Masks, pierrots, and puppet shows: 'Commedia dell'arte' and experimentation on the early twentieth century Russian stage

This study is an analysis of the revival of imagery and techniques of the commedia dell'arte in the work of selected Russian theatre artists of the early twentieth century. Russian directors, playwrights, and designers of the Silver Age (1894-1917) wielded commedia as a weapon against realism. Their concept of commedia, influenced by such diverse sources as Carlo Gozzi and E. T. A. Hoffman, emphasized its theatricality: directors explored the use of masks and acrobatics playwrights wrote metatheatrical (self-referential) scripts that ruptured illusion.Chapter One, an introduction, traces the history of commedia in Russia and examines the concept of metatheatricality. Chapter Two is devoted to the analysis of Aleksandr Blok's The Puppet Show, a play whose production in 1906 initiated this period of commedia experimentation on the Russian stage.Chapter Three discusses the many important commedia-related productions of the director Vsevolod Meierkhol'd, including an in-depth treatment of the use of theatrical space in his three stagings of The Puppet Show. Through his work on such productions as Columbine's Scarf and Harlequin, the Marriage Broker, Meierkhol'd developed his vision of the theatre as the domain of the stylized and the grotesque.Chapter Four analyzes three plays by Mikhail Kuzmin which contain commedia references and frameworks. In particular, the metatheatrical Venetian Madcaps reconfigures the eternal triangle of Harlequin-Columbine-Pierrot to examine the issue of homosexual love.Chapter Five treats three major productions by director Aleksandr Tairov: Veil of Pierrette, King Harlequin, and Princess Brambilla. Tairov saw the harlequinade (and its emphasis on pantomime) as a means for returning to a popular and lively theatre that stresses the versatility of the actor.The Russian theatre's fascination with commedia dell'arte was primarily a phenomenon of the Silver Age, but several directors of the 1920s did continue the experimentation--their work is briefly mentioned in Chapter Six, the conclusion.