Moscow Theater Season

MOSCOW THEATER SEASON THE THEATERS OF Moscow have presented sixty new productions this season; and it is hardly possible to do full justice in the space of a brief article to the 25 premieres of entirely new shows, each with its own destiny. It would be difficult to forecast the longevity of anyone of them. The Moscow theaters which have always adhered to the repertoire system have been running some shows for 10 and 20 years, to say nothing of such exceptional plays as In the Lower Depths, a work running in its original interpretation at the Moscow Art Theatre for nearly sixty years, though its cast has, of course, been changed several times in that period. When I say, therefore, that Moscow has staged 60 premieres for the season, I do not mean to imply that this is the number of plays available to the Moscow theatergoers, for the number on the repertoire of each theater varies from 8 to 25, and one may confidently say that as many as 300 works are run every season. The last season was both rich and varied for its genres. The theaters featured the shows of Soviet authors, dealing with the past and present, among them works of the most varied genres, from vaudeville to modern tragedy. Nor were the plays of the foreign authors forgotten, notably: Justina by Kh Vuoliioki (Finland), A View from the Bridge by Arthur Miller (USA), Jupiter Laughs by A. Kronin (England), The Fox and the Grapes by G. Figeiredo (Brasil), The Last Stop by E. Remarque (Germany), and Blindfolded by I. Feier (Hungary). The repertoires of the theaters also include the new works of Soviet authors: the stage adaptation of The Yershov Brothers by V. Kochetov at the Lenin Komsomol Theatre, All Remain Men by S. Aleshin at the Moscow Art Theatre, The Legacy by S. Yermolinsky at the Maly Theatre, House of Cards, the first play of O. Stukalov at the Maly Theatre, Flight from the Night by the Tur brothers at the Mayakovsky Theatre, Here I Come by G. Berezko at the Yermolova Theatre, and so on. These plays broach various questions of Soviet life, including the moral questions, the rearing of the new Soviet generation, civic duty, etc. The theaters of Moscow, moreover, are once more showing H. Ibsen's A Doll's House (at the Mossoviet Theatre), Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan and Thackeray's Vanity Fair (at the Maly Theatre). These plays were variously received, but the most controversial was When the Stars Are Smiling by the eminent Ukrainian playwright Alexander Komeichuk, a play staged at the Maly Theatre, one of the 283 284 MODERN DRAMA December oldest of the Russian show houses. This theater which adheres to the realistic school of acting has a company that is excepti~nally strong, and is constantly in the throes of those processes attending the persistent search for the new forms with which to lend expression to its present traditions. Its recent production, The Power of Darkness by Leo Tolstoi came to be one of the most popular shows in Moscow thanks to the highly original treatment and interpretation it received from its director, B. Rovenskikh. The same bold ingenuity was displayed by Rovenskikh in the staging of a new, contemporary play by Korneichuk, ridiculing prejudice, its action being laid in a small Ukrainian hamlet. Though the author carefully marked the place and time of action, Rovenskikh rid the stage of all that was superfluous. Using only the most elementary of properties, he threw the entire stress on the acting, and through consummate mise-en-scene produced a light and engrossing show whose odd solution kindled considerable controversy both within the theater and without. Though basically not opposed to this method of production, its critics claimed that the style sharply contradicted the ideas of the author. Rovenskikh's supporters , on the other hand, argued that it was the style precisely that drove the play home. As though to offset the handling of this play, Igor Ilinsky, one of the leading actors of the Maly, adapted W. M. Thackeray's Vanity Fair on the stage of his theater, keeping faithfully with the author...