Ebook: Pierrot in Petrograd: 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.