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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.

ISBN(s)

978-0-8101-3356-3 (hardcover)
978-0-8101-3355-6 (paper)
978-0-8101-3357-0 (e-book)

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Performing Arts

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Eccentric Heartbreak House scene design in red, black, yellow, and white, created from string and cutout paper. The center of the design is dominated by a large arched structure with an actor walking along its crossbeam.

Eccentric scene design for Heartbreak House

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

Sergei Eisenstein, Eccentric scene design for Shaw’s Heartbreak House, State Higher Theatre Workshops (GVYTM), (June 19, 1922). Paper, applique, ink, 34.7 × 48.5 cm. КП 62005. Copyright © A. A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum, Moscow.

As with Eisenstein’s December 28–29 design for Puss in Boots, this design simultaneously shows the prompter, conductor, orchestra, and fictional audience on a single vertical plane. Gone, however, is the proscenium-theater setting. This constructivist set in yellow, red, orange, and blue was intended for a proposed (though unrealized) outdoor, in-the-round production.

Arena theater scene design for Puss in Boots (Eisenstein)

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

Sergei Eisenstein, scene design for Tieck’s Puss in Boots, State Higher Theatre [Directing] Workshops (December 30, 1921). Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, f. 1923, op. 2, ed. khr. 1627: 2.

Designs by Eisenstein for Meyerhold's proposed staging of Puss in Boots:Left top: front elevation of the stage with a performance in progress. The prompter, conductor, orchestra musicians, and fictional audience are all depicted simultaneously on the vertical plane.Left bottom: front elevation with the curtain closed.Right top: side elevation of the stage and the vertical positioning of the fictional audience.Right bottom: ground plan of the right half of the stage, including the prompter's box (bottom left of ground plan) and the positions of the orchestra members (marked with circles).

Proscenium theater scene design for Puss in Boots (Eisenstein)

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

Sergei Eisenstein, scene design for Puss in Boots, based on the play by Ludwig Tieck (December 28–29, 1921). Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, f. 1923, op. 1, ed. khr. 792: 6.

This sketch, the reverse side of Scene design for act 2 periaktoi, Tales of Hoffmann (Eisenstein), shows the measurements of the periaktoi along with several views from above of the periaktoi configurations. According to this drawing, the configuration in Scene design for act 2 wings, Tales of Hoffmann (Eisenstein) was to be used when the guests first entered.

Periaktoi configuration sketches for Tales of Hoffmann (Eisenstein)

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

Sergei Eisenstein, periaktoi configuration sketches for act 2 of Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann (1920). Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, f. 1923, op. 1, ed. khr. 735: 5 verso.

In this scene design for Tales of Hoffmann, the black-and-white checkerboard floor remains, but the "wings," actually periaktoi––three-sided, reconfigurable scenic elements––are placed in new configurations that allow actors to interact with, hide behind, and even climb on them.

Scene design for act 2 periaktoi, Tales of Hoffmann (Eisenstein)

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

Sergei Eisenstein, periaktoi for act 2 of Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann (1920). Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, f. 1923, op. 1, ed. khr. 735: 5.

In this scene design for Tales of Hoffmann, the black-and-white checkerboard floor and successive side wings (yellow wall sections with furniture and windows painted on them) together create an impression of sharply forced perspective.

Scene design for act 2 wings, Tales of Hoffmann (Eisenstein)

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

Sergei Eisenstein, scene design for act 2 of Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann (March 12, 1920). Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, f. 1923, op. 1, ed. khr. 735: 4.

Scene design for Four Harlequins with a generous forestage, onstage balconies, and bridge arches beyond which the canals of Venice can be glimpsed.

Scene design for Four Harlequins

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

Sergei Eisenstein, scene design for Four Harlequins (c. 1917–1918). Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, f. 1923, op. 1, ed. khr. 698: 36.

$In this design sketch of a city street, created for Gozzi’s Green Bird, Eisenstein experiments with refracting Sebastiano Serlio’s 1545 comedy stage design (from On Perspective, his second architecture book). Onlooking framing figures are sketched into several of the balconies.$

Scene design for The Green Bird

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

Sergei Eisenstein, scene design for Gozzi’s The Green Bird (c. 1917–19). Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, f. 1923, op. 1, ed. khr. 698: 28.

This unfinished scene design, partly drawn in pencil, partly painted, hearkens directly to medieval "mansions," side-by-side settings that depict multiple locations simultaneously.

Simultaneous setting design for Comedy of the Black Goat

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

Sergei Eisenstein, simultaneous setting, inspired by medieval scene design conventions, for Comedy of the Black Goat, a play that Eisenstein penned as Peregrinus Tyss. (March–June 1920). Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, f. 1923, op. 1, ed. khr. 736: 12.

In the design for this wedding-ball setting, the deep red curtains, borders, and entrances from Pierrot’s room remain, but the space now is flooded with color from the costumes of the guests, decked out primarily in warm oranges and reds. Musicians play on a cramped stage, center, conducted by the Kapellmeister/Pianist in blue, his baton aloft.

Scene design for the wedding ball, Columbine’s Veil

From Chapter 1: Meyerhold-Dapertutto: Framing the Grotesque and Chapter 3: Peregrinus Tyss Meets Pipifax: Eisenstein, the Grotesque, and the Attraction

Nikolai Sapunov, scene design for act 2 wedding ball, Columbine’s Veil, based on the pantomime Pierrette’s Veil by Arthur Schnitzler, music by Ernő Dohnányi, adapted by Doctor Dapertutto (Vsevolod Meyerhold), directed by Vsevolod Meyerhold, House of Interludes, Saint Petersburg (premiere: October 12, 1910). КП 176534. Copyright © A. A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum, Moscow.