“I feel like I’m in a Soviet café,” says actor Sasha Samar as he crosses the threshold of Café Tabac in Villeray. The green of the tiles on the walls, the chrome, the wood of the benches… The place reminds him of his childhood and youth spent in Ukraine.
It was the director Catherine de Léan who suggested this neighborhood café for a three-way meeting on the theme of Russia, its eventful history, its ideals turned upside down by perestroika, but also the warlike drift in which it seems to ’embark. Particularly since the invasion of Ukraine, two years ago to the day.
PHOTO HUGO-SÉBASTIEN AUBERT, THE PRESS
Catherine de Léan and Sasha Samar are participating in two theatrical projects with the former USSR as a backdrop.
But let’s start with the beauty before diving into the horror. Three plays set against the backdrop of the former USSR are coming to Montreal stages in the next two weeks. Inspired by the extraordinary life of Sasha Samar, Me, in the red ruins of the century is back after a first notable appearance in 2012. The text by Olivier Kemeid recounts Sasha’s 22-year quest to find her mother in a USSR that is falling apart.
The room The End of the Red Mandirected by Catherine de Léan, is inspired by testimonies collected by Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievitch from citizens of the 15 former Soviet republics after the fall of the USSR in 1991. This winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature (in 2015 ) took out his notebook and pencil at this pivotal moment in Soviet history when the communist dream was crumbling and capitalism held out the promise of a better tomorrow.
The third piece, entitled Shevchenkois presented in the Jean-Claude-Germain room of the Center du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui (see the other text).
Is it a coincidence or rather a considered decision by theaters to program these productions as the Russian-Ukrainian conflict enters its third year? ” Never mind. The important thing is to draw attention to my country in distress,” says Sasha Samar, who grew up in Krivoy Rog – in the same neighborhood as President Volodymyr Zelensky – before studying theater in Kyiv, the capital. “I hope these pieces help send love to my home country. »
In all these cases, it is the stories written at eye level that highlight history with a capital H. “The story is told differently, in another paradigm than that of winners and losers,” says Catherine by Léan, who here signs his first career production.
In The End of the Red Man, it is a way to discover how political changes in the USSR affected the social fabric. Ordinary people have experienced extraordinary changes. They were all led by an ideal.
Catherine de Léan
Sasha Samar experienced this change from the inside and the play in which he is the hero implicitly addresses the upheavals in this corner of the world. “I spent my childhood in the USSR and my adolescence during perestroika. Childhood is the period of ideals and naivety. For me it was the rosy period of the Soviet Union. »
The danger, he says, is to confuse nostalgia for childhood with nostalgia for the country as it was before the dissolution.
PHOTO DANNY TAILLON, PROVIDED BY THE THÉÂTRE DUCEPPE
Sasha Samar in rehearsal for the play which relates a part of her life.
Some people think we need to return to this idealized Soviet Union. It was good to say that we were all Soviet. But the price to pay was terrible.
Sasha Samar
He deplores that some people have forgotten that the day after the Sochi Winter Games – “a real ecological mess,” he says – Putin invaded Crimea. “This man is crazy,” says Catherine de Léan.
An ignorance to be eradicated
Catherine de Léan admits without embarrassment: before coming across Svetlana Alexievitch’s book by chance, she knew little about Russia or its republics. Putin, Pussy Riot… “Despite everything, this country fascinated me with its great authors. For me, the gateway to Russia is art. They are great authors with a stunning imagination. »
She is not the only one in Quebec to have a very fragmentary idea of what happened in this region of the world. Moreover, since he emigrated to Montreal in August 1996 – a city he chose because he admired Guy Lafleur! –, Sasha Samar was often told that he was Russian. For a long time, he did not take the time to explain that he came from one of the Soviet republics called Ukraine.
Before, the nuances weren’t that important and saying Russia instead of USSR was an easy shortcut. But today, this shortcut is unacceptable. Out of respect for those who die in the trenches, I prefer to specify the who, the what and the how.
Sasha Samar
Out of respect for his roots and those of his people, he also demanded that part of the text of Me, in the red ruins of the century be changed. “I couldn’t imagine reciting an excerpt from a poem by Alexander Nevsky again. » The verses of the Russian poet evoke the greatness of Russia and the promise that those who come there with the sword will die by the sword… “These words could no longer pass my lips. »
Catherine de Léan, for her part, insisted on including in The End of the Red Man replicas in the language of various republics. To show that the USSR was far from being a great uniform empire… “We could not act as if the conflict did not exist. I find that there is great humanity in Svetlana’s writings. It is a text that brings together rather than divides. It proves that we are all of the same fiber. »
Even if the character of Sasha – and the one who inspired him – would have every reason to hate the USSR, Me, in the red ruins of the century is far from being a shady text. “It’s a human story, about the fragility and universality of feelings. I want viewers to leave the room with something resembling awareness. »
Me, in the red ruins of the centuryat Duceppe, from February 28 to March 30
Consult the part page
The End of the Red Manat Quat’Sous, from February 27 to March 23
Consult the part page