Casus Turkeltaub: An Objectivity Ratio

Each type of activity (namely the respective system of professional criteria, not the boundless creative ecstasy sent down by the gods) is rooted in standards and examples, looks up to role models and figures, whose significance is limited to historical period, subculture, etc. Until recently, theatre criticism, still being one of the main sources for the history of theatre through the late 19th to early 21st centuries, also had such examples. However, until now, some of these sources are accepted uncritically; thus, there is a need to investigate the principles guiding the theatre reporters and to define—for each period, figure, and theatre studio—their objectivity ratio, and hence, their efficiency. Such historical sources include Isaac Turkeltaub’slegacy of theatre criticism, who was one of the most prolific theatre critics in Kharkiv in the mid-1920s, or as it is said today, an influencer. The paper examines Turkeltaub’s identification, attempts to decode his critical algorithm, and analyze some of the principles of his writings in the field of theatre criticism from the point of view of the alleged objectivity ratio.