The performances of Roman Viktyuk performed by the actors of his theater often cause conflicting feelings in the audience. But it can be said with certainty that the work of a talented, shocking director, who has embodied more than two hundred works on stage, leaves no one indifferent.
The beginning of the way
Roman Viktyuk was born in 1936 in Lvov. Then this city belonged to Poland, but three years later it became Ukrainian territory. His parents, teachers in the specialty, were worried about the future of the child from an early age. They noticed that Roma has excellent organizational skills and creative inclinations. The boy gathered the yard children and made performances and improvisations with them. He transferred his love for the theater to school, where classmates became the protagonists of his performances. After graduating from school, Roman, without hesitation, entered GITIS and received an acting education. His mentors were the talented spouses Orlovs, as well as Anatoly Efros and Yuri Zavadsky. In 1956, a graduate of the university got a job simultaneously in two theater groups. The difficulty was that they were located in different parts of the country.
Directing
In 1965 he made his directorial debut. On the stage of Lvov, his works saw the light: "It's all not so simple", "Factory girl", "City without love", "Family", "Don Juan".
The next few years the director devoted to the Kalinin Theater for Young Spectators, and in 1970 the Lithuanian drama theater appointed him the leading director. In Vilnius, he embodied many creative ideas: "Black Comedy", "Valentine and Valentine", "Love is a golden book."
In the capital, for the first two years, Roman worked with students - young actors of the Moscow State University theater. At the Mossovet Theater, the audience applauded him at the performances "The Tsar's Hunt" and "Evening Light". The capital "Satyricon" presented the play "The Handmaids" for the first time.
After that, popularity came to the director, many theater groups invited him to work together. During the 70s-80s Viktyuk staged the plays "The Stranger" and "The Flatterer" on the Leningrad stage. On the stage of the Odessa Drama Theater was his production of "The Pretender". Theater them. Vakhtangov included in his repertoire the performances "Anna Karenina" and "Soboryane", and the play "Lady without Camellias" was shown by the Kiev Drama Theater.
Theater Viktyuk
1991 was a special year for the director. He fulfilled his old dream of creating his own theater. It included actors from different groups who were already familiar with the famous director. Stars of the first magnitude were also invited to participate in the performances. After five years of its existence, the theater began to be called the state theater. Today it is located in the building where the Rusakov House of Culture used to be. The Viktyuk team never ceases to amaze the audience with shocking costumes, decorations and bright colors on the faces of the actors. This causes heated debate in the theatrical environment.
The repertoire of the theater is about three dozen performances. Especially loved by the audience are "Two on a swing" (1992), "Salome" (1998), "A Clockwork Orange" (1999), "Don Juan's Last Love" (2005), "Deceit and Love of Friedrich Schiller" (2011), "Mandelstam "(2017). The performances "The Master and Margarita" and "The Handmaidens" received a new interpretation.
Film and television
In 1982, Viktyuk's television project entitled "Girl, Where Do You Live?" The work "Long Memory" was dedicated to the feat of Volodya Dubinin. The director returned to the production of television films in 1989, the play "The Tattooed Rose" became the TV version of the Moscow Art Theater production of the same name.
The director accepted several offers from eminent colleagues and appeared on movie screens in cameo roles; he repeatedly became the hero of documentaries. At the TVC Viktyuk hosted the author's poetry program and talk show "The Man from the Box". In 2014, thanks to Channel One, he was among the jury members of the Variety Theater program.
Pedagogical activity
Roman Grigorievich successfully combined his creative career with the activities of a teacher in various educational institutions. For the first time, an aspiring actor began to teach studio students at the Franko Theater in the capital of Ukraine. In Moscow, he taught at GITIS and graduated three acting courses. For a long time, Professor Viktyuk was a teacher of the capital's school, which trained specialists in the field of circus and variety art. His students were Gennady Khazanov and Efim Shifrin. The director's lectures on acting are very popular today.
How does he live today
The stage master continues to direct his brainchild and delight the audience with new works. The troupe tours a lot around the country and abroad, the audience of Europe and America applauded him. Russia and Ukraine highly appreciated the talent of Roman Grigorievich Viktyuk, having awarded him the title of People's Artist. He has numerous domestic and international awards in the field of art.
In one of his interviews, Viktyuk said that as a professional in his field he never “served the system,” even during the period of totalitarianism. But he is not at all aloof from politics and boldly expresses his own point of view, although his position does not always coincide with the generally accepted one. In 2004, he supported the Orange Revolution, and commenting on the events in Donbass, he urges its residents not to get carried away with propaganda, but to figure out what is happening on their own.
Little is known about the personal life of the great director. Eagerly retelling his life path, he tries to keep silent about this page of his biography. In an interview, he confessed his platonic love, which he felt for the young actress Lyudmila Gurchenko, after he saw her in the film "Carnival Night". The director also shared how he was married to a woman who has nothing to do with creativity. He called this act a sin and a mistake. Disinterest in the opposite sex gave rise to rumors about the director's relationship with the artists of his theater, which Viktyuk himself denies. He says he considers the actors to be his children, and they call him "dad."
Recently, Viktyuk's state of health has become a big concern of friends and colleagues. In 2015, he suffered a minor stroke. It was caused by age and problems in professional activity. Roman Grigorievich managed to overcome the disease and return to work.
