• “Back to Ostrovsky”: Deconstruction of Staging Classics in a Directorial Theatre of the 1920s

УДК: 792.03(=161.1):792.09

DOI: 10.35852/2588-0144-2023-1-10-26

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Nikolai V. Pesochinsky

Cand. Sc. in Art Studies,  Professor of Russian Theatre Department
Russian State Institute of Performing Arts
Saint Petersburg, Russia
E-mail: n@pesochinsky.ru

“Back to Ostrovsky”: Deconstruction of Staging Classics in a Directorial Theatre of the 1920s

Abstract

Ostrovsky’s centenary in 1923 gave impetus for a major leap in the history of directing. Ostrovsky turned out to be the first author whose plays were staged almost simultaneously (within 3 years) in all styles of Russian directing. Alexander Tairov staged “The Storm” at the Moscow Kamerny Theatre, in 1924, by mythologizing Ostrovsky’s tragedy. The myth of the Russian soul outside the boundaries of time turned out to be in the center of his performance. The psychological portrayal of the 19th-century drama’s character was mastered by the mythological approach. Such components as mythological thinking, constructivism, and the concept of Ostrovsky’s secret mysticism of the Russian soul were combined for the first time. Actress Alisa Koonen delved into the archetype of the heroine. The avant-garde production of Sergey Eisenstein’s “Enough Stupidity in Every Wise Man” at the First Workers’ Theatre of Proletkult (1923) was connected with the ancient tradition of the fairground booth show. For the first time in the history of the Russian theatre, a director used the principles of open actualization of the classic play, the connections between drama and the circus, cinematic methods in the theatre, and a “montage of attractions”. “A Profitable Position” staged by Vsevolod Meyerhold (Theatre of the Revolution, 1923) was associated with Russian romanticism. The production revealed the two worlds — the spiritual reality in the opposition to the material everyday life. The metaphorical performance was built according to the principle of a thematic development similar to music. In “The Forest” at the Meyerhold Theatre (1924), the director contrasted three genres and semantic layers: a farcical level, a love line, as in Russian romanticism of the 19th century, and a layer that united the structure — acting and theatricality (the leitmotif of actors and acting). The visual dynamic of the dialogue with hyperbolic expression became the director’s principle approach. In his work on the production “An Ardent Heart” (Moscow Art Theatre, 1926), Stanislavsky created the phenomenon of the psychological grotesque. The performance was perceived by most critics as satirical and accusatory. Stanislavsky did not lose interest in the motives of human behavior, especially of a theatrical nature, and revealed a certain way of human thinking. The progress in the new discoveries in Ostrovsky’s dramaturgy in the first half of the 1920s shaped the main courses in which the Russian theatre was developing in the 20th century.

Keywords

Russian theatre, Soviet theatre, directing, A.N. Ostrovsky, K.S. Stanislavsky, V. E. Meyerhold, A.Ya. Tairov, S.M. Eisenstein, A.V. Lunacharsky, constructivism, installation of attractions.

For citation

Pesochinsky N. V. “Back to Ostrovsky”: Deconstruction of Staging Classics in a Directorial Theatre of the 1920s. Theatre. Fine Arts. Cinema. Music. 2023, no. 1, pp. 10–26.

DOI: 10.35852/2588-0144-2023-1-10-26

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Received: 10.12.2022

Revised: 03.02.2023

Accepted: 10.02.2023