The Moscow Yiddish Theater: Art on Stage in the Time of Revolution by Benjamin Harshav , Barbara Harshav (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 723 fortheordinary Russian'theexperience ofempire[. . .] was a matter ofthe senses'(p. 107).The essaysofEvtuhov, Steinberg and McReynoldsall implicitlyreflect theEuropean-wide technological advancesin imagereproduction as wellas thediverse nature ofpre-revolutionary Russiansociety; usingphotographicportraits theyconsiderthe visual representation of the bourgeois family, theworker-revolutionary and themale moviestarrespectively. Also drawing on photography as a source,Ruane looksat theroleofEuropean fashion inRussiansociety, commenting on thedressoftheRussianbourgeoisie ,butmostinterestingly, on thatofthefemaleurbanworker, whoseadoptionofWestern materials and designs was equally'an expression ofa modern sensibility' (p. 123).Expressions of'popular'visualculture feature strongly in thecontributions concerned withSovietand post-Soviet Russia.McMichael analyses a 1981rockmusicalbumcover,highlighting thedesireofone Soviet groupto represent boththeinfluence ofWestern rockmusicas wellas their ownuniqueSovietidentity. In a workofthiskindtheimportance ofhigh-quality illustrations cannot be overstated; each essayhereisaccompaniedbyatleasttwoclearblack-andwhiteillustrations and inadditionthereare overforty colourimages.Picturing Russia takesthereaderon a thought-provoking journeythrough theevolution ofRussianvisualculture, andwillintroduce manytounfamiliar subjects whilst offering freshinterpretations of artistic and culturallandmarks. Above all, it inspiresthe readerto considerseeing,as much as reading,when next exploring Russianhistory. Faculty ofArts andHumanities University ofReading EmmaMinns Harshav, Benjamin. The Moscow YiddishTheater: Art on Stagein the Time of Revolution, Documentstranslated by Benjaminand Barbara Harshav. Yale University Press, New Haven,CT and London,2008.xiii-I199pp . Illustrations. Notes.Glossary. Bibliography.£30.00. The Moscow State YiddishTheatre, better knownbyitsRussianacronym Goset(Gosudarstvennyi evreiskii teatr) wasbornin 1919amidtheavant-garde theatrical and artistic circlesoftherevolutionary era. Over thecourseofits thirty-year existence, untilits1949liquidation and themurderand arrest of itsleadingpersonalities, the theatrewas the leadinginstitution of Yiddish culturein the SovietUnion. Most scholarly attention on the theatrehas focusedon the 1920s,duringwhichthe theatre, underthe directorship of Aleksandr Granovskii, produceda seriesofmodernist adaptations ofYiddish worksby prominent authorssuch as SholemAleichem,Mendele Moykher Sforim, and Yitskhok LeybushPeretz.In particular, thetheatre's first major performance, An Evening ofSholem Aleichem (1920),forwhichMarc Chagall servedas designer, has been thesourcenotonlyofscholarly discussion, but also museumexhibitions and even a play.BenjaminHarshav's TheMoscow 724 SEER, 88, 4, OCTOBER 2OIO Yiddish Theater: ArtonStagein theTimeofRevolution, celebratesthe rare synthesis ofartistic geniusthatresulted whenChagall,Mikhoels, and Granovskii staged theworksofSholemAleichem. Althoughthe theatrecertainlyachieved most of its greatestartistic successes during the1920s,Harshav'scomplete rejection ofthetheatre's later periodis striking. In hisprefacehe writes 'in the 1920s,and especially after 1928,thetheater increasingly becamea lying, boring, subservient Sovietagitpropinstitution thatexisted, withno audience,for purely propagandareasons' (p.xii).Yet,onlya fewpagesafter passingthis judgment, he notesthe'stunningperformance ofSolomonMikhoels as KingLear' (p.5)in 1935.The book also reproduces severalimagesofthisproduction as wellas Aleksandr Tyshler 'svibrantdesignsforthe 1945Freylekhs. While the theatrewas certainly constrained bypolitical circumstances inthe1930sand 1940s,and was forced to abandonmuchofitsexperimental innovation in favour ofSovietsocialist realism, itsparticipants can nevertheless be credited withhavingcontinued to entertain Yiddish-speaking audienceswithseveralhigh-quality productions throughout itsexistence. Harshav'sdistaste fortheroletheSovietstateplayed in thetheatre's history is suchthathe evenexpungestheword'State' from thetheatre's name,redubbing it'The MoscowYiddishTheatre'. The bookis dividedintotwoparts.The first quarterconsists oftwoessays by Harshav,thefirst ofwhichdiscussesthecreationofthetheatre and the secondofwhichprovides a detailedanalysis ofChagall'smurals for AnEvening ofSholem Aleichem. Although theyincludenumerous repetitions (pp.14and 30; xiand 20; 34,35 and 37)andwouldhavebenefited from morecareful editing, theessaysilluminate aspectsofChagall'scooperation withthetheatre. The second,muchlargerpart,is a collection ofdocuments, photosand stunning colourillustrations relatedto Goset. Benjaminand Barbara Harshavhave fluidly translated the documentsfromthe German,Yiddish,Russian and Hebrew.Theyincludeprogrammatic essaysbythoseinvolved in thetheatre, suchas Mikhoels and Granovskii; excerpts from Chagall'smemoirs and other writings; excerpts from thememoirs ofluminaries who had seenthetheatre, includingDavid Ben-Gurionand Osip Mandel'shtam;two one-actplays performed as partofAnEvening ofSholem Aleichem; significant excerpts from twocritical monographs written on thetheatre in the1920s;and a complete translation of TheMoscow Yiddish Academic Theatre, a German-language book publishedon occasionofthetheatre's1928Europeantour,whichincludes critical commentary by ErnstToller,JosephRoth and AlfonsGoldschmidt. Theseprimary sourceswillhelpresearchers acquirea senseoftheexcitement and enthusiasm thatGosetgenerated during itsfirst decade. One ofthehighlights ofthebook is itsthirty-nine colourand forty-three black-and-white illustrations. Likethebookas a whole,thefirst gallery section ofcolouredplatesfocuses on thetheatre's first decade and particularly on its onlyproduction withMarc Chagallas designer. The platesincludeChagall's mural'Introduction to theJewishTheatre',as wellas his 'Music', 'Dance', 'Drama', and 'Literature'thatbriefly hung on the walls of the theatre's auditorium.The second gallerysection includes costume designs and REVIEWS 725 mise-en-scènes fromsome laterproductions as well as elevencolourplates fromproductions by othertheatres, such as the BelorussianStateYiddish Theatreand theHebrew-language HaBima theatre. One wonders, however, whytheseplateswereincludedsincethebookhashardly a wordtosayabout anyoftheothertheatres; morediscussion ofthecomparative context would certainly have been welcome.In fact,theillustration thatgracesthecover of TheMoscow Yiddish Theater is actuallya costumedesignfromtheHaBima Hebrewlanguagetheatre. TheMoscowYiddish Theater will be of...