Victor Denisov

Victor L. Denisov
Born Victor Denisov
(1944-01-17)17 January 1944
Moscow, USSR
Nationality Russian
Occupation Russian playwright. The author of 33 plays.

Victor L. Denisov (Victor Leonovich Denisov) (17 January 1944, Moscow, USSR) – a Russian playwright. The author of 33 plays. Known for depicting reality in forms and displays that are not typical to the Russian theater. A member of the Moscow Writers Union (1995) and of the Theater Workers Union of the Russian Federation. A specialist in American 20th century drama. A translator of more than 20 plays from English, as well as of novels, novellas, short stories and essays. Ph.D. in philology (1982).

Biography

Parents

Victor Denisov was born on 17 January 1944 in Moscow to a family of classical musicians. The father Leon Sachs (20 April 1918, Windsor (Canada) – 20 August 1977, Аthens (Greece) was a Soviet musician, a virtuoso violinist, the principal violin of the Bolshoy Theater Symphony Orchestra, one of the leading pedagogues of the Soviet violin school.
The mother Muza Denisova (8 August 1922, Kaluga – 23 October 2003, Moscow) was a Soviet piano pedagogue, a pianist; one of the leading pedagogues of the Gnessin Seven Year School.

Early years

When Denisov turned seven, he started studying the violin art from his father Leon Sachs at the Gnessin Seven Year School. When 11, he performed on the stage of the conservatory's Smaller Chamber Hall amongst other gifted students. After four years of instruction, Victor has abandoned his music studies against the will of his parents. In the last years of middle school he became infatuated with jazz: he played the french horn and then the trumpet at the Loktev Song and Dance Ensemble. However, V. Denisov had no desire to become a musician. From little up, he was attracted by letters, not by sounds.

The love of theater was a legacy from his father. L.Sachs came to the Bolshoy as a violin soloist, worked there for 32 years and never stopped admiring its festivity and grandeur. His son followed him along to rehearsals and performances since early childhood. At the age of five, impressed by Mikhail Glinka's opera «Ruslan and Lyudmila» Victor Denisov has first endeavored to write a play. It was called «Khalvin and Khalvitsa».

Victor's maternal grandfather Nikolay Denisov has been a descendant of an aristocratic family, a graduate of the Lomonosov Moscow State University's medical department, a military doctor and a big admirer of theater. On Christmas he often entertained domestic performances and himself participated in them. When a high school senior, V. Denisov has also performed on the stage – he played the Baron in Maxim Gorky's «The Lower Depths» (in a school production) and even considered applying to an acting school. Yet the thirst for words took the upper hand, and in 1962 (just like his grandfather) he entered the philological department of the Lomonosov Moscow State University (MGU).

Career

In 1967 Denisov graduated from MGU having majored in the three following disciplines: Russian as a foreign language, English and foreign literature. From 1967 to 1968 he worked as a reader at the Intourist – the only foreign tourist organization in the USSR of the 60s. From 1968 to 1970 he taught Russian as a foreign language at the preparatory department of MGU, and from 1970 to 1975 – at the Russian department of Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University. From 1977 to 1982 Denisov lectured on foreign literature at the Maurice Thorez Moscow State Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages.

From 1978 to 1990 Denisov served as a literary consultant, a senior academic editor of the Progress Publishers – Soviet Union’s main publishing house for literature in foreign languages. Denisov was in charge of studying and analyzing the Anglophone book market abroad; he selected books for purchase and wrote reviews for books published by Penguin Books, Pan Books, Granada Publishing and the Scottish printing company William Collins, Sons. It was thanks to V. Denisov's involvement that the Russian book market first saw the original works of Samuel Beckett, Saul Bellow, Ray Bradbury, Anthony Burgess, Graham Greene, Aldous Huxley, James Joyce, D.H. Lawrence, Somerset Maugham, George Orwell, J.B. Priestly, Peter Ustinov, Gore Vidal, Kurt Vonnegut, Evelyn Waugh, Oscar Wilde, Tennessee Williams and many others.
From 1992 to 1996 Denisov worked as the literary director assistant at the «Laboratory» Drama Theater (Moscow). From 1997 to 1999 he served as the deputy of the Theater Messenger's editor-in-chief.
From 2002 onwards Victor Denisov is engaged exclusively in the writing of plays.

