Leningrad Gosdrama in search of modern repertoire: N. Ya. Beresnev’s production “Hero” (1925) based on J. M. Synge’s play
Ryaposov Alexandr Yuryevich
Russian Institute of Art History
Submitted: 22.08.2023
Abstract. The aim of the research is to identify the key moments in the history of the staging of N. Ya. Beresnev’s production “Hero” based on the play by J. M. Synge (State Academic Drama Theatre (Gosdrama, 1925)) examined in the context of the repertoire-related and production-related searches of the Russian academic stage in the first half of the 1920s. The paper investigates the reasons for the appearance of Synge’s play “Hero” (“The Playboy of the Western World”) on the stages of the First Studio of the Moscow Art Theatre (1923) and the Gosdrama (1925); analyses the dramatic poetics of the play “Hero”, in which A. D. Dikiy discovered the potential for studying the national mentality by production means, namely, by means of play theatre and mask theatre as the basis of the structure of the stage image embodied by an actor. The author of the paper considers the grounds that led to the difficulties in the staging of Synge’s play faced by the First Studio of the Moscow Art Theatre and the Gosdrama; determines the significance of I. V. Ilyinsky’s participation in the 1923 and the 1925 productions. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that the use of formal methods of literary and theatre studies, as well as the structural method allowed the researcher to identify the reasons that had not given the academic stage the opportunity to master the poetics of the play “Hero” either in the production of the First Studio of the Moscow Art Theatre, or in the production of the Gosdrama. As a result, it was proved that Synge’s play is a tragic farce with elements of absurdist drama, i.e., drama of paradox. Attempts to use the techniques of play theatre and mask as the basis of the stage image when creating a production of Synge’s play showed that the academic stage was not prepared for such experiments and turned the adaptations of Synge’s play in the First Studio of the Moscow Art Theatre and in the Gosdrama into tour performances by I. V. Ilyinsky.
Key words and phrases: Дж. М. Синг, пьеса «Герой» («Удалой молодец – гордость Запада»), Н. Я. Береснев, Госдрама, А. Д. Дикий, Первая студия МХАТ, И. В. Ильинский, J. M. Synge, play “Hero” (“The Playboy of the Western World”), N. Ya. Beresnev, State Academic Drama Theatre (Gosdrama), A. D. Dikiy, The First Studio of the Moscow Art Theatre, I. V. Ilyinsky
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