Crommelynck and Meyerhold: Two Geniuses Meet on the Stage

Crommelynck and Meyerhold: Two Geniuses Meet on the Stage ALAIN PIETTE On April 25, 1922, Crommelynck's The Magnanimous Cuckold opened at the Actors' Theater in Moscow, directed by Meyerhold. Although the initial response to the production was far from unanimous, most of the critics and theater professionals, such as Mayakovsky, Gvozdiev, and Tretiakov, ultimately agreed that Meyerhold's staging of Crommelynck's play was both exceptional and revolutionary in all respects. "I can't remember when or indeed if I ever saw such a pure rendition of the agony and torture of the almost physiological suffering caused by jealousy," wrote the critic P. Markov.' Meyerhold saw in the production ofCrommelynck's play both the manifesto of his constructivist theories on the theater and the laboratory in which to test their validity and feasibiliry onstage. The final product turned out to be so effective and successful that it is still remembered today as the major achievement from Meyerhold's constructivist period and, as such, is studied in most drama schools throughout the world as the example of perfect theater production. In the Soviet Union, the [922 production , which had about eighty performances, was revived in January [928 at Meyerhold's GOSTIM Theater for approximately 120 performances. Two years earlier, in 1926, Meyerhold, prompted by his [922 success, had even considered putting on Crommelynck's Golden Guts, the sister play of The Magnanimous Cuckold. But for some unknown reason, the production, which was to be directed by Eisenstein, never took place. The [922 production later toured the United States at the beginning of the 1930S with immense success.' Closer to us, in 1981, the Guggenheim Museum in New York decided to center its exhibition on avant-garde Russian art around the reconstitution of Popova 's constructivist set for the original production. The Brussels Palais des Beaux-Arts had the same idea during the 1986-87 season for its centenary exhibition, Fernand Crommelynck a la scene (Fernand Crommelynck Onstage). Unfortunately, except in Moscow and Brussels, few spectators, visitors , or students were made aware of the fact that the playwright wh? had Modern Drama, 39 (1996) 436 . Crommelynck and Meyerhold: Two Geniuses Meet on the Stage 437 inspired Meyerhold and made such an enchanting production possible was the Belgian dramatist Crommelynck. Belgian playwrights have always been exrremely popular in the countries of Eastern Europe. The Symbolists Verhaeren and Maeterlinck were hailed by their Russian counterparts as major representatives of the Symbolist movement . Ghelderode's baroque and grotesque theater was acclaimed in the Soviet Union for its ruthless stigmatization of a decadent way of life. Crommelynck's own verse version of The Sculptor of Masks was performed in Russia long before his first play was in any Belgian or French theater. Between [973 and 1977, a Soviet book on Maeterlinck and Crommelynck by Inna Chkounaeva sold more than 700,000 copies, thus setting a bestselling record in the countries of the former Eastern bloc.J Meyerhold himself was fascinated by Belgian theater , not only for the peculiar tone that emanated from it, but for its dramatic construction, which was so close to his own ideas about the theater. As early as 1905 and 1906, he had staged Maeterlinck's Death ofTintagiles and Sister Beatrice . Later, after the Russian revolution, he first directed mostly plays by his counrrymen: among the most famous productions from that period were those of Mayakovsky's Mystery-Bouffe (1918) and Gogol's Inspector General (192 I). But in 1920 Meyerhold had again directed a Belgian play, Verhaeren's Dawns. His love affair with Belgian theater was to culminate two years later with his sensational production of The Magnanimous Cuckold. As was usually the case in post-1917 avant-garde art in the countries of the Communist bloc, the 1922 production of The Magnanimous Cuckold was the result of an intense collective effort. Long before the actual rehearsals with the carefully selected student actors from Meyerhold's own Workshop, the production concept was discussed at great length by the three brains behind the play: I. Aksyonov, who had translated it, V. Meyerhold, who was to.direct it, and L.S. Popova, who designed both the set and the costumes after a...