Creative Work

In 1968 Denisov wrote his first play – «Terrarium». The experience of working at the Intourist and the aftermath of the Prague Spring of 1968 served as the creative impetus. The play's form is a dramaturgic fantasy, in which an employee of a tourist firm is eaten by her colleagues and the firm's president under a dressing; yet, in essence, the play is a theatrical satire on the Soviet reality. The author took arms against the falsehood, hypocrisy and dogmas, which invaded life and art with the beginning of Leonid Brezhnev's reign at the end of the Khrushchev «thaw». One of the playwright's targets was one of social realism's main postulates – the «positive hero of our times». The hero of «Terrarium» is not even a human being, but a newt.

The next plays by V. Denisov are also «dedicated» to the Soviet period: «Paint the Roses in Red», «Guards on the Dam», «The Clown», «The Stray Streetcar»; the play «Skiers» is dedicated to the Perestroika period. Several generations of Russian intelligentsia of the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century became the protagonists of the plays «When the Saints Go Marching In», «Invited to the Feast», «See You Later, Alligator», «Heller in Pink Tights», «Christmas Eve» and others.

In 1987 Victor Denisov's debut as a playwright took place on the Moscow stage. It was the third year of Perestroika – the theater was in need of a new theatrical language. The Moscow New Drama Theater commissioned the staging of the American play «All in the Garden» (V. Denisov was supposed to provide its new translation). Yet the director Petr Stein, invited from the Lenin Komsomol Moscow Theater, had decided to make the stage adaptation of the play by Giles Cooper and Edward Albee in the spirit of the recent changes in Russia. And so V. Denisov's sharp and loud «The Garden Feast» was born – a tragical farce on the ruinous power of money that pushes people to lechery and crime.

The Chief Administration of Culture had shut the performance down, claiming it defamed the moral principles of the Soviet man. Luckily, many influential cultural figures have stood up for the performance: the critics Boris Lyubimov, Mikhail Shvydkoi, the poet and journalist of the Moscow Komsomol newspaper Alexander Aronov, the actress Natalia Varley, the artists of the Lenin Komsomol Moscow Theater – Oleg Yankovsky, Alexander Abdulov, Irina Alferova, and its artistic director Mark Zakharov. «The Garden Party» was resurrected and performed on the stage of the New Dramatic Moscow Theater until 1989, enjoying full houses in every performance.

In 1989 V. Denisov wrote the shortest Russian play ever – «Primum Agere» («Act!») – slightly more than half a page of text – a «happening» scenario on the unpredictable paths of Russia's possible development. This play entered V. Denisov's first collection of original plays «Six Specters of Lenin on a Piano», published in 1998. Five years earlier, in 1993, the play «Six Specters of Lenin on a Piano», dedicated to Russia's tragic fate in the 20th century, was staged at the «Laboratory» Drama Theater (Moscow) by its artistic director Andrey Rossinsky. The known theater critic John Freedman has commented upon the apparent paradoxes of the play: «The trick is that no one hits too hard on the obvious metaphors of Lenin-as-insect or the intellectual as his own worst enemy… And if there is a message to be gleaned from it all, it's one of reconciliation. As if author Denisov were saying, «Hey, my heritage may be baffling. But it's mine. All of it!» (A Bold, New Playwright Tackles Dalí, Lenin. By John Freedman. The Moscow Times, Thursday, 16 September 1993). «Six Specters…» is the first of V. Denisov’s dramatic trilogy «20th Century Tyrants». The second play of the trilogy – «Scared as of Bin Laden» – touches upon international terrorism – the disease of the 21st century. The third – «Shall We Resurrect Karabas?» – examines the relationship of tyrant and victim.

