DEVELOPMENTS in JAPAN and OVERSEAS

Developments in Japan and Overseas

Continuing Creating
After Leaving My Homeland

An interview with director Timofey Kulyabin
Interviewer: U chida Kensuke(Part-time lecturer at Chiba University and researcher of Russian theatre)

Interview date: November 7, 2022, starting at 8:00 pm (Japan time)

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Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24,
2022, and as of November, eight months
have passed with no sign of an end to thefighting. During this period, there has beena movement among Japanese theatre professionals and theatre researchers who love
Russian theatre and have established anamicable relation with it, to support stage
performers from both Russia and Ukraine
and to learn about the current situation.
So how are those Russian theatre people
doing now?
The Japanese Centre of International
Theatre Institute interviewed Timofey Kulyabin, a director currently based in Germany
who received acclaim in 2019 for his Three
Sisters, which was performed entirely in
Timofey Kulyabin
sign language at the Tokyo Metropolitan
Theatre. We asked him about what he has
been thinking and feeling from the invasion to the present and how he hascontinued his work as a theatre artist.

After February 24, everything changed
I heard that you were working on an opera in Prague on February 24, the day
Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine. Could you tell us how you felt that day?

TK : I was shocked, of course. It was a huge shock to both me and my colleagues. I
think our fear outweighed our surprise at being faced with such an unexpected
situation. Our lives changed forever after that day. You might even say that a newlife began.
You immediately posted an anti-war statement on Instagram. Many otherartists too made anti-war statements in various forms. However, on March 4,
the so-called “Fake News Law” was enacted as a presidential decree, and now
it’s a crime to oppose the war, or even to hope for peace, and Russia has
become completely devoid of freedom of speech.

TK : Now, in Russia, simply publicly speaking out against the war can land you in
jail, and leaving the country is very difficult. It’s like the whole country has beenhijacked and taken hostage.

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Recently, Theatre Magazine editor-in-chief Marina Davydova and the director
Dmitry Krymov have left the country, but those remaining in the country arehaving a difficult time. On April 21, you resigned as artistic director of the
Krasny Fakel (“Red Torch”) Theatre in Novosibirsk. Was that related to youranti-war statement?

TK : Yes, of course.
Was your resignation voluntary?

TK : Well, it’s a very complicated story,
but the truth is that they made me
prepare a document saying I was
resigning “for personal reasons” andtold me to sign it. The Russian Federal
Uchida Kensuke
Photo: Ayada Shoichi

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Security Service (FSB), what used to be called the KGB, contacted the theatre andtold us that if Timofey Kulyabin continued to make anti-war statements, theentire theatre would be held responsible. They were even prepared to fire myparents, who also work at the theatre. So I was forced to announce that I wasquitting on my own for personal reasons.
I didn’t realize such pressures were actually put on you… Performances havecontinued at the Krasny Fakel Theatre since your resignation, but is the government still pressuring them? If you just could tell us whatever you can…

TK : I’m sure that the theatre group members are feeling terrible pressure and are
depressed. I have been communicating with them by e-mail, and since themobilization order was issued on September 21, many of them, especially theyoung actors, are very anxious about being sent to the war zone. Some of them
have left Russia.
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The Theatre had a donation box to support the Donbass region of Ukraine andheld a charity festival in October. Is that related to such pressures?

TK : I don’t know if the charity event in support of the Donbass region was a voluntary theatre project. But there were similar events for political propaganda
even before the war started. Not long ago everything was about “liberating thepeople of the Donbass from Nazis,” and more recently “liberating them from
Satanists,” but either way, the government remains in control. Unfortunately,
Russia is not a free country.
In Moscow, you worked with the Bolshoi Theatre and Teatr Naciy (the Theatreof Nations). Have you kept in touch?

TK : As you know, the Bolshoi has removed my works from their repertoire, andthey have not contacted me. Teatr Naciy is still performing some of my works,
such as Chekhov's Ivanov and Kleist’s The Broken Jug, so I’m sure we will remain
connected in some way. However, a number of the actors who were in those productions have left the country, so I don't know all the details…

Theatrical artists are leaving the country one after another
Chulpan Khamatova, who appeared in Ivanov, relocated to Latvia and is now
working with the New Riga Theatre (Jaunais Rigas Teatris).

