THE DRAMA OF AN ACTOR

If the first years of Soviet rule had a beneficial impact on the Azerbaijani creative (especially theatre) intelligentsia, the 1930s were the most terrible and fatal for it. They predetermined the silent fate of yes-men for the most prominent members of society for decades ahead.

This is confirmed by the life and difficult fate of Ulvi Racab. It is also part of the era on the example of one gifted and intelligent person.

From home to theatre

In Batumi, where Ulvi Racab lived at the beginning of the last century, there were several amateur troupes. And from 1912, it began to be visited by two professional troupes every year - the first one from the Tiflis Drama Theatre (later named after Rustaveli) and the second one from Baku, led by Huseyn Arablinski. And the Baku troupe stayed there for a long time - for more than a month. This was due to the month of Muharram, during which people in Baku preferred not to go to the theatre, which is why the rent of the stage was unprofitable. In memorable 1918, when the fate of Racab was decided, Arablinski and his troupe staged two "hit" performances in Batumi - Hacibayov's "Arsin Mal Alan" and Shakespeare's "Othello". By the way, not only the operetta, but also the English masterpiece was staged in the Azerbaijani language in Batumi. Locals then understood the Turkish language, and therefore Azerbaijani too. Many residents of Batumi, as well as the family of Racab were Muslims. And in fact, it was the main obstacle for the young actor (he was only 15 years old). Secretly from his father, he played in an amateur theatre.

The Baku troupe willingly used the services of local actors, but used them as extras. As a result, the Batumi performances sometimes turned into mass actions in which even grandiose choral singing took place (which, by the way, did not happen even in Baku). And then, on the day of the next performance, the actor, who played Sultan Bay, fell ill. In the edition of the operetta of that time, the role of Sultan Bay was small and simple, and therefore, it was entrusted to the young amateur actor Racab without any fear. They just had to make him up as an old man. Arablinski, who followed Racab's performance very closely, remembered his confident behaviour on stage, his good performance and great voice. And the most important thing that Arablinski noted was that Racab knew the text and all the nuances of the performance (as he had long been watching the show as a spectator). Immediately after that, on the same evening, Arablinski asked the young actor to come to rehearsals (that year the troupe decided to stay in Batumi for three months), which Ulvi Racab gladly did. Soon he was given roles in productions. This gladdened his countrymen who vibrantly supported the talented actor that managed to get on the professional stage. But this only hurt him. His fame reached his father, and being fanatically devout and seeing what future awaits his son, he drove the guy out of home. Racab slept in the theatre in the last month of the tour, and then went to Tiflis with it.

Becoming an actor

In the 1920s, as you know, theatres were built with government support everywhere in the Caucasus. The Batumi Drama Theatre (now bears the name of Ilia Chavchavadze), which, of course, invited its countryman to work, was also opened. The Batumi Theatre had the same drawbacks as the other new theatres - it could not competently organize tours even to Tiflis. But we have to hand it to them: later, in the 1930-50s, this theatre will show itself, and people who became legends of theatre and cinema will be working there. But in the early 1920s it was still far from being ideal, and Racab began to think about moving to another theatre. In Tiflis he visited the Azerbaijani Theatre, but was aiming for Baku, where his inspirer Arablinski worked. And finally, from 1925 he was already playing in Baku, and not just anywhere, but in the Azerbaijan Drama Theatre.

Here we should mention one other person who played an important role in the life of Ulvi Racab, but, alas, unjustly forgotten. This is Aleksandr Tuganov, a man with huge theatrical experience. In Moscow theatres he played Hamlet, Petruchio and Chadskiy and toured the empire a lot, raising provincial theatres to a new level. Interested in languages, he learned Azerbaijani and in those years, led the Tiflis Azerbaijani Theatre, where he was director of such performances as "The Dead", "Pari Cadu", "Qacaq Qara", "Aydin", "Oqtay Eloglu" and others. He not only fostered a brilliant actor in Racab. In 1924 Tuganov moved from Tiflis to Baku, where, along with Cafar Cabbarli, he participated in the creation of Azdrama. And one of the first people he brought with him was his favourite student Ulvi Racab. Along with Huseyn Arablinski, Abbas Sarifzada, Marziya Davudova, Mirza Aga Aliyev, Sidqi Ruhulla and other legends of the Azerbaijani theatre played in Azdrama.

Oriental Hamlet

Evidence of recognition by the director was that Tuganov entrusted the role of Hamlet to the young 22-year-old actor Racab, and this, as you know, is the dream of any actor. History knows cases when actors bullied competitors only to get this role. And Vladimir Vysotskiy, an actor of the Taganka Theatre, admitted that sometimes even women try to get directors to give them the role of the Shakespearean character. Hamlet in the interpretation of Tuganov and Cabbarli (the former was the director and the latter made a reliable translation) was very unusual. Its action was moved from Denmark, which was obscure to local audiences and too far, to the East, and some names were altered altogether.

Tuganov understood the essence of Hamlet perfectly well. Our contemporary, Georgian theatre director, actor and people's artiste of the USSR, Robert Sturua, rightly pointed out many years later that Hamlet is a model, the main power of which is great opportunities for interpretation, of which actors and directors are aware and that's why they want to participate in this action so much. And for this reason, Tuganov wrote: "It is impossible for the whole point of Hamlet to be limited to black tights and a hat with a feather, and with a turban on the head, that meaning changed."

The press praised the Hamlet performed by Racab and wrote that "the young Azerbaijani theatre passed the test of maturity". A powerful voice, clear diction, rich mimicry, measured, justified motions and brilliant performance - Ulvi justified the confidence of the director. Assessing the performance, well-known critic Aziz Sarif wrote: "Ulvi was the focus of the audience and kept them on their toes throughout the performance." Tuganov also acknowledged this, left Azdrama and his pupil with a clear conscience and went to promote theatre art in the Far East.

Fatal 1930s...

Instructions from above on the execution of a certain number of spies and anti-Soviet agents, the absence of courts, the system of biased interrogation and snitching - all this befell people in the late 1930s. And it affected primarily those were in the public domain - well-known talented people and those one could envy.

That evening, the 34-year-old actor played in the debut play of the young playwright Mirza Ibrahimov "Hayat". Returning home, he saw his wife Marziya Davudova pale, NKVD agents, neighbors acting as witnesses and things scattered around the house - the result of a search that looked rather like a pogrom. Of course, they found nothing in his house. Then investigators began to point to Racab's records of foreign productions as evidence despite the fact that they were only operas.

They accused Ulvi Racab of no more, no less an attempt to seize power by force. And even the absence of any weapons in the actor's house did not bother those who were trying to get him executed. All this happened based on the testimony of a certain Ali Karimov, the former head of the Department of Arts at the People's Commissariat of Education of Azerbaijan. Under torture Karimov confessed to everything he had not done (the NKVD was fulfilling the plan), arguing that he recruited volunteers and giving the names of well-known actors, including not only Racab, but his colleague and "partner" in "Othello" Sarifzada, who was eventually executed. And as it usually happens, Racab, who denied all charges for two months, eventually admitted all accusations after being tortured by sleep deprivation (as in the case of Musfiq). In 1955, he was exonerated for lack of evidence posthumously.

During his short creative life Ulvi Racab showed viewers the scenic images of Othello, Hamlet, Romeo ("Othello," "Hamlet," "Romeo and Juliet" by Shakespeare), Francis Moore ("The Robbers" by Schiller), Satin ("The Lower Depths" by Gorky), Krechetov ("Plato Gyrfalcon" by Korneychuk) Siyavus and Sheikh Sanan ("Siyavus" and "Sheikh Sanan" by Cavid) and many others.