Nureyev, The Maids and Bozin

Roman Hryhorovych chose two high-profile performances for this tour: legendary The Maids, which first brought world fame to the director, and A Strange Garden, a play about the great 20th century dancer Rudolf Nureyev. The theatre’s leading actor Dmitrii Bozin plays the main roles in both. Viktiuk never forgot about his Ukrainian roots, and, despite the very tight schedule, he found time to tour his homeland. The tour started in Sevastopol, followed by Kyiv. On October 1, the Viktiuk Theatre made appearance in Odessa, they played in Dnipropetrovsk on October 4, in Zapo­rizhia on October 5, and in Donetsk on October 6.

Viktiuk’s A Strange Garden, on stage since 2004, is an adaptation of Azat Abdullin’s play. In an interview with The Day, the director told us how, over a decade ago in Florence, he promised a terminally ill Nureyev that one day he will stage a play about the dancer. And he kept true to his word. The original scenography was created by Vladimir Boyer, and the choreographer Artur Oshchepkov conducted rehearsals with the actors (although Viktiuk’s team was, and still is very plastique — the team’s trademark). Bozin is really impressive in his role as Rudolf Nureyev, and the play involves Dmitrii Bozin, Liudmila Pogorelova, Dmitrii Zhoidik, Yekaterina Stepankova and others. During the play the screen displays newsreel foot­a­ge, which preserved for us the legendary dance of the master. Rudolph was happy on stage. His bane was not AIDS, which he contracted during blood transfusion after a car accident, but the sense of guilt about his actions’ effect on his pa­rents — in Soviet times, while on tour abroad, the dancer asked for political asylum and was declared by the authorities “an enemy and defector.” This was painful for him and could not be atoned for... To his dying day, Rudolf Nureyev carried his cross.

The Maids has become the subject of thousands of enthusiastic reviews. As the first to do so in the former Soviet Union, Roman Viktiuk turned to Jean Jeunet’s heritage by putting on The Maids at the Satyricon Theatre in Moscow in 1987. This performance stunned the audience with its energy, breathtaking scenery, fantastic costumes and graceful actors, complete with Dalida’s charm. “All the subtlety and complexity of the performance is dictated to the play’s author,” emphasizes Viktiuk. “Jean Jeunet was an exile and marginal, one of the brightest French writers. His The Maids is a non-banal crime story about two maid sisters who decided to poison their mistress, Madame. It is an exalted play about the tragic nature of life, about the clash between dreams and reality.” By the way, the playwright himself advised the directors to give the women’s roles in his play to men. And that’s what Roman did, refusing to follow the “letter” of the play. He created his performance as the text’s image around the text itself... He found an echo in almost every replica, gesture, and dance and music composition...

This performance was the Viktiuk Theatre’s first, in 1991; it was later remade, and its second version was also a great success with the theatre audience. The performance was shown in over 30 countries! In 2006, Roman Viktiuk decided to renew the play, which first brought him fame. Now it stars Dmitrii Bozin (Solange), Alexei Nesterenko (Madame), Dmitrii Zhoidik (Clare) and Ivan Nikulcha (Monsieur).

Today the concept of the “Viktiuk Style” has been firmly rooted in the minds of experienced spectators and has become the symbol of bright theatrical events, which radiate subtle psychology together with a spectacular show.