Actress Tatyana Vasilyeva spoke about her fear of the Lenkom stage

– Were you invited to Lenkom on a permanent basis or for one-time performances?

– Most likely, constantly. I’m just still thinking about it myself: until I play, I won’t make a final decision. “I don’t want to let anyone down,” people’s actress Tatyana Vasilyeva shares with MK.

– Is it scary to go on stage at Lenkom?

– Of course, it’s scary. I’m generally afraid to go on stage; I haven’t worked in the theater for many years. I hope that the theater where I started will return to me. I want to try it. In general, I try a lot in my life.

– What was your relationship with Lenkom’s prima Ina Churikova?

– Not at all. I simply idolized her and continue to idolize her. She is our best actress, she was, is and will be. Her passing is a huge irreparable and unfortunate loss.

– In “Marriage” for many years the matchmaker Fekla Ivanovna was played by Inna Churikova, now the role of the matchmaker is played by the Lenkom actress Tatyana Kravchenko. Will you play with her?

– We will probably play together in different lineups. I don’t really know the situation with this role, but I’m invested in it and I have to play it on October 10th.

– How did the Lenkom actors perceive your joining the theater troupe?

– I do not know. I wasn’t interested and didn’t talk to anyone about this topic, especially since I don’t know almost anyone there.

– Now you have given the right of the first night to the theater. But you’re not going to work at Lenkom for a salary, are you?

– No, absolutely! Until I played it, I’m not touching on this topic yet. It’s somehow strange for me to join the troupe without some serious reason. This is what I am most afraid of – what if it doesn’t work out or they will be unhappy with me, and I will already be legally tied to them. Although I understand that I cannot fail the role, I decided to play it safe. I’ll play, then we’ll talk about what they’ll pay me, when and whether they’ll pay me at all. This theater is important to me.

– And you haven’t concluded an agreement with Lenkom yet?

– Not yet. They wanted to, but I’m not ready yet myself. I don’t want to let them down. Moreover, I have many obligations to the system in which I currently work. Now the tour is just beginning.

I still want to have time to play in the premiere performance of a fashionable director in the capital. Based on Gorky’s play “At the Lower Depths,” I play a different Nastya, not an inhabitant of the flophouse. I will neither cough painfully nor die in this play, and my husband will be very young – as is now fashionable in the capital. This is practically about Moscow life and the action of the play takes place not in a rooming house, but in a club.

– According to your partners, you received 100,000 rubles for entering the enterprise. How much will it cost to attend a performance in Lenkom?

– I haven’t discussed my fees yet. They are premature even out of pure superstition. Well, why should I declare my value to the theater without having done anything for it yet? It’s somehow indecent.

– Do you have any close contacts with the leading actors of Lenkom?

– No. I lived on my own for a long time, outside the group, outside the theater. Although for 13 years at Satire and 10 years at Mayakovka, the teams of these theaters did not become my family. I don’t like these gatherings and conversations – I always have no time. I am always in a hurry either to get to the train or plane, or to go to my family.

I don’t know the situation in Lenkom, but judging by the first day of the opening of the season, I realized that the team there is very friendly, somehow they are determined to communicate with each other. I don’t know if I’ll join the team and whether I need to do it, I just want to play in the theater and in Lenkom, in particular – I really want to. Lenkom has always been interesting to me, especially when Mark Zakharov was alive.

– And you and Zakharov talked about cooperation?

– Yes, sure. He and I came to the Satire Theater at the same time (in 1965 – editor’s note), when he left for Lenkom (in 1973 – editor’s note), he invited me to play in his new performances, but I did not dare to leave the Theater Satire and I was not able to work with him then, although I really wanted to. The second time Zakharov called me was when he had heart surgery in Germany. He called me straight from the hospital and asked, “Are you still walking around without any roof over your head? Come on, come!” I was somehow nervous then, because these changes would have caused a big commotion in my life. But no one talked to me about this topic anymore, because some undercurrents began there. And for the third time Warshawer offered me. And this time it worked out – he is a very nice person, I enjoy communicating with him.

– Lenkom Director Mark Varshaver has so far offered you two roles in Mark Zakharov’s plays – “Marriage” and “Shute Balakirev”?

“They gave me a whole stack of plays that I had to be introduced to.” But gradually, of course. Because the entry of an actor into old performances is like death for any artist. When the actors have already played in the cast, another element that begins to appear there will, of course, be annoying. I saw this performance a long time ago, in the first cast with Yankovsky and Abdulov. Of this composition, only Zbruev remained.

– How did you perceive the role of matchmaker?

– At first I was surprised. I’m always interested in doing something that I’ve never done before. I’ve been sitting with the text all summer, rehearsals are starting soon.

– Is your regular change of image an end in itself or a desire to surprise?

– Not really! Well, what about you, sir? Whatever came to hand, I put on. I haven’t been interested in making an impression on anyone for a long time now. And that doesn’t bother me. The last thing I’m interested in is surprising anyone. I’m interested in being surprised myself.

– Why do your colleagues call you Lady Gaga in the theater and film world?

– I’m hearing it for the first time. In my opinion, nothing to do with her. In general, who knows her and what is her character and what is her talent? I don’t care what they call me – not a lady, it’s even worse.