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Y. Liubomirskii characterizes her as such (1931):
"An actress with a very broad role. This becomes
clear when you look at only a part of the list of roles
that she came out to play in: the old outcast, the
Sultan's physician Khakis-Pasha, who is the most
important head of the intrigue in "Sabatai Zvi," and the
young coquettish woman, "Lea," in "Di letste," she in a
romantic veil-hidden Polish countess Maria in "Blood,"
and the lumpenproletariat [term coined by Karl Marx,
this denotes someone who is in the lowest stratum of the
industrial working class], the drunkard, the former
miner's wife [?] "Nastya" in Barg aroyf
(Uphill)," the beautiful
Bundavka in "Leckert," and the hostile Jewish
balebaste-grande dame in "Koimnerker." She presents
all these figures in a masterfully played form. With
Sants -- in the figures created by her -- you will
rarely feel that it has not been thought through to the
end, that it is not finished. Before everything --
determination, clarity and certainty are not actions,
not gestures in the movement, although the value is not
infused with the experiences of its heroes. From
Stanislavski's system she has only the principle of
logic that justifies her actions on the stage.
Full-blooded, juicy, are most of the figures that she
portrays, even such a pale, dry figure as the beautiful
Bundavka in "Leckert" shines from her, in the embodiment
of Sants, with convincing power. Sants gives scarce
colors here, very few colors. She almost plays herself
-- the smart actress Sants.
Nastya ("Barg
aroyf"), ... is, on the inside, a clumsy,
disheveled, broken nature, in the embodiment of
Sants, she gains a special charm for the audience, and
-- although Nastya is an episodic figure -- she becomes
one of the most beloved figures in "Barg aroyf." Why?
Because the actress wanted it so. This is achieved by
the fact that Sants considers Nastya through a series of
eccentric manners, not joking, not laughing, and the
bearish movements, a lust for life, a carefree one. In
general, a soul that does not listen to the world. It
seems, a negative type., and nevertheless, Nastya does
not evoke any repulsive emotions at the audience. The
actress drew her gracefully. In the middle is the
Countess Marie in "Blood," a grand and gracious lady. In
her manner pious, chaste, and moreover a liberal voter,
a liberal who shows her class nails in the end. "We
liked playing with great musical tenors, immersing
ourselves in lyricism, in romanticism, disappearing in
moderation, in tenderness, and besides, the countess is
a mother ... a mother, mother-countess. I realized that
you shouldn't make fun of it completely." Nevertheless,
you, too, will look at Maria properly, and you will
somehow feel the ironic relationship of the actress
Sants to the figure that she creates here."
Regarding this ironic relationship regarding the
character she plays, it is particularly easy to notice
when Sants plays Lea in "The Last." One hears the
strongly grotesque melody of Sants' tenor at the
beginning of the second act, while she persuades her
husband, Abram, to stay for the birthday celebration.
She clings to him and licks and purrs .apparently "A-b-r-a-m
t-i-i-e-r inker." That's how
Sants makes Lea
strong, almost throughout the whole spectacle. From the
beginning to the end, the conscious relationship to each
character she plays is the most characteristic of Sants.
"Before anything else -- Sants says -- I ask myself the
question, what kind of emotions should this type of
intent evoke for the audience -- pleasant or unpleasant,
and what is the position of this type in life, in
society, and only then , which presents itself to this
type externally."
For Sants, it turns out
that the external appearance of her figure depends on a
coincidence: "When I work on the role of Nastya -- Sants
explains --and inquire about her outward appearance, for
a long time I could not settle on a specific external
mask. Once I pass by a shop, I see a simple Russian girl
running out of there with white hair, just like I did
with Nastya's wig afterwards. I say to myself: Oh, I got
it."
"In "Zagmuk," where Sants plays the chief's
evil wife Gingaloumi, a woman vampire, a bloodsucker,
she completed the inside of this figure when she took
the whip in her hands (the whip with which the slaves
are beaten there). Flogging with the whip, which began
to squirm, she realized that Gingaloumi was a snake, and
that was the starting point for properly observing this
figure.
The experiences of the heroes she plays do not move
her. The figure is born for her by deep thinking
about the figure itself and through purely technical
means. This is especially noticeable when you watch
Sants play Lea in "Der letste." Here you notice the
ups and downs of a master, and moments between the
ups and downs, when a certain emptiness is felt, and
only then is it easy to notice the purely technical
means with which she has created a figure. It is
fitting to compare Sants with another creative
personality with whom she has something in common.
This is the Moscow Proletkult Theatre, and then the
Revolution Theatre."
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