Performing Arts - Moscow - page 407

was said to be a favourite play of Nicholas I; and Ivan Turgenev, whose languid A Month in
the Country (1849) paved the way for the most famous Russian playwright of all: Anton
Chekhov (1860-1904).
Chekhov lived on the Garden Ring in Presnya, though he spent much of his time at his
country estate in Melikhovo. In 1898 Konstantin Stanislavsky implemented his innovative
approach of method acting and made Chekhov a success. Chekhov's The Seagull, The Three
Sisters, The Cherry Orchard and Uncle Vanya, all of which take the angst of the provincial
middle class as their theme, owed much of their success to their 'realist' productions at the
Moscow Art Theatre.
Through the Soviet period theatre remained popular, not least because it was one of the
few areas of artistic life where a modicum of freedom of expression was permitted. Stalin
famously said of Mikhail Bulgakov's play White Guard that, although it had been written by
an enemy, it still deserved to be staged because of the author's outstanding talent. Bulgakov
is perhaps the only person dubbed an 'enemy' by Stalin who was never persecuted.
Others were not so fortunate. The rebellious director of the Taganka Theatre, Yury Ly-
ubimov, was sent into exile as a result of his controversial plays. The avant-garde actor-dir-
ector Vsevolod Meyerhold suffered an even worse fate. Not only was his Moscow theatre
closed down but he was imprisoned and later tortured and executed as a traitor.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Pyotr Fomenko was unable to find permanent work un-
til he set up his own theatre company, which became wildly popular almost immediately.
The Pyotr Fomenko Studio Theatre moved into a proper (beautiful) home theatre in 2008,
just a few short years before the beloved director died in 2012.
Today, Moscow's theatre scene is as lively as those in London and New York. The capital
hosts over 40 theatres, which continue to entertain and provoke audiences. Notable directors
include Kama Ginkas, who works with the Moscow Art Theatre and the New Generation
Theater; and Oleg and Vladimir Presnyakov, who cowrite and direct their plays under the
joint name Presnyakov Brothers.
Drama Theatres
Moscow Art Theatre
Moscow English Theatre
Taganka Theatre