Folk theater is multifaceted and many-sided, but among its various types, the most striking and original is the Petrushka puppet theater. As a folklore performance, the Petrushka Theater has existed in Russia since approximately the 18th century. It did not immediately acquire its finished, classic look. Let us recall the history of the development of Russian folk puppet comedy. A. Belitsky sees the first, naive forms of puppet theater in ritual, “playing with a doll, dressing up, “Moscow culture.” The abstract form of mummery in the puppet theater is also noted by A.V. Gruntovsky.
It is known that the Parsley Theater was first described by the German scientist, diplomat and traveler Adam Olearius, who visited Russia twice in the forties of the 17th century. In his travel diary published later, Olearius describes the performances of buffoon-musicians who sang songs, danced, and showed various puppet show scenes. In addition to the puppet show, Olearius also describes “bear fun.” The leaders of the bears “had with them such comedians who, by the way, could immediately present some kind of trick or klutch (prank), as the Dutch call it, with the help of dolls. To do this, they tie a sheet around their body, lift its free side up and hold it above their head, thus forming something like a stage... with which they walk through the streets and show various performances with dolls.” Olearius' testimony is confirmed by an illustration that probably depicts a scene of a horse being sold. The puppet show described by the traveler was probably a prototype of the 19th century puppet comedy about Petrushka, although the hero of this show could have a different name and the storyline could be different. In the 30s of the 17th century, puppet shows were based on an elementary plot, which served as the starting point for numerous improvisations by puppeteers. Presumably at this time there already existed folk puppet theater performances, which were popular with the common people and aroused the hostility of the authorities. Judging by the fact that these performances were shown in the programs of buffoon games, they were short-lived and consisted of one or several short scenes. The comedy about Petrushka is often seen as a borrowed, puppet game brought from the cultures of Western Europe or the East. Moreover, the time of borrowing dates back to the end of the 16th – beginning of the 17th centuries. (as V.N. Peretz believed), then by the beginning of the 19th century. (according to the assumption of A.F. Nekrylova). “No exact data has been preserved about the performances of Petrushka in the 18th century,” wrote V.D. Kuzmina, “but it is absolutely indisputable that such performances were and were a natural link between the comedy of Petrushka, which Olearius saw performed by buffoons of the 17th century, and the folk puppet comedy of the 19th-20th centuries.”
The comedy and its hero have gone through an interesting, complex path, absorbing foreign and Russian features, reworking and specially mastering spectacular folklore, satirical genres of Russian folk art, the achievements of the democratic theater of the 17th - 18th centuries and folk drama. V.N. Vsevolodsky-Gerngross in his work “Russian Folk Drama” noted that the ancient Russian puppet hero resembled, on the one hand, the passive young man from “The Tale of Misfortune,” and on the other, the enterprising Frol Skobeev and was different from Petrushka, which was well known from 19th century plays. The core of the plot of the puppet comedy has also formed: a young guy decides to get married, start a household, and therefore the first thing he does is buy a horse from a gypsy. Having fallen from his horse, he turns to a charlatan doctor, unable to tolerate deception, kills him with a club and buries him. This plot clearly shows a connection with folk games, which are based on parody: matchmaking, weddings, bargaining, treatment, funerals. By the 19th century, Petrushka's comedy had undergone its development. Using the principles of improvised play, puppeteers began to present the simplest plots, which were based on certain proto-plots that were formed, as we have already mentioned, probably under the influence of folk pagan cults, rituals, games: “walking with a filly,” “matchmaking,” “buffoonery.” treatment", "parody funeral", etc. Hence, the characters of the Petrushka Theater are in many ways similar to the characters of pagan mummers, such as an old man, an old woman, a gypsy, a priest, singers, and a dead man. The plot was also determined, which began to consist of a chain of scenes based on the motive of Petrushka’s meeting with different characters. The sequence of the main scenes was subsequently fixed by tradition. Usually the comedy began with a greeting, a conversation on a topical topic, an address to a musician, followed by scenes with the bride, buying a horse, and meeting with the doctor. Then, in varying order and quantity, came Petrushka’s encounters with various characters: a German, an officer, a soldier, a policeman, a gentleman, a blackamoor, a friend and others. The appearance of the characters “was given typical features by which one could easily recognize the hero - his social status, profession, nationality.” .
But let's talk about the central character of the puppet comedy. Of all the versions about its origin, we will focus on the most famous. Perhaps our hero received the name “Petrushka” after the famous Russian jester of Queen Anna Ioanovna, Pietro Mirro (aka Pedrillo, aka Petrukha-Farnos, or simply Petrukha). There are other hypotheses about the origin of the main character of the comedy. Petrushka could have adopted his name from the name of one of his predecessors - the ancient Hindu jester Vidushak, whose appearance and behavior strongly resembled Petrushka. Other versions are possible. So in traveling actors-puppeteers of the early 18th century. The name of Petrushka Ivanov is mentioned, and in the first half of the same century, puppeteer Pyotr Yakubovskoy gave performances in Moscow, so it is likely that the puppet hero could have borrowed his name from one of the puppeteers, whose performances were the most popular. There is another assumption that also has a right to exist. People's favorite comic characters often received nicknames based on the names of various dishes and seasonings. So the European Gunstwurst, Jean Farina, Pickelgering, Jack Snack had funny nicknames - Ivan Sausage, Ivan Muchnik, Pickled Herring, light snack. Vanka Ratatouille ("ratatouille" is the name of a French vegetable dish) probably appears in a similar way, which indicates the connection between the Russian puppet character and his European relatives. In addition, the name “ratatouille” is also known in Northern Russian dialects as “empty poor soup.”