TK : Khamatova is a well-known actress, so her defection was a big topic, but I
have heard that quite a few other actors have also left the country, including
Ingeborga Dapkunaite , who was in Burnt by the Sun (1994, directed by Nikita
Mikhalkov).
In May you directed Bernard-Marie Koltes’ In the Solitude of Cotton Fields at the
Dailes Teatris in Riga.

TK : Yes, Khamatova came to us on the first day of Cotton Fields. We are friends,
so we know each other’s situation.
The play and film director Kirill Serebrennikov has also left the country,
recently directing The Decameron at the Deutsches Theater Berlin, where you
directed Platonov this past October. Are you in contact with him as well?

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TK : Yes, that’s right. Two years ago, Kirill and I held rehearsals at the Deutsches
Theater at about the same time. He directed The Decameron and I directed Miss
Julie. This was just when the COVID pandemic was starting, and Germany went
under lockdown about a week
after the first showing of The
Decameron. Kirill and I areacquaintances, or friends orsomething, something hard to
define, but we are both similarin that we are expressing ouranti-war stance from outsideof Russia.
Seventh Studio, a project Serebrennikov represented, wasIn the Solitude of Cotton Fields (2022), Dailes Teatris
Photo: Māris Morkāns
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Miss Julie (2021), Deutsches Theater Berlin Photo: Arno Declair

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accused of embezzling public funds, and you too were involved in a scandal inwhich the religious community sued you for your production of Tannhäuser.
So it seems to me that the two of you are in similar positions.
In your recent work with the Deutsches Theater and the National Theatre in
Prague, have you experienced any inconvenience in presenting your work
because you are Russian? Is there any kind of cancellation movement against
Russian culture?

TK : I have never experienced anything like that. I think stories about Russian
productions being cancelled or hostility to Russian culture are just myths or
rumors. Rather, I feel that in Germany everyone became more sympathetic andcooperative toward Russian-speaking artists after the war started. Of course, thismay be partly because I opposed the war from the beginning.
Well I’m glad to hear that.

Censorship and Suppression of Tannhäuser
Again, please tell us about Tannhäuser, which premiered at the Novosibirsk

Opera and Ballet Theatre in 2014. Your staging of the young Christ in place ofthe medieval knight Tannhäuser, who was consumed by lust, was decried by
the Church as an insult to the faith and taken to court. In the end, the court
ruled that there was no criminality involved and the production was allowed
to continue, but the authorities later intervened, Tannhäuser was removed
from the repertoire, and the manager, Boris Mezdrich, was fired. I think that
was an important case in terms of the religious community and the government using legislation to pressure the arts.

TK : Tannhäuser is just one example. It was total censorship. But what I wanteveryone to understand is that “religion” and “the Church” are two completely
different things. It is actually not religion or faith that negatively impacts the art
world, but the organization, the Russian Orthodox Church. We can even consider the Church as a criminal organization. The military, politicians, and the
Church are three entities responsible for the functioning of the Russian government, and all three should be discussed equally. In my personal opinion, theChurch deserves to be tried in international court.

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Patriarch Kirill supports the current war, doesn’t he. And not only your plays,
but also productions like Konstantin Raikin’s LGBT-themed All Shades of Blue
have been sabotaged by the authorities and Orthodox Church activists. I agreewith your opinion that the
Church should be tried as atool of the government.

TK : The Russian Orthodox
Church today acts in collusion with the Putin regime
and is responsible for theirpropaganda. It works as anextension of the government
based on a logic that has
nothing to do with faith. So I
think we have to consider

Tannhäuser (2014), Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre
Photo: Viktor Dmitriev
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religion and faith as something completely separate from religiousorganizations.

Creating “one and only” works
Chekhov’s Three Sisters was a truly wonderful production that was performed
in Japan in 2019. I went to the theatre every day and watched every
performance.

TK : Thank you very much
There was a bit of a slip-up on the last day. In the scene where Olga borrows a

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key from Andrei, there was no key on the stage. I got goosebumps seeing
them have a proper sign language conversation about it and getting throughthe scene nonetheless. The actors didn’t just memorize signs for their dialogue, they must have really mastered sign language. It must have taken thema lot of time and effort to reach that point. Did the actors not object to the useof sign language in the production?

