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The Director's Prism: E. T. A. Hoffmann and the Russian Theatrical Avant-Garde

Dassia N. Posner 2016
The Director's Prism investigates how and why three of Russia's most innovative directors— Vsevolod Meyerhold, Alexander Tairov, and Sergei Eisenstein—used the fantastical tales of German Romantic writer E. T. A. Hoffmann to reinvent the rules of theatrical practice. Because the rise of the director and the Russian cult of Hoffmann closely coincided, Posner argues, many characteristics we associate with avant-garde theater—subjective perspective, breaking through the fourth wall, activating the spectator as a co-creator—become uniquely legible in the context of this engagement. Posner examines the artistic poetics of Meyerhold's grotesque, Tairov's mime-drama, and Eisenstein's theatrical attraction through production analyses, based on extensive archival research, that challenge the notion of theater as a mirror to life, instead viewing the director as a prism through whom life is refracted. A resource for scholars and practitioners alike, this groundbreaking study provides a fresh, provocative perspective on experimental theater, intercultural borrowings, and the nature of the creative process.
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  • 978-0-8101-3356-3 (hardcover)
  • 978-0-8101-3355-6 (paper)
  • 978-0-8101-3357-0 (e-book)
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Costume design for Nina in an elaborate ball gown with an orange shawl and black embroidered train. She wears a simple bracelet over one of her elbow-length gloves.

Nina at the ball in Masquerade, costume design

From Chapter 1: Meyerhold-Dapertutto: Framing the Grotesque

Alexander Golovin, costume design for Nina at the ball in Lermontov’s Masquerade, directed by Vsevolod Meyerhold, Alexandrinsky Theatre (premiere: February 25, 1917). КП 8320. Copyright © A. A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum, Moscow.

This costume design, with its background of blues, pinks, and whites, reveals the set’s vivid, colliding, deliberately skewed planes. In the foreground stands an actor in gray with an enormous bowtie, his eyes replaced by dark blue smudges that stand out against his unnaturally white, painted skin. In the production, the actors wore dark blue paint around their eyes.

Costume design for Tales of Hoffmann (Lentulov)

From Chapter 1: Meyerhold-Dapertutto: Framing the Grotesque

Astriarkh Lentulov, costume design for Tales of Hoffmann, by Jacques Offenbach, directed by Fedor Komissarzhevsky, KhPSRO (Artistic-Instructive Union of Workers’ Organizations) Theatre-Studio, Moscow (1919). КП 289402. Copyright © A. A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum, Moscow.

Cubist design for Salomé’s dance of the seven veils, all angles and curves, with Salomé’s arms stretched upward, one leg lifted, an orange veil streaming behind her against the backdrop of a red staircase.

Costume design for Salomé’s dance of the seven veils

From Chapter 2: Tairov-Celionati: Mime-Drama and Kaleidoscopic Commedia

Alexandra Exter, costume design for Salomé’s dance of the seven veils, in Salomé, by Oscar Wilde, directed by Alexander Tairov, Moscow Kamerny Theatre (premiere: October 9, 1917). КП 62579. Copyright © A. A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum, Moscow.

Design that suggests the costume for one of Nikolai Bykov’s characters in Princess Brambilla rather than exhaustively depicting it. The costume contains splashes of red, white, yellow ochre, and black with green gloves, a feathered hat, and a hint of a mask.

Design for Nikolai Bykov’s costume, Princess Brambilla

From Chapter 2: Tairov-Celionati: Mime-Drama and Kaleidoscopic Commedia

Georgy Yakulov, design for actor Nikolai Bykov’s costume, Princess Brambilla: A Kamerny Theatre Capriccio, after Hoffmann, based on the novella by E. T. A. Hoffmann, directed by Alexander Tairov, Moscow Kamerny Theatre (premiere: May 4, 1920). КП 238272/594. Copyright © A. A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum, Moscow.

This costume design for one of Alexander Rumnev's characters gives a clear sense of his lithe, supple figure while also showing how the production’s costumes captured the plasticity and color palette of the set.

Costume design for Alexander Rumnev, Princess Brambilla

From Chapter 2: Tairov-Celionati: Mime-Drama and Kaleidoscopic Commedia

Georgy Yakulov, costume design for Alexander Rumnev, Princess Brambilla: A Kamerny Theatre Capriccio, after Hoffmann, based on the novella by E. T. A. Hoffmann, directed by Alexander Tairov, Moscow Kamerny Theatre (premiere: May 4, 1920). КП 238272/578. Copyright © A. A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum, Moscow.

In this costume design for Crimson Island, the monotony of the bespectacled male figure’s dull, tan uniform is broken only by a black tie striped red at the top.

Male costume design for Crimson Island

From Chapter 2: Tairov-Celionati: Mime-Drama and Kaleidoscopic Commedia

Vadim Ryndin, male costume design, probably for Savva Lukich, the censor. Crimson Island, by Mikhail Bulgakov, directed by Alexander Tairov, Moscow Kamerny Theatre (premiere: December 11, 1928). КП 238272/354. Copyright © A. A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum, Moscow.

In this costume design, Olimpia, the beautiful automaton in Tales of Hoffmann, is assembled from unnatural cubist shapes that together create a vague impression that she is on the verge of breaking, despite the cheerful look on her doll-like face.

Costume design for Olimpia in Tales of Hoffmann (Eisenstein)

From Chapter 3: Peregrinus Tyss Meets Pipifax: Eisenstein, the Grotesque, and the Attraction

Sergei Eisenstein, Costume design for Olimpia in Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann (1921). Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, f. 1923, op. 1, ed. khr. 735: 14.

In this costume design for act 2 of Tales of Hoffmann, a male guest appears to be part insect, part bird: while his enormous eyes are solid blue, his red on-end hair fans out like feathers. His blue jacket is a deep yellow underneath, and his green-clad calves trail away into nothingness.

Male costume design for act 2 of Tales of Hoffmann (Eisenstein)

From Chapter 3: Peregrinus Tyss Meets Pipifax: Eisenstein, the Grotesque, and the Attraction

Sergei Eisenstein, costume design for act 2 of Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann (1921). Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, f. 1923, op. 1, ed. khr. 735: 11.

In this costume design for The Golden Pot, the Old Parrot wears a purple tailcoat, navy-and-white checked trousers, and yellow shoes and gloves. He stands in profile to emphasize the hooked beak of his full-head parrot mask.

Costume design for the Old Parrot in The Golden Pot

From Chapter 3: Peregrinus Tyss Meets Pipifax: Eisenstein, the Grotesque, and the Attraction

Sergei Eisenstein, costume design for the Old Parrot in The Golden Pot, based on the tale by E. T. A. Hoffmann (December 21, 1920). Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, f. 1923, op. 2, ed. khr. 1611:1.

Costume sketch in profile for a grumpy, red-nosed Harlequin in a blue trenchcoat, yellow flowered trousers, striped green cap, and red plaid gloves. In one hand he clutches a newspaper, while in the other he drags a parrot-headed umbrella. The pipe he clenches between his teeth emits a huge cloud of smoke.

Costume design for Harlequin, A Dozen Hours of Columbine

From Chapter 3: Peregrinus Tyss Meets Pipifax: Eisenstein, the Grotesque, and the Attraction

Sergei Eisenstein, costume design (detail) of Harlequin for Eisenstein's pantomime A Dozen Hours of Columbine (1919). Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, f. 1923 op. 2 ed. khr. 1600: 35.

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