Moscow Theatres for Young People: A Cultural History of Ideological Coercion and Artistic Innovation, 1917-2000 by Manon van de Water (review)

Abstract

534 SEER, 86, 3, JULY 2008 Of course, it is not possible here to give a definitive answer on behalf of the 300 million Slavic people of Central and Eastern Europe, and yet these volumes provide a stimulating introduction to the international dialogue on Slavic contemporary literature, its origins, traditions and its recent fate. Finally, having not one voice alone, but rather a polyphony of voices, is one of the great advantages of the series, and demonstrates the diversity of a region which is still too often taken as one area on account of its linguistic and historical links.Taken as such, the book is especially important in showing how an exchange of experience between the Slavonic nations, as opposed to the usual West-East dialogue, brings enlightening results.The good news for English readers is that each of the articles has a short summary inEnglish. School of Modern Languages and Translation Urszula Magdalena Chowanieg Department of Russian Language and Culture UniversityofTampere van de Water, Manon. Moscow Theatres for Young People: A CulturalHistory of Ideological Coercion and Artistic Innovation, igiy-2000. Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke and New York, 2006. xviii + 302 pp. Illustrations.Notes. Bibliography. Index. ?45-00 In her study ofMoscow theatres for young people, Manon van de Water traces the impact of glasnost' and perestroika on theatre for young audiences inRussia. Working from the premise that Soviet theatres for young people functioned primarily as an ideological tool ? both reflectingand perpetuating the official ideology ofMarxism-Leninism ? she sets out to explore how the traditional ideological and cultural function of theatre for young audiences changed, both during and beyond perestroika and glasnost'. As a subject for research, van de Water's topic fascinates. In the Soviet Union, theatres for young audiences were seen as a valuable instrument, contributing to the ideological and aesthetic education of young Soviet citi zens (themselves viewed as the vanguard of the construction of Communism). As educators of future Soviet citizens, theatres for young people operated under strict state control and their production and repertory practices were essentially dictated by the demands of official ideology.With themove away from a Marxist-Leninist official state ideology that needed to be promoted and legitimized, theatres for young people were effectively stripped of their traditional primary function, forcing a re-evaluation of their role and prompting the question 'Tiuz Today: To Be or not To Be?' In her study,van deWater examines the changing ideological and cultural function of theatre for young audiences by charting the history of the two oldest theatres for young people inMoscow ? the Central Children's Theatre/RAMT and theMoscow Tiuz. Her study falls into three princi pal parts. Part one charts the creation and development of the two theatres from the early years of the Soviet Union, through theheyday of Soviet youth theatre during the Thaw period, to the stagnation under Brezhnev. It dis reviews 535 cusses how the theatres fulfilled their role as an instrument of state ideology and highlights their pedagogical function, with mandatory theatre field trips an integral part of the school curriculum. Part two focuses on the changes wrought by glasnost' and perestroika, the debates that ensued about the role of theatre foryoung people ingeneral, and the resulting effecton theCentral Children's Theatre and theMoscow Tiuz in particular. Part three continues the history of these two theatres from the early 1990s up until the year 2000, noting the two theatres' differing responses to the changing social, political and cultural circumstances, with the RAMT continuing to aim itsproduc tions at a youth audience, and the Moscow Tiuz undergoing a more radical transformation ? effectively abandoning its 'youth' remit and reinventing itself as an art theatre. Where van de Water's book comes alive is in the detailed discussion of repertory and production practices in the twoMoscow theatres during and beyond glasnost' and perestroika. Parts two and three of the study are full of interesting information on individual productions, critical reaction, audience responses, and personalities, such as Kama Ginkas and Genrietta Ianovskaia. In contrast, part one (covering the period from the early years of the Soviet Union up until glasnost' and perestroika) is sadly lacking in detailed...