Dzianis Marcinovič
In October 1990 the famous Yanka Kupala’s play banned for long decades returned to the stage. The version of The Locals suggested by the director Mikalai Pinihin turned into a cult and became one of the symbols of the new epoch.
In the former Soviet Union the creative level of the Yanka Kupala Theatre was greatly appreciated. Last but not least this reputation was built thanks to Valery Rajeŭski, who headed the theater in the early 1970s. As the director Taciana Trajanovič says, “Rajeŭski staged truly remarkable performances. They were plays in the Belarusian language on the issues of human values. For example, in Dudaraŭ’s play The Ordinary Ones the problem of the Soviet people’s heroism was dealt with. But a director who would find enough courage to face national themes was needed. Someone who would say that we are really a separate nation. And Mikalai Pinihin became such a person“.
Mikalai Pinihin
Mikalai Pinihin was born in Minsk, he graduated from the Belarusian Theatre and Art Institute and got the qualification of a TV director. Pinihin came to the Kupala Theatre in 1984 and in the course of six years he staged seven plays. One of them took a firm place in the Belarusian theatrical history. It is Harold and Maude — the play where the great Stefanija Staniuta starred for the last time. The spectators got used to “perceiving Staniuta as someone wearing boots, a kerchief and a jacket, — her son, the literary critic Alexander Staniuta, said later. — So when my mother started to play the main role in the play Harold and Maude with music, dances, London and champagne many people said: „This is not Staniuta!„ For her this performance was like a godsend“.
THE WAY THE LOCALS MADE TO THE STAGE
The fate of this play of Yanka Kupala’s turned out to be not so simple. The Locals was finished in 1922. In 1926 the Belarusian State Theatre-1 (the name the theatre had had before the Second World War) decided to stage the play. To prevent censorship claims, a number of replicas were taken out of the play. And Kupala himself characterized the work as „tragic and humorous scenes“. But after the first show the General Directorate for the Affairs of Literature and Publishing of the BSSR removed The Locals from the repertoire (as if meeting the author’s requests to finish the play). The third volume of Kupala’s collected works where the play was being published, was removed from the public use. In fact, The Locals was banned.
The director Valery Masluk tried to get the play back on stage in 1982. In the Mahilou Drama Theatre he staged a play where he combined the text of The Locals with the poem The Eternal Song (and he himself came on stage taking up the role of the teacher Janka Zdolnik). In addition, to calm down the local authorities, the show ended with a show of the current state red-green flag accompanied by the sounds of the national anthem. But he did not succeed in deceiving the censors from the capital: in the same year, after the show in Minsk, The Locals again were put aside hidden „on the shelf“.
Finally, the last attempt to return the play took place in the same 1982. Then the 100th anniversary of the birth of Yanka Kupala’s and Yakub Kolas’ was celebrated. Michail Dubianiecki, the director of „Mastackaja litaratura“ („Fiction“) publishing house, suggested to publish the almanac „Spadčyna“ („Heritage“). And on its pages — to publish the play The Locals. And although the texts were prefaced by an introduction written by the famous playwright Andrej Makajonak, who had a great authority in power, it did not help. The printing was cancelled, and the publication of the almanac — prohibited.
The Locals, dir. M.Pinihin
From Leanid Drańko-Majsiuk’s interview given to Radio Svaboda on December 5, 2001: “In various times Yanks Kupala’s works have not been welcomed, since they are not always psychologically comfortable even for ourselves, the Belarusians. In these works, including The Locals, that great truth about us is kept, which we do not always want to know”.
We had to wait for the time of perestroika, when the works that had been banned started returning to the readers.
In 1988 following the initiative of the theatre historian Anatol Sabaleŭski the magazine „Połymia“ („The Flame“) published the complete text of the play. Thus after two years one should not look for a permission to stage the play at the Kupala Theatre. The preparation for the premiere took place in an atmosphere of openness. More and more people who openly showed their political position were getting involved into socio-political life. No wonder that at the eve of the premiere one episode took place, which just a few years ago could have been unthinkable: several actors resigned from Communist Party. Among them there were Valancin Bielachvoscik, Hienadź Davydźka and Viktar Manajeŭ. Manajeŭ said his last goodbye to the Belarusian Communist Youth League, too (in 1980 he had been voted for joining the Central Committee of this organization)
BETWEEN POLAND AND RUSSIA
What did the spectators of the Kupala Theatre see when they came to the premiere on October 17, 1990? The stage designer Barys Hierlavan suggested a vertep (a portable puppet theatre) to form the basis of scenography. It was set at the forefront in the center of the stage. On its right there was an Orthodox church, on its left — a Catholic one. White and black angels (each accompanied by two assistants) came up on stage, each of them representing the beginning of good and bad. They opened the vertep at the back of the stage and took off the dolls hanging in it. The sashes were opened. A cradle with a baby got down to the stage. A Catholic priest immediately approached it, telling a prayer in Polish. Then came an Orthodox priest — he was performing his service in Russian. This scene is missing in Yanka Kupala’s play. But it does look very natural: the neighbors’ struggle for the child’ soul begins already from the cradle.
