Russian and Soviet Theatre: Tradition and the Avant-Garde

In the interval between the Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917 the Russian theater of the future was already an obsessive preoccupation for writers, directors, and designers. After 1917, Russian theater came face to face not only with the new social realities but also with a new audience of unprecedented size. Lenin proclaimed that theater had to be "greater than a spectacle," and directors, designers, playwrights, and artists rose to the challenge. Leading traditional directors like Stanislavsky became engaged in intense debates and explorations with avant-gardists such as Meyerhold. The Futurists, headed by Mayakovsky, and the Constructivists designed sets and costumes for theatrical performances, agit-prop plays, and celebrations. "Theater in the round" dramas were presented in factories, cafes, and public squares by professional actors as well as by casts of workers. Contemporary plays and innovatory productions of the classics were performed in vast numbers, and audiences participated actively in heated discussions about the social and political role of theater. This book documents the extraordinary developments of those fruitful years, from the first decade of the century to 1932. It presents an astonishing wealth of previously unpublished material, including 457 illustrations that bring the period to life: performances directed by Meyerhold, Eisenstein, Mikhail Chekov, and many more, with designs by some of the greatest modernist artists of the age, including Malevich, Larionov, Exter, Popova, and Rodchenko. Visually exhilarating and critically perceptive, the book is a unique and essential record of this formative period in modern theater.