STRONGER AND MORE INTENSE THAN EVERYDAY LIFE

What is the modern theatre? Is it a cultural way of spending one's leisure time and providing food for thought or is it some new phenomenon in our culture which has undergone such changes in its form and content that one simply has to learn all over again to try and understand "what the theatre is and why it is necessary"?

To find out this and many other things, a R+ correspondent spoke to head director of the Young Spectator theatre, Azerbaijani People's Artist, Professor Cannat Salimova.

- After over 30 years the Theatre of the Young Spectator has decided to go back to Shakespeare. What do you think is the secret of the eternal story of "Romeo and Juliet"?

- Hidden in this play is a definite message to the modern world and that is why this play by the English dramatist will always be understood and in demand in any century. The message is that we have become very aggressive and malicious. We wish to forgive and forget nothing, and this milieu of hatred is ruinous. And even such a sublime love as Romeo and Juliet's cannot exist in such a milieu, it simply perishes. Much attention is focused in today's world on the problems of ecology and environmental pollution, but no-one recalls the negative "ecology" of human relations. We must not release such malice and negativity into this world! Our enormous hatred, which is not mellowed by expostulations, religions and holy books, disfigures people's souls and destroys our children. That is what 'Romeo and Juliet' is all about.

- In our computer age it is not easy to surprise the sophisticated theatregoer. What is it that makes the contemporary theatre attractive?

- I believe that the theatre today should be extremely inter-active and all the time interact with the public and give them the opportunity to discover something new. If the directors and the actors have not found a common bond with the audience, then they have lost. Because the theatre is a living art and we must make sure that the audience has access to the language of any production irrespective of when it was written. But this doesn't mean that the actors must speak in the current slang for the audience to understand the point of the production. There are many artistic ways to influence an audience, of course, for example using colloquial language and building up relationships which the audience understands and musical, flowery speech.

However, audiences today have visibly altered. And even if Rasid Behbudov or Bulbul performed today audiences would demand a "background" of back-up dancers or special effects. Audiences today cannot just listen: they must have visual effects.

The main thing is not to go down the road of poor taste and turn the theatre into a farce. It seems to me that people today, who are always thinking, absorbing huge amounts of information and having to deal with it, visit the theatre more and more out of the need to find answers to questions. They can track it down in the cinema and in books, but when what you expected to hear hits you straight in the face, from the stage, the feeling is quite different.

I am confident that the art of the theatre must keep abreast of the times and find a way to exist in a world of mass culture, but if the theatre is to have an impact on life it must be stronger and more intensive than everyday life.

- Cannat xanim, you are also the permanent director of annual outdoor festivities. What will Novruz Holiday be like this year?

- Yes, I have been a director of the traditional Novruz festival on the boulevard for several years. This year the festival will be just as interesting and colourful. It will be as traditional as ever with Kosa, Kecal, Bahar-gyz, ashugs, folk songs, and an Eastern Bazaar with eastern food and dances.

- What was your first performance?

- That was half a century ago! You'll laugh, but it was called "The Wondrous Fairy Tale" by Korney Chukovskiy. I did this production for the then chief director Maharram Kazimovich Asumov. He called me, but I had only just arrived from Leningrad, and he said: "I have to do a fairy tale for the holidays, it's urgent." So I did a performance of "Tarakanishche", "The Telephone" ("My telephone started to ring") and, I think, "Mukha-Tsokotukha". Shows, like children, live in a director's memory until they die. I can remember the names of everyone who played or just worked on this production. (pauses to think) How long ago this was…As Saadi once said, there may be others but it was so long ago.

- Cannat xanim, how did you come to join the theatre?

- I have simply loved the theatre since I was a child. You know, family traditions don't always play a part when it comes to choosing a profession. It might be some latent, covert need, but things happened so that my parents were unable to choose this profession, and, it is true, it did not come to me straightaway. I graduated from the philological department of the university which, by the way, I wasn't sorry about, because, like a director, this is a profession that requires extensive reading, immense knowledge of world literature and language, and not necessarily a certain language, but it was enormously important to know the laws of linguistics. This knowledge helped me a great deal in my work. After I graduated I entered the Leningrad State Institute of the Theatre, Music and Cinematography (now the St. Petersburg Theatrical Academy). When I returned to Baku I worked at the Russian Drama Theatre and taught at the film studio at courses for film actors, and them in the University of the Arts, as I do now. There was also the Baku Chamber Theatre which I set up with like-minded students and, finally, the theatre to which I devote all of my efforts - the Young Spectator Theatre.

- What did your parents think of their daughter's choice?

- At first they were categorically against it. The thing was, nobody in our family had ever had anything to do with the theatre. My mother was an ENT specialist and my father was a chemical engineer, a specialist in organic chemistry. I spent my childhood among bulbs, test tubes and formulae, and daddy wanted very much for me to become a chemist. On my mother's side everyone was a doctor except for my brother-in-law, the well-known scientist, Lutfizada. Daddy loved exact sciences and dreamed that I would become a chemist. Naturally, when I told my parents that I wanted to devote my life to the arts they were against it. But as time passed and I started working at the Russian Drama Theatre, daddy would often come to performances, read the write-ups and look at the theatre posters.

- Do you think there are many talented actors among today's youth?

- There have always been very few God-given talented actors. For example, the great Alaskar Alakparov was one at a time when there were about 60 actors in Azerbaijani Drama Theatre!

- Which show do you think of as your visiting card?

- That's a difficult question to answer. It's like asking a mother which of her children is her favourite. I love and remember all my shows. Each of them is a part of my heart and a part of my huge love for those in the audience. I have to say that the work of a director today demands a huge intellectual work-load, he has to read a lot, watch a lot and take an interest in many things. You can't "stew in your own juice". You must move with the times. (she brings out a package) Literally the other day I was sent some plays by one of the best-known European playwrights, Martin McDonagh, and Samuel Beckett's complete works. I have to read everything, look through it and analyse it…

- What new things can we expect to see at the Young Spectator this season?

- Last year was quite a fruitful one for me. In a short space of time I managed to put on several shows, thus forming the basic repertoire of the revived Young Spectator. One of the latest and very successful shows we put on was "The history of the village of Buzovna", "Kuvshin" based on the folk writer Elcin's book and "The chicken stayed alive". This is a nostalgic and ethnographical work which depicts the very "tasty" Baku way of life which we all love. It is a happy but at the same time sad play with elements of folk music. And in the near future our theatre is planning to begin work on productions of the comedies of Mirza Fatali Axundov to mark the bicentenary of this eminent thinker and public figure, the found of Azerbaijani drama. Very soon you will be able to see on our stage four comedies by Axundov "The bear - the victor over the robbers", "The adventures of the wazir of the Lankaran khanate", "The adventures of a skinflint, or Haci-Qara" and the "Tale of M. Jordan, the botanist, and the dervish Mastali-shah, the famous wizard". I believe that one should put on a performance that everyone can understand, and if anyone doesn't understand something he should not be offended but encouraged to study it for himself. A theatregoer who has not quite grasped something should want to delve into a subject and catch up on what they have lost and learn something new. That's why I very much hope that young people, first and foremost, will show an interest in our shows, because the younger generation should know not only history, but also the history of their richest culture.