To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Date: Sun, 21 Mar 2010 22:33:43 -0400
From: puppetpro-AT-aol.com
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Russian Puppetry


In one of Meyerhold's biographies I remember reading -- he was greatly affected by Fairground entertainments -- especially a certain marionette performer. When he staged Blok's "The Fairground Booth" aka "The Puppet Show" aka "Balaganchik" -- he drew upon Commedia traditions as well as the popular entertainments he saw in the marketplaces.  
In Catriona Kelly's book she mentions how little evidence there is of Petrushka -- and how it was belittled by the ruling classes. Meyerhold and Blok shone a light on it --  though not necessary an accurate one. 
I quote from pages 152-3:
"As T.M. Rodina has pointed out, The Little Balagan is related to the balagan tradition only by orientation. She sees the most important inheritances in the facts that the action is manifestly non-referential and the characters, like the masks of pantomime, are universal, that is, they cannot be associated with the actors who play them...    She also argues that Blok has adopted from the popular theatre its calculated naivety, the device of interpreting metaphor literally. On the first two points I would agree with her, but on the third I would argue that the relationship with carnival tradition is less simple than she suggests. In the carnival naivety and literal metaphors were two devices for making the audience laugh."
 
Fairground entertainment has almost totally disappeared from the world -- we have well-trained buskers in cities like Paris and London and San Francisco -- in neatly established areas -- but the performers who would make a meagar living in the fairgrounds and marketplaces of Imperialist Russia were driven to do it out of need and hunger (as was the Punchman in Henry Mayhew's book). The street performers needed to make people laugh in order to make a living. And people needed to laugh, so they gave what they could. People still need to laugh -- but now we have tv and video and all kinds of other popular entertainment.  
Rolande






-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Rogers <robertrogers-AT-robertrogerspuppets.com>
To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Sent: Sun, Mar 21, 2010 1:58 pm
Subject: [Puptcrit] Russian Puppetry


> Paul McPharlin publishd ADVENTURES OF A RUSSIAN PUPPET THEATRE>
 Yes, I have that book.  It's about Nina Efimova and her husband Ivan 
Efimov.  But I think that they are known for their work after the 
revolution.

Pre-revolution?  I bet it's mainly Petrushka.  According to McPharlin's 
other book, "Puppet Theatre in America," foreign troupes did tour through 
the Russian territories, but I don't think that they significantly 
influenced the development of Russian puppetry.  Bil Baird wrote that the 
Efimov's learned rod puppetry from Teschner, who in turn learned from the 
Javanese.  But all those Chinese, Japanese, English and Italian traditions 
didn't take root.  But it can't be as simple as that.

Robert Rogers 

_______________________________________________
List address: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Admin interface: http://lists.puptcrit.org/mailman/listinfo/puptcrit
Archives: http://www.driftline.org

 

_______________________________________________
List address: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Admin interface: http://lists.puptcrit.org/mailman/listinfo/puptcrit
Archives: http://www.driftline.org