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

Commedia dell'arte was an essential ingredient of the revolution in Russian art in the early twentieth century. During this colourful and creative period artists sought inspiration in surprising places - icon painting, primitive art, and (in the theatre) circus, music-hall, and commedia dell'arte. The devices and motifs of Italian improvisational theatre played a central role in overcoming theatrical realism and naturalism and formed a basis for a new and expressive theatricality.

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.

Contents Preface Illustrations Prologue 1 Who Was That Masked Man? 2 Improvisation and Dissonance: Commedia dell'Arte and the Crisis in Theatre 3 Pierrot Comes to Petersburg: 1903–17 4 Red Harlequins: The Balagan as a Theatrical Genre 5 Pierrot or Petrushka? Russian Harlequinades 6 Russian Pirandellos: The Balagan as a Dramatic Genre 7 Harlequin's Shadow: The Film as Balagan 8 The Empty Throne: Theatre as Metahistory Appendix A: The Beggar Harlequin Appendix B: Today's Columbine Appendix C: Fiametta's Four Corpses Appendix D: The Lovers Appendix E: Harlequin the Card-Lover Appendix F: The Apes Are Coming! Notes Bibliography Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z 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