Place of Birth. Education. Born in Lvov in a family of teachers. As a schoolboy, he tried to put on small performances in which classmates and friends were involved.
In 1956 he graduated from the State Institute of Theater Arts (GITIS) in Moscow (workshop of M. Orlova and V. Orlov). Among the teachers were Yuri Zavadsky, Anatoly Efros.
Career. He worked as a director in the Lvov and Kiev Youth Theaters, the Russian Drama Theater of the Lithuanian SSR, taught at the studio at the Ivan Franko Theater in Kiev, at the State School of Circus and Variety Art.
Stages performances in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kalinin (Tver), Kiev, Nizhny Novgorod, Riga, Vilnius and other cities. Carried out a number of productions in theaters in Sweden, Finland, USA, Italy, Greece, Israel, Yugoslavia. In total, he staged over 200 performances.
In 1991, he created the private Roman Viktyuk Theater in Moscow, which in 1996 received state status.
About the theater and creativity. The principle of formation of the troupe is mixed. The basis is made up of young actors who, at the beginning of their career, met with the director and were formed under the influence of his creative method. Leading masters of the national theater are invited to participate in individual performances, among which there are many “stars” of the first magnitude.
A lot of controversy is associated with the work of Roman Viktyuk both among theater experts and among the audience. The obvious connection with the traditions of Alexander Tairov does not prevent the director from using different types of theatrical language and reacting sharply to the surrounding reality. Man in the work of Roman Viktyuk is a complex, contradictory nature, not reducible to any rigid framework and patterns, painfully striving for harmony.
It is also not easy to bring the work of Roman Viktyuk himself to a common denominator. “Royal Hunt” in 1977, “Maids” in 1988, “Slingshot” in 1993 and “Master and Margarita” in 2003 – the performances are very different both in form and in the artistic message contained in them. The frank reception of “theater within the theater” is replaced by confessional sincerity, satiated admiration of the “beauty of the picture” – harsh slaps in the face of public opinion and sanctimonious morality. But at the center of any performance by Roman Viktyuk is a person and his soul.
Performances. The director has more than 200 works to his credit. Among the productions: “Edith Piaf”, “The Master and Margarita”, “Our Decameron – XXI” (2001), “Mary Stuart”, “My wife’s name is Maurice”, “Let’s have sex” (2002), “Iolanta”, ” Carmen” (2003), “Heavenly Garden”, “Pearl Seekers” (2004), “Goat or Sylvia, who is she?”, “Don Juan’s Last Love”, “Sergey and Isadora” (2005), “Inscrutable Woman, living in us”, “Handmaids”, “Little Marriage Crimes” (2006), “Puss in Boots”, “The Smell of a Light Tan” (2007), “Eight Loving Women” (2008), “Romeo and Juliet “(2009),”Goodbye, boys!”, “Harlequin King” (2010), “Deceit and love” (2011), “Masquerade of the Marquis de Sade “(2012),”Incomparable!”, “The Life and Death of Comrade K. “At the beginning and at the end of time” (2014), “Phaedra. Mystery of the Spirit” (2015).
Regalia. People’s Artist of Ukraine (2006), Honored Art Worker of Russia (2003),People’s Artist of Russia (2009). Professor of the Russian Academy of Theater Arts GITIS.
The only director of foreign origin was awarded the International Prize of the Institute of Italian Drama for the best embodiment of modern dramaturgy (1997). Winner of the theatrical award “Maratea” of the Center for European Drama (1991). He was awarded the Kiev Pectoral Prize and the Triumph Prize of the Union of Theater Workers of Ukraine. In the United States included in the category “50 people of the world who influenced the second half of the twentieth century.”
Scandals. In the winter of 2007, the leadership of the Viktyuk Theater faced threats and attempts to take away a new theater building located in the center of Moscow. At least, this is how the director in January 2007 explained the reason for the attack and injury to theater director Igor Krasnopolsky.
And in August of the same year, an attack was made on Roman Viktyuk himself. As a result of an attack by an unknown person, the director’s head was broken, he lost consciousness (by the way, the victim’s personal belongings were not stolen), after which he ended up in a hospital bed.
The attacker and customer of the crime (if any) were not found by law enforcement officers. Since then, according to media reports, the director has been moving around Moscow, accompanied by a security guard.
Views. In 2012, the director signed an open letter calling for the release of the members of the group “Pussy Riot” and even expressed his willingness to vouch for the girls.
Commenting on the situation in Donbas in 2014, Viktyuk urged local residents to turn off their TVs in order to sort out what was happening in silence, and also recommended that those who do not consider themselves citizens of Ukraine leave the country alone.
Death. On October 27, 2024, it became known that Viktyuk was hospitalized with coronavirus. November 17 Roman Viktyuk died at the age of 85 in Moscow.
11/17/2020