MOSCOW, June 10, Svetlana Vovk. One of the most successful private theaters in the country, Atelier, after a six-year break is preparing a bright premiere: The Waiting Room with Svetlana Khodchenkova. The actress also hasn’t appeared in plays for a long time. How this production will surprise the audience, how to survive without government subsidies, as well as the difficulties of working with foreign playwrights under sanctions, Elshan Mamedov, theater producer, director of the author's agency, spoke in an interview in an interview.
The Atelier private theater, founded by Elshan Mamedov in 1993, is best known to audiences for the blockbuster Ladies' Night — the sold-out performance ran at various venues for 20 years, refuting the assertion that a successful show cannot be made without government subsidies. Stars collaborating with the theater: Gosha Kutsenko, Ekaterina Klimova, Anna Ardova, Svetlana Khodchenkova. Invited directors stage performances based on plays by leading foreign authors. Contracts with them are concluded by the agency «NTP. The Independent Theater Project agency», also created by Elshan. In particular, NTP owns exclusive rights in Russia to Woody Allen's drama. Cooperation with writers continues today, despite the sanctions. True, not with everyone. 
— The Atelier Theater has its first premiere in six years. Why such a long break?
— You know, we have always lived in the mode of a repertory theater — we produced two or three performances per season. But a pandemic happened, and we miraculously survived! During the Covid period, the audience has changed a lot — preferences, contingent.
— After the pandemic, did everyone want entertaining productions?
— That’s not the point. People were simply locked at home — almost by force. They adapted to this and realized what they could get by sitting on the couch. At least quality TV series. And the question “how will we surprise” has become very relevant.
— And how will you surprise me?
— I had the play “The Waiting Room” by the French playwright Victor Aim for a long time: the idea was mature, I needed to find an actor and actress. We had the previous premiere with Sveta Khodchenkova in 2014 — the play “Love Story. Comedy of Errors”. “Waiting Room” is our fifth collaboration. It seemed to me that this role is the one that suits her today.
— A performance for two actors, chamber. Won't the audience get bored?
— It seems that a performance for two should be simple in design. But it was not so. Our technical service was horrified: what doesn't happen on stage! Not a second of boredom.
< br />
< br />
— The plot is deep and complex— a person finds himself between two worlds and must account for his life.
— Yes, but it's all done in the form of a game with an angel. Lots of humor. Director Pavel Parkhomenko, on the one hand, deepens this story, and on the other, makes it capacious. And Sveta's partner, Aleksandr Metelkin, is one of those actors who can even play a phone book very well.
In plays for two, it is very important to come up with a couple. We had one. Like in 2017 in another production — Love Letters — with Gosha Kutsenko and Ekaterina Klimova. There is a queue for this play to bring it on tour. Now it is in Siberia.
< br />
< br />
< br />
< br />
< br />
— You also founded an author agency. Which foreign playwrights do you work with?
— The agency is already 20 years old. It all started with our most famous performance, Ladies' Night. We had exclusive rights. Fantastic success! And many theaters wanted to stage this play. For three years I kept repeating: “Never in my life.” But I realized that I couldn’t stop it. And the authors wished that other theaters would also stage their play. I then asked to be given the right to choose who to entrust this to. After all, the play is borderline — it is very easy to trivialize it. The story is about how unemployed metallurgists went to work in a strip joint to support their families. Since I was constantly going to Paris and London to watch plays, I decided to make a business out of it. Today we present Astrid Lindgren, for example. We work with the largest French agency «Drama» — we represent in Russia, in particular, Florian Zeller, the author of the plays «Papa», «Mama», «Son». Anthony Hopkins and Hugh Jackman played in films based on his works. The film «The Father» won an Oscar. From the Americans we exclusively represent Woody Allen, from the Italians — Eduardo de Filippo.
— So you give these plays to theaters in Russia?
— Yes. There was such a story. When we had the first productions of Zeller, suddenly three Moscow theaters simultaneously wanted the play “Papa”. We started rehearsing with Sergei Makovetsky, and at Sovremennik with Garmash. And then RAMT appears — Yuri Butusov fell in love with this play and also wants to stage it. I say that three performances of one work are too much for one city — after all, this is not Hamlet. I asked who RAMT was going to make the play for. To Zhenya Redko. I said that I have a magnificent play for him, “The Son,” by the same author. Butusov read it and got to work. Convincing someone that this particular work is needed in your repertoire today is akin to producing.
< br />
< br />
< br />
— What about now, under sanctions?
— We pay the authors — there are also banks that support cultural ties. We have been cooperating with the Drama agency for a very long time, we have excellent relations, so we have maintained contracts with all French playwrights. The most rabid are the British. They immediately said that they would not conclude new contracts. It’s different with the Americans, but we saved many of them. And, for example, the large agency «William Morris» did not renew the contract with us regarding Edward Albee. Although I told them that “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” has been translated many times and is shown in many theaters.
You know what’s good? There is no tendency in theaters to take advantage of the situation. And 20 years ago we had to explain that the author of the play needs to be paid.
< br />
< br />
— How does a private theater manage to survive without subsidies?
— The view of the theater as a planned unprofitable business is absolutely wrong. Of course, with the dominance of the public sector in the theater business, it is difficult for us. Due to a lack of free sites, for example. However, we have never opposed ourselves to the state theater. We have a different understanding of what the viewer needs. But this does not mean that we follow his lead.
— Entreprise is still almost a dirty word: something low-grade.
— This is all since 1987—then a situation emerged that allowed the creation of private theaters. Philharmonic directors took advantage of this and organized secret Vysotsky concerts. So they began to put together troupes, which I call “a star against a curtain.” At first I was angry because of this attitude towards the enterprise, but then I calmed down.
I really love bringing virgin audiences to the theater. During the intermission at one of the first performances of Ladies' Night in the foyer of the Satyricon, I accidentally overheard a conversation between two girls. One says: “But it turns out the theater is cool.” And then they went to the table and bought two tickets to Ostrovsky's «Profitable Place» from the repertoire of «Satyricon». I thought my task was completed.
< br />
< br />
< br />
— The premiere of «The Waiting Room» will take place on the stage of the Moscow Ermolova Theater. Two steps from Red Square — a prestigious site. How much does a production cost in general?
— I can’t give specific numbers yet, but it’s not cheap. Especially today — prices have jumped significantly due to sanctions. And we cannot claim social advertising like state theaters. Although this is strange, since the constitution implies equality of forms of ownership. It seems to everyone that if a theater is commercial, it earns a lot of money. But these are not the amounts for which we need to refuse discounts.
— Do you have investors?
— Yes, of course. Ladies' Night was generally done as a sponsorship project. By the way, we were the first to engage in product placement in the theater in Russia. In our play about Maria Callas, Tanya Vasilyeva drank Evian water under contract. And we took out loans for productions.
—Are tickets expensive?
—In different ways. There are also cheaper prices than in state theaters.
— And for a new performance, in the stalls?
— I think up to ten or 12 thousand. You know, there is, for example, the Comedie Française theater. The state supports 78 percent of it, and in France there is a law that a ticket to their performances cannot be more than 49 euros. And in private ones it is not regulated. We don't have such a law. Therefore, sometimes prices in state theaters skyrocket.
— They say that artists go to private theaters for high fees.
— Well, that’s not true. You can sometimes hold an event with one left and get much more. And we are also not able to compete with the fee for a day of filming in a movie. Therefore, it is important for us to create an atmosphere in which the artist would like to come. And of course, he must simply be drawn to the theater.