{"id":54222,"date":"2025-09-02T19:46:21","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T18:46:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/?p=54222"},"modified":"2025-09-05T10:49:58","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T09:49:58","slug":"alexander-molochnikov-how-can-you-forbid-creating-something-simply-beautiful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/alexander-molochnikov-how-can-you-forbid-creating-something-simply-beautiful\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexander Molochnikov: \u201cHow can you forbid creating something simply beautiful?\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u2013 You\u2019re bringing your play <\/strong>The Seagull: A True Story<\/em><\/strong> to London, after it sold out at the Ellen Stewart Theatre in New York. In London you\u2019ll be performing at the Marylebone Theatre \u2014 how do you like the venue?<\/strong>
<\/strong>\u2013 It\u2019s a good space. Our play is \u201cred,\u201d so we want to lay out some kind of red carpet from the entrance, like a blood vessel, leading straight into the heart of our show at Marylebone. I hope the audience comes to see us the same way they did in New York!<\/p>\n\n\n

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Photo by Wild Yak Productions<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u2013 You\u2019re used to sold-out shows!<\/strong>
<\/strong>\u2013 I remember when we performed in Moscow at the Yauza Theatre \u2014 that\u2019s way out past the Third Ring Road \u2014 and we had packed houses, everything was great, and the whole cultural elite showed up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Why does <\/strong>The Seagull<\/em><\/strong> have a subtitle?<\/strong>
<\/strong>\u2013 Our Seagull<\/em> is not Chekhov\u2019s Seagull<\/em>; we only take it as a starting point. It\u2019s a play about a young director who wants to stage The Seagull<\/em> in a Moscow theater in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 After the war had already begun?<\/strong>
<\/strong>\u2013 He wants to stage it before, but the war begins during rehearsals, just before the premiere.
So they force him to remake the whole production, to remove everything free and contradictory. And nothing is left.
I was rehearsing this show in the States, where, for various reasons, it\u2019s very hard to make exactly what you want. We worked on The Seagull: A True Story<\/em> for several years. That is, before the war, after the war began, under Biden, and under Trump. These were four very different cultural vectors, so to speak.
In fact, I believe that despite everything, before the war Russia had a very free theatrical space, extremely tolerant. That becomes especially clear now, when you compare it to what you see around you. Then I encountered the American space \u2014 pre-Trump, leftist. And now there\u2019s another turn, some kind of reorientation, frankly not so clear. Here\u2019s a small spoiler: at the beginning of The Seagull<\/em>, the characters advise each other not to mention they\u2019re from Russia, and at the end they say, \u201cYou can say it now, we live in a very good world, a very good world,\u201d as the president says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo by Wild Yak Productions<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Photo by Wild Yak Productions<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 What\u2019s difficult about these cultural vectors?<\/strong>
<\/strong>\u2013 Restrictions. Not only in the political agenda, from angry deputies or Mizulina-types. They\u2019re also in the cultural sphere\u2019s interest in what you\u2019re doing. In the ability to get funding, to push a project through the jungle of rules in that community. In finding a theater. In finding actors willing to work with you. And of course, in ethical questions as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 To what extent can, should, or must an artist respond to the world around them \u2014 political, social \u2014 and how much should they reflect that in their art?<\/strong>
<\/strong>\u2013 Nobody owes anyone anything!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 I often hear the opposite.<\/strong>
<\/strong>\u2013 But by debating with those who say that, you automatically enter into a sort of bargaining. No one owes anyone anything, I really believe that. What did Monet owe anyone when he painted his water lilies? What did Pissarro owe? What did Van Gogh owe when he painted the same landscape over and over from his window?
Of course Shostakovich reflected reality. But Chopin \u2014 not always.
How can you forbid someone from creating something simply beautiful?
I think since February 2022, not just theoretically but practically, we\u2019ve come to understand that everything has become truly tangled, truly complicated. It\u2019s ambiguous. I don\u2019t mean Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine \u2014 that\u2019s unambiguous. But the world as a whole has become confusing. And sometimes, someone who simply creates something beautiful, distracting people from grief for a little while, may be doing something more useful than political films. I say this as a director of political films and political plays.
