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  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.
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  • 978-0-8101-3356-3 (hardcover)
  • 978-0-8101-3357-0 (e-book)
  • 978-0-8101-3355-6 (paper)
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  • Performing Arts
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  • Introduction: Hoffmann’s Prism1
  • Chapter 2: Tairov-Celionati: Mime-Drama and Kaleidoscopic Commedia28
  • Chapter 3: Peregrinus Tyss Meets Pipifax: Eisenstein, the Grotesque, and the Attraction1
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Photograph of Samuil Vermel as Pierrot, his costume white with black pompoms, standing, head back, with a hand on a chair.

Photograph of Samuil Vermel as Pierrot

From Introduction: Hoffmann’s Prism

Samuil Vermel as Pierrot in Pierrette’s Veil, by Arthur Schnitzler, music by Ernő Dohnányi, directed by Alexander Tairov (photo from the 1916 remount at the Moscow Kamerny Theatre). Photo: M. Sakharov & P. Orlov, 1917. Laurence Senelick Collection.

Cover of the 1910 piano score for Pierrette’s Veil, with an illustration of the dead Pierrot draped on a chair in the foreground and the aghast Pierrette looking at him in the background, both of them in white.

Koonen’s piano score for Pierrette’s Veil

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

Title page to Alisa Koonen’s annotated copy of the piano score for Pierette’s Veil, by Arthur Schnitzler, music by Ernő Dohnányi (1910). Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, f. 2328, op. 1, ed. khr. 311: 28.

Pencil drawing of a columned ballroom crowded with wedding guests dancing on broad stairs and the floor below. Upstage a balustrade encloses a tiny platform upon which the wedding musicians are uncomfortably crammed.

Mise-en-scène design for the Pierrette’s Veil wedding ball

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

Anatoly Arapov, mise-en-scène design for act 2 of Pierrette’s Veil, by Arthur Schnitzler, music by Ernő Dohnányi, directed by Alexander Tairov, Svobodny Theatre, Moscow (premiere: November 4, 1913). КП 190294/78. Copyright © A. A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum, Moscow.

Pierrette (Koonen), dressed in wedding white, stands on the ballroom steps (center), her arms raised in alarm as she sees Pierrot’s ghost, a diaphanous puppet manipulated by a visible actor, upstage. Curious wedding guests watch her from both sides of the stage.

Photo of the Pierrette’s Veil wedding ball

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

Finale of act 2 wedding ball scene in Pierrette’s Veil, by Arthur Schnitzler, music by Ernő Dohnányi, directed by Alexander Tairov, Svobodny Theatre (premiere: November 4, 1913). Photograph from Kamerny Theatre remount (premiere: October 6, 1916). Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, f. 2328, op. 1, ed. khr. 342: 10.

Profile photograph of Alisa Koonen in the role of Phaedra, her eyes cast downward, wearing a flat, angular headdress.

Photo of Alisa Koonen as Phaedra

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

Alisa Koonen in the role of Phaedra in Racine’s Phaedra (Phaedre), directed by Alexander Tairov, designed by Alexander Vesnin, Moscow Kamerny Theatre (premiere: February 8, 1922). Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, f. 2768, op. 1, ed. khr. 26: 2.

Photograph of Alisa Koonen in the armor of Joan of Arc, her heavily gloved hands clasped in front of her, her eyes to one side.

Photo of Alisa Koonen as Joan in Saint Joan

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

Alisa Koonen in the role of Joan in Shaw’s Saint Joan, directed by Alexander Tairov, Moscow Kamerny Theatre (premiere: October 21, 1924). Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, f. 2768, op. 1, ed. khr. 29: 2.

Playbill for Pierrette’s Veil on a single, elongated sheet that lists the production artists and provides a synopsis of the pantomime.

Playbill for Pierrette’s Veil

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

Playbill for a June 29, 1918 performance in Smolensk of Pierrette’s Veil; pantomime libretto by Arthur Schnitzler, music by Ernő Dohnányi. Directed by Alexander Tairov at the Svobodny Theatre, Moscow (premiere: November 4, 1913). Playbill from Kamerny Theatre remount (premiere: October 6, 1916). Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, f. 2768, op. 1, ed. khr. 446: 7.

In this photograph, Pierrette (Koonen), her hair in braids, supports the dead Pierrot (Tseretelli), both lovers in all white.

