Spaces of Performance in the New Moscow: the Case of Theatre Square

Abstract

Combining critical analysis, personal accounts, and original photography, this essay discusses Theatre Square, Moscow's most prominent theatrical destination, and examines the dramatic changes it underwent in the Soviet era, as well as after the demise of the Soviet Union. In following Yury Lotman's notion of the ‘ensemble’, I argue that the recent reconstruction of the garden in front of the Bolshoi Theatre created a particular set of conditions under which the difference between the ‘diversely encoded’ landmarks of Theatre Square became less relevant. The article also looks into whether the new and newly reconstructed gardens and parks of post-Soviet Moscow detract from, as some critics have suggested, or on the contrary contribute to, the act of remembering the past.