“I am practically a citizen of Chicago!” declares Valeryi Beliakovich through an interpreter. Indeed, the maverick Russian director is in town for the fifth time in less than two years, as part of an ongoing exchange program between his Studio Theatre of Moscow- Southwest and the theater department of the University of Illinois at Chicago.
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In Moscow, Beliakovich’s unorthodox directing style has earned him and his troupe, in less than a decade, much respect and renown. His 120- seat theater is packed for every performance, and fans don’t mind waiting months for tickets–a far cry from the early days, in the mid-70s, when this graduate of the prestigious drama school GITIS (State Institute of Theater and Cinema) and his childhood buddies entertained for a pittance at “beaches and summer camps.” The only trained actor among them, he had decided against a traditional career. They soon established a studio theater, Beliakovich says, when “the authorities of the southwest workers’ sector [of Moscow] gave us a small space.” Despite threats of censorship, they mounted productions of “foreign plays like Beckett and Ionesco.”
The Studio Theatre-Southwest’s remarkable success can be attributed to its pool of talented though not formally trained actors, to its unusual 30-play repertoire, and to Beliakovich’s striking direction. Lighting is a critical element in his mise-en-scene: actors often appear in spotlights on a darkened stage, the shafts of light carving out psychological spaces. Beliakovich says he was inspired by Rembrandt: “The light focuses the attention on the face, the eyes. That is essential.” A British critic reviewing his Hamlet of two years ago noted, “A distracted Ophelia darts across the stage pursued by aggressive pools of light. It is the most harrowing ‘mad scene’ I have ever seen.” Beliakovich is amused by suggestions that his theatrics bring to mind the Living Theater and Peter Brooks, whose works he’s only heard about, and credits a teacher at GITIS for stressing “the internal self-image of the world as well as ideas about emotional presentation and rhythmic flow.” He also feels strongly that Russian theater should “become more colloquial, more about life and people, about broader moral questions like love.”
