The Russian Theatre After Stalin

by Anatoly Smeliansky , Foreword by Laurence Senelick , Translated by Patrick Miles

• ISBN13: 9780521587945
• ISBN10: 0521587948
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-07-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This is the first book to explore the world of the theatre in Russia after Stalin. Through his work at the Moscow Art Theatre, Anatoly Smeliansky is in a key position to analyse contemporary events on the Russian stage and he combines this first-hand knowledge with valuable archival material, some published here for the first time, to tell a fascinating and important story. Smeliansky chronicles developments from 1953 and the rise of a new Soviet theatre, and moves through the next four decades, highlighting the social and political events which shaped Russian drama and performance. The book also focuses on major directors and practitioners, including Yury Lyubimov, Oleg Yefremov, and Lev Dodin, among others, and contains a chronology, glossary of names, and informative illustrations.

Author Biography

Anatoly Smeliansky is Associate Head of the Moscow Art Theatre and Professor of the Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at the American Repertory Theatre. He is the author of numerous books and articles on Russian theatre and is editor-in-chief of The Collected Works of Konstantin Stanislavsky.

Table of Contents

List of plates	ix
Foreword	xi
Laurence Senelick
Preface	xix
Chronology	xxiii
Biographical notes	xxviii
Translator's note	xxxviii
The Thaw (1953--1968)	1	(73)
The mythology of socialist realism	1	(8)
Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky initiate a new Soviet theatre	9	(7)
The rise and fall of the Sovremennik Theatre	16	(14)
Yury Lyubimov and the birth of the Taganka Theatre	30	(16)
Where we came from: Tovstonogov's diagnosis	46	(12)
Within the bounds of tenderness (Efros in the sixties)	58	(16)
The Frosts (1968--1985)	74	(68)
Oleg Yefremov resuscitates the Art Theatre	75	(15)
Yury Lyubimov's `black cross'	90	(21)
The man from outside (Efros in the seventies and eighties)	111	(15)
Georgy Tovstonogov: encapsulating `stagnation'	126	(16)
The Black Box (1985--1997)	142	(75)
The paradoxes of freedom	142	(5)
The splitting of the Moscow Arts	147	(8)
Mark Zakharov and the King's games	155	(13)
Family portrait (Kama Ginkas and Geta Yanovskaya)	168	(12)
Having a body to be resurrected (Lev Dodin and Anatoly Vasilyev)	180	(22)
Pyotr Fomenko's `three cards'	202	(10)
Conclusion	212	(5)
Notes	217	(7)
Index	224