In 1996 the prominent Russian director Roman Viktiuk proposed to Denisov to create a Russian scenic version of Billy Wilder's cult American movie Sunset Boulevard. The premiere of Victor Denisov's melodrama «Sunset Boulevard» took place at the Russian Theater of Estonia (Tallinn) in 1998. The part of the silent cinema star Norma Desmond was played by the Soviet and Ukrainian stage and film actress Ada Rogovtseva. The performance has toured in the Baltic Countries, Russia, Ukraine, Israel and USA.

The craft of playwriting combined with academic education makes Denisov's translations of plays easily «speakable», not requiring a scenic adaptation. V. Denisov was the first in Russia to translate Tennessee Williams' «Camino Real», «Period of Adjustment», «The Lady of Larkspur Lotion»; Harold Pinter's «The Lover»,«The Homecoming»; Arthur Miller's «Creation of the World and Other Business», Edward Albee's «American Dream».

Performances based on V. Denisov's plays and translations have featured such actors as Liya Akhedzhakovа, Victor Gvozditsky, Vyacheslav Grishechkin, Alexander Dzyuba, Valery Zadonsky, Alexander Ivashkevich, Kirill Kozakov, Sergey Makovetsky, Boris Nevzorov, Andrey Nevraev, Lyubov Novak, Lyudmila Odiyankova, Evgeny Paperny, Dmitry Pisarenko, Alexander Rezalin, Evgeniya Simonova, Vladimir Shevyakov and other known Russian stage and film actors.

In November 2011 the oldest artist of the famed Russian stage, a «Vakhtangovian» Vladimir Etush performed the role of Gregory Solomon in an excerpt of Arthur Miller's «The Price» (translated by V. Denisov) in a jubilee performance dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the Vakhtangov Theater (artistic director – Rimas Tuminas).

From 1974 to 2001 Denisov wrote around 500 articles on the issues of contemporary theater, drama, literature and art. He was published in the «Contemporary Drama» almanac, the magazines «Theatrical Life», «Contemporary Fiction Abroad», «Social Sciences Abroad», in the «Prompter» foreign drama magazine, the biweeklies «Screen and Stage», «Arguments and Facts», in the «Public Thought Abroad» book review, in the «Independent Newspaper», in the newspapers «Evening Moscow», «The Evening Club», «The Moscow Pravda» («The Moscow Truth»), «The Theatrical Messenger», and in the theatrical newspaper «Doctor Chekhov» and «Little Madame» («Sudarushka»).

Singularities of Dramatic Work

«I'm quite far away from staging my entire life – that would be too conceited. But practically everything that I've written did take place in reality; plus imagination, of course, if not that – I would be a realist – and that's not my thing at all.» (V. Denisov «The Playwright's Address to the Audience». The theater programme of the serious comedy «See you Later, Alligator» in the M.Rudomino Library for Foreign Literature, 2009, Moscow.)

Denisov is known for experimenting with form. He works on the verge of several genres, widely utilizing the metaphor. The foundation of a Victor Denisov play is an original idea, an entertaining plot and the unpredictability of denouement. Denisov attributes much importance to the role of music in a dramatic performance. Laughter is oftentimes one of the protagonists in many of his plays.

«Denisov can write clever dialogue and has a nice flair for situation and characterization. That's no mean feat». (From: Moscow Performances. The New Russian Theater 1991–1996 (page 57). By John Freedman. Harwood Academic Publishers, 1997.

Denisov considers Nikolay Gogol, Mikhail Saltykov-Schedrin and Evgeny Shvartz to be his playwriting teachers. He has also learned the professional craft from Edward Albee and Eugène Ionesco.

