“A FANTASIA IN THE RUSSIAN MANNER ON ENGLISH THEMES” BY SERGEI EISENSTEIN

Abstract

The article invites its readers to travel back in time to open a century-old page in the world’s cultural history showing one of the first tries by Sergei Eisenstein as a theatre designer. Although Bernard Shaw’s play “Heartbreak House. A Fantasia in the Russian Manner on English Themes” was never staged at “The Actor’s Theatre”, the surviving sketches and notes do call our attention. A microanalysis of these sources demonstrates that the ideas put forward by Sergei Eisenstein are still used by Russian designers and directors.