Amateur and Proletarian Theatre in Post-Revolutionary Russia: Primary Sources

Abstract

not. Stanislavski’s famous dictum “I do not believe you” is a refrain repeated throughout the film and becomes a mantra by which each artist tests his and her own work. The best parts of Stanislavski. Lust for Life are in the fly-on-the-wall scenes shot inside rehearsals and through onstage performances. Bobkova was able to film hours of rehearsal footage from Koršunovas’s Seagull, which is used to good effect, if only to see the dangerous performance built by MHAT actress Daria Moroz as Arkadina. We see rehearsals, performances, or workshops by nearly all the directors and teachers interviewed. Particularly revealing are ones by Yury Butusov, Declan Donnellan, and Veniaman Filshtinsky. In addition, there is the rare footage from the play Out of the System, by playwright Mikhail Durnenko and directed by Kirill Serebrennikov, a play about Stanislavskiand his times that was performed only once (17 January 2013) as part of the Stanislavski 250th anniversary celebrations at the Moscow Art Theatre. A spectacular event for those of us who saw it live. Chillingly, that production featured an explosive section where Stanislavski’s fame, represented by his face adorning a huge, inflated balloon, is literally squelched and bursts as Stanislavski suddenly comes under house arrest, his reputation subsumed under authoritarian control, mirroring what has become true, also, of Kirill Serebrennikov’s own purged life and shattered career in Russia since the making of this documentary. Every Russian director lives under this same threat. And yet Bobkova’s film does not mean to be overtly political. In fact, it passed all censorship trials without a qualm before being released in 2020. Nonetheless, an uncomfortable undercurrent remains in the film (stressed always in that ominous music by Marina Makarova) about the life of the individual artist working under state control but where artistic liberality still seems to have free rein in Russia. And we become preoccupied with how Stanislavski maintained personal autonomy (with gradual and inevitable capitulation) throughout his life in the face of ongoing struggles; his “inspiring spirit”, as Declan Donnellan says, remains a counterforce. His legacy of “life” is mentioned again and again. To work in his tradition now has a kind of urgency, “to be in the same field with him” as Yury Butusov says. Butusov also refers to Stanislavski’s writings on “Ethics”, a code of laws on the inner life of the theatre. Stanislavski is not a timeless philosophy but a practical tool for many, as it is for the great acting teacher Veniamin Filshtinsky: “truth of body, truth of walk, truth of breath, the inextricable connection between body and soul.” At the root of the film is the “liveness” of theatre and the actor-audience compact. The echo of this message in these pandemic times is unmistakable. In the final section of the film, each of those interviewed reads a relevant selection from Stanislavski's writing. Each is a moving tribute. Declan Donnellan is brought to tears. The film Stanislavski. Lust for Life is available online and on demand via the Stage Russia HD streaming platform at https://vimeo.com/ondemand/stanislavski.