In the first third of the 18th century, Petrushka was respectfully called nothing less than Pyotr Ivanovich (Petrovich) Samovarov, and in the 19th century he was also known as Pyotr Ivanovich (Petrovich) Uksusov. And finally, our hero may have gotten his name from his Italian brother, Pulcinella, whose name in Italian translates as “cockerel.”
So who is Petrushka - a social type, a national character or a primitive person? In folk theater, the character of a character was perceived as a given, as a collection of certain, unchangeable traits. This theater was not interested in a specific person; it was concerned with man in the most general manifestation, as “man in general.” “Petrushka alone stood apart: he had no prototype in real life, since he belonged to the family of European folklore jesters who had common features in appearance - a huge nose, a hump or two humps (front and back), a protruding chin, a stupid cap on his head.” . Another characteristic feature of Parsley is its special “musical” voice, created using a special device - a peep. This inhuman voice, as well as four-fingered fingers, indicate Parsley’s ancestral connection with the “otherworldly” world. And although in the comedy Petrushka tries on various social roles: he gets married, buys a horse, gets sick, joins the army, etc., he is in no way a social type. Seeing national character in a character who belongs to a family of folklore jesters who have not only a similar appearance, but also character traits, is a futile task, although Petrushka, like all of them, has become a favorite folk puppet hero in Russia.
As we can see, Petrushka is classified not only as a character that reveals national character, but is also correlated with a social type, and finally, with Homo Primitivus. Let us remember that Petrushka, like his brothers Pulcinella, Polichinelle, Punch, was born in the theater of mask convention, in art where naive metaphorical thinking dominated, in the realm of farcical grotesque, rough folk reprise. The comic effect of the episodes in which the character participated was achieved using techniques characteristic of folk laughter culture: fights, beatings, obscenities, the imaginary deafness of a partner, funny movements and gestures, mimicry, funny funerals, etc. According to M.M. Bakhtin, laughter “stupefies”, “exposes”, returns the world to its original chaos and cleanses it spiritually, absorbing everything negative.
Modern researcher A. Gref argues that Petrushka himself is not a social type, not a satirical character, and in no case a national character, but a “primitive”, that is, Primary Man, Homo Primitivus, proto-man. Only from this point of view can we understand the antisocial behavior of our hero, which, first of all, is associated with numerous fights. It is known that the meaning of a fight in the primary theater is interpreted as a ritual battle with “evil forces.” However, over time, this value decreases to a fight with a variety of characters: a policeman, a policeman, a soldier, a doctor. All these characters do not pose a threat to our hero, and only a representative of the infernal world (a dog or death itself) takes his life. The end of the comedy is the end of Petrushka, which also means the end of the performance. But Petrushka is immortal! Death is ridiculed; with the resurrection of Petrushka, the comedy begins anew. As we can see, Petrushka was considered the main character of the Russian puppet theater. His image is “broader than the concepts of “negative and positive”: the people invented it for their own amusement and for the fear of the powers that be. He is negative, cruel, satirical and at the same time arouses some kind of poignant tenderness.” This is exactly how he is remembered by many famous artists, composers, writers and poets, who in their memoirs describe their childhood and youthful impressions of the Parsley Theater and the parsley workers. This is evidenced by the memoirs of F. Chaliapin, M. Gorky, A. Benois. N. Nekrasov (Poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”) and I. Stravinsky in the ballet “Petrushka” conveyed impressions of meetings with Petrushka in their works. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, the comedy about Petrushka had no equal in popularity among other types of public art.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the popularity of this farcical hero fell. A new miracle appears in Russia - cinema and the merry and mischievous Petrushka was no longer able to satisfy the needs of the public. With the advent of new life realities, the image of the classic Parsley goes away. Against the backdrop of political changes in the country and the world, while continuing to remain part of the holiday entertainment, Parsley also changes, new characters and plots appear. After the revolution of 1917 he was transformed into a victorious proletarian. The new government quickly realized the propaganda potential of the people's theater and put forward the slogan: “Return the theater to the people!” Particular importance was attached to the puppet theater. A. Lunacharsky, in his “Memorandum” to the People’s Commissariat for Education in 1918, wrote: “Easily feasible technically, closely connected by all its elements with folk art, it will serve as a touchstone for establishing a true folk repertoire and for developing those theatrical techniques that will lead to an inextricable fusion scenes with a public audience". The first enthusiasts of the new puppet theater were artists, and it was with their help that the first State Puppet Theaters appeared in Leningrad and Moscow. In addition to plays with Petrushka, there were dramatizations of I. Krylov’s fables. The performances of N. Simonovich-Efimova's puppet theater became widely known in the northern capital. She later recalled: “There was a reception on the occasion of my daughter’s name day in a family I knew, where poets and artists gathered. The owner