Announcement

"Konstantin Raikin. With my own voice"

On 8 March, People's Artist of Russia Konstantin Raikin takes the stage of the JINR Cultural Centre "Mir". In the poetic one-man performance that the artist calls "the performance of his life", works by David Samoilov and Alexander Pushkin will be performed.

Arkady Raikin once told the Artistic Director of the Satirikon Theater to read poetry: "It will help the audience to understand you more deeply and to look at life in a more multilayered way". Konstantin Raikin will perform poetic works, as if playing many dramatic roles, prefacing them with short stories about the fate of poets, sharing reflections on life and country. As the actor admits: "I feel a wave of interest in real poetry. People lack some vitamin in their spiritual food, some good phrases, beautiful speech. To read Pushkin, there are fewer bacilli in the air. He is like a bell ringing."

Once, we managed to talk to K.A.Raikin about the theater, about acting. On the eve of the tour, we offer our readers this interview that intertwines the peculiarities of working with eternal values.

Konstantin Arkadievich, in your book "A novel with theater", you said that the theater should be an island of love. And should it be an island of knowledge?

- In my opinion, this is what follows from the concept of "love". Love is also a way of knowing the world, for even dry scientific interest is always mixed with love. Creativity is love for knowledge, for truth. By the word love I mean a broader concept, not just love between a man and a woman.

What kind of emotional power does a theater need to have in order to break through the "fourth wall" to the audience with its message and to give a powerful tone to every soul in the audience?

- Usually, the audience comes to the hall in a quite passive way, unambiguously attuned. If it is a good performance, a strong one, then, as a rule, the audience does not expect what he gets as a result. He is not prepared at all, he doesn't have to prepare. It is the actor, since he is a professional that has to warm up and has to be in a certain mood, confined, concentrated before the performance, he has to be somehow very mobilized and professionally encouraged. And the audience has come from the checkroom, from the cafeteria, he is tired after work, half asleep, with a sleeping state of mind....

There are people that have come to the theater accidently...

- It is necessary to realize that there are people with a completely not awakened soul and they do not know that it has not awakened. Since God is in everyone, even these people can be influenced and something will awaken in them that they did not know about until now. People know themselves very poorly...

It seems to me that theater works through those feelings that are inherent but inactive. It revitalizes them, breathes life into them...

- That's certainly true! Sometimes, there are cases when a person leaves in the same way, but the misunderstanding that has appeared in him sows some anxiety in him. He realizes that he is deaf and he didn't feel it before, that's already a good thing. Yes, the theater does its job, of course.

You have more than once said that you play to get better. Before each appearance on stage, do you zero in on your previous "merits" and get on the way to winning the next one?

- Of course, no merit matters at the moment when I have to go on stage and work! Who can be interested in my merits? I am not interested in them myself either, I was given them by people in delusion. Yes, to play to get better. And you will only get better if you go out every time as if it were the first time and do everything on your conscience.

Acting is soul work. You prove to yourself every day that it is this craft that helps you to cope with bad thoughts...

- There is a certain process with the actor, he doesn't go on stage as he pleases, this thing is almost unconscious, worked out. What is the mood for a performance?

Concentration...

- Concentration! Of course, I don't want to call it a term, lest I become like the centipede that starts thinking about which foot it's going to walk on... It's a natural thing for a man that is meant for this purpose. He's a professional. Something necessarily happens to him before he goes on stage, it's a certain process that can be analyzed for a long time, it should be done more by a psychologist....

I have a psychological education and apparently, that was why I approached this issue from this side.

- I believe that psychologists and artists are very close professions for we do psychology endlessly. Especially artists of the Russian theater, it's a psychological school - Stanislavsky's school, it's the ability to think properly and to search for the underlying depths of psychology and sometimes psychopathology, to find deep psychological nooks and crannies. That's why, when the process is set up, you don't want to take it apart, but the fact that it's a very strong process - yes! It is a complex process! You see, it is a correct statement - to play in order to become better, because a man that has chosen his profession appropriately and that feels himself in it perfectly, he becomes better. Outside of profession, for a man the process of perfection and approaching towards God in general is impossible. If due to profession a man becomes angrier, more envious, it means that some mistake has been made, either the profession is wrongly chosen, or he behaves wrongly in it.