Participation in Festivals

The 1st International Festival of Young Drama «Lyubimovka-92» (When the Saints Go Marching In), The 1st International Drama Festival of the Alexander S.Onassis Public Benefit Foundation «Athens-2002» (Her Majesty's Diamonds).

Academic Work

The Philosophical Quest of Jerome David Salinger. (The first publication of the student Victor Denisov). Abstracts of Presentations by Young Academics at an MGU Academic Conference. Moscow: MGU Publishing House,1968.
Ph.D. Thesis. «Romantic Foundations of T. Williams' Method. (The Singularity of Conflict in the Playwright's Works)». Moscow, 1982.

Family

Married to Elena Stepanova – philologist, theater critic, pedagogue.
Children: Rufina (born 1977.), journalist; Margarita (born 1988), architect.

Bibliography

Original plays

  1. «Terrarium» (a fantastic fairy-tale without a hint at anything that ever existed anywhere or anytime with prologue, dialogue, monologue and epilogue). 1968
  2. «Aegeus and Theseus» (an antique tragedy in twelve episodes). 1977
  3. «Guards on the Dam» (a grotesque in 4 scenes). 1981, 2010
  4. «Skiers» (a one-act parabola). 1989
  5. «Primum Agere» («Act!») (a happening). 1989, 2012
  6. «When the Saints Go Marching In» (a two-act farcical parable). 1990, 2010
  7. «Love of One's Native Hearth» (a one-act unhistorical comical drama). 1991
  8. «Six Specters of Lenin on a Piano» (somewhat of a hallucination based on Salvador Dalí's painting of the same name). 1993
  9. «The Christmas Star» (a miracle play for children and adults in five scenes). 1995
  10. «Invited to the Feast» (a one-act metaphysical drama). 1996
  11. «English According to Shakespeare's Method» (joking with the classic in two acts with one intermission). 1998, 2011
  12. «The Clown» (a dramatic buffoonery in eight gags). 1999
  13. «The Stray Streetcar» (a one-act anti-mystery play on the Soviet Epoch). 2000
  14. «Her Majesty's Diamonds» (a musical fairy-tale based on the songs and images of the «Beatles» in two acts and ten scenes). 2002, 2012
  15. «Scared as of Bin Laden» (a two-act black comedy). 2003
  16. «See You Later, Alligator» (a four-act serious comedy). 2004
  17. «Lenaia» (a one-act theatrical satire). 2005
  18. «Heller in Pink Tights» (a one-act anecdotal story with prologue and epilogue). 2006
  19. «Casanova in the Butterfly Kingdom» (a one-act allegorical farce). 2007
  20. «Christmas Eve» (a one-act dramedy). 2008
  21. «A Sodomite Fantasy in Gayish Shades» (a five-act thriller in Old Testament style in three divertissements). 2010
  22. «Shall we Resurrect Karabas?» (burlesque – a one-act fairy-tale for grown ups about puppet life). 2011
  23. «Playing «Pok-ta-Pok» (a one-act comical science fiction with an epilogue). 2011

Adaptations

  1. «Paint the Roses in Red» (a four-act nonsense drama based on Lewis Carroll's «Alice in Wonderland»). 1974, 2012
  2. «Ram Story» (a two-act allegorical drama based on Mikhail Saltykov-Schedrin's fairy-tale «The Oblivious Ram»). 1983
  3. «The Garden Party» (a two-act tragical farce based on Giles Cooper's and Edward Albee's «Everything in the Garden»). 1986
  4. «A Clockwork Orange» (a two-act morality play in eight scenes based on Anthony Burghess' novella of the same name). 1994
  5. «Mug Shoved onto a Stool» (extravaganza – a two-act freestyle fantasy in six scenes. Follows the motives of Bulat Okudzhava's novella «Shipov's Adventure or an Old Vaudeville: a True Incident»). 1994
  6. «Sunset Boulevard» (a melodrama in five scenes – a scenic version of Billy Wilder's film of the same name; script authors: Billy Wilder, Charles Bracket, D.M. Marshman Jr.). 1996
  7. «I Want a Gulliver Woman» (a two-act clip-comedy based on Irwin Shaw's novella «Small Saturday»). 1999
  8. «Doll in a Pink Silk Dress» (a two-act melodrama based on Leonard Merrick's novella of the same name). 2000
  9. «The House Party» (a three-act drama based on a short story of Stanley Ellin of the same name). 2009
  10. «Bandar-logy» (a two-act parody-buff drama based on Rudyard Kipling). 2012

