Background
KACHALOV, Vasiliy was born on February 11, 1875 in Vilnius. Son of a priest.
KACHALOV, Vasiliy was born on February 11, 1875 in Vilnius. Son of a priest.
Studied at St. Petersburg University.
While at high school played Khlestakov, Podkolyosin in Zhenit’ba (The Marriage), Neschastlivtsev, etc. 1893 began to study law at St. Petersburg University and took part in student drama circle. 1996-1997 worked at Suvorin Theater (Theater of the Lit and Art Social, St. Petersburg).
Summer 1897 accompanied V. P. Dalmatov on tour and performed major roles, such as Boris Godunov in A. K. Tolstoy’s Smert’ Ioanna Groznogo (The Death of Ivan the Terrible). 1897-1900 performed in Kazan' and Saratov with Association of Actors roles of: Mitya in Bcdnost' ne porok (Poverty Is No Vice). Dudukin in Bez viny vinovatyye (Guilty Without Guilt).
Prince Shakhovskoy in A. K. Tolstoy’s Tsar' Fyodor Ivanovich. Ivan the Terrible in Ostrovskiy and Gedeonov’s Vasilisa Melent’yeva and in A. K. Tolstoy’s Smert’ Ioanna Groznogo (The Death of Ivan the Terrible). Horatio in ’’Hamlet”.
Cassius in "Julius Caesar”. The President in ’’Kabale und Liebe,” etc. Spring 1900 moved to Moscow Arts Theater and soon became one of its leading actors.
His work under Stanis- lavskiy and Nemirovich-Danchenko caused him to revise much of his acting experience and exchange his high-flown declamatory style for a restrained, profound and noble simplicity. 1900-1948 performed 55 roles at Moscow Arts Theater. His first performance at this theater in 1900 in the role of Tsar Bercndey in Snegurochka (The Snow Maiden) was a tremendous success.
Possessed tremendous stage presence, an unusually colorful voice and great plasticity of movement. 1902 played the tramp Baron in Na dne (The Lower Depths), one of his most celebrated roles which he continued to perform for 45 years. 1903-1904 Bolshevik N. E. Bauman hid in his apartment (the police had Kachalov listed as a suspect person).
During the years preceding the 1905 Revol and later took part in student charity concerts. 1906, during a Moscow Arts Theater foreign tour, read Gorky’s Pesnya o Burevestnike (Song of the Storm Petrel) in Berlin. Roles; Pimen in Boris Godunov (1907).
Glumov in Na vsyakogo mudretsa dovol'no prostoty (There’s a Simpleton in Every Sage) (1910). Karenin in Zhivoy trup (The Living Corpse) (1911). Gorskiy in Turgenev’s Gde tonko, tam i rvyotsya (The Chain Is No Stronger Than Its Weakest Link) (1912).
Chatskiy (1906 and 191-4)". Don Juan in Pushkin's Kamennyy gost' (The Stone Guest) (1915). Brand in Ibsen’s ’’Brand” (1906).
Ivan Karamazov in Brat’ya Karamazovy (The Brothers Karamazov) after Dostoyevsky (1910). Hamlet (1911); Nikolay Stavrogin in the play of the same name (1913), after Dostoyevsky’s novel Besy (The Devils). Fyodor Krasnokutskiy in Merezhkovskiy’s Budet radost' (There Will Be Joy) (1916).
After 1917 Revol appeared in concerts reading works of Gorky and Shakespeare, monologues from Byron’s ’’Manfred" and Blok’s Dvenadtsat’ (The Twelve) and Skify (The Scythians). July 1919, during a Khar’kov tour by part of the Moscow Arts Theater troupe, cut off from Soviet Russia by White Army. 1919-1922 headed the Moscow Arts Theater’s ’’Kachalov Group” and appeared with it in Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Austria and Scandinavia.
1922 returned to Moscow. 1922-1924 took part in Moscow Arts Theater tours of Europe and America. Appeared abroad in three new roles: Tsar Fyodor in A. K. Tolstoy’s Tsar' Fyodor Ivanovich, Gzye in Vishnyovyy sad (The Cherry Orchard), Stockman in Ibsen’s "Doctor Stockman”.
1926 played Nicholas I in KugeP’s Nikolay I i dekabristy (Nicholas I and the Decembrists). 1927 played partisan leader Vershinin in Bronepoyezd 14-69 (Armored Train 14-69). 1930 his performance of the Author in Voskreseniye (Resurrection) after L. N. Tolstoy was one of the highlights of his career.
Also did radio work with an unusually large repertoire which included, besides excerpts from Russian and foreign classics, the prose of Gogol, Tolstoy, Chekhov and Gorky and the poetry of Pushkin, Lermontov, Blok, Mayakovsky, Yesenin, Bagritskiy and others. At concerts he characterized: Egmont in Goethe’s ’’Egmont”. Richard III; Brutus and Anthony in Shakespeare’s "Julius Caesar”.
Famusov; performed Don Quixote in the radio adaptation of Cervantes' novel, etc. Created special genre of dramatic performance, so-called "arrangements” in which he took several roles: scenes from Act 4 of Na dne (The Lower Depths). Act 2 of "Hamlet", Act 1 of Na vsyakogo mudretsa dovol'no prostoty (There’s a Simpleton in Every Sage), etc.
Played the Governor in the film Belyy oryol (The White Eagle). Read the introduction in the film Putyovka v zhizn’ (A Start in Life).