The belief in the miraculousness of the profession is very similar to that of Chantecler. You emphasized the moment of elation, of "sublime deception", without which one cannot live, otherwise life is wingless.

- Of course, some kind of energy of delusion is necessary. This is the highest manifestation of man. Art and religion are also the energy of delusion.

You believe it and you can't do without it!

- You can't do without it, that's right! Why is it invented? Why is it born? It's all unsubstantiated. Any religion is scientifically unsupported, by the canons of evidence that science recognizes. Why did man guess about something and create such religions, denominations for himself? Because it is all the life of the spirit, he feels the need to create some images that make him kneel before something. It's akin to art. Creating a world for himself. Because it is impossible to live otherwise. Otherwise: "I'm bored, demon! ... What to do, Faust? That's the limit for you, so it is."

Konstantin Arkadievich, let me quote your words: "the theater needs joy, high concentration, flight of the soul". Does the artistic director set the tone of this joy and the speed of the flight?

- Certainly, but I speak in this way only about my own theater. There is another theater that doesn't need any joy. Because there is, let's say, some German theater that is engaged in other things and has the opposite goals. I'm talking about Russian theater and our theater specifically. I proceed from some attitudes that come from Gogol, from Russian classics, from the 19th century... These attitudes are fundamental for Russian art in general. Everything comes from the head - from the one that is the head, from the leader, from the ringleader.

The concept of devotion to the theater runs through your productions, it is heard in many interviews, it can be felt! Are all your actors endowed with such a charge of loyalty?

- You have to set them up for it. Sometimes, it doesn't work, then we break up with them. There is nothing tragic about this, it is just a mismatch and it happens quite often. First of all, it is difficult to work here, you need to work in good faith. Then, there is little money paid for it, people have a lot of difficulties in everyday life, they have families and they feel this responsibility, they just want more money and they want it right. So sometimes, people leave or sometimes, I ask them to. It is absolutely impossible for me to work with people that are not interested. You can see it right away! This is not a service, but serving. It is a way of life. And if he does not succeed and it just becomes a service for him, I do not want it. I know a lot about it, I see it in other theaters, I see a lot of cynicism in our area. From my point of view, it's an impossible thing to work in general. As soon as I discover it, I part with this person, even if not at the same second, so as not to punish myself - I depend on him, he plays some roles. I wait until he finishes playing, the performances are out of the repertoire or I can replace him and afterwards, we part with him. It's normal, no one swears eternal loyalty to anyone.

You honestly admit that "the main obstacle is - me". What is overcoming yourself the path to?

- To self-improvement! Each of us consists of different qualities that contradict one another: I want one thing but I do the opposite because I want that, too. We have to choose, at some point, which "want" is more important. Our profession is all about overcoming ourselves. The mood never coincides with what you have to play on stage. And you have to play very well, it's a colossal tension, it's a special state that all consists of overcoming! It requires tremendous strength of character, a whole range of qualities that are generally rare in a person. In the acting profession, in the theater business, it is simply necessary - if you do not have it, then nothing will work out even with great talent.

***

In the programme for the production of K.A.Raikin's "Chantecler", amazingly strong in energy and unusually subtle in its meaning, the following words were written for the audience: "People can be wingless and winged. Let our performance add at least some feathers to you..." The main character - a rooster - believed that by singing he wakes up the dawn and raises the sun. And the director with his wish gave the audience the message they needed at that moment. In the same way on a festive March evening in Dubna Konstantin Raikin will inspire everyone in the audience with his gift - acting skills, poetry, words. The actor believes in the power of art and the audience will sincerely believe him. And the sun named Raikin will surely rise for us!

There are counted days before the creative evening of the hero of our theatrical time. And a historic event for the cultural life of the Dubna science city will take place that will forever be its patrimony, inspiration from the fulfillment of a cherished dream. K.A.Raikin has reached the highest acting heights, succeeding to break the framework of roles and rise to the height of excellence, both comedic and dramatic. He has created a life-affirming theater aimed at those that are driven by interest and love for art, that are ready to experience this special moment of union with the truth.

Interviewed by Eleonora YAMALEEVA,
photo from the Satirikon Theater website