WHO IS BARYSHNIKOV? Born in 1948 in Riga, after a spectacular career in Leningrad’s Kirov Ballet, he left for New York, where he soon became a champion of the American Ballet Theatre (ABT). Five years la- ter, he was appointed ABT Director. However, in 2005 he laun- ched his own Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York, a creati- ve space for presenting and nurturing multidisciplinary artists from around the world. Baryshnikov is also an Oscar-nomina- ted actor who also gained wider popularity for his role in the popular TV series Sex and the City. He is also recognised as a photographer.
now done? The first was a quarter of a century ago, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kaf- ka. Then we did a show with Rezo Gabri- adze, then Bunin’s In Paris with Dmitry Krymov. Then it was the turn of Beckett, then Chekhov’s The Man in a Case, Harms’ The Old Woman with Willem Dafoe, direct- ed by Robert Wilson. Then Vaslav Nijinsky, which I still perform – that’s the play Let- ter to a Man. And now this, eighth one... Did you expect to have a second li- fe – that of a drama actor? No. I was encouraged by Roman Polan- ski. He made me believe in myself. If I hadn’t watched him on the stage, that wouldn’t have happened. Roman performed in the play The Metamorphosis directed by Ste- ven Berkoff, the English playwright and director. I went to see him several times. Roman and I socialised and one evening at dinner I admitted to him: “How lucky you got – what a wonderful role. And you played it unbelievably”. And he calmly re- plied: “You have to do the same”. And he added how he’d performed in French, and
has passed. Unexpectedly in conscious- ness he reaches New York, although the décor does not suggest that. We met in many places, sometimes we travelled around Europe, we also saw each oth- er in Florida, London, Paris, but the tone of our conversations – it was a New York tone. Morton Street, exit on the Hudson or under the Brooklyn Bridge. The places where we would wander – China Town or the bridge in Manhattan. How that is brought to life, I do not know. It could be that the trick is in a certain manner of reading. The director chose intonations diligently. We spent a long time search- ing for the tone and tempo. The rhythm of speech is very important, given that synchronised translation is displayed all the time throughout the show. And the subtitles are part of the décor - promoted in front of the eyes of the viewer. And we performed that way in Hebrew in Israel, in Italian in Italy, and in Latvia the transla- tion was used, as well as in New York, and it will be used in Belgrade and London. How many theatre shows have you
Brodski i Barišnjikov, Njujork, 1985. Brodsky and Baryshnikov, New York City, 1985
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