Pierrot in Petrograd : the Commedia dell'arte Balagan in twentieth-century Russian theatre and drama

Douglas 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. Frontmatter Preface (page ix) Illustrations (page xi) Prologue (page 3) 1. Who Was That Masked Man? (page 16) 2. Improvisation and Dissonance: Commedia dell'Arte and the Crisis in Theatre (page 44) 3. Pierrot Comes to Petersburg: 1903-17 (page 75) 4. Red Harlequins: The Balagan as a Theatrical Genre (page 103) 5. Pierrot or Petrushka? Russian Harlequinades (page 125) 6. Russian Pirandellos: The Balagan as a Dramatic Genre (page 159) 7. Harlequin's Shadow: The Film as Balagan (page 205) 8. The Empty Throne: Theatre as Metahistory (page 229) Appendix A: The Beggar Harlequin (Elena Guro, page 239) Appendix B: Today's Columbine (Nikolai Evreinov, page 245) Appendix C: Fiametta's Four Corpses (page 250) Appendix D: The Lovers (Vsevolod Meyerhold, page 254) Appendix E: Harlequin the Card-Lover (Vladimir Solov'ev, page 257) Appendix F: The Apes Are Coming! (Lev Lunts, page 272) Notes (page 297) Bibliography (page 335) Index (page 349) This work 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, France and Germany