TK : No, not at all. [laughs]
It seems most people would think that having studied sign language thatmuch, they’d want to do at least one more production in sign language.

TK : I didn’t really think that way. The important thing was to make something
experimental, something unlike anything else.
It was indeed unlike anything else. It was a historic production in the history ofChekhov productions.
Editor: In Three Sisters, there were many moments in every scene where despair
and hope clash. I felt that such a work could only be created by drawing something out of the actors themselves, rather than by how they read the dialogue.

TK : I think so, too.

Three Sisters (2019), Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre Photo: Goto Atsushi

Editor: What are the minimal qualities that you look for in an actor?

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TK : When I started college, I was asked the very same question: “What is themost important quality for an actor?” I couldn’t decide on one, because there aremany aspects to being an actor. One day I asked Pyotr Fomenko, the professor
director, “What are the most important qualities for an actor?” What do you
think he answered? “Depends on the actor.” [laughs]
Did you choose the Deutsches Theater’s Platonov yourself?

TK : The Theatre offered me that one. Platonov is a very long play, so I rewrote itwith a dramaturge. We rewrote it about five times, editing out characters andseveral scenes.
Yes, it would be a seven- or eight-hours if you tried to stage it as-is. In the original, four women appear along with the main character, Platonov, but in yourproduction, the characters are all elderly.

TK : I set the play in a nursing home and staged it so that all the characters except
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Platonov (2022), Deutsches Theater Berlin Photo: Arno Declair

Platonov die at the end. Someof them die of old age. While
Platonov is outdated in someways, it also has a very innocent side, and I wanted toemphasize that. The characterslook old, but they act likeyouths and children. These oldpeople share the fate that they
have little time left until their
death. But they have their own
lives, and just like young
people, they fall in love, get into trouble, come together, and fall apart. I wanted
to show that this is what motivates them to live.

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You have directed Three Sisters, Ivanov, and now Platonov. What is the significance of Chekhov as a writer for you?

TK : Let’s see… Chekhov is a great playwright. Unlike a novel, a play is expressedin the form of dialogue, and I think the secret of a Chekhov performance lies in
how its dialogue is structured. He is deeply observant of people and extremely
intelligent in what he puts into his dialogues and the words he uses for them. I
believe he is a writer who has written interesting works that will never be boring,even in this day and age.

Themes of “modernization” and “forgetting”
You often change the setting of your productions to the present day. For
example, you produced Oedipus as a contemporary mystery. Modernization
itself is not an uncommon take, everyone tries it and usually fails, but yourworks always have the strength to reach the audience. I think that comes fromthe depth at which you read the text, but how do you undergo your interpretation and reconstruction?

TK : The time required varies according to the piece, but when reconstructing atext, I consult with the dramaturge and discuss it with the stage designer, reading
the work very deeply and paying close attention to various details.
You mentioned that when you directed Macbeth in 2008, you compared sevenor eight different translations. Did you learn that kind of reading at GITIS (theRussian Institute of Theatre Arts)?

TK : It is a technique I developed in my own way. The text reflects my tastes andpreferences. Even if it is a classic, the audience who watches the play will be amodern audience. I believe that the people speaking on stage and those watching
the play—in other words, the actors and the audience—should speak the samelanguage. Therefore, even if the story takes place in ancient Greece, the actors
should speak in modern language.
Editor: From past interviews, I get the sense that along with themes like “myexistence does not fit these times or this place” and “this is not my place” thatare common across your works, you often use the words “abandoned” and“forgotten.” As an example, the characters in Three Sisters are forced to live in149

Eugene Onegin (2012), Krasny Fakel Theatre (From a streamed video)
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the countryside, even though Moscow is where they should be. They have thefeeling that their existence will one day be forgotten. Do you have any special
feelings about words or concepts like “forgotten” and “abandoned”?

TK : Yes, forgetting is a major theme in Eugene Onegin as well. People change andare forgotten. That a forgotten person is forever lost is an idea that forms the basisof Russian literature. The absurdity is that when we die, we will be forgotten, andgiven that, why do we live? This is a universal theme in art. It is difficult to find atheme within myself, but I think “forgetting” is probably an important keyword
for me.

A new work on the theme of war
Editor: When does inspiration come to you in your creative process?