So, on the one hand, I believe no one owes anything. On the other, when people say \u201cart is outside politics,\u201d I don\u2019t see where politics begins and ends. Obvious question: is war politics or not? Is a bomb falling on you politics or not? Yes, it\u2019s politics. But it\u2019s also a bomb that kills your mother. And yet you\u2019re \u201coutside politics\u201d? We\u2019ve seen in recent years that there\u2019s no clear boundary. They say all great literature about big events is written later, with distance. That\u2019s not necessary. Klaus Mann wrote Mephisto<\/em> in 1936, before the war.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Photo by Wild Yak Productions<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u2013 In that context, is your documentary <\/strong>Extremist<\/em><\/strong>, about Sasha Skochilenko (nominated for a student BAFTA), a film about an artist, or a political statement?<\/strong>
<\/strong>\u2013 For me that boundary is gone. You just do what you feel. But here\u2019s what matters: in Riga, we shot the courtroom scene with Sasha, and we invited people who had also emigrated and were living in Riga \u2014 they played the audience, extras. And when we turned the camera on them, both I and cinematographer Misha Krichman and designer Vlad Ogai \u2014 we all understood why we were doing it. These extras didn\u2019t need anything explained, they knew exactly what it was about. Their eyes said it all. So where does politics end, and life, and art begin?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 You left for the U.S. to study after the war began?<\/strong>
<\/strong>\u2013 Yes, yes, yes, in August. I had just finished shooting the series The Monastery<\/em>. But I had already applied to Columbia University back in November 2021, which was a wonderful coincidence. I\u2019d always felt I needed to learn filmmaking. Theater was easier, because since I was eleven I had been working in a good theater, and I sort of felt my way in it. But in film, even though I directed two movies, I always felt like I was leaning on the professionals I hired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Do you feel kinship with Treplev?<\/strong>
<\/strong>\u2013 No, not at all. That\u2019s a different story, of golden youth. I\u2019m not the son of rich parents. But I was lucky enough to stage a production at the country\u2019s main theater at age 22, whereas Treplev at 22 couldn\u2019t even manage at his own dacha. Of course, Treplev\u2019s sense of life\u2019s tragedy resonates with today\u2019s constant sense of pressure. We don\u2019t know what tomorrow will bring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo by Wild Yak Productions<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 The planning horizon has shrunk, right?<\/strong>
<\/strong>\u2013 What does the planning horizon have to do with it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 That we don\u2019t know what tomorrow holds, and it doesn\u2019t inspire confidence.<\/strong>
<\/strong>\u2013 Maybe they\u2019d even like a shorter horizon. They\u2019re in a crisis of purpose: why wake up every day, what\u2019s the point? Those are wasted lives. The characters of The Cherry Orchard<\/em> aren\u2019t about planning horizons either. Chekhov exists outside the reality of any one country, even outside professions. Sure, he always has a doctor, but outside careerism. Even Lopakhin! Say he gets the estate he dreams of, then comes the railway, progress \u2014 but what exactly are his prospects? What\u2019s his business horizon? We don\u2019t know. I think Chekhov\u2019s characters\u2019 problem isn\u2019t horizons, but not knowing how to live. On the contrary, Uncle Vanya says how unbearably long life is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Did you see Andrew Scott\u2019s <\/strong>Vanya<\/em><\/strong>?<\/strong>
<\/strong>\u2013 Yes, I really liked it. I loved how he shifts from one character to another, not by caricature, not by exaggeration, but by moving essence to essence.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u2013 Are there London actors you\u2019d like to work with?<\/strong>
<\/strong>\u2013 Of course, there are wonderful actors here. We held auditions for one role in The Seagull<\/em>, and I realized we couldn\u2019t invite, say, Indira Varma. But then a marvelous actress came in, not so well-known, but unbelievably good.
I\u2019ve actually lost the desire to work with stars. In Myths<\/em>, I worked only with stars, and the film turned out well. I still think that Bezrukov gave his best performance in Myths<\/em> \u2014 bold, vivid, memorable. But the excitement of \u201cjust working with a star\u201d is gone. What\u2019s interesting is offering an actor something they\u2019ve never done before. That\u2019s very hard. What could you offer Ralph Fiennes that he hasn\u2019t played yet? But if there\u2019s a new angle with an actor, then it\u2019s really exciting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Is there a difference in acting schools \u2014 New York, London, Moscow, St. Petersburg?<\/strong>
<\/strong>\u2013 No, I think there are just good actors and bad ones. It doesn\u2019t depend on city or country. Professionally, it all comes from the same roots. That\u2019s why it\u2019s possible to survive and work. When we first read The Seagull<\/em> in New York, it became clear that we all use the same tools. That was incredible joy \u2014 the best day in recent years. I realized my English was enough to explain what I wanted and to get it from the actors. And they were excited to dive in.
