Parallel non-existence of life of Anatoly Vasiliev

ST. PETERSBURG. Presentation of the book by Anatoly Vasiliev Parautopia was held at the BDT.

A meeting at the BDT with director Anatoly Vasiliev and the presentation of his book is an extraordinary event. Having lost the theater, he left Russia. In recent years, mainly European audiences have admired his new performances. In Greece, by Euripides’ Medea, in Hungary by the production of the play of the Goncourt Prize laureate Marguerite Duras, “All day long under the trees” (Des journées entières dans les arbres). The premiere of another play by Duras - La Musica, La Musica deuxième, 1965-1985 - took place in 2016 at Comedie Francaise. The situation was similar with the books of the master. In France, “Seven or Eight Lessons of the Theater” was published, in Hungary - “Theatrical Fugue”, in Italy - “For the Sole Reader”. At home - rare publications about him. Over the years, his students were students of theatrical schools of Lyon and Venice, only this season - beginner actors in the Moscow School of New Cinema.

Parautopia, created in collaboration with renowned art critic and film critic Zara Abdullaeva, is the first opportunity for many years to get out of a deliberately chosen “underground”, to share unkempt thoughts in the native language. With those for whom after “Serso”, “Adult daughter of a young man”, “Solo for hours with a fight”, a completely different theatrical reality came. The unusual title of the book, according to Vasiliev, reflects the parallel non-existence of his life. The creative laboratory he created in 1982 forever changed the life of talented people who believed him. In “Parautopia” the reader will find the master’s dialogues with Zara Abdulaeva, the text of the Paris lecture “From Grotowski to Stanislavsky”, transcripts of notes relating to work on legendary performances, and absurd verses.

The presentation of the book gathered on December 11 in one hall not only folk and legendary - Sokurov, Receptor, Spivak, Basilashvili, but also students in love with the theater and ready for bold experiments. Each of them could repeat after the master: "Go to the theater, do not miss it in your hasty life, look at the living images."

Elena Tanakova © Gallerix.ru