"LOVE WILL SAVE THE WORLD, NOT BEAUTY"

He decided to be an actor when he was seven years old, after watching Bondarchuk Sr.'s War and Peace. A student of the Balaken secondary school Safa Mirzahasanov expressed his thought and desire so clearly that he had no other idea about his future profession. Today he is the People's Artist of Azerbaijan, the leading stage master of the Academic Russian Drama Theatre. The audience loves and respects the master with over 40 years of service on the stage of his theatre. The 60-year-old actor feels a happy and well-established person, and is grateful to his fate for awarding him with such a great chance to serve his beloved work, to love and be loved, to have a large family, friends, to live in one of the most beautiful cities in the world and enjoy the peaceful sky every morning. Generally, he is a positive person: he is always smiling, affable and kind. He is the only one in the team who remembers the birthday dates of not only his fellow artists, but also other co-workers. Above all, he always knows how to congratulate the birthday persons and what to present them. Our conversation took place almost a month before the premiere of the play Surprise Day Valery Mukharyamov. 

"Do you remember your first appearance on stage? After all, you have faithfully and devotedly been serving Melpomene for forty years?"

"I do, of course. As if it was yesterday. I was 20 years old when I played in a fairy tale called Magic Barrel of Honey.

"Did you enjoy playing in fairy tales?"

"I am ready to live this experience again. But I cannot deprive my younger colleagues of this right. Actually, fairy tales are a wonderful opportunity for professional training."

"I know that those who grew up on the fairy tales staged in the Russian Drama Theatre still recognise you and approach you to have a chat or ask questions. Doesn't it bother you after so many years?.."

"Of course not! I am always happy. Their memories of my characters Leopold, Leshiy or Dr. Livesey are our common Baku past. I am pleased that they remember the performances of their childhood."

"How would you describe these 40 years of your life on stage?"

"Warm and light. I have been gifted to work on stage in partnership with the great masters of our theatre, including but not limited to Rakhel Ginzburg and Anatoly Falkovich, Vera Shirye, Sergey Yakushev, Fuad Poladov, Xana Babicheva, Melik Dadashov, Irina Perlova. It was a strange relationship balancing between personal friendship and professionalism on stage. It is this kind of relationship that made me feel both an equal partner and a student. It was a wonderful period! I recall each of my partners with gratitude and love. I am also thankful to Murad Yagizarov. We still actively communicate online; I am still interested in this person, although we have not been on the stage for a long time as partners."

"Which of your performances impressed you more than others?"

"There are many of them. Kin IV (George IV), The Seagull (Trigorin), Star, Love and Champagne (Man), Handsome Man (Okoyomov), Vizier of the Lankaran Khanate" (Vizier), The Karamazov Brothers (Ivan Karamazov), Cunning Lover (Lusindo), and so on..."

"And which of your favourite roles are you ready to play today?"

"George IV in Kin IV".

"How many characters have you played so far?"

"I didn't count but I think more than a hundred, for sure. Or maybe about two hundred."

"In which genre do you feel most comfortable?"

"I have never thought about that. Perhaps, in comedy, drama or mystery."

"For many years, you have been awarded Audience Choice Award in Apofigey, which marks the closing of each theatrical season. You have many female admirers. How do you feel about that?"

"Nothing at all. I simply know that fans often identify an actor with a characters that they see on the stage. This is just a romantic fantasy of women."

"One hundred years ago, the fans used to give various presents to their favourite actors, such as jewellery, clothes, horses, estates, carriages, money. This tradition is still alive. Only the items have been replaced by sweets, perfumes, toys, flowers. Is there a universal "present" that would express the gratitude of the audience without offending the actor's feelings?"

"Yes. The most universal gift from the audience is flowers. We can accept other types of presents only from our closest friends."

"I know you as an old-school but avid reader, who still reads paper books, follows the latest events in literature and visits movie theatres. Have you tried switching to modern gadgets?"

"I have an e-book loaded with books of various genres. But I still go to the bookstore and buy books there. I prefer the English mystery novels. For example, I am reading Lethal White by Robert Galbraith (Joan Rowling). I enjoy the development of the plot and so relax. Well, I visit cinemas with our wife because we try to follow all the new releases and simply because we enjoy large screen."

"I know that you and your wife have a very harmonious union, but aren't family relationships hindering when you both are on stage? For example, in Athens Evenings or in the upcoming premiere of Surprise Day?"

"You know, our characters are so intertwined that we understand each other at a glance, sometimes telepathically. This helps a lot. Above all, it is also an opportunity to discuss some details related to our roles."

"Is your new hero different from others?"

"Sure! I play a hero who is also related to the theatre. He constantly finds himself in funny situations, which are so discrediting both professionally and morally that he has to kind of scramble to figure things out all the time. And on the day when all the surprising events take place, he has some difficult but funny moments on stage but he survives...

"In other words, your character is a sort of adventurer?"

"Well, I would not be so categorical about him?"

"What does the director think about this?"

"I will not tell, sorry. Everything that Alexander Sharovsky thinks about the play can be seen on the stage of our theatre in the first half of November."

"Well, who is the character of Yevgenia Nevmerzhitskaya in this story - a wife or a lover?"

"Oh boy, this is the main intrigue and you better see it once before I tell you about her character."

"What does the profession of an actor mean for you: a gift from heaven, a test or?.."

"A divine gift. It means I had to live more than one life and fate. To live and understand something very important for me. Perhaps that's the reason of my endless respect actors who know how to be and live on stage, here and now."

"Do you also consider yourself such an actor?"

"I would be happy to say yes. But I think that only audience and my partners have the right to tell you about it."

"If I am right, 60 years of your life and 40 years on stage is not a final result but just a continuation of the search for yourself and the secrets of the craft?"

"I guess you are right. I do not know. But one thing I can say with absolute confidence: even the time is not capable of relaxing me before entering the stage. I still feel terribly excited, as if it's my first performance on the stage."

"Have you dreamed of characters that you would like to play but have not been able to?"

"I'm afraid I sound pathetic now but I will say 'yes'. I have once dreamed of playing Romeo, then Macbeth, Raskolnikov, the Master in The Master and Margarita, Chekhov's heroes Astrov, Gayev, Tevye the Dairyman..."

"What would you like to play today?"

"Any hero in a classics play. Classics is a pleasure for a professional. Years go by. I will never be able to play a great deal of roles. I would like to have time to do something more..."

"What is the credo of a happy person like you?"

"As you know, beauty has a terrible power. But it is the endless love which will save the world, not beauty."

"Your theatre turns 100 years old in December 2020. What would you wish your team and yourself?"

"I became an actor of the Russian Drama forty years ago, when our theatre turned sixty. I am infinitely happy that I have reached the day when our theatre will celebrate its hundred years. The theatre always has been and always will be. I wish my colleagues interesting performances, roles and loving viewers. To our director Adalet Hajiyev and chief director Alexander Sharovsky, I wish patience, endurance and health because there is much to be done before the anniversary."