Les Kurbas créateur du théâtre moderne ukrainien

Abstract

Les' Kurbas — Creator of the Modern Ukrainian Theater Les' Kurbas born 25 February 1887 in Sambir, Galicia (Western Ukraine). An outstanding organizer and director of Ukrainian avant-garde theater, actor, and pedagogue. In 1907- 1908 he studied philosophy at the University of Vienna and also drama. Graduating from Lviv University in 1916, he worked as an actor in the troupes of the Hutsul Theater (1911- 1912) and Ruska Besida Theater (1912-1914), founded and directed the Ternopil Teatralni Vetchory Theater (1915-1916) and worked in the Sadovsky Theater in Kiev (1916-1917). After the February Revolution of 1917, Kurbas reorganized an actors' studio he had founded in 1916 into the Molodyj Theater (1917-1919) in Kiev. With the Molodyj Theater productions, which included the first production in Ukrainian of a classical Greek play, Sophocles' Œdipus Rex, Kurbas revolutionized Ukrainian theater, elevating it in style, esthetics, and repertoire from the provincial to the level of modem Western European theater. In 1922, having become convinced of its use as a powerful political instrument, he founded the Bereziľ artistic association in Kiev. It was at the Bereziľ Theater in both Kiev (1922-1926) and Kharkov (1926-1923) that Kurbas' s creative genius became most evident. There he perfected his rigorous system for the intellectual and technical training of actors. One of the basic principles of his system was that the stage image, although it is created by the actor's emotions, voice, gestures, and temperament, must be objectivized and remain separate from the actor' s frame of mind and personal experiences. With over 300 actors and staff members, 6 actors' studios, director's lab, design studio, and theater museum, the Bereziľ association became the focal point of theater in Ukraine. At Bereziľ, Kurbas broke down the old forms of Ukrainian theater and, after a long period of searching and enthusiastic experimentation with German Expressionist theater and the theories of Constructivism, succeeded in his productions of Mykola Kuliš' s play s in creating a unique Ukrainian Expressionist theater. Kurbas broke completely with traditional Ukrainian realistic, ethnographic theater to present spectacles that forced the audience to think instead of simply watching passively. This intellectualism was combined with a brilliant synthesis of rhythm, movement, and avant-garde theatrical and visual devices, including montage. Не managed to gather around himself the best actors, directors, set designers (e.g. V. Meller), and play wrights (e.g. M. Kuliš) in Ukraine. In 1933, Kurbas, his ideas, and his dynamics, innovative, and often controversial productions were condemned as nationalist, formalist, and conterrevolutionary. In October he was dismissed as the director of Bereziľ and ail of his productions were banned from the Soviet Ukrainian repertoire. Не moved to Moscow, where he was arrested in December and imprisoned on the Solovets Islands. He was shot in 1937.