Skip to main content
Northwestern University Press
Fulcrum Beta logo beta
  1. Home
  2. The Director's Prism: E. T. A. Hoffmann and the Russian Theatrical Avant-Garde

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.
Buy Book
ISBN(s)
  • 978-0-8101-3356-3 (hardcover)
  • 978-0-8101-3355-6 (paper)
  • 978-0-8101-3357-0 (e-book)
Subject
  • Performing Arts
Citable Link
  • Resources
  • Stats

Resources

Search and Filter Resources

Filter search results by

Section

  • Add filter Section: Chapter 3: Peregrinus Tyss Meets Pipifax: Eisenstein, the Grotesque, and the Attraction to constrain search results to 12 items12
Filter search results by

Keyword

  • Remove constraint Keyword: perspective shifts12
  • Add filter Keyword: creative process to constrain search results to 9 items9
  • Add filter Keyword: vertical staging to constrain search results to 9 items9
  • Add filter Keyword: grotesque to constrain search results to 5 items5
  • Add filter Keyword: plural perspective to constrain search results to 5 items5
  • more Keyword »
Filter search results by

Creator

  • Remove constraint Creator: Eisenstein, Sergei12
Filter search results by

Format

  • Add filter Format: image to constrain results to 11 items11
    Filter search results by

    Image Content

    • Add filter Content: scene design to constrain results to 6 items6
    • Add filter Content: mise-en-scène design to constrain results to 2 items2
    • Add filter Content: design sketch to constrain results to 1 item1
    • Add filter Content: manuscript film scenario to constrain results to 1 item1
    • Add filter Content: manuscript pantomime draft to constrain results to 1 item1
  • Add filter Format: video to constrain results to 1 item1
    Filter search results by

    Video Content

    • Add filter Content: filmed scenes to constrain results to 1 item1
Filter search results by

Year

  • Add filter Year: 1920 to constrain search results to 3 items3
  • Add filter Year: 1922 to constrain search results to 3 items3
  • Add filter Year: 1927 to constrain search results to 3 items3
  • Add filter Year: 1921 to constrain search results to 2 items2
  • Add filter Year: 1923 to constrain search results to 1 item1
Filter search results by

Exclusivity

  • Add filter Exclusivity: Exclusive to Fulcrum to constrain search results to 8 items8

Search Constraints

Filtering by: Creator Eisenstein, Sergei Remove constraint Creator: Eisenstein, Sergei Keyword perspective shifts Remove constraint Keyword: perspective shifts
Start Over
1 - 12 of 12
  • First Appearance
  • Section (Earliest First)
  • Section (Last First)
  • Format (A-Z)
  • Format (Z-A)
  • Year (Oldest First)
  • Year (Newest First)
Number of results to display per page
  • 10 per page
  • 20 per page
  • 50 per page
  • 100 per page
View results as:
List Gallery

Search Results

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Rough notes for the first entrance of Pierrot’s friends in Columbine’s Wedding Veil. All the action for the scenes in Pierrot’s garret was to take place on the crossbars of an enormous vertical window. The first drawing in Eisenstein’s notes shows Pierrot’s four friends splitting into two pairs to enter from both below and above. The second drawing has all four of them instead enter from a trapdoor and cross over the top of the window frame.

Notes for Columbine’s Wedding Veil

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

Sergei Eisenstein, preliminary notes for Columbine’s Wedding Veil (May 1, 1922), the pantomime that became Columbine's Garter. Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, f. 1923, op. 1, ed. khr. 815: 2.

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.

Rough pencil sketch of Columbine, in a half mask, above, strangling Pierrot, in a skullcap, below. On the drawing appear the words “venez,” “vous,” and “êtes,” three of the words in the phrase “Venez sans céremonies et telle que vous êtes!” (Come without ceremony just as you are!), which Pierrot says to Columbine just before she comes to his garret to kill him.

Sketch of Columbine strangling Pierrot, Columbine’s Garter

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

Sketch of Columbine strangling Pierrot, Columbine’s Garter, by Sergei Eisenstein and Sergei Yutkevich (1922). Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, f. 1923, op. 1, ed. khr. 817: 17 verso.

Two drawings for The Glass House, annotated in English, in which a transparent glass floor becomes a means for juxtaposing still images with rapidly moving ones: a stationary cat is positioned against "a whirling town," and feet stand on a "glass balcony above the moving street."

Static and moving image drawings for The Glass House

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

Sergei Eisenstein, static and moving image drawings for The Glass House (January 16, 1927–March 19, 1947). Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, f. 1923 op. 2 ed. khr. 162: 3.

List, handwritten in English, of several of Eisenstein's ideas for scenes in The Glass House that would focus on shifted perspective and juxtaposition.

List of episode ideas for The Glass House

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

Sergei Eisenstein, list of episode ideas for The Glass House (January 16, 1927–March 19, 1947). Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, f. 1923 op. 2 ed. khr. 162: 48.

Sergei Eisenstein, drawing (detail) of the sharp shift in perspective made possible by watching scenes from below through transparent floors.

Drawing of scenes viewed through transparent floors, The Glass House

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

Sergei Eisenstein, drawings of scenes viewed through transparent floors, The Glass House (January 16, 1927–March 19, 1947). Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, f. 1923 op. 2 ed. khr. 162: 50.

Film clip of Glumov chasing the thief of his diary up the outside of the former Morozov family mansion, which housed Proletkult after the Revolution.

Film clip from “Glumov’s Diary”

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

Film clip from Sergei Tretiakov’s Enough Stupidity in Every Wiseman, based on the play by Alexander Ostrovsky, directed by Sergei Eisenstein, Proletkult First Workers’ Theatre (premiere: April–May 1923). НВ 4808/5. Copyright © A. A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum, Moscow.

Stats

20,599 views since September 28, 2016
Northwestern University Press logo

Northwestern University Press

Powered by Fulcrum Beta logo beta

  • About
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Accessibility
  • Preservation
  • Terms of Service
  • Log In

© Northwestern University Press 2019

x This site requires cookies to function correctly.