Translations of plays from English

Tennessee Williams

Eugene O'Neill

Edward Albee

Harold Pinter

Arthur Miller

David Mamet

Joe Orton

Matthew Witten

Theater Productions

From the «Chamber Theater» cycle at the Bakhrushin Museum

From the «Theater Without a Microphone» cycle

An artistic meeting with the playwright Victor Denisov. «See You Later, Alligator» – concert performance and discussion. Director – Lyudmila Odiyankova. The M. Rudomino Library for Foreign Literature, Moscow. (27 March 2009)

Publications in Books

Separate Publications of Plays and Essays Translated from English by Victor Denisov

In the «Contemporary Drama» almanac

In the «Theatrical Life» magazine

In the «Screen and Stage» weekly

In the «Prompter» foreign drama magazine

In the «Contemporary Fiction Abroad» magazine

Victor Denisov as an Essayist (annotations – surveys – reviews – essays)

In the «Contemporary Drama» almanac

In the «Prompter» foreign drama magazine

Instead of an Afterword. Prepared for the publication of T.Williams' play «Clothes for a Summer Hotel», 1992, № 4. Happy Anniversary! (Instead of an Afterword). Prepared for the publication of A. Miller's play «The Creation of the World and Other Business», 1995, № 4.

In the «Contemporary Fiction Abroad» magazine

In the «Social Sciences Abroad» magazine

In the «Public Thought Abroad» book review

Madsen D. USSA.1991, December, №12.

In the Moscow University Herald

The Evolution of Genre in Arthur Miller's Drama. 1991, №2, series 9.

V. Denisov's Translations of Prose from English (novels – novellas – short stories)

  1. Irwin Shaw. A short story. In: Whispers in Bedlam (works of European and American Prose Masters, Dedicated to Sports). Physical Education and Sports: Moscow, 1982.
  2. Hugh Garner. «Wait Until You're Asked» (a short story). In: The Lamp at Noon. Stories of Teenagers by Canadian Writers. Molodaya Gvardiya: Moscow, 1986.
  3. Stanley Ellin. «The Best of Everything» (novella), «The House Party» (novella). In: Death of Christmas Eve. Raduga: Moscow,1992.
  4. Ray Bradbury. «The Machineries of Joy» (a novella), «The Life Work of Juan Dias» (a novella). In: To the Chicago Abyss. The Progress Publishing Group, «Bestseller»: Moscow, 1993.
  5. William Burnett. The Little Caesar: A Collection of Contemporary American Detective Novels. Raduga: Moscow,1993.
  6. Hammond Innes . «Levkas Man» (a novel). In : A Corpse for Christmas.. Anthology of the Foreign Detective Novel. The Moscow Worker : Moscow, 1994.
  7. Richard Condon. The Oldest Confession . Centropoligraph: Moscow, 1995.

