Revolutionary Theatre: From Russia to America

Abstract

Theatre in Russia, from the turn of the century until the era of Stalinist censorship beginning around 1927, was characterized by sporadic and varied experimentation often uniting political and social ideals with modernist artistic innovations. Even as Stanislavsky struggled to develop and articulate a practical approach to acting, other Russian theatre artists were adamantly attacking naturalistic illusionism in the theatre. Throughout this period, artists explored the possibilities of Symbolism, Futurism, Expressionism, Theatricalism, Constructivism, and Suprematism. They sought inspiration from medieval mysteries, folklore, commedia dell’arte, classical dramas, European modernism, and the circus as well as from political doctrines and contemporary headlines. Inspired by prerevolutionary avant-garde impulses, after the revolution, artists of the theatre searched for a theatre that could represent the New Russia. Following the October Revolution in 1917 until the early 1930s, Russian artists produced massive spectacles, circus-theatres, living newspapers, and agitprop dramas, employing both realistic techniques and explicit theatricality in order to engage a new proletarian audience, while others staged new adaptations of classical and traditional texts using new forms. Not surprisingly, debates raged over the purposes and possibilities of theatre in Russia, resulting in a wide diversity of form, content, production style, and venue.