But there is an organizational pattern tied to unions, and that\u2019s a big difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Where is it easier and more pleasant to work?<\/strong>
<\/strong>\u2013 In Russia in 2014, at the Moscow Art Theatre. One hundred percent. No question. Thanks to Tabakov, we learned to love theater as I think it should be. I worked there for eight years in the space he created \u2014 people rehearsed everywhere, morning till night. There was no unprofessionalism, originality was valued, the director\u2019s vision, personal style.
Of course, it\u2019s possible elsewhere \u2014 in New York we had wonderful rehearsals. But they ended strictly on schedule! And that\u2019s not the only restriction from unions. The saddest part is how it seeps into actors\u2019 minds. They believe you need an intimacy coordinator, that you can\u2019t touch each other, that you can\u2019t apply too much psychological pressure, that comfort must come before creativity. Hard to get used to, though it depends on who you surround yourself with.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u2013 For example?<\/strong>
<\/strong>\u2013 In the States, the stage manager is crucial. After the premiere, you can\u2019t speak directly to actors. You have to write notes, pass them to the stage manager \u2014 usually a woman \u2014 and she delivers them. I just don\u2019t get that. There\u2019s no cult of the director. Not that I expect my portraits on the wall, but they didn\u2019t even give me a microphone when rehearsing on stage! I\u2019d done the work in the rehearsal hall, had a draft, but on stage it became the stage manager\u2019s job to transfer it. Fine, then let me do her work \u2014 scheduling \u2014 if we\u2019re swapping jobs! Why is the stage manager allowed to run rehearsals?
But if you find the right stage manager, everything works out. Honestly, if an American director came to Russia, they\u2019d have their own frustrations with our chaos in the workshops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 And how do workshops operate here?<\/strong>
<\/strong>\u2013 I don\u2019t know, we didn\u2019t have them. Try finding a budget for a production with full workshops \u2014 not just a commercial show with three stars, but a real artistic statement. But they say the workshops here do run like clockwork.
And by the way, despite all this, in Tel Aviv, New York, and I hope in London, I\u2019ve managed to create an atmosphere of joy in rehearsals, very much like what I once felt in my past life. I\u2019m grateful to everyone who joined me on this journey.
But to answer \u201cWhere is better?\u201d \u2014 I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any point in speaking about Russia today. Of course, some directors are still working. But how can you talk about theater when Zhenya Berkovich is in prison? I couldn\u2019t possibly go to rehearsals. Maybe I could when Kirill [Serebrennikov] was jailed \u2014 he was our guru. But when it\u2019s a woman you applied with to school? Why can you stage plays, and she can\u2019t?
The news I hear is so depressing. Take Ryzakov at the Theatre of Nations \u2014 he was promised everything, but two weeks before the premiere his name was removed, and the play came out with no director credited.
And doing what we did before would be impossible now. Maybe because of the simplicity of my artistic talent. My first play, 19.14<\/em>, was about WWI, about how France and Germany, friendly and culturally intertwined, began killing each other \u2014 in 2014, the first Russia-Ukraine war had begun. My second, Rebels<\/em>, was about revolutionaries across generations. My third, Bright Path. 19.17<\/em>, about Lenin\u2019s arrival. The fourth, Bulba. Feast<\/em>, turned out to be about the very war that later began \u2014 almost prophetic. When Rogozin in Ukraine read aloud the speech of Taras Bulba, which closes our play, I was stunned.
And finally, Platonov Hurts<\/em> \u2014 about people happily gathering, saying, \u201cWhat a wonderful evening, pity it\u2019s the last\u201d \u2014 and it premiered on February 18, 2022.
The play Crime and Punishment<\/em> at Gesher Theatre was about deciding who has the right to live. And our current Seagull<\/em>\u2014 it\u2019s about everything that\u2019s happened over the last three years. A very funny, cabaret-style show, with great actors. Truly hilarious.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Photo by Wild Yak Productions<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u2013 If you auditioned in London, does that mean some actors come from New York, and some you found here?<\/strong>
<\/strong>\u2013 Everyone except one actress comes from New York. Andrei Burkovsky is also coming from New York. We\u2019re holding a masterclass with him in London. And I hope this won\u2019t be my last project here. We\u2019re doing it precisely because we want to make more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Do you already have plans?<\/strong>
<\/strong>\u2013 We\u2019re thinking! And we\u2019ll definitely invite people from the theater community to our show. We\u2019ll make noise about our presence. In New York we managed it \u2014 we didn\u2019t have a single unsold ticket. May it be the same here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"