|
Irina Asmus
Ирина Асмус
Life Time
28 April 1941 - 15 March 1986
|
As the classic rightly noted: talented people are talented in everything. Or in many ways. This was the artist of the circus of the theater of television Irina Asmus.
All girls love to dance and sing. Half of them dream of making it a profession. Achieving the goal of the unit. Irina since childhood believed that she would become an artist only did not know which - dramatic pop or circus. Her family often moved from city to city, so that constantly go to any circle Irina could not and was content
more
As the classic rightly noted: talented people are talented in everything. Or in many ways. This was the artist of the circus of the theater of television Irina Asmus.
All girls love to dance and sing. Half of them dream of making it a profession. Achieving the goal of the unit. Irina since childhood believed that she would become an artist only did not know which - dramatic pop or circus. Her family often moved from city to city, so that constantly go to any circle Irina could not and was content with random classes. Nevertheless, she decided not to go anywhere but to the Choreographic School of the Bolshoi Theater. And almost arrived but... was warned that with such a sprout on the laurels to count nothing. Then it was decided to enter the circus school. At the entrance exams, a little girl with a large bow danced an incendiary Neapolitan dance and with a dashing look sang the popular song in those years “Besame mucho” than brought the admissions committee into a state of shock. Fortunately, everything worked out and Irina became a student of the State School of Circus and Pop Art. After graduating from school, she performed in the room of equalisers on pearls under the leadership of L. Kostyuk.
Perches are such long sticks. The equilibrist "upper" as they say in the circus climbs the persh who holds his partner under the very dome and there on a tiny patch demonstrates various tricks. This is the work of courageous strongmen who have intermarried with risk. This is a profession for people with a character and that is exactly what was Irina. Fate warned her - Irina received a serious injury at the rehearsal and with performances at height, the doctors ordered to refrain. Then Irina recalls her fascination with the theater and without thinking twice enters the drama studio at the Leningrad Theatre of Young Spectators and immediately for the second year.
At first, she was determined by the role of a travesty - an actress playing children. But the given framework was tight. Asmus goes to the V.F. Komissarzhevskaya Theater and plays Masha in the play by B. Laskin "Time to Love". It was a rare luck: the first job allowed her to show talent and outstanding dramatic actress and singer and dancer. And then came the role of Juliet Cinderella Princess Elizabeth in “Prince and the Beggar” Raymonda in “Romantics for adults”. An interesting actress noticed the criticism of her wrote Leningrad newspapers. But still on the days of school holidays, Irina could be seen in the circus where she took a break from the theater played the pioneer Volka ibn Alesha, the boastful Neznaik, the evil old woman Shapoklyak.
By the way, at this time she got the nickname "Toffee" which later became her circus pseudonym. The playwright Alexander Volodin, who knew well Asmus in the theater, was immensely surprised to see her again on the arena: "Toffee! What are you doing here? The affectionate nickname took root so that Irina in the circus ceased to be called differently.
She still played in the theater but the circus arena beckoned not for nothing they say: who has ever crossed the barrier of the arena there is no way back. In her truthfulness, Irina Asmus had to be convinced by her own experience. The attractive power of this world - the sonorous music of multicolored pillars of light hanging from under the dome of the ropes of the pale yellow tirse of the arena - was so great that Irina One of the leading actresses of the theater decides to return to the arena.
So the internal struggle that took place in the artist - the theater or the circus - ended with the victory of the latter. On his arena appeared solo clowness Irina Asmus. A solo clown, as you probably already know, is a clown who performs alone on the arena. It's honorable but very difficult. However, the word "difficult" was like a red rag for a bull - it only beckoned to overcome the "new height".
Many circus playwrights have struggled with the problem of what words to put into the mouth of a female clown. It was a well-known entertainer graduate of the directorial faculty of GITIS Sergey Dityatev who wrote and put Irina program.
This is what her reprise looked like.
. . . The artist blows on the spotlights and they go out. The Circus plunges into darkness, the howling of a blizzard can be heard. In the wrong light of a lighted candle, viewers see a shrivelled frozen figure. Realizing that the irreparable can happen, Iriska breathes a timid light from which the lights of the circus gradually come to life and carefully carries a candle from the arena - a symbol of light. . .
This life-affirming scene "Let there be light!" firmly entered the repertoire of Irina Asmus. It fully revealed the dramatic talent of the artist.
Another favorite clown artist - "Trainer". Here, the object of satire are some women who spend half their lives on the phone. Demonstrating a "trained snake" grief tamer and then clutched at the phone, forgetting about everything in the world. “Snake” indignant viewers laugh: “Oh, this evening ringing!”
In the seventies, a wonderful program for children "ABVGDake" appeared on television screens. So Irina Asmus was one of her main characters. Shooting was in parallel with the tour, so often the artist barely removed makeup rushed to the airport to catch a plane to Moscow. In addition to "ABVG Deika", which brought her great fame, the actress starred in the transmission of the Leningrad television "Disco" documentary films "Presentation" and "On the Arena of Iriska". . .
In the last few months of her life, everything was not going well. For some reason, she was replaced in ABVGDake by another performer, although all the children of the Soviet Union were madly in love with Iriska. Irina was very worried about this departure.
Asmus died during a performance in Gomel. Says Yu. Osipov: “Toffee raised under the dome on the neck loop. The trick is spectacular: it holds a toothbrush in its mouth and then rotates around the axis during the ascent. And at the very top suddenly broke the spin machine - in the metal was a marriage. Iriska fell into the arena from an eight-meter height and died right in front of her adoring children.
The life of Irina Asmus clown Iriska was bright but short - as if a star broke off and disappeared in a black night. . .
Encyclopedia "World of the Circus" volume interrupted "Clowns" pp. 323-329.