Pierrette and Pierrot in Pierrette’s Veil

From Chapter 2: Tairov-Celionati: Mime-Drama and Kaleidoscopic Commedia and Chapter 3: Peregrinus Tyss Meets Pipifax: Eisenstein, the Grotesque, and the Attraction

Pierrette (Alisa Koonen) and Pierrot (Nikolai Tseretelli) in Pierrette’s Veil, by Arthur Schnitzler, music by Ernő Dohnányi, directed by Alexander Tairov, Moscow Kamerny Theatre (remount premiere: October 6, 1916). Photograph collection of A. B. Chizhov.

Design by Alexandra Exter for the Kamerny Theatre stage curtain, adorned with animals, birds, diamond patterns, vines, and faces in red, black, blue, green, and yellow.

Curtain design for the Moscow Kamerny Theatre

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

Alexandra Exter, curtain design for the Moscow Kamerny Theatre (1914). Paper, pencil, gouache, whitewash, silver, bronze, 53 × 73.9 cm. КП 179315. Copyright © A. A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum, Moscow.

Playbill design by Alexandra Exter for Thamyris the Cithara Player with a deep blue background and swirling red fabric streaming around a bare-chested woman and man. The words are written in a mix of Greek and Cyrillic letters.

Playbill design for Thamyris the Cithara Player

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

Playbill design for Thamyris the Cithara Player (Famira Kifared), by Innokenty Annensky, directed by Alexander Tairov, music by Henri Forterre, designed by Alexandra Exter, Moscow Kamerny Theatre (premiere: November 2, 1916). КП 93840. Copyright © A. A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum, Moscow.

Playbill that lists the production artists for the final invited dress rehearsal of Princess Brambilla, printed on pink paper.

Playbill for Princess Brambilla general rehearsal

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

Playbill for the May 3, 1920 general (invited dress) rehearsal of Princess Brambilla: A Kamerny Theatre Capriccio, after Hoffmann, based on the novella by E. T. A. Hoffmann, directed by Alexander Tairov, music by Henri Forterre, designed by Georgy Yakulov, Moscow Kamerny Theatre (premiere: May 4, 1920). Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, f. 2328, op. 1, ed. khr. 376: 1–2.

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.

Alisa Koonen as Salomé, arms outstretched, wearing a thorny, beaded crown and a dress festooned with strings of beads, with rings on her fingers and a fan in her upper hand.

Photo of Alisa Koonen as Salomé in Salomé

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

Alisa Koonen as Salomé in Salomé, by Oscar Wilde, directed by Alexander Tairov, designed by Alexandra Exter, Moscow Kamerny Theatre (premiere: October 9, 1917). Photo: M. Sakharov and V. Orlov, 1917. Laurence Senelick Collection.

Photograph of Giglio (Ferdinandov) and his Doppelgänger (Vigilev), center, wearing half masks with long, curved noses and dueling with swords while others in black half masks look on. Upstage, standing on one of the set’s several raised sections, stands a figure in black, Celionati (Shchirsky), seemingly conducting the duel as it progresses.

Photo of the duel scene, Princess Brambilla

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

Duel between Giglio and his Doppelgänger, 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). Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, f. 2328, op. 1, ed. khr. 378: 2.

This scene design explodes with riotous color, fragmented angles, painted columns, and curlicues. A staircase spills down the center of the stage, while platforms on the sides and in the rear provide multiple playing levels for the actors.

Scene design for Princess Brambilla

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

Georgy Yakulov, scene design for 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 238272/606. Copyright © A. A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum, Moscow.

This set model, brimming with all the colors of the sunset painted onto its fragmented angles and whimsical curves, gives a keen sense of the three-dimensional, fantastical world in which Tairov’s actors played.

Set model for Princess Brambilla

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

Set model (authorized reproduction, 1927) for Princess Brambilla: A Kamerny Theatre Capriccio, after Hoffmann, based on the novella by E. T. A. Hoffmann, directed by Alexander Tairov, designed by Georgy Yakulov, Moscow Kamerny Theatre (premiere: May 4, 1920). 89 × 67.5 × 69.5 cm. TWS BM86. Copyright © Theaterwissenschaftliche Sammlung, University of Cologne, Germany.

Two characters talk downstage at a distance from one another on a set constructed around simple circles and curves. Upstage of them sailors stand in rows that emphasize the sweeping spiral of the stage.

Photo of a scene from An Optimistic Tragedy

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

Scene from Vishnevsky’s An Optimistic Tragedy, directed by Alexander Tairov, Moscow Kamerny Theatre (premiere: December 18, 1933). Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, f. 2030, op. 1, ed. khr. 337: 21.

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.

In this production photograph, carnival revelers in black half masks dance with wild abandon, the curves of their bodies consonant with the curves of the whimsical set.

