Ministry of Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan Baku International Multiculturalism Centre Azerbaijani Multiculturalism Textbook for Higher Education
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4.6.6. Theatre
Since ancient times many nations have lived together in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani culture can be said to arise from the dialogue of these nations or to be the culture of dialogue. Azerbaijan lies on the Silk Road, at the intersection of west and east, where Asia and Europe meet. Its location has attuned Azerbaijan to dialogue. Azerbaijani culture is a priori multicultural, because the cultural process has been built on dialogue down the centuries. Azerbaijan has always been a transmitter and a guarantor of the dialogue of numerous cultures, which enjoyed equal rights within its borders. It has created a unique system of culture, which relies on the active interaction of cultures and it is now sharing its experience with the world. Azerbaijani mugham, carpets and cuisine are also expressions of multicultural dialogue, the result, one might say, of multicultural bartering and exchange. Achieving this exchange requires the skills to build and conduct dialogue. Azerbaijan is a place where various cultural currents have communicated independently with each other and created qualitatively new cultural manifestations. This factor enables the creation of a fruitful environment for dialogue and commerce. Constant contacts and relations among the nations and ethnic groups give birth to cultural phenomena in everyday life and oral folklore. Multiculturalism is like a river to which many tributaries flow from different lands, creating the shared culture of mankind.
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Theatre is a space that never suffers from a lack of dialogue. Dialogue is so important on the stage that theatre can be said to be dialogue itself. From this point of view, the dramatic arts may be considered the closest to multiculturalism. From the second half of the 19th century till the present day a multicultural situation has been typical of Azerbaijani culture, particularly theatre. From the second half of the 19th century manifestations of European culture appeared in the Azerbaijani environment: newspapers, theatre, opera, and classical music put down roots in the soil of national culture and grew. It is natural that this should be interpreted as the result of active contact and dialogue of east and west. It is this dialogue that led to the birth of the social institution of theatre in Azerbaijan and its development. At first sight theatre may seem to be far removed from multiculturalism, as each performance is just a local manifestation of a specific socio-political environment, in which specific socio-economic problems are addressed to a particular group. At the same time, theatre clarifies and interprets the ideas with the help of language; European-type theatre is the bearer of ideas. Ethnic, social, psychological and collective factors and language have always been dominant in the art of the theatre. It is true that since the second half of the 20th century producers around the world have suggested bringing actors of different nations onto one stage. People speaking different languages on the same stage would bring the idea of multiculturalism to the stage. Multicultural factors have always been evident in the formation and development of the theatre in Azerbaijan. Since the formation of Azerbaijani theatre people of different nations have shared the same stage. Actors from the Caucasian peoples appeared with local actors on the Azerbaijani stage and spoke in Azerbaijani, because in 232
those times the Azerbaijani language was regarded as the ‘French of the Caucasus’. At the beginning of the 20th century Pamphylia Tanailidi, an ethnic Greek (her stage name was Surayya Zangazurlu), Marziya Davudova, a Turk from Astrakhan, Russian Yeva Olenskaya, Ulvi Rajab from Ajaria, Georgian Gamar khanum Topuria and people of other nations worked alongside Azerbaijanis in the theatre and this trend continued. One of the founders of professional Azerbaijani theatre was Alexandr Alexandrovich Tuganov, an ethnic Russian, who for a long time was the chief director of the National Theatre and Azerbaijan State Theatre of Young Spectators. He introduced theatre to Azerbaijani audiences and helped it to flourish. At different times Russian, Italian, and Jewish directors worked in various theatres of Azerbaijan. All this shows that people of different nations created a multicultural ensemble in Azerbaijani theatre. In the early years actors of other nations worked with Azerbaijani companies. True, this is inferred from fragmentary information, rather than clearer evidence. For example, the theatre built by the millionaire Haji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev in 1883 was rented by Polonski, who headed the Russian theatre where the actors were Jewish. For the sake of objectivity it should be mentioned that in the early 20th century other national minorities living in Azerbaijani territory were not at the stage of beginning their own theatrical performances. Therefore, progressive people from these minorities joined the Azerbaijani companies of actors, where they were proud to speak Azerbaijani and even wrote plays in the language. Of course, the birth of such a cultural environment shows that the multicultural situation was very positive in Azerbaijan at the beginning of the 20th century. Azerbaijani plays, particularly the national classics, rely greatly on multicultural principles. The manners and behaviour of people
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of different nations (English, Italian, Jewish, Arab) can be found in Shakespeare’s plays. This trend is evident in the work of Azerbaijani playwrights too, especially Mirza Fatali Akhundzada, Jafar Jabbarli and Huseyn Javid.
