MISSIONARY OF THE THEATRE

There are some people who have been true missionaries in their work and public life. This may be said of Mirza Fatali Axundov, Mirza Alakbar Sabir, Hasan bay Zardabi and other Azerbaijani people of spiritual insight. The subject of this piece did just as much during his life but did not win posthumous fame. However, the work of this remarkable theatre director, actor, teacher and enlightener, Aleksandr Aleksand-rovich Tuganov, covered one sixth of the globe - from St. Petersburg to the Far East and he played a big part in the history of the development of the Azerbaijani theatre.

He emerged from Lev Tolstoy

He was born and lived in pre-revolutionary Moscow, in a well-to-do family, and was given every opportunity to build a career as a diplomat and translator, because from a young age he was always interested in languages. But Tuganov's other and main interest was the theatre, and to this he dedicated his whole life.  He was of a romantic nature - he read a great deal and enjoyed sports, especially riding and fencing. In 1890, at the age of 19, he grabbed a change of clothes and, fixing his sword to his belt, rode off to Crimea. His route, like that of many restless adventurers of his time, lay through Yasnaya Polyana, the home of Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy. It is important to note at this point that in those days Tolstoy was to the people of the empire something of a Gandhi, a reclusive teacher, a wise Taoist, to whom people came for advice. Tuganov stayed with Tolstoy for over a week. We don't know what the "wise Taoist" talked to the young "padavan" (pupil) about, but Tuganov didn't go to Crimea. He recalled this meeting later and spoke of its importance but did not go into details. All we know is that he left his sword and his horse behind and set off for St. Peteresburg and from then on spent the rest of his life in the theatre and only the theatre.

Tuganov in the Caucasus

In 1898, the still young but now experienced actor Tuganov arrived in Tiflis as part of a touring company of the Moscow F.A. Korsh Theatre. By then he was already the leading actor in the theatre and had played Chatskiy [play by Griboyedov] and Hamlet (this was about as high as you could get as an actor - only the heavens remained). Of course, Tuganov could not help but think about a career as a director and also make a note of the complete absence of vocational theatres in Tiflis (even though there was a demand for theatres there). That year he talked a lot to local theatregoers and they, of course, complained a lot about the parochial nature of the place and the lack of money and professional attitude. Tuganov remembered everything but, by his own admission, he fell short of working as a director. He was 27 at the time. He returned to Tiflis just 14 years later, in 1912, not just as an actor, but as director of a company of the entrepreneur P. Zarechnyy.  This time Tuganov remained in Tiflis for many years and a number of important things occurred.

Aleksandr Aleksandrovich, who had a talent for languages, taught not only Georgian but Azerbaijani, too. He put on plays in several theatres at the same time and was also involved in setting up the Tiflis State Azerbaijani Drama Theatre as creative manager and director.

Tuganov and the Azerbaijani theatre

It needs to be said that during his long messianic journey through the vastness of the empire Tuganov was destined to return again and again to the Azerbaijani theatre. But more of that later. In 1923-24 it was Tuganov who elevated the Azerbaijani theatre to a new level. He got together a team, giving preference to young actors, and taught them the skills of the trade. The very next year the Azerbaijani Theatre in Tbilisi had so much success that Tuganov was invited to work in Baku and to set up nothing less than the Azerbaijani Drama Theatre, i.e. virtually the leading theatre in the republic. It should be said that in just two seasons in Tbilisi, Tuganov, an outsider who until recently had no knowledge of Azerbaijani language and culture, had put on the following shows: "The Dead", "Pari-Cadu", "Qacaq Qara", "Aydin", "Oqtay Eloglu", "Othello", "Seyda", "The Devil", "The Abyss", "Sheikh Sanan", "The Robbers" and "Blacksmith Gava".

