Yury Lyubimov
Maturity comes with 'Fairy-Tales'
Published 23 April, 2009, 15:50
It has been praised for its "aura of authenticity and freedom," described as “poetry in motion," and hailed as the “leading light” of the 20th century theatre in Russia.
On April 23, Yury Lyubimov’s Taganka Theatre turned 45 years old. It is still regarded as one of the most influential theatres in Russia.
Since the first night, Taganka’s has maintained a connection between what was happening in the world and on stage. Theatre lovers would queue up for days and nights to get a ticket to “The Master and Margarita," "Hamlet," “Good Man from Sechuan," or “A Hero of Our Time."
Trailblazing Russian composers, writers, human rights activists, scientists, and poets were among its admirers, including Dmitri Shostakovitch, Alfred Schnittke, Andrey Sakharov, Evgeny Evtushenko, and Pyotr Kapitsa.
Under its legendary stage director, Yury Lyubimov, the theatre has become a fusion of seeming opposites such as innovation and tradition, or freedom and integrity, and has in the process received international recognition.
Lyubimov’s groundbreaking productions appeal to human emotions such as love of woman, love of home, or love of freedom. He’s brought up several generations of actors such as Vladimir Vysotsky, Leonid Filatov, Alla Demidova and Valery Zolutukhin, who first appeared on stage at the Taganka.
 Vladimir Vysotsky in "Hamlet" |
Born in the year of the October Revolution in 1917, it seems that Yury Lyubimov has had a natural-born penchant for innovation.
At the same time, he has always emphasized that he was “never into politics, but into aesthetics," even though he often suffered from censorship.
Throughout the '60s, '70s, and '80s, one of his theatre’s tasks was to tell people the truth about life around them, and was consequently punished by the authorities.
They prohibited the play dedicated to the memory of one of Lyubimov’s key actors, renowned artist Vladimir Vysotsky, who died in 1980. They also cancelled Lyubimov’s next performance, “Boris Godunov."
In 1984, he was invited to London to produce “Crime and Punishment”. Behind his back, one of the best stage directors in the world was prohibited to return to the Soviet Union, and was stripped of his citizenship.
 "Crime and Punishment" |
For the next seven years, Lyubimov worked in some of the best theatres in the world, including La Scala, London’s Royal Opera Theater, and Covent Garden, and received a number of international awards.
In 1989, he returned home to his Taganka theatre, and was given back his Soviet citizenship. However, the triumphal return was not accepted by everyone, and a group of actors, including Nikolay Gubenko, left Taganka.
There are currently 20 performances on the theatre’s program. And just like four decades ago, Lyubimov’s favorite authors are Dostoevsky, Bulgakov, and Shakespeare. His latest production is called 'The Fairy-Tales' and features works by Andersen, Wilde, and Dickens: The indefatigable, 91 year-old Lyubivov never runs out of ideas.
Valeria Paikova, RT
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