The multicultural background is a constant of modern Azerbaijani theatre too; today Lezghi, Georgian and Russian theatres have the status of state theatre in Azerbaijan and perform regularly. Although in the 1980s the Beserer Jewish theatre held a premiere of The Little Prince, the theatre could not survive the Jewish migration to Israel. The truth should be acknowledged that none of the national theatres can survive by relying solely on the work of local playwrights. The theatres build their repertoires on the world classics and the work of contemporary playwrights. This is a very important condition for the theatre and is based entirely on the principle of multiculturalism, or more precisely, it puts this principle into its work. In 1968, the actor and mime artist Jean-Louis Barrault invited the English director Peter Brook, whose parents were Latvian Jews, to Paris. As soon as Peter Brook arrived in Paris, he set up the International Theatre Research Centre and began to work on a production with an international company of actors, which led him directly to a multicultural environment. In 1979 Peter Brook staged a similar show in France, based on The Conference of the Birds by Farid ud-Din Attar of Nishapur and bringing together actors from different nations and countries. The actors spoke in different languages on stage, performing with their different cultures of movement. The French, Indian, Russian and Polish actors entered into dialogue on stage to clarify everything for both their partners and the audience so everything was fully comprehensible. In fact, Peter Brook presented a visual model of multiculturalism; when the actors spoke different languages on stage, they understood one another very well, and of course body language was not ignored. Theatre is one of the axles that turns the wheel of culture, and is never far from debates on culture and social issues. Theatre cannot be isolated from political theories and experience. The wheel of culture has many axles, each of which moves the wheel in different directions. Language, art, architecture, music, painting, folklore, way of life and other factors can be considered the axles. While all these different axles drive forward the most prominent features of humanity, they connect the wheel to multicultural values. At this stage of history theatre is beginning to talk actively about multiculturalism, interculturalism and cross-culturalism. First was the Italian director Eugenio Barba, who delved into the detail of the anthropology of theatre. Seeking to continue the tradition of Peter Brook, he staged a multicultural performance of Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet in 2006. Barba gave a postmodernist interpretation to the classic text, calling his new version Ur-Hamlet. Barba invited professional actors, dancers and musicians from several countries to take part in the production. Barba wrote of the experience: ‘I started working with eight of my actors in Holstebro and Copenhagen. In Bali, 33 Gambuh performers joined my mime actors, Akira Matsui, a Japanese Noh master, joined us and then Indian, Brazilian and European singers and musicians came too. We brought together 43 actors from 22 countries in Italy, where they took part in my workshops on Ur-Hamlet.’ They played the parts of migrants obliged to leave their country because of starvation, war and epidemic diseases who were looking for shelter in Hamlet’s gloomy castle, where the winds of revenge raged. Of course, to work with 43 actors from 22 countries on
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the same stage can be considered an act of multicultural valour. Regardless of its emotional power, this was without doubt an epoch-making production in the history of theatre. In reality, the phenomenal success of this show lay in its strange synergy of styles, movement, energy and plots on the stage connecting different types of behaviour in the context of the text. In his interviews and speeches Eugenio Barba has repeatedly stressed that his work has much in common with intraculturalism, not multiculturalism or interculturalism. If multiculturalism shows the right to existence of different cultures in the same social environment, interculturalism attaches importance to the intensive interrelated interaction of different cultures in the same social environment; interculturalism is, therefore, called a liberal mission. But intraculturalism makes topical the unity of different cultures in the same social condition in its own programme. There is a point that brings multiculturalism, interculturalism, intraculturalism and cross-culturalism to a common denominator at the end: the dialogue of cultures. It means that names can be changed and classifications specified, but in essence dialogue for the development of cultures never loses its relevance.
