Modern Russian Theater: A Literary and Cultural History

This comprehensive and original survey of Russian theater in the twentieth century and into the twenty-first encompasses the major productions of directors such as Meyerhold Stanislavsky Tovostonogov Dodin and Liubimov that drew from Russian and world literature. It is based on a close analysis of adaptations of literary works by Pushkin Dostoevsky Gogol Blok Bulgakov Sholokhov Rasputin Abramov and many others.The Modern Russian Stage is the result of more than two decades of research as well as the author's professional experience working with the Russian director Yuri Liubimov in Moscow and London. The book traces the transformation of literary works into the brilliant stagecraft that characterizes Russian theater. It uses the perspective of theater performances to engage all the important movements of modern Russian culture including modernism socialist realism post-moderninsm and the creative renaissance of the first decades since the Soviet regime's collapse.