What Is Hecuba to Them?: Nikolai Gogol's Marriage at The Guthrie Theatre

Abstract

What Is Hecuba to Them?: Nikolai Gogol's Marriage at The Guthrie Theatre Anatoly Efros With Introduction and Translation1 by James Thomas Introduction In November 1978, an unusual production of Nikolai Gogol's Marriage opened at The Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis. The play's director was Anatoly Efros, a theatrical innovator from Russia known for his inventive interpretations of classic plays. Although only a few people in this country are aware of Efros, his impressive life and work in the theatre deserve serious attention. Anatoly Efros (EF-ros) was born in 1925, in Kharkov, Ukraine. His popularity began at GITIS (the Lunacharsky State Theatre Institute of Theatre Arts in Moscow) where as a student he showed a distinctive talent for psychological insight, inventive staging, and unexpected interpretations. After a short term in the provinces, he was assigned to the Central Children's Theatre under the supervision of Maria Knebel, whose classes he attended earlier at GITIS and who supervised his graduation performance. At the Central Childrens' Theatre, Efros had a great deal of success directing Viktor Rozov's plays, particularly Good Luck! and In Search of Happiness, which dealt seriously with adolescents undergoing the first throes of independence. Efros' involvement with children's theatre had a major influence on the development of his colorful and expressive directing style. In 1964, Efros was named director of the Lenin Komsomol Theatre, where he began to acquire his reputation for unorthodox interpretations of the classics. Sometimes his offbeat approach was greeted with surprise and acclaim, as in the case of his lavish production of Mikhail Bulgakov's Molière, or The Cabal of Hypocrites, a play which had not been presented in Russia for thirty years. At other times his work caused bitter objections, as it did for his series of "Brechtian" Chekhov productions. Finally, his radical interpretation of The Seagull was removed from the stage; conservatives called his negative treatment of Arkadina 177 178 Anatoly Efros "morbid" (Markov 556-567). In 1966, Efros' theatre was taken away from him and given to someone else. A year later he was assigned as a director with Moscow's former Jewish cultural theatre on Malaya Bronnaya Street, which remained his home base for the next eighteen years. Efros tried to continue his series of "objective" Chekhov productions with The Three Sisters, a "scandalous and triumphant" work (Solovyova 19), but it was also banned. Critic Pavel Markov later complained that Efros' sympathetic treatment of Natasha had turned the play into "The Four Sisters " (556). After this ordeal he turned to less controversial plays, though not less innovative productions, notably The Brothers Karamazov (1972), Don Juan, by Molière (1974), Othello (1976), Marriage (1975), and The Misanthrope (1978). Alvin Epstein saw Marriage on a visit to Moscow sponsored by the Soviet copyright agency in the spring of 1977 and invited Efros to direct it at The Guthrie Theatre. In addition to his work at the Malaya Bronnaya Theatre, Efros periodically directed at the Mossoviet Theatre, the Moscow Art Theatre, and the Taganka Theatre during this stage of his career. He also worked in England, France, Germany, Scandinavia, and Japan, at the Edinburgh Festival and in the United States in 1978 and 1979, as well as in Russian film and television. In 1975, he wrote his first book, titled Rehearsal, Mon Amour. It was followed in 1979 by Profession: Director and in 1985 by Sequel to a Theatre Story. A manuscript titled The Fourth Book was completed in 1987. Efros' books are more than memoirs; they describe the actual work of considering and creating his productions and their principles relate to people in all sorts of professions. In 1985, Efros was named artistic director at the Taganka Theatre after the dismissal of Yuri Lyubimov. Although Efros' reputation was firmly established by this time, he encountered stiff resistance from certain Taganka company members who resented the departure of the popular Lyubimov. Some even accused Efros of aiding and encouraging Lyubimov's dismissal, although in fact he was a friend of Lyubimov and only accepted the post after considerable armtwisting . The subsequent backstage intrigues placed a serious strain on Efros, who was sixty years old at the time. Nevertheless, he...