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An Early Soviet Play at the Moscow Arts Theatre

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2009

R. Russell
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Extract

The story of the production in 1928 by the Moscow Arts Theatre (MKhAT) of Valentin Kataev's play Rastratchiki (The Embezzlers) is of interest both in itself, as part of the history of the Russian stage, and for the light it sheds on the character and artistic ideas of the theatre's leading figure K. S. Stanislavsky. In order to understand the importance of the staging by MKhAT of modern plays written by young, relatively unknown authors, one must appreciate the uniquely prestigious position of the theatre and its directors in the cultural life of the country. The fact that Chekhov's plays had first been performed by the theatre, the importance of the new style of acting propounded by Stanislavsky and the venerability of Stanislavksy and Nemirovich-Danchenko secured for MKhAT a position of great cultural importance.

Type
Research Article
Information
Theatre Research International , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , October 1975 , pp. 37 - 42
Copyright
Copyright © International Federation for Theatre Research 1975

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References

Notes

1. Bulgakov, M., Teatral'ny roman in Romany, Moscow, 1973, pp. 333–4.Google Scholar

2. Kataev, V., ‘Moi Stanislavskii’ (Teatr, Moscow, 1962, no. 12, p. 121).Google Scholar One ought perhaps to mention, as Kataev does later in the article quoted, that in turning to younger dramatists Stanislavsky was encouraged and aided by another major figure in MKhAT, Pavel Markov, whom Kataev calls ‘a friend of everything new’.

3. For a description of these meetings see Gorchakov, N., ‘Rabota K. S. Stanislavskogo nad sovetskoi p'esoi’ (Voprosy rezhissury, Moscow, 1954, p. 88).Google Scholar

4. Polyakova, E., ‘Iz opyta MKhATa nad p'esami sovetskikh dramaturgov 1917–1941 gg’ (Teatr i dramaturg, Moscow, 1959, p. 133).Google Scholar The original version of the play is now in the MKhAT museum (item 371).

5. Kataev, V., op. cit., p. 122.Google Scholar

6. Constantin Stanislavski, My Life in Art, Penguin edition, London, 1967, p. 522.Google Scholar

7. From a conversation between V. Kataev and L. Skorino which took place on 20 June 1948 quoted by Skorino in her book Pisatel' i ego vremya, Moscow, 1965, p. 200.Google Scholar

8. Markov, P., ‘O Stanislavskom’ (Pravda teatra, Moscow, 1965, p. 27).Google Scholar

9. See Sobolev's review of the production in Vechernyaya Moskva, 23 04 1928.Google Scholar See also Polyakova, , op. cit., p. 135.Google Scholar

10. Markov, P., op. cit., p. 142.Google Scholar

11. ibid., p. 27.

12. Toporkov, V., Stanislavskii na repetitsii, Moscow, 1949, p. 50.Google Scholar

13. K. Stanislavsky in conversation with N. Gorchakov in Gorchakov, , op. cit., p. 104.Google Scholar

14. ibid., p. 101.