Marine Galstyan: An Armenian from Yerevan on the Italian Stage and Screen

I am interested in whether the Spaniards are not jealous of the fact that an Armenian performed and taught flamenco dances.

My flamenco teacher, the famous master of that genre, Spanish Pilar Carmona, both admired and sometimes tried to “destroy” me. That was because of her strong Spanish temperament, but I am very grateful to her for the skills I have acquired in performing Spanish dances. I have also performed Spanish dances in Spain, but being a self-critic, I have never considered myself a master of flamenco. I prefer the art of acting, I invest the rest of my skills on demand; they are already in my blood, which I can activate if necessary. In recent years, I have played leading roles in Italian theater, for example, in the play “If the World Shocks” I acted for an hour and a half as a blind woman, a survivor of a great tragedy, who speaks, sings and dances. It is a very difficult job, but there were praiseworthy articles about my performance. My last big role was Ophelia in the staging of “Hamlet,” the performance of which, however, was postponed for well-known reasons.

Our audience watched your “No Exit” dance performance first in 2004, with the participation of our ballet dancers Maria Divanyan, David and Ara Harutyunyans, then another dance-dramatic version of it in 2013. How is to present this famous play by Jean-Paul Sartre through dance?

I loved that play thanks to the lecturer I remembered, Hasmik Khudaverdyan. When she presented “No Exit” in a very impressive way, I immediately said I want to stage it. And I do not know why I saw the whole story in the language of tango. That hellish state, the relationship between these people, it was possible to give a stage solution through tango steps, which, I think, was relevant.

Tell us about your involvement in cinema.

Both Sargis and I, from time to time acted on TV and cinema, being often chosen together. I have participated more in international film projects and independent films. Sargis has recently played episodic roles in two TV series. By the way, I am the main actress of the Italian part of the film “In the Same Garden” about the Armenian-Turkish conflict. The film is a collection of 20-minute films shot by six important directors, showing how deep the wound caused by that conflict is. The film has already started to be shown at international film festivals.

Tell us about the dramatic performance “The Great Pain” staged by Sargis on the occasion of the 100^th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

It is the first Italian play written by Sargis, where there is inexplicable depth and scale, confident thought. It starts with the gathering of the Young Turks, and the whole performance takes place behind a thin net, then the shots with 3D technology appear on the screen, the characters are in historical costumes, we see how Soghomon Tehlirian finds Talaat, etc… We used the music of Avet Terteryan and Younis Bashir, the final music of Henri Verneul’s film, “Mayrig,” recordings of Lusine Zakaryan’s singing and duduk melodies. All the actors were well-known Italians, except of me and Arsen Khachatryan from Yerevan, who is now an actor in Florence. We performed “The Great Pain” only three times, I hope we will present it again. After that, Sargis wrote two more Italian plays: the grotesque “Blablateca” and the absurd “Poll Dance,” a surreal comedy. Writing comedy in Italy takes a lot of courage, and it was gratifying that the audience did not shut their mouths from beginning to end. “Poll Dance” was considered the best performance of the Roman theatrical season and was included in the play list of Cometa, one of the most important theaters in Rome, but because of the Covid epidemic its performances were postponed… 

In general, this epidemic has had a negative impact on those who perform on stage. What have you and Sargis been doing during these difficult months?

Sargis busied himself in writing his fourth play, and I went into staging new performances, the drama “Angel Child” and the comedy “Anonymous Motives.” Well, I highly hope we will present them to audiences soon.