Art in Russia

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22867, 23 October 1937, Page 4 (Supplement)

Art in Russia

By R.O.N,

CCf" T>TDER the pressure of the! I J Church, the theatre was si- i ' ways regarded by the j authorities as a sinful pastime. . . . An actress was a creature who was | beyond all hope of forgiveness in j the next world. Therefore it was a sin even to pray for her." So writes Vladimir Xemirovitch-Dantchenko in his recently published account of the ! foundation and establishment of the ; famous Art Theatre of Moscow. There will, no doubt, be many who | can find, in this account o: an epoch j in the history of the stage, something j of special and absorbing interest. It j rr.av be, too, that there are those who j would revel in the perusal of inti- ; mate and detailed studies of such i famous personalities as Tolstoy, Stani- i siavsky, Chekov and Gorki. But the ; author's portraits of these great : figures seem inadequate and disappoint- J ing. Indeed, one feels that the author did ! not intend to present us with closely- j drawn character sketches of outstand- j ing actors and literary men: his on« : aim ttas to show us how the .Arc : Theatre was born and nurtured. The S great people who have been named aro spoken of only in so far as they are incidental to that central and allabsorbing theme. Such a topic, however, must have a ; certain appeal. Actors, playwrights, j and theatre-lovers in general will read ; with very real interest of a conception, > an ideal, which was in the nature of a | revolution in theatrical production. For j the rest of us. there is refreshment in ; isolated and incidental passages, but j. one would welcome more of them. The author's country home was in i the midst of the wide-fluug steppe ■ country. The deadly monotony of the region can be assumed from his state- ; ment that when "we journeyed from j home, we greeted the first telegraph j pole with joy." ' i

History of Moscow's Famous Theatre

It Tronic! seem that in Russia, as in some cither places we ail know better, there are theatre-goers who have more money than manners. The writer pointedly remarks: "It was necessary to contend with the offensive habit of the public of coming in during the actual performance. We conceived the idea of dimming the lights in the outside corridors just before the raising of the curtain, in order to force the public to hurry to their seats. We had not yer dared venture wholly to forbid entry during the performance." What was it that gave NemirovitchDantchenko his bias toward the stage? It could hardly have been heredity. "My father." he tells us, "was a provincial military man, not at any time ha ring any acquaintance with the theatre. My mother came from some remote corner of the Caucasus; she married at fourteen, knew nothing of the theatre, was a mother at fifteen, but simultaneously with the nursing of her first babe, she played with dolls!" The picture given by the author of the trradual rise of the merchant clas3 in Moscow and the struggles of the nobility to retain its ascendancy is an interesting one. It is easy to detect the scorn in the remark of a certain Prince who. in referring to a prosperous and well-known merchant, said irritably: "He drinks red nine with fish and he cuts asparagus with a knife." Right outside the pale, apparently. Unfortunately, perhap*. there are too few of these little side-lights upon Russian life in the times of the author. But, of course, the portrayal of such matters was hardly the task he set himself. The ideal he had before him—the reform of certain traditional conceptions of stage production and dramatic art —was. indeed, a noble one. The account of his efforts and of his successes and disappointments will certainly interest those whose tastes lie in this specialised department of dailv life.

"Xly Lif» in the Russian Theatre," by Vladimir Xemirontch-Daatehenko. (Geoffrey Bies.)