Vladimir Grigorievich Baicher, who directed Anton Pavlovich Chekhov’s The Seagull, says that one day he might adapt Rama, Krishna or Kalidasa. He speaks to Team Viva on why direction is his profession, not passion or mission and how improvisation of actors should be mutual
Andrey Bogdanov, who has donned the role of Dorn in the play Chekhov, Chaika (Chekhov’s Seagull), chose an unusual way for improvisation. He jumped into the lake; on the shore of which the rehearsal was progressing, swam and kept on saying the dialogues. The director of the play, Vladimir Grigorievich Baicher, chuckles and says, “it was an incredible improvisation and we all were clapping hands”.
The veteran director from Russia, who was in the city to present the play at the Bharat Rang Mahotsav, believes that improvisation should be mutual and conveyable to other actors. The 53-year-old, who has directed around 40 plays, has created the plays by Chekhov, Ostrovsky, Sukhovo-Kobylin, Goldoni, Moliere, Vampilov, Arbuzov, T. Guerra, to name a few on stage. On working with one of the greatest writers like Chekhov he says that one needs to go into deep to give feel to his text: “You should go as deep as possible to his work on his ideas. He is like a tree. You see only the leafs when you start reading, but there are roots that you would find while continue reading. Of course, we have our own view on the play. It’s not that traditional. The play was created in the place, at the Chekhov museum in Moscow, where it was written by Chekhov. Therefore we tried to give feeling of the real ideas of him.”
“It was written in 1895. In the play what he wants to tell us is yet unexplored and unknown. It’s absolutely intimate and deeply personal, for it charts his journey in his own soul. The contradiction presented in the play between Boris Trigorin and Konstantin Treplyov is not a clash between the classicist and the pioneer, but the struggle of Chekhov himself! Both the writers are but two faces of Chekhov in his inner world.”
“Our theatre, Chekhov studio, is situated at the Chekhov museum which is fifty kilo meters away from Moscow. He spent the last seven years of his life there and wrote about forty plays which are the most renowned. The Seagull one of the most famous plays of him in Moscow. Eight years ago the government decided to convert the place into a theatre. For the past eight years we worked in this place and made different plays mostly written by Chekhov. Chaika means seagull in Russian and hence the title Chekhov, Chaika.”
“There is a lake and a cricket play ground near the Chekhov Museum and we thought it would be ideal to connect all these places with the play. So the play is based on all these. When we were invited to the Bharat Rang Mahotsav we were informed that it won’t be able to create all these places on stage here. But our stage designer did it for us and I hope theat the Indian audience could relate with it well,” he adds.
When asked about working with the script of various writers he says, “It’s very important to understand the style of each writer. Everybody is entirely different. But I have mostly directed the plays of Chekhov. He had said that after my death people will read my stories for six years or eight years. Now it has been more than hundred years since he died and we have now just began to understand his text,” says Vladimir who began direction 27 years ago.
He adds: “All the playwrights will live forever, not just for today or tomorrow. In Russia out theatre culture is unique. For my group Chekhov Studio we have actors who perform in our theatre only, they appear in television and act in movies though. It has been eight years since I formed the group. Ever after that I continue working with different troupes. I love Indian theatre as well. It’s really versatile. One day I might adapt Rama, Krishna or Kalidasa and present them in my own visual language,” says Vladimir who is also the Dean of Director’s Faculty of GITIS.
“I am a professional director. I won’t say directions is my passion or mission. It’s my profession and I teach the same. It’s like an engineer making machines or a doctor treating patients. What you need to be is professional,” he concludes.