Articles

  1. (English) Marina Blagonravova. «The Many Incarnations of Lenin». The Moscow Tribune, Tuesday, 2 November 1993.
  2. (English) John Freedman. «A Bold, New Playwright Tackles Dalí, Lenin». The Moscow Times, Thursday, 16 September 1993.
  3. (English) John Freedman. «Six Specters of Lenin on a Piano», the «Laboratory»Theater. From: Moscow Performances. The New Russian Theater 1991–1996 (page 57). Harwood Academic Publishers, 1997.
  4. (English) Charles Evans. «Pinter in Russia», p. 173. The Cambridge Companion to Harold Pinter. 2nd Edition. Series: Cambridge Companions to Literature. Edited by Peter Raby. Homerton College, Сambridge, March 2009.
  5. (Russian) Alexander Aronov. «Octopus in the Bathroom». The Moscow Komsomol newspaper, 13.12.1987.
  6. (Russian) I. Verbova. «A Ghost Roams Around the Piano». The Moscow Pravda, 21 September 1993.
  7. (Russian) Konstantin Goryachev. «Lenin Khurakhara?» The Afisha newspaper, 11–12 – 93/94 (61–62), Moscow.
  8. (Russian) Svetlana Novikova. «Victor Denisov: Philologist, Translator, Playwright. Is There Really More?» The Theater Messenger, Moscow, March 1999.
  9. (Russian) V. Denisov. «The Playwright's Address to the Audience». (The theater programme of the serious comedy «See You Later, Alligator» in the M. Rudomino Library for Foreign Literature, 2009, Moscow.)
  10. (Russian) «One Day We Will Have to Answer to the Question «What For?»» Reporting from the theater: the RGSU students Inna Bugaeva, Darja Kazakova, Ekaterina Rubtsova. The Social University, Moscow, 6 December 2010, № 834.
  1. (English) Art Planet International: Victor Denisov
  2. (English) The Cambridge Companion to Harold Pinter (Cambridge Companions to Literature) Peter Raby (Editor)
  3. (English) Sunset Boulevard – a-ivashkevich.com
  4. (English) Leon Sachs — Wikipedia.
  5. (Russian) «The Epoch Goes Falcetto». Elena Skulskaya, the «ME Saturday» newspaper, 24.10.98.
  6. (Russian) Roman Viktiuk: Norms Made Up by Society and Morals – Are Fiction. Galina Sapozhnikova. The Komsomol Truth, 09.12.1998.
  7. (Russian) Only in the Theater Death Never Prevails. The Deadmen Get Up and Wait for Applause. Ella Agranovskaya, «Merchant Haven» newspaper, 14.05.98.
  8. (Russian) The Three Affairs of Ada Rogovtseva. Interview by Elena Petrovskaya, the «Independence» newspaper, 15.09.98.
  9. (Russian) Sunset Boulevard. The «SANT» Theater Official Website.
  10. (Russian) Translators: D | Sergey Efimov's Theatrical Library ...
  11. (Russian) The Sad Harmony of Tennessee Williams. Svetlana Korotkova, «The Week's Mirror» № 48, December 14, 2002.
  12. (Russian) Billy Wilder's Heroes Onstage. Irina Uljanina. Merchant.ru. «Kommersant». (Novosibirsk), №202 (3041), 28.10.2004
  13. (Russian) Casanova Surrounded by Buttefrlies. Inna Bugaeva, Ekaterina Rubtsova, Grigory Slavnikov. RGSU The Art Column, Library of articles.
  14. (Russian) Vadim Dantziger Presents a Reading of a New Comedy . The Theatregoer, March 15, 2011.
  15. (Russian) Victor Denisov «English According to Shakespeare's Method…»
  16. (Russian) For the International Day of Theater. «Playing «Pok-ta-Pok».
  17. (Russian) Evenings at the Bakhrushin House: The Altered Reality of Lyudmila Odiyankova
  18. (Russian) Victor Denisov – biography – theater workers
  19. (Russian) Denisova Muza Nikolaevna – A Biography

Video

  1. (Russian) Victor Denisov «Six Specters of Lenin on the Piano» on YouTube
  2. (Russian) А.Миллер "Сотворение мира..." (пер. В. Денисова) on YouTube
  3. (Russian) Casanova in the Butterfly Kingdom. Alexei Kostiuchenko. Video. «Slavianka». Training Theater.
  4. (Russian) Roman Viktiuk, «The Lover» by Harold Pinter on YouTube

Notes

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