Pierrot in Petrograd: Commedia dell'Arte/ Balagan in Twentieth-Century Russian Theatre and DramaDouglas Clayton examines the tradition of commedia dell'arte as the Russian modernists inherited it, from its origins in Italian street theatre through its various transformations: in Italy (Gozzi and Goldini's plays); in France (the development of Pierrot and the restructuring of the plot); and in Germany (Tieck's and Hoffmann's metatheatre). He also analyses crucial texts by Gozzi, Lothar, Benavente, and Schnitzler that came to play a central role in the Russian theatre. Tracing the history of commedia dell'arte on the Russian stage, he demonstrates that the introduction of the tradition was theory-driven and discusses several milestone productions in the pre- and post-revolutionary period. Clayton examines the impact of commedia dell'arte, russified as the new theatrical genre of balagan, on both popular and lesser-known Russian playwrights, and, in conclusion, explores the significance of the commedia dell'arte as a theoretical underpinning for Sergei Eisenstein's theories of theatre and film. |
Contents
3 | |
1 Who Was That Masked Man? | 16 |
Commedia dellArte and the Crisis in Theatre | 44 |
190317 | 75 |
The Balagan as a Theatrical Genre | 103 |
5 Pierrot or Petrushka? Russian Harlequinades | 125 |
The Balagan as a Dramatic Genre | 159 |
The Film as Balagan | 205 |
Todays Columbine | 245 |
Fiamettas Four Corpses | 250 |
The Lovers | 254 |
Harlequin the CardLover | 257 |
The Apes Are Coming | 272 |
Notes | 297 |
335 | |
349 | |
Other editions - View all
Pierrot in Petrograd: The Commedia Dell'arte/Balagan in Twentieth-century ... J. Douglas Clayton No preview available - 1993 |
Pierrot in Petrograd: Commedia dell'Arte/ Balagan in Twentieth-Century ... Douglas Clayton No preview available - 1994 |
Common terms and phrases
acrobatics actors Aleksandr Blok apes are coming appears artistic audience avant-garde balagan Balaganchik ballet beats Benois Blok Blok's Brighella CAPTAIN characters cinema circus clown Columbine Columbine's Scarf comedy comic commedia dell'arte conventional costumes create crowd culture dance death Deburau director drama E.T.A. Hoffmann Eisenstein elements Elena Guro Evreinov example expressed Fiametta figure film FOOL genre gestures Gozzi grotesque Harlequin harlequinade Ibid important improvisation Italian ladies literary Maiakovskii masks metatheatrical Meyerhold Mezzetino Miklashevskii Mister modernist Molière montage Moscow Art Theatre notion Oktiabria onstage pantomime PEASANT perspective Petersburg Petrushka Pierrot play-within-the-play playwright plot poet poetic Polichinelle popular problem production realistic reality Red Army revolution revolutionary role Rudnitskii Russian theatre satirical Scaramouches scenario scene Signora Silvio Smeraldina Solov´ev Soviet spectacle spectator stage Stanislavskii's style symbolist Tairov théâtre theatrical sign theme Tieck tradition translation Turandot uslovnyi VOICE Zolotnitskii Zori