Today Azerbaijani theatre conducts an active dialogue with different countries of the world; international theatre festivals and thematic conferences are held every other year in Azerbaijan, while directors, set designers and lighting specialists from England, Russia, Georgia, Serbia, Greece and Ukraine have been invited to stage productions for local theatres. This is an indispensable creative factor in the multicultural background. Opera, ballet and choreography in general are multicultural. Ballet is a European form of musical theatre art, which expresses content through movement and choreographic images. Ballet began to spread around the world in the early 19th century, expanding the cultures of music and movement of China, Korea, Japan, Egypt, Latin America, Azerbaijan and other regions. But the truth is that dance stereotypes in the minds of Europeans have always inspired oriental motifs and movements in ballet. Oriental exoticism has always attracted directors and choreographers. European ballet was in turn welcomed in the orient as European exoticism. In this sense, ballet is a cell of the arts where different kinds of choreographic exoticism meet and establish dialogue in a spirit of multiculturalism. New ballet emerges as a result of this multicultural dialogue in the world of culture. The spiritual and cultural rapprochement of east and west, of which travellers and educators have long dreamt, is taking place astonishingly rapidly, moulding the unique essence of multicultural creativity. Intensive international exchange, migration and the unlimited opportunities for communication give a considerable impetus to this trend. It is common practice in opera and ballet to invite well-known singers or dancers from other countries to be guest performers. This tradition emerged during the enlightenment period of European culture. While the visiting performers may not understand the language spoken on stage, there is no cause for alarm. They are able to communicate in the language of gesture, movement, pose and voice modulation. In these cases cultures seem to be transported easily to each other; sounds and dances are taken as examples of exoticism from one culture to another and are modified in the process, creating a new mode of existence. Multiculturalism has a very strong influence on modern choreography. It is even possible to say that contemporary art and culture are multicultural in essence, because there is chaotic migration all around the world today: aggression, economic recession and the public atmosphere are also very important. Migration has created a particular feature too. There are talented European choreographers, and this applies as well to filmmakers,
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writers and actors who have assimilated two national cultures: one is the culture (language, tradition, character, mentality) transmitted through nurture and nature by their immigrant parents, the other the culture they adopt while living in Europe (language, lifestyle, social order). Oriental choreographers are also close to this group: they have professionally assimilated the ability to think through the images of dance culture in Europe, and have been working far from their motherland for a long time.
The creative work of both groups is often an irreconcilable combination of contradictory thoughts and feelings about the world: ‘personal ambition’ exists alongside ‘noble desire’, criticism of the freedom and achievements of the West alongside promotion of the cultural values of the East, offence at the colonial past of their countries alongside ‘the desire to prove something’ to the West, criticism of European idols alongside oriental exoticism, the desire to shock alongside encouraging revolution, severe brutality alongside weeping sentimentality. Other aspects, some of which we have not analysed, mould the multicultural panorama and essence of the modern cultural world and engender new aesthetics in dance. The multicultural context is very obvious in Azerbaijani music; its most striking example is Azerbaijani mugham. The involvement of Arab, Indian, Persian music and Zoroastrian and shaman traditions in the genesis of Azerbaijani mugham is undeniable. Azerbaijani mugham is attuned to all the vibrations of oriental music – it has assimilated oriental melodies, songs and sound modulations, concentrated them and spread them around the world in the form of mugham. The Natiq Rhythm Group, well known in Azerbaijan today and abroad too, does much the same for national culture; their work could be described as ‘rhythm theatre’. The group of naghara drummers play a mosaic or bouquet of rhythms from around the world. Of course, in the context of contemporary Azerbaijani music and its national traditions, this is an aesthetic and emotional phenomenon. It enriches Azerbaijani music with completely new rhythms and vibrations. The context and essence of Natiq Rhythm Group are, therefore, multicultural. A number of landmark events in the history of classical and jazz music in Azerbaijan are also multicultural in nature. For example, Azerbaijani composer Qara Qarayev composed the ballet Path of Thunder (1958) with a libretto by Yuri Slonimsky based on the novel of the same name by South African author Peter Abrahams. The plot is shocking: the problems of black people are reflected in Azerbaijani music and music from many different directions. With Prokofiev and Shostakovich on one side, African musical tradition on the other and Azerbaijani mugham a ballet masterpiece was created. Qara Qarayev’s ballet Seven Beauties and Fikrat Amirov’s ballet The Arabian Nights can both be seen as multicultural. In many cases Azerbaijani music of the 20th century is a perfect synthesis of the traditions of oriental and western music. In the unique compositions of Tofiq Quliyev and Rauf Hajiyev jazz music enters a dialogue with Azerbaijani folk music, elevating the song genre to a new plane in Azerbaijan. The saxophonist Parviz Baghirov followed by the pianist Vaqif Mustafazada synthesized Azerbaijani ethno-music with Afro-American music, creating a completely new genre, jazz-mugham, in the jazz history of the world. All of them reveal the multicultural context. It should also be noted that some of the best Jewish teachers in the world have taught for a long time at the Uzeyir Hajibayli Music Academy, contributing to the development of classical music in Azerbaijan. This is a sign of tolerance and of the level of development. Sayavush Karimi, rector of the National Conservatory, has experimented by synthesizing Azerbaijani
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