From Mikalai Pinihin’s interview given to the newspaper „Soviet Belarus“ on July 6, 2002:
“Kupala was very precise in describing the situation in Belarus. This is a region which would always remain either East or West. In this case not a geopolitical, but a psychological struggle occurred on our territory for what this land would be: Western civilization or a civilization created according to the Eastern manner. On the other hand, there have always been and there will always be people who yearn for a „pure„ independence, as Janka Zdolnik, a character from the play. And thus the play will never die”.
WE ALL ARE THE LOCALS
The post-revolutionary period, when the action in The Locals takes place was one of the most difficult ones for the Belarusians. New government was changing fast. After the royal administration the country was headed by the Provisional Government. Later it was replaced by the Bolsheviks (the action of the play begins on the eve of their departure). After the Germans came. Then the Bolsheviks came back, they were forcefully replaced by the Poles… and finally the Bolsheviks did manage to win.
Pinihin and Hierłavan managed to present visually all these political changes: the invaders from the west were going out of the Catholic church, which appeared almost frontally. In a mirrored version the same could be observed also when the invaders were moving from the east. In the middle there was a place for the locals, which both the warring parties were claiming for. The occupation authorities were also symbolically shown. The same actor (Uladzimir Kin-Kaminski) played the parts of the German and the Polish officers, as well as the Chief of the Red Army Patrol. Each of the invaders in turn tried to rape Hanula Znosčycha, the mother (played by the actress Maryja Zacharevič), who was perceived as a generic symbol of Belarus.
The figure of Mikita Znosak became undoubtedly the central one in the play. The character was trying to adapt to all the political regimes.
THE PLAY’S FUTURE
In Pinihin’s opinion, in The Locals „all the Belarussian history is reflected, all the features of the Belarussian mentality“. As the director asserted, the play presents „the author’s very harsh and true viewpoint of the Belarusian past, the Belarusian present and, unfortunately, the Belarusian future“. The destiny of the characters is shown in the final part of the play, which became one of its strongest fragments. The Red Army soldiers led by the Chief of Patrol, who came to Mikita Znosak, remain on the scene. They represent the new government, which for seven long decades has been settled in Belarus.
First, The Red Army soldiers killed Mikita Znosak. Then in turn performers with puppets in their hands went out. Shots are heard — the doll characters heads fly into the pit. Further the repression move to the Catholic and Orthodox churches. Finally, Janka Zdolnik falls into the pit, too. The black angels unfold a red canvas which stands for the innocent victims’ blood from the empty cradle, which descends from the upper tier of the vertep. Then the white angels take a white canvas out of the cradle. Thus, the white-red-white flag is formed which rises up accompanied by the sounds of choral.
This is how the national symbols returned to the Kupala Theatre. The following year the white-red-white flag became a state one. A year later, in 1992, already in the independent Belarus The Locals were awarded the State Prize.
The last shows of the cult play took place in June, 2007. And in May, 2010 Mikalai Pinihin, who became the head of the Theatre, officially stated that the play had been completely relocated into the archive. Ihar Skrypka, the head of the literary part of the theater, named the following reasons: „the scenery became obsolete“, „the artists got too old“, „the play itself got outdated“. They say that Pinihin himself made a comment to the former Minister of Culture Paviel Latuška claiming that „each show has its da …“.
In reality, the compromise most likely had taken place.
For about ten years Pinihin had been working in St. Petersburg, at the Bolshoi Drama Theatre named after Tovstonogov. Inviting the director to Minsk, the Ministry of Culture must have give him a guarantee of long-term work. And at the same time the decision on the destiny of The Locals should have been taken, since the presence of the play on stage for a long time had not been comfortable for some people. Perhaps, Pinihin agreed not to renew the production. Instead, the director was allowed to put on a performance on the related topic. Thus, he staged Translations — a story on the colonization of Ireland by England, where the English language was displacing the Irish. It is significant that in the play the English speak Russian whereas the Irish use Belarusian. But for various reasons to repeat the success of The Locals has never been possible.
“I will tell a controversial idea: if The Locals were staged now, the play might not be such a success — the director Taciana Trajanovič says, — Pinihin’s play was in its time. And he became a symbol of that time. And this is a sign of really cult productions”.
But a few years later the government policy changed. Not surprisingly, several times The Locals disappeared from the posters. Then at the public’s request the play got back again.
Dzianis Marcinovič, special for 90s.by
Photos from The Yanka Kupala Theatre archive.
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