Ebook: Soviet Theatre during the Thaw: Aesthetics, Politics and Performance

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.
The return of Avant-garde theatre during the Thaw was part of a broader re-engagement with cultural forms that had been banned under Stalin. New innovative theatre productions sprung up on the stage once again, old classics from the 1920s and 30s were revived and their authors and directors rehabilitated alongside waves of others who had been repressed during the Stalinist purges. This in turn opened up a debate about the lack of pluralism and diversity in Soviet culture and contributed to the process of de-Stalinization in society.
The book argues that the return of Avant-garde theatre was crucial in allowing the Soviet public to re-imagine its relationship to state power, the West and its own past. It permitted the re-thinking of attitudes and prejudices, and altered the discursive terrain of Soviet culture. 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.