Photo of a carnival scene, Princess Brambilla

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

Carnival scene, 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). Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, f. 2328, op. 1, ed. khr. 378: 5.

Harlequin lies on a table painted with a skull and crossbones. Two of his rivals hack him to pieces with an enormous knife as others look on. The actor playing Harlequin, Alexander Rumnev, had by now been replaced with a dummy that could be cut apart painlessly.

Photo from the main pantomime, Princess Brambilla

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

Main pantomime, 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). Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, f. 2328, op. 1, ed. khr. 378: 10.

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.

This photograph shows Koonen, grinning toothily and holding an enormous fan, in the costume of one of the twins she played in Giroflé-Girofla. A cloud of tulle envelops her head, and she wears an exaggerated ribbon-bedecked headpiece that is jauntily askew.

Photo of Alisa Koonen as one of the twins in Giroflé-Girofla

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

Alisa Koonen as one of the twins in Giroflé-Girofla, by Charles Lecocq, directed by Alexander Tairov, Moscow Kamerny Theatre (premiere: October 3, 1922). Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, f. 2768, op. 1, ed. khr. 27: 1.

Set model of the streamlined, angular simultaneous setting for The Hairy Ape. It depicts three levels of action: an upper deck, cabins, and the stokehole deep in the bowels of an ocean liner.

Set model for The Hairy Ape

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

Set model (authorized reproduction, 1927) for The Hairy Ape, by Eugene O’Neill, directed by Alexander Tairov and L. L. Lukianov, designed by the Stenberg brothers, Moscow Kamerny Theatre (premiere: January 24, 1926). 87.5 × 66 × 71.5 cm. TWS BM89. Copyright © Theaterwissenschaftliche Sammlung, University of Cologne, Germany.

This photograph shows The Hairy Ape’s stokehole workers, bare-chested with white-painted faces. The rhythm of their coal shoveling is arrested by the unexpected appearance of Mildred, who cries out in alarm at their animal-like conditions.

Photo of the stokehole scene, The Hairy Ape

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

Stokehole scene, The Hairy Ape, by Eugene O’Neill, directed by Alexander Tairov and L. L. Lukianov, Moscow Kamerny Theatre (premiere: January 24, 1926). Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Dana (1902–1968) Collection, THE B MS Thr 402, Box 38, Folder 13. Harvard Theatre Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

This photograph shows the mannequin-like Fifth-Avenue fox-trotters in The Hairy Ape. The women are made up to look like dolls, while the men wear half masks with distorted mouths on the lower portions of their faces. Yank (left) gazes at them in anger and alarm.

Photo of the Fifth Avenue scene, The Hairy Ape

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

Fifth Avenue scene, The Hairy Ape, by Eugene O’Neill, directed by Alexander Tairov and L. L. Lukianov, Moscow Kamerny Theatre (premiere: January 24, 1926). Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, f. 2030, op. 1, ed. khr. 329: 27.

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.

Cover page for the production text of Crimson Island with the censor’s cuts and stamp in red at the bottom. This script is burned around the edges, as are many of the items in the Kamerny Theatre collection that were rescued from a fire at the Bakhrushin Museum in the early 1950s, where the Kamerny’s papers were stored in the years immediately following the theater’s forced closure.

Typescript of Crimson Island with censor’s cuts

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

Mikhail Bulgakov, Crimson Island. Typescript of the play with handwritten censor’s cuts and stamp approving the play for performance at the Moscow Kamerny Theatre. Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, f. 2030, op. 1, ed. khr. 247, Moscow.

Two-page order that lists the many charges against the Kamerny Theatre and gives details for how the theater is to be reorganized, including appointing V. V. Vanin to replace Tairov as Artistic Director, firing a quantity of the theater’s creative staff, and developing a repertoire aggressively centered on new Soviet and classic plays.

Committee for Artistic Affairs Order 408

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

Committee for Artistic Affairs of the USSR Council of Ministries, Order 408 (May 27, 1949). F. 529, ed. khr. 195, НВ2519/19:1–2. Copyright © A. A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum, Moscow.

Production poster for a week of performances in Germany during the Kamerny’s 1923 tour. The poster’s center is dominated by the famous Kamerny logo: a red and black constructivist rendition of Phaedra’s face in profile, encircled by the theater’s name.

Poster for the Kamerny Theatre’s 1923 German tour

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

Poster for the Kamerny’s 1923 tour in Germany, advertising performances for the week of April 7–23. КП 14598. Copyright © A. A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum, Moscow.

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