Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Ostrovsky - took it a step further, writing plays that attacked not just the aristocracy
but the bourgeoisie as well. Anton Chekhov wrote for St Petersburg newspapers be-
fore writing one-act, vaudevillian works. Yet it is his full-length plays that are his leg-
acy.
Towards the end of the 19th century Maxim Gorky represented an expansion of this
trend in anti-establishment theatre. His play The Song of the Stormy Petrel raised
workers to a level superior to that of the intellectual. This production was the first of
what would be many socialist realist performances, thus earning its author the esteem
of the Soviet authorities.
The futurists had their day on the stage, mainly in the productions of the energetic
and tirelessly inventive director Vsevolod Meyerhold, who was one of the most influ-
ential figures of modern theatre. His productions of Alexander Blok's The Fair Show
Booth (1906) and Vladimir Mayakovsky's Mystery-Bouffe (1918) both caused a sen-
sation at the time. Both Anna Akhmatova and Dmitry Shostakovich cited Meyer-
hold's 1935 production of Queen of Spades by Tchaikovsky as one of the era's most
influential works.
During the Soviet period, drama was used primarily as a propaganda tool. When
foreign plays were performed, it was for a reason - hence the popularity in Russia of
Death of a Salesman, which showed the inevitable result of Western greed and decad-
ence. However, just after the revolution, theatre artists were given great, if short-lived,
freedom to experiment - anything to make theatre accessible to the masses. Avant-
garde productions flourished for a while, notably under the mastery of poet and dir-
ector Igor Terentyev. Artists such as Pavel Filonov and Malevich participated in pro-
duction and stage design.
Even socialist theatre was strikingly experimental: the Theatre of Worker Youth,
under the guidance of Mikhail Sokolovsky, used only amateur actors and encouraged
improvisation, sudden plot alterations and interaction with audience members, striv-
ing to redefine the theatre-going experience. Free theatre tickets were given out at
factories; halls that once echoed with the jangle of their upper-class audience's jew-
ellery were now filled with sailors and workers. The tradition of sending army regi-
ments and schoolchildren to the theatre continues to this day.
Today theatre remains important to the city's intellectuals, but it isn't at the fore-
front of the arts, receiving little state support and, unlike the ballet or opera, unable to
earn revenues from touring abroad. If you're interested in the state of contemporary
Search WWH ::




Custom Search