Dodin and the Maly Drama Theatre: Process to Performance by Maria Shevtsova

Abstract

920 Reviews In an excellent article on musical film comedies of the I930S, Evgeny Dobrenko explores comparable dynamics in the development of Soviet satirical comedy and of its implicit purpose to provide 'an image of what isannounced today by the state as being of "yesterday"'. Taking as his examples TheJolly Fellows (I 934), Volga- Volga ( 936), and A Musical Comedy (I940), Dobrenko shows exactly how, over this compressed time-span, Soviet citizens were enjoined through film to shift their loyalties (and musical abilities) from one genre to another, from anarchic jazz to once-vilified opera. On the topic of the anekdot, Milne's volume suggests apleasing internal progression (or regression) of its own. While Efim Kurganov's article on Gogol 'as a narrator of anecdotes' illustrates very vividly a cultural milieu where jokes were all in the telling, and still capable of causing a scandal, Seth Graham's analysis of the late Soviet anekdot evokes the jaded irony of the Brezhnev years and the spectre of 'postmodernism in one country' as a response to official discourse. Here, to judge from Seth's overview, joke-telling can begin to resemble a conceptualist novel by Vladimir Sorokin, with numbers and rituals threatening the domains of words and feelings. WOLFSON COLLEGE, OXFORD OLIVER READY Dodin and theMaly Drama Theatre: Process toPerformance. By MARIA SHEVTSOVA. London:Routledge. 2004. XiV+23Ipp. /75(pbk/25). ISBNO-4I5-3346i-6 (pbk 0-4 I 5-3 3462-4). In the era of Soviet state sponsorship, many theatre directors could not only hope for but actually achieve apermanent 'theatrical home' and a company of actors with whom to work consistently. Such ensemble companies were one of the greatest strengths of twentieth-century Russian theatre. Today the only truly viable one is the Maly Theatre of St Petersburg, directed by Lev Dodin, and this illuminating account is the first full-length study of their work. After a foreword and a preface, the book divides essentially into two sections. The first, Parts I and II (Chapters 1-5), deals directly with the work of the ensemble; the second, Part III (Chapters 6 and 7), with Dodin's work on opera. Though links are made where appropriate, each chapter is largely self-contained and there is no common pattern. The first traces the evolution of the company from i983 through the I99Os, describing Dodin's establishment of an acting school, and his determination, in a politically and financially turbulent new Russia, to secure a 'theatrical home'. Here and throughout Shevtsova points to the importance internationally of his work, noting that the sheer size of the company on tour contributes to the perception of its productions as epoch-making cultural events. But she also asserts correctly thatDodin often mirrors his milieu, and in this opening chapter firmly grounds the development of the company in a specifically Russian context. She discusses the impact on theatre of changing government policy, its new role in post-Soviet society, and the challenges it faces for financial survival. Chapter 2 discusses Dodin's working methods and how the ensemble functions. For him training and performing are not discrete activities; his actors move from his school into the company, where training isongoing through rehcarsal and pcrformancc. This continuity is essential to a theatre whose productions are the 'tip of the iceberg' of work that is researched, improvised, and created by its performers. Dodin uses various techniques but follows no explicit methodology in this process, the strands of which, applying her own terminology to his methods, Shevtsova clearly separates out. She discusses the necessity for the ensemble to develop a common language, and Dodin's principle that art and life are fused as an organic, collective, and holistic experience, but rightly rejects any 'New Ageism' in this; such a charge would be belied by the MLR, I0I.3, 2oo6 92I disciplined rigour of training, research, and rehearsals and the sheer brilliance of its results in performance. The three chapters of Part II consider specific productions: those adapted from prose, those of the student ensemble, and Dodin's fascinating interpretations of Chekhov. Not all are given equal weight, nor are they discussed in chronological order, and though Shevtsova offers plausible...