Victory over the stage

In the Tretyakov Gallery, the exhibition “Theater in the Creativity of Artists of the 1920-1930s” was opened in the two halls of the Tretyakov Gallery on the Crimean Val opened the exposition of the graphics “Theater in the work of artists of the 1920-1930s”. The exhibition presents sketches of costumes and decorations made by Latulov, exter, Popova, Ermolaeva, El Lisitsky, Yakulov and other masters of cubofuturism and constructivism for the productions of avant -garde performance and performances of the theaters of Komissarzhevskaya, Tairov and Meyerhold.

Of course, if the Tretyakovka got a collection of theatrical sketches of Nikita and Nina Lobanov-Rostov, who is now looking for an appropriate place in St. Petersburg, the current exposition could be even more spectacular. However, the “Moscow” exhibits make a great impression.

Theatricality was in the blood of the Russian avant -garde: it is enough to recall the scandalous defile of futurists on the Kuznetsk bridge. If you take this trick for the first Happening (spontaneous action), then the Opera “Victory over the Sun”, first set in 1913 according to the abstruse libretto of Alexei Kruzhenykh to the music of Mikhail Matyushin and in the Suprematic design of Kazimir Malevich, can be considered the first performance (planned action).

As a kind of theatrical manifesto of the avant -garde, this opera was addressed repeatedly. Vera Ermolaeva put it in Vitebsk, and El Lisitsky made the sketches for the production of 1923 unfulfilled. Instead of cardboard Suprematism, he came up with a more modern design - kinetic constructions. Instead of actors, it was supposed to put on stage something like the absurd robots, which the director would be controlled by electric drives.

With the adult of the avant -garde, technicalism and machinery invaded theatrical stages. And even the “cubistic of the cubist and the baroque of all the bares”, according to Anatoly Efros, the design of Alexandra Exterm “Romeo and Juliet” for the chamber Theater already looked outdated. It is understandable that the production failed, and Tairov stopped cooperating with the external.

The experiments of George Yakulov - the same eclecticism as the exter, but more sensitive to the requirements of the stage were more successful. Yakulov was the inventor of the bizarre mix of the "Eastern Renaissance" - a hybrid of Asian ornamentation with avant -garde forming. Nevertheless, he met Tairov’s expectations, inventing transformers, similar to circus devices. Since they could be modified during the performance, they turned out to be a good help for acting and improvisations. As can be seen from the design of the Lekokovskaya operetta "Girofle-Zhiroffle", which Efros appreciated all the same as "genuine theatrical constructivism, multi-color, lively and generous."

We can say that Lyubov Popova won the final victory over the traditional theater, which turned the scene into the production workshop at the request of Meyerhold. In the production of the “generous cuckold” of 1922 in the theater of the actor the only decoration was a huge machine with spinning sites and rotating wheels, past which the actors scurried about the projection.

Popova’s design was condemned by theatrical critics. In particular, the observer Hippolytus Sokolov noted: “It is difficult to imagine something vulgar, rude and tasteless than the rolled wheels of red and black the priestly structure.” Surprisingly negative, the artist was accepted by her colleagues of avant-garde artists. On April 27, 1922, a “trial of Popova” was held at the Institute of Artistic Culture. She was accused and found guilty of “premature” appeal to the theater, due to the fact that constructivism has not yet matured to get out of the experimental-laboratory state to a wide field of implementation in different fields of activity.

These "jurors" would know that the century of constructivism will be short -lived.

12/24/2008 / Mikhail Bode, the material was published in the "newspaper" No. 246 dated December 25, 2008.