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

Dassia N. Posner

Overview

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.

Citable Link

Published: 2016

Publisher: Northwestern University Press

ISBN(s)

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

Subject

Performing Arts

Resources

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Photo of Meyerhold as Pierrot in Balaganchik

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

Vsevolod Meyerhold as Pierrot in Balaganchik, directed by Vsevolod Meyerhold, Vera Komissarzhevskaia Dramatic Theatre, Saint Petersburg (premiere: December 30, 1906). НВ 1567. Copyright © A. A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum, Moscow.

Photograph from the end of Princess Turandot. The actors hold the costume pieces they have just taken off while peeking out directly at the audience from the partially open curtain that the forestage servants pull back.

Photo of the finale of Princess Turandot (Nivinsky)

From Chapter 1: Meyerhold-Dapertutto: Framing the Grotesque and Epilogue: The Afterlife of a Death Jubilee

Finale of Princess Turandot, by Carlo Gozzi, directed by Evgeny Vakhtangov, Moscow Art Theatre Third Studio (1922). Courtesy of Andrei Malaev-Babel.

A row of actors, identically clad in prozodezhda (utilitarian uniform costumes), bowing in unison, traverse the forestage in front of Liubov Popova’s constructivist playground of a set.

Photo of a scene from Magnanimous Cuckold

From Chapter 1: Meyerhold-Dapertutto: Framing the Grotesque

Scene from Magnanimous Cuckold, based on the play by Fernand Crommelynck, directed by Vsevolod Meyerhold, Meyerhold Theatre (GosTIM), Moscow (GVYTM premiere: April 25, 1922; photograph from 1928 GosTIM remount). КП 180170/29. Copyright © A. A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum, Moscow.

Two strolling players, one a comedian (left), the other a tragedian (right), slowly descend an elevated catwalk that curves around the stage and ends in the orchestra pit.

Photo of Schastlivtsev and Neschastlivtsev in The Forest

From Chapter 1: Meyerhold-Dapertutto: Framing the Grotesque

Schastlivtsev (Igor Ilinsky) and Neschastlivtsev (Mikhail Mukhin) on the long, curved bridge in The Forest, directed by Vsevolod Meyerhold, Meyerhold Theatre (GosTIM) (premiere: January 19, 1924). КП 180170/32. Copyright © A. A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum, Moscow.

Four competing choruses argue on the forestage in front of a vivid pink curtain that is framed by a bright green proscenium arch with towers on both sides. These towers, decorated in Harlequin-style motley, contain balconies from which fools peer down onto the action below.

Curtain design for the opera Love for Three Oranges

From Chapter 1: Meyerhold-Dapertutto: Framing the Grotesque

Boris Israelevich Anisfeld, Russian (1879–1973), design for Prokofiev’s opera Love for Three Oranges, Auditorium Theatre, Chicago (world premiere: December 30, 1921). Pink Curtain #2, from Love for Three Oranges, n.d. Gouache and watercolor, with pen and black ink, gold metallic paint, and charcoal, over graphite, selectively varnished, on off-white laid paper, 565 × 780 mm. Friends of American Art Collection, 1922.84, The Art Institute of Chicago.

This image shows two drawings, one of a stage with multiple curtained entrances and side balconies (left), the other diagramming how actors were to move across the forestage in relation to one another (right). They are annotated with notes in Meyerhold’s hand that indicate that both illustrations were to appear together on the page following Soloviev’s article.

Illustrations for “Experiments with Staging the Night Scene”

From Chapter 1: Meyerhold-Dapertutto: Framing the Grotesque

Proof sheet illustrations by Alexander Rykov for Vladimir Soloviev’s article “Experiments with Staging the Night Scene” (with handwritten notes by Meyerhold) for the journal Love for Three Oranges: The Journal of Doctor Dapertutto (Liubov’ k trem apel’sinam: Zhurnal Doktora Dapertutto) (May 16, 1915). ГИК 17118/2, f. 44, ed. khr. 3. Copyright © Saint Petersburg State Museum of Theatre and Music.

Harlequin stands in the foreground, slapstick in hand, in diamond-patterned motley, while two other figures dance in the background.

Costume design for “Harlequin, Dealer of Slapstick Blows”

From Chapter 1: Meyerhold-Dapertutto: Framing the Grotesque

Alexander Rykov, costume design for “Harlequin, Dealer of Slapstick Blows,” Borodinskaia Street Studio (premiere: February 12, 1915). Paper on cardboard, gouache, 29.9 × 23 cm. КП 180169/1536. Copyright © A. A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum, Moscow.

A ground plan of the stage, including a diagram of the tracks along which the two mobile platform stages entered and exited.

Ground plan for mobile stages, Inspector General

From Chapter 1: Meyerhold-Dapertutto: Framing the Grotesque

Ground plan for mobile stages, Inspector General, based on the play by Nikolai Gogol, adapted by Vsevolod Meyerhold and Mikhail Korenev, directed by Vsevolod Meyerhold, Meyerhold Theatre (GosTIM), Moscow (premiere: December 9, 1926). КП 180169/348. Copyright © A. A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum, Moscow.