Tuganov was happy to accept this offer and took some of his actors along with him. They were Ali Qurbanov, Gamer Topuria, Mir-Seyfaddin Kirmansahli (a very interesting but now little-known actor with a wonderful voice who played Asgar in "Arshin mal alan" [The Cloth Peddler"] in all the theatres in Tbilisi) and Ulvi Racab. At that time a company was formed in Baku out of seasoned actors, such as Huseyn Arablinski, Abbas Mirza Sarifzada, Marziya Davudova, Cavan Zeynalov, Mirza Aga Aliyev and Sidqi Ruhulla. Strangely enough, both companies knew each other well.  The actors toured a great deal in those days and met up in Tbilisi, Susa, Batumi, Kazan and other towns. And, as often happens during frantic tours, they substituted for one another in different plays. So, some of the Baku actors already knew Tuganov as a director, whereas Racab and Arablinski had been friends for a long time. So there was no trouble, although the downside of the theatre, as they say, is the endless intrigues, which even politicians don't dream about. And it is no secret that the merging of different companies could often turn into a scandal. In the case of the Azerbaijani Drama Theatre this didn't happen, and all thanks to Tuganov. "When this theatre was set up, for me one year could have been looked upon as three," he wrote in his memoirs. But two years passed and the company "harmonized" in the literal and metaphorical sense of the word. 

Azerbaijani Drama Theatre

The main event for the Azerbaijani Drama Theatre at the time was "Hamlet" ("Hamlet" was a major event, a kind of check on how viable a theatre was). And here a huge role was played by Tuganov's friendship with that celebrated dramatist Cafar Cabbarli, which he regarded as one of the key moments in his life, even on a par with his stay in Yasnaya Polyana. This happened during a lecture given by Tuganov to young theatregoers where he saw big eyes "which stared at me, concerned and at the same time inquisitive, as if wishing, like a sponge, to absorb everything that was heard. This was repeated at several lessons, I became accustomed to it and I would look around and search for these big dark, inquisitive eyes".

Cabbarli was just 25 and Tuganov was almost 30 years older than him. But despite this, Tuganov was happy to work with the young playwright and they understood each other perfectly.

Tuganov put on plays, Cabbarli translated them into Azerbaijani and they often directed together and they together came to the conclusion as to what kind of "Hamlet" theirs should be. "There is no way that the whole point of Hamlet should be limited to black tights and a hat with a feather, and with a turban on the head that meaning changed," Tuganov wrote later. He understood perfectly the meaning of Shakespearean drama and was well aware that Denmark, as the scene of the action, and the external appearance of the main characters were just features. Both Tuganov and Cabbarli knew that the strength of "Hamlet" was in its flexibility. And that is why the action of the drama was switched to the East (incidentally, the East in general, without being specific).

Further East and back

Aleksandr Aleksandrovich cared a great deal for the East in general and he spoke several Turkic languages, as well as Persian (which, incidentally, he started studying long before he moved to Baku). And in 1931, having calmly left the Azerbaijani Drama Theatre in the care of 32-year old Cabbarli, he set off not just anywhere, but to the Chinese border, where theatres were opened one after another in small towns. Tuganov set about choosing staff there. In 1934 he began hiring a company for a theatre in Groznyy and arrived in Moscow to try and persuade a number of theatrical professionals to improve the Groznyy theatre. That was in August. Quite accidentally Tuganov met his old friend Cabbarli there. They talked a lot about the theatre and Cabbarli persuaded Tuganov to go back to Baku. He promised he would. That was the last time they met. Six months later, Cabbarli, who was then just 35 years of age, died from heart failure.

The following year, Tuganov received an official invitation to return to the Azerbaijani Drama Theatre. His main work at the time was "Macbeth", a drama that is as difficult for the actors as it is for the director. Marziya Davudova played Lady Macbeth. The play was a huge success. At the same time, Tuganov was working with the companies of other theatres then starting out because there was a shortage of directors of his standard and with his experience. Tuganov was also working at that time at the Russian Drama Theatre and the Young Spectator Theatre, as well as continuing with his teaching job and training new people for the country. At the choreography college, for example, he gave lectures on the history of ballet, and he also taught the art of acting in the conservatoire, the theatrical college and the opera theatre. It would be hard to find a director in the 1930s and 1940s in Baku who worked as hard.

Immediately after the war the Azerbaijani State Theatrical Institute, where Tuganov was one of the leading professors, teaching Azerbaijani and Russian, opened in Baku. Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Tuganov gave 30 years of his life to the Azerbaijani theatre, he taught three generations of actors and today it is hard to overstate his contribution to Azerbaijan's cultural life.