Vsevolod Meyerhold

A study of the career of the Russian revolutionary theatre director, Vsevolod Meyerhold, from his early years to his glittering triumphs in the Tsarist imperial theatres.

Robert Leach (Author)

9780521318433, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 26 February 1993

240 pages, 75 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.4 cm, 0.36 kg

'Few Meyerhold scholars have contributed as lucid and insightful an understanding of Meyerhold's theories as Leach manages … Vsevolod Meyerhold is a cogently written overview of a fascinating theatrical era.' Theatre Three

This book traces the career of the Russian revolutionary theatre director, Vsevolod Meyerhold, from his early years as a founding member of the Moscow Art Theatre with Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko, through his Symbolist period, his experiments with commedia dell'arte and other popular forms, to his demise in the Stalin era. Leach describes in detail Meyerhold's 'system' of theatre: his attitude to the audience, the place of the fore stage, 'biomechanics' and actor training, and the importance of the mise-en-scène. Finally, Leach explores Meyerhold's legacy, which can be detected in the work of Brecht, Eisenstein, Peter Brook and others.

List of illustrations
Preface
1. A life
2. The fourth dimension
3. The actor's business
4. The mise-en-scène
5. Rhythm
6. Meanings
7. Masquerade
8. Meyerhold and Mayakovsky
9. The legacy
Chronology
List of Meyerhold's productions
Notes
Select bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Theatre studies [AN]