Pierrot in Petrograd : the Commedia dell'arte/Balagan in twentieth-century Russian theatre and drama / J. Douglas Clayton.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Clayton, J. Douglas.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Commedia dell'arte--History and criticism.

Commedia dell'arte.

Russian drama--20th century--History and criticism.

Russian drama.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 369 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates) : illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Commedia dell'arte/Balagan in twentieth-century Russian theatre and drama

Place of Publication:

Montreal ; Buffalo : McGill-Queen's University Press, c1993.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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:

Front Matter

Contents

Preface

Prologue

Who Was That Masked Man?

Improvisation and Dissonance: Commedia dell’Arte and the Crisis in Theatre

Pierrot Comes to Petersburg: 1903-17

Red Harlequins: The Balagan as Theatrical Genre 1917–22

Pierrot or Petrushka? Russian Harlequinades

Russian Pirandellos: The Balagan as a Dramatic Genre

Harlequin’s Shadow: The Film as Balagan

The Empty Throne: Theatre as Metahistory

Appendices

The Beggar Harlequin

Today’s Colombine: A Pantomime

Fiametta’s Four Corpses

The Lovers

Harlequin the Card–Lover

The Apes Are Coming!

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [335]-348) and index.

ISBN:

9786612856723

9781282856721

1282856723

9780773564411

0773564411

OCLC:

144083666

Publisher Number:

2027/heb33527 hdl