The creative biography of actor and director Oleg Khanov is connected with Bashkiria, where he was awarded all possible titles and awards, Moscow and Orenburg. But right now, when Oleg Zakirovich is again playing on the stage of the regional drama theater. M. Gorky, he was officially recognized as a People’s Artist of the Russian Federation. Orenburg residents think that this coincidence is not accidental.
Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, our viewers appreciated the high skill of Khanov as an actor in such iconic roles as Richard III in the play of the same name and Arbenin in Masquerade. Today Oleg Khanov is not only busy with new productions, but also stages his own. In addition, Oleg Zakirovich passes on his knowledge and experience to students at the Institute of Arts. M. and L. Rostropovich.
When the presenter gets high
— Oleg Zakirovich, can we say that you played your most striking roles on the Orenburg stage?
— In terms of acting workload, perhaps, yes. But I had interesting images both in the Moscow “Satyricon” and in the Bashkir Academic Drama Theater named after. M. Gafuri, where I worked first as an actor and then as an artistic director. In Ufa I played my first highly awarded roles. For example, in the performances “Long, Long Childhood” based on the play by Mustai Karim and “Bibinur, ah, Bibinur”, for which he received the State Prize of the Russian Federation in the field of literature and art. It is important to note that they, like “Richard III” with “Masquerade” and many others, were staged by the current artistic director of the Orenburg Drama Theater Rifkat Israfilov. Rifkat Vakilovich and I met back in 1972, when he graduated from GITIS, and I graduated from the Ufa Institute of Arts. Fate has separated us more than once and united us again, he knows my acting potential, over the years we have developed a good creative tandem. By the way, we are currently rehearsing a new performance based on Shakespeare’s play “The Taming of the Shrew.”
I want to unravel the origins of evil
— Your potential in roles like Richard III , the director saw. What did you discover about yourself while working on these complex images?
— Any actor will tell you that it’s more interesting to play negative characters; you want to unravel the origins of this evil. You experience great creative pleasure when you go on stage in the company of wonderful partners and feel that everything is a success. And you seem to know the text and mise-en-scène by heart, but there is some area in the brain that seems to control everything that happens from the outside. And this presenter gets a thrill from the opportunity to express himself in this way.
— Why do you think the situations described by Shakespeare or Lermontov are still relevant?
— As I get older, I become more and more convinced that humanity, despite technological progress, does not change much. Our inner life remains the same as, say, in the Roman Empire. Both politics and elections… To test a person, give him power, and his most unexpected qualities will be revealed to you. Even if he was initially driven by the desire to bring good to society.
Don’t plunge into the swamp of masquerade
– And do you justify your Arbenin, who kills his young wife out of jealousy?
— In our play, by the way, the hero kills himself in the finale. We drew a parallel between the images of Arbenin, who suspects his wife of infidelity, and Pushkin. The poet chose a duel because he could not do otherwise. And for Arbenin this murder became a matter of honor. I don’t justify him, of course, but you can understand the hero. There is only pretense around, not a single real human face, just like in our era of social networks… And he does not want his love to plunge into this swamp of masquerade. Believing in her betrayal, Arbenin decides that it is better to kill this angelic creature.
And Richard is a player, nature created him as a freak who initially does not fit into this society. And suddenly, through evil, he begins to assert himself as a person. No one resists him, and then more. Although, if you look into history, he did a lot of good to unite the state, but he lost his measure and allowed the young princes to be killed. This is a crime that cannot be justified by anything.
During the election campaign, Lord Buckingham and the mayor win over voters and declare Richard a candidate for the throne. And Boris Yeltsin stood before my eyes, dancing before the elections. What rage and disregard for everything, he dances and does not understand anything! I repeated this scene in Richard, and it turned out to be a parallel with our time.
— When an actor becomes a director, he also acquires some kind of power. Did you yourself change when you started staging your plays?
— My direction, performance and interpretation of characters are purely acting. Building a performance is a completely different profession. But I want to try to realize the author’s idea in my own way! True, in the end, each participant still brings something of his own, and the performance begins to live its own life. But sometimes everything fits perfectly. In my opinion, “Evening”, which I staged on the small stage of the Orenburg Drama Theater, became such a successful experience. I play in it with wonderful partners – Borey Kruglov, Natalya Ivanovna Panova, Laura Tolpysheva.
Five roles in “Satyricon»
– Looking at you, you think – this person is created for dramatic strong roles. But part of your creative biography is connected with the Moscow Satyricon Theater?
— I remember with pleasure the 3.5 years that I gave to Satyricon. This is only the name left over from Arkady Raikin. We must pay tribute to Konstantin Arkadyevich, who put a lot of work into making Satyricon a real dramatic theater. Over the course of three years, I played five roles there in serious productions, including Shakespeare’s plays, together with such stars of the Russian stage as Alexander Feklistov, Alexander Filippenko, Vladimir Steklov. However, when Rifkat Israfilov invited me to the Orenburg Drama Theater, I agreed without hesitation. Konstantin Raikin told me then: “People don’t leave Moscow, they come here!“But that’s how my family circumstances turned out. And I don’t at all regret moving to Orenburg in the early 2000s. Otherwise I wouldn’t have played Arbenin. And I would not have known such a wonderful team.
Everything is written in heaven…
— Do you advise your students to try their hand at the capital? After all, after graduation, no one will probably guarantee them employment in a particular theater.
— I must say that several of my former students are now working at the Orenburg Drama Theater. This is director Sasha Fedorov, actors Irina Prokhorova, Serezha Shakhmut, Dmitry Gladkov, Natalya Lavrinenko. Rifkat Vakilovich was the artistic director of their course, and I was a teacher, staged a graduation performance with them. He taught them that they needed to be organic in their roles, to strive to convey the playwright’s thoughts to the audience. But as for the future, I long ago came to the conclusion that everything is written up there. Of course, you need to strive for your dream, but I believe that fate guides everything.
— At what moments in your life were you truly grateful to her?
— When I found myself on the stage of the Moscow “Satyricon“Before that he was an actor in the national theater. From 1973 to 1997 I worked in Bashkiria. It turned out that in the Moscow theater the principle of acting is the same, but the stage speech is completely different. The national language has many guttural sounds. When I played my first role in “Satyricon“, Konstantin Raikin told me: Oleg, you don’t have an accent, but you need to get rid of this dialect. I trained for two years. At this time, I was just rehearsing the role of Polonius in the play “Hamlet”, which was staged by the famous theater director Robert Sturua. He invited speech teachers for young actors, and I studied with them.
We can say that my profession was predetermined by fate, for which I am also grateful to it. My parents are actors, this has been organically in me since childhood. And I never doubted my choice.
Valentina SOKOLOVA
Photo from the play “The Generous Cuckold” courtesy of the Orenburg Drama Theater
Tags: Peoples Artist Russian Federation Oleg Khanov grateful fate moving Moscow Orenburg Orenburg News
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