
Better at home, right?
True, the house is better. For myself, I learned a lot from the "Savage" professionally. For example, working in a new theatrical manner - a one-man show. I, as a professional actor, at least touched this genre. I really want to see how the public in Dubai reacts to it.
Thank you very much, George. We go to the auditorium to understand what a one-man show is. We look forward to your new acting and directorial work.
