INCREASING POPULARITY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22723, 8 May 1937, Page 22 (Supplement)

INCREASING POPULARITY

SHAKESPEARE IN RUSSIA Shakespeare is becoming increasingly popular in Russia. On March 20 there were 27 productions of "Othello," 13 of "Romeo and Juliet," and nine of "Hamlet." Altogether, about 70 productions of eleven of Shakespeare's plays are being produced this season in various parts of Russia. With the exception of Ostrovsky, 22 of whose plays were produced this season in as many cities, no other playwright—contemporary or classical, soviet or foreign—has as many plays in production as Shakespeare.

The widespread popularity of "Othello" in Russia is generally asscribed to the great Soviet interest in race problems. Professor Sergei Dinamov, one of Moscow's leading Shakespearian authorities, is sensible enopgh to see, however, that the play should be "considered fundamentally as a tragedy of the intellect which' teaches the lesson of subordinating passion to reason."

"Romeo and Juliet" is being produced this season for the first time in Ukrainian and Turkic. There are nine productions of "Hamlet," one of them m Chuvasia, a tiny autonomous republic on the Volga. The Chuvasian 'Hamlet" is young Nestor Vinogradov, a former swineherd who was brought to a Moscow dramatic school, where ho demonstrated his acting ability