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TK : It’s different every time. Inspiration is not something we can control; it has tocome on its own. Inspiration often comes to me suddenly while I am working.
Do you plan to make a production about the current situation between Russia
and Ukraine?

TK : Of course. I think my next work will have war as its theme.
Please tell us about the concept for your next work, if you can.

TK : In April 2023, I will be staging Macbeth at Schauspiel Frankfurt. It will be avery new interpretation of Macbeth, quite different from the show I directed in2008. After that, I will be putting on Brecht’s Fear and Misery of the Third Reichat the Russian Theatre in Tallinn, Estonia. As for opera work, I will be directing
Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades at the Opéra National de Lyon.
I’ll definitely have to go to Europe to see that. [laughs] Please come to Japanagain. There are many people here who love your work.
By the way, have you always been interested in Japan? The music video for
Madonna’s song “Jump” you used in Eugene Onegin featured dancers

performing parkour on the streets of Tokyo, and the music playing during theduel between Lensky and Onegin was “Yearning,” a song by the Japaneseband Mono.

TK : I’m the one who selected Mono. I’m a specialist, so I know everything.
[laughs] I would love to visit Japan again. I am very attracted to Japan. I like it somuch you could even say I’ve fallen in love with it. I have only seen Tokyo, but I
would love to visit the countryside as well, since all megalopolises are similar tosome extent.
Well I live in the countryside, so please comevisit my home. Thank you very much for
speaking with us today. We’ve had a wonderful time. Like Nina in The Seagull meeting her
crush Trigorin, I want to shout “сон” (it’s like a
dream)! [laughs]

TK : I hope we can meet in Japan. And pleasecome to Europe anytime. I’ll be waiting for
you.

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Photo: Ayada Shoichi

After the interview
Uchida Kensuke

On December 22, about three months after this interview, Kulyabin’s productions of The Wild Duck, Eugene Onegin, and Three Sisters were removed from therepertoire of the Krasny Fakel Theatre, where Kulyabin had been artistic director. These three productions were signature works at that theatre, nominatedfor a Golden Mask award at Russia’s largest theatre festival, and although theTheatre gave the excuse of faulty equipment, there is no doubt that they weretargeted by authorities and pressured to cancel those performances.
The next day, on the 23rd, Aleksandr Kulyabin, father of Timofey Kulyabin andgeneral director at Krasny Fakel, was removed from his post. The local press
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did not mention any reason for this, but it is likely because he was held jointly
responsible for his son Timofey, who was operating from overseas.
On the 24th, Kulyabin posted a message on Facebook. He began by statingthat this decision was not by choice of those working at Krasny Fakel, and after
thanking everyone at the theatre, including his father, and writing that he wasproud of the work they had accomplished together, he concluded by saying:“Two years ago, we performed and presented an anniversary playcalled My 'Red Torch’. I came up with the name and it was important to me that everyone on and off the stage could say that thetheatre was ‘mine.’ Whatever happens, it’s mine—and ours—andno one can take it away.”
Kulyabin, Timofey
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Born in 1984 in Izhevsk, capital of the Soviet Udmurt Republic. Graduated from the Russian
Institute of Theatre Arts (GITIS) in 2007, he received high acclaim as a director early on. He
won Russia’s most prestigious theatre award, the Golden Mask, for his productions of Eugene
Onegin in 2012 and Three Sisters in 2015. In 2015, he was appointed artistic director of the
Krasny Fakel Theatre in Novosibirsk Oblast (until 2022). He has directed many operas and iscurrently continuing his creative work in various places in Europe.

Uchida, Kensuke
Part-time lecturer at Chiba University and visiting researcher at the Tsubouchi Memorial
Theatre Museum at Waseda University. Specializes in Russian theatre and the history oftheatrical exchange between Japan and Russia. He is also active as a dramaturge andplaywright, and he currently offers Russian language courses and provides Russian theatre
news on YouTube. His recent co-authored works include An Encyclopedia of Russian Culture(2019, Maruzen), Anthology of Western Theatre Theory (2019, Getsuyosha), and Kabuki andRevolutionary Russia (2017, Shinwasha). In 2022, his new translation of Chekhov’s The Seagull
was published by Ronsosha.
(Writing: Sakaguchi Kaya / Translation: Tony Gonzalez)