Armenian Theatre

According to Plutarch the history of Armenian theatre begins in 70 BC when Tigran the Great opened the first public theatre in Tigranakert. Artavazd II, who was Tigran the Great’s son, built the second public theatre in Artashat which survived until the second century AD. Artavazd II is considered to be the first Armenian playwright as he  himself wrote tragedies for his theatre.
The real development of the Armenian theatre started in the 19^th century when the western Armenian playwrights began to create, among them Petros Duryan, Levon Shant and Hakob Paronyan. Levon Shant’s and Hakob Paronyan’s plays are still being staged at different Armenian theatres nowadays. Hakob Paronyan’s “Brother Baghdasar” has been a great success in the Armenian theatres.  In 1855 Armenian theatres were built in Constantinople, Turkey. In fact Armenians did a great deal for the development of the Turkish theatre as well.

The Armenian Drama academic theatre after Sundukyan was first built in Yerevan in 1922 and was rebuilt in 1965.  Now there are several theatres in Yerevan: The Sundukyan Academic Theatre, The Yerevan Drama Theatre, The Theatre of Musical Comedy after Paronyan, The Russian Drama Theatre after Stanislavsky, The Actor Theatre after Mher Mkrtchyan, The Chamber Theatre and some others. All these theatres have been repaired with the financial assistance of Lince Fund. Now these theatres have air conditioning systems and are equipped with the latest stage machinery and requisites.  But the problem is that very few people go to the theatre. They prefer to stay at home and watch TV. Almost all the theatres have the proplem of realizing their tickets. I think the main reason of this problem is that there aren’t any performances which are worth watching. People usually go to the theatre to see their favourite actors. There aren’t any actors now who are loved by most of the people. I mean actors like Karp Khachvankyan, Mher Mkrtchyan, Metaksya Simonyan, Hrachya Nersesyan and so on. I have heard about them from my grandparents.
I last went to the theatre 3 years ago. A festival of mono theatres was organized in Yerevan and I was happy to buy a ticket for the opening ceremony. My seat was in the pits. All the seats in the stalls were occupied by the guests from different countries and also by journalists and some members of our government. The boxes were also occupied by big authorities. I noticed Silva Kaputikyan sitting in one of the boxes. All the seats in the balcony were also occupied. So the house was full. I’ll always remember one incident during the opening ceremony. When the representative of Japan was invited onto the stage, he took off his shoes and went up the stairs to the stage barefooted. The audience applauded him heartily. In return to this an Armenian from abroad bent down and kissed the floor of the stage when his name was announced.
Vardan Petrosyan opened the festival with his performance “On Fire”. Vardan Petrosyan lives and works in Paris. He is considered to be one of the most talented Armenian actors now. He is good at imitating different political leaders, actors, singers and at the same time he isn’t afraid of criticizing the government. He sings, recites, tells jokes, plays different musical instruments and dances at the same time. When he is on the stage the audience can’t help laughing, admiring, rejoicing, enjoying every moment. The main idea of the performance is that our country, Armenia, is on fire and there is nobody to put it out. He offers different solutions and then criticizes them. I wonder how he manages to keep the audience interested in his words and motions for two hours without showing that he is tired. I enjoyed myself greatly during that performance.