Set model (reconstruction) in mahogany and green baize with the mannequins from the dumb show positioned in a semi-circle, center, on tiny platforms. Upstage at floor level is one of the mobile stages, preset with the furniture from episode 7, “Behind a Bottle of Tolstobriushka.” High in the flies is the set for episode 4, “After Penza,” with its distinctive curved staircase.

Set model for Inspector General

From Chapter 1: Meyerhold-Dapertutto: Framing the Grotesque

A. E. Shevtsova, set model (reconstruction, 2004) for Inspector General, based on the play by Nikolai Gogol, adapted by Vsevolod Meyerhold and Mikhail Korenev, directed by Vsevolod Meyerhold, Meyerhold Theatre (GosTIM), Moscow (premiere: December 9, 1926). Meyerhold Apartment Museum, НВ 4900. Copyright © A. A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum, Moscow. Photo by the author.

In this photograph, Khlestakov (Garin) sits bundled up on a Russian tiled stove in his untidy room at the local inn, nursing an ostensible toothache, while Dobchinsky (Mologin, left) and the Mayor (Starkovsky, above) enter down the curved staircase.

Photo of episode 4, “After Penza,” Inspector General

From Chapter 1: Meyerhold-Dapertutto: Framing the Grotesque

Episode 4, “After Penza,” Inspector General, based on the play by Nikolai Gogol, adapted by Vsevolod Meyerhold and Mikhail Korenev, directed by Vsevolod Meyerhold, Meyerhold Theatre (GosTIM), Moscow (premiere: December 9, 1926). Photo by Alexei Temerin. Laurence Senelick Collection.

In this photograph from scene 7 of The Dawns, Meyerhold and Bebutov bridge the forestage and audience with a chorus of actors who form an unbroken human link between the two.

Photo of a scene from The Dawns

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

Scene from The Dawns, based on the play by Émile Verhaeren, directed by Vsevolod Meyerhold and Valery Bebutov, Theatre RSFSR 1, Moscow (premiere: November 7, 1920). НВМ 351/98. Copyright © Saint Petersburg State Museum of Theatre and Music.

In this photograph, the cast of Princess Turandot stands on the forestage in evening dress, the curtain closed behind them, looking directly at the audience. Four commedia characters, their faces painted to look like masks, peer between them.

Photo of opening parade, Princess Turandot (Nivinsky)

From Chapter 2: Tairov-Celionati: Mime-Drama and Kaleidoscopic Commedia and Epilogue: The Afterlife of a Death Jubilee

Opening parade for Princess Turandot, by Carlo Gozzi, directed by Evgeny Vakhtangov, Moscow Art Theatre Third Studio (1922). Photo courtesy of Andrei Malaev-Babel.

Scene design in red, purple, and blue for The Snake Woman, created in three parts: a front elevation, ground plan, and a detail of the curtain mechanism and attendants. Emphasis in these designs is on the forestage as a primary playing area and on the fully visible attendants who pull back the stage curtain.

Stage designs for The Snake Woman

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

Sergei Eisenstein, stage designs for Gozzi’s The Snake Woman (February 26, 1918). From top to bottom: stage-within-a-stage, ground plan of the forestage, and forestage “attendants” pulling back the curtain. Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, f. 1923, op. 1, ed. khr. 698: 11.

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

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.

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.

Drawing (detail) of P. Dementiev’s proposed solution to how to stage the audience-within-an-audience of Puss in Boots: with the fictional audience sitting along the lip of the stage, their heads ringing the forestage like footlights.

Mise-en-scène drawing for Puss in Boots (Dementiev)

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

P. Dementiev, mise-en-scène drawing (detail) for Puss in Boots, based on the play by Ludwig Tieck (December 1, 1921). Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, f. 963, op. 1, ed. khr. 1274: 9.

In this photograph, several characters cluster around Glumov, in clown white, who is holding a character in checked trousers (Mamaev) upside down by his feet. A sign in front of him reads "ARA" (American Relief Administration), while behind him is a structure with two ladders and a bar: an inner proscenium.

Photo of parodic action in Wiseman

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

Parodic action (satirizing Hoover's American Relief Administration) within and downstage of the inner proscenium in Enough Stupidity in Every Wiseman, based on the play by Alexander Ostrovsky, directed by Sergei Eisenstein, Proletkult First Workers’ Theatre (premiere: April–May 1923). Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, f. 1923, op. 1, ed. khr. 805: 16.

Drawing of the forestage, side entrances, and closed curtain decorated with running deer for Derzhavin’s production of The Strange Adventure of E. T. A. Hoffmann.

Drawing of stage configuration for The Strange Adventure of E. T. A. Hoffmann

From Epilogue: The Afterlife of a Death Jubilee

Sergei Yutkevich, drawing of stage configuration for The Strange Adventure of E. T. A. Hoffmann, adapted and directed by Konstantin Derzhavin, New Drama Theatre (premiere: December 7, 1922). Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, f. 3070 op. 1 ed. khr. 413: 1.