Vasily Ivanovich Kachalov (Russian: Василий Иванович Качалов; 11 February[O.S. 30 January]1875 – 30 September 1948), was one of Russia's most renowned actors. He worked closely and often with Konstantin Stanislavski. He led the so-called Kachalov Group within the Moscow Art Theatre. It was Kachalov who played Hamlet in the Symbolist production of 1911.
His father was Ivan Shverubovich, a Belarusian Orthodox priest from Vilnius. His schoolmates at Vilnius Gymnasium included Felix Dzerzhinsky and Konstantinas Galkauskas. In 1896, he left the law department of Saint Petersburg University in order to pursue an acting career. After four years of touring the Russian provinces and a brief stint at the Suvorin Theatre, Kachalov made his debut at the Moscow Art Theatre as Tsar Berendey in The Snow Maiden (spring 1900).
The snow maiden was played by Stanislavski's wife, Maria Lilina, who fell in love with Kachalov; she described their affair as "a touch of private happiness".[1] Another of his lovers was Alisa Koonen.[1] He met his wife, actress Nina Litovtseva, when they were acting in the Kazan Drama Theatre, one of Russia's oldest.
Kachalov was greatly admired for his "magnetic" voice. He played Baron Tuzenbach after Meyerhold's departure from the theatre. In the original 1904 production of The Cherry Orchard he appeared as Trofimov. He starred in Nemirovich-Danchenko's production of Ivanov later that year. All in all, he took more than 50 roles in Stanislavski's company.
After the Russian Revolution, the Kachalov Group went touring Central Europe and did not return until the summer of 1921, under pressure from the theatre's founders.[2]
Kachalov was named one of the first People's Artists of the USSR after the title was instituted in 1936 and received a Stalin Prize in 1943. He was also the recipient of the two Orders of Lenin. The Kazan State Theatre was given his name in 1948.
The Russian director and puppeteer, Sergey Obraztsov, described seeing Kachalov on stage:
“That matchless voice of his sounded different each time. Different too was that amazing process of creating a phrase, and every visual image evoked by the word. One had the impression that Kachalov was not merely speaking but thinking aloud, and that the words one heard were only a part of what he was seeing with his inner eye. For that reason people did not merely listen to Kachalov, they watched what he was talking about.”[3]
Kachalov and Olga Knipper in Hamlet (1911)
Notable performances
1900 - Snow Maiden by Alexander Ostrovsky, directed by Stanislavski
1900 - When We Dead Awaken by Ibsen, directed by Nemirovich-Danchenko
1900 - The Death of Ivan the Terrible, Tolstoy, dir. by Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko
1901 - Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov, directed by Stanislavski, role: Vershinin
1901 - The Wild Duck by Ibsen. Role: Ekdal
1901 - The Seagull by Anton Chekhov, directed by Stanislavski, role: Trigorin
1902 - The Death of Ivan the Terrible by A. Tolstoy
1902 - Three Sisters, Anton Chekhov. Role: Tuzenbach
1902 - The Lower Depths, Gorky. Role: Baron
1903 - The Pillars of Society, Ibsen. Role Hilmar
1903 - Julius Caesar, Shakespeare. Role: Julius Caesar
1904 - The Cherry Orchard, Chekhov. Role: Trofimov
1904 - Ivanov, Chekhov. Role: Ivanov
1905 - Ghosts, Ibsen. Role: Pastor Manders
1906 - Brand, Ibsen. Role: Brand
1907 - Boris Godunov, by Pushkin
1908 - Rosmersholm, Ibsen. Role: Rosmer
1910 - The Brothers Karamazov, by Dostoevsky. Role: Ivan Karamazov
1910 - A Month in the Country, Turgenev. Role: Rakitin
1911 - Hamlet, Shakespeare, directed by Gordon Craig. Role: Hamlet
1918 - Uncle Vanya, by Anton Chekhov. Role: Astroff
1935 - Enemies, Gorky. Role: Bardin
References
Maria Ignatieva. Stanislavsky and female actors: women in Stanislavsky's life and art. University Press of America, 2008. ISBN9780761841791. Page 39.
A History of Russian Theatre (eds. Robert Leach, Victor Borovsky). Cambridge University Press, 1999. Page 273.
Obraztsov, Sergei. My Profession. The Minerva Group, Inc. (2001) ISBN9781589634565 p. 215
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