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TDR: The Drama Review 44.2 (2000) 107-122



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Living Newspaper:
Theatre and Therapy

John W. Casson


The historical development of Living Newspapers can be traced from the ideas of the futurists in the early part of the century, through experimental theatres in the Soviet Union and Vienna, to the worldwide development of a theatre form. In this article I consider the relationship between this theatre and Jacob Levy Moreno's Theatre of Spontaneity, psychodrama, and sociodrama, and evaluate the therapeutic potential of this technique.

Italy, 1913-1915

In 1915 an Italian futurist manifesto on the theatre, written by F.T. Marinetti, Emilio Settimelli, and Bruno Corra insisted on a new theatre that is "born of improvisation, lightninglike intuition, from suggestive and revealing actuality. We believe that a thing is valuable to the extent that it is improvised, not extensively prepared" (in Drain 1995:20). Nothing should get in the way of the artist's natural talent: "he must be preoccupied with creating synthetic expressions of cerebral energy that have the absolute value of novelty":

DRAMATIZE ALL THE DISCOVERIES (no matter how unlikely, weird, and anti-theatrical) THAT OUR TALENT IS DISCOVERING IN THE SUBCONSCIOUS, IN ILL-DEFINED FORCES, IN PURE ABSTRACTION, IN THE PURELY CEREBRAL, THE PURELY FANTASTIC, IN RECORD-SETTING AND BODY-MADNESS. SYMPHONIZE THE AUDIENCE'S SENSIBILITY BY EXPLORING IT, STIRRING UP ITS LAZIEST LAYERS WITH EVERY MEANS POSSIBLE; ELIMINATE THE PRECONCEPTION OF THE FOOTLIGHTS BY THROWING NETS OF SENSATION BETWEEN STAGE AND AUDIENCE; THE STAGE ACTION WILL INVADE THE ORCHESTRA SEATS, THE AUDIENCE. (in Drain 1995:21)

In an earlier manifesto (1913) Marinetti described the variety theatre as: "a cumulus of events unfolded at great speed [...] and now let's have a look at the Balkans: King Nicholas, Enver-Bey, [...] fistfights between Serbs and [End Page 107] Bulgars [...] instructive, satirical pantomimes [...] a more or less amusing newspaper" (172-73).

Soviet Russia, 1919-1928

In 1919 a decree of the Central Committee of the Soviet Union Communist Party advocated public readings of the news, illustrated with "demonstrations," illuminated by cinema and magic lantern shows, and "concert numbers" to ensure the dissemination of news and revolutionary propaganda amongst the illiterate (Cosgrove 1982:7). Mikhail Pustynin was a poet and theatre director who is credited by Robert Leach with developing the idea of the Living Newspaper so that "news could be made more accessible through dramatisation" (Leach 1994:82). In 1919 he was director of the Vitebsk Rosta agency, a telegraphic agency using posters to spread revolutionary ideas, and set up the Terevsat (Theatre of Revolutionary Satire), whose aim was:

to express in theatrical terms the subjects of the Rosta posters. Terevsat came to Moscow in 1920 and a number of groups were soon to be found performing in streets, factories and stations. Its short sketches, in which music had an important role, drew largely on review, operetta, vaudeville and the tchastuchka (rhymed popular songs with a monotonous rhythm). Initially one major aim of Terevsat was the diffusion of information and it evolved its own forms of Living Newspaper [...]. (Bradby and McCormick 1978:46)

Pustynin later worked for the Blue Blouse Theatre.

Between 1919 and 1922 Vladimir Mayakovski, a leading exponent of the Russian futurist group, had drawn some 400 Rosta posters (Bradby and McCormick 1978:46). In 1921 Mayakovski wrote a Living Newspaper that was directed by Nikolai Foregger at Terevsat's Moscow Studio (Leach 1994:84). Sergei Eisenstein "was a keen follower of Marinetti's futurist ideas" (Bradby and McCormick 1978:47). Eisenstein "gave an example of theatricalised living newspaper with [...a] montage of attractions in his agit-buffonade The Wise Man " (in Stourac and McCreery 1986:21). 1

Eisenstein acknowledged Vsevolod Meyerhold and Vladimir Mayakovski as fellow futurists (Drain 1995:87). Meyerhold utilized the genre of Living Newspaper in Give Us Europe (in Stourac and McCreery 1986:16). 2 Blue Blouse's inspiration was drawn from the futurist interest in music hall and variety theatre, and from the experimental work of Meyerhold, Eisenstein, and Nikolai Forreger.

In 1923 Boris Yuzhanin, a teacher of journalism, started the Blue Blouse...

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