Soviet Theatre during the Thaw - (Cultural Histories of Theatre and Performance) by Jesse Gardiner (Paperback)

About the Book

"The era known as the Thaw (1953-64) was a crucial period in the history of the Soviet Union. It was a time when the legacy of Stalin unravelled, when brief moments of liberalisation saw dramatic changes to society, and when narratives of the Soviet Union's recent past were revised and rewritten. By exploring theatre productions, play texts and cultural debates during this period, this book sheds light on to a society in flux, one in which the cultural norms, subjects and hierarchies of the previous era were being rethought. It reveals how the practice and theories of key practitioners - including Konstantin Stanislavsky and Vsevolod Meyerhold - developed in Russia and how their legacies were perceived"--

Book Synopsis

The era known as the Thaw (1953-64) was a crucial period in the history of the Soviet Union. It was a time when the legacies of Stalinism began to unravel and when brief moments of liberalisation saw dramatic changes to society. By exploring theatre productions, plays and cultural debates during the Thaw, this book sheds light on a society in flux, in which the cultural norms, values and hierarchies of the previous era were being rethought.

Jesse Gardiner demonstrates that the revival of avant-garde theatre during the Thaw was part of a broader re-engagement with cultural forms that had been banned under Stalin. Plays and productions that had fallen victim to the censor were revived or reinvented, and their authors and directors rehabilitated alongside waves of others who had been repressed during the Stalinist purges. At the same time, new theatre companies and practitioners emerged who reinterpreted the stylized techniques of the avant-garde for a post-war generation. This book argues that the revival of avant-garde theatre was vital in allowing the Soviet public to reimagine its relationship to state power, the West and its own past. It permitted the rethinking of attitudes and prejudices, and led to calls for greater cultural diversity across society. Playwrights, directors and actors began to work in innovative ways, seeking out the theatre of the future by re-engaging with the proscribed forms of the past.

Review Quotes

"This is a well-considered, reader-friendly work." --Choice

"From the Introduction, which works both as a who's who of early twentieth-century Russian theatre and as a crash course in Soviet politics from the revolution through the Thaw, to the Epilogue detailing the Thaw's legacy of nuanced, mixed-genre drama, Gardiner's book provides authoritative detail on the direct relationship between theatre and politics and how this affected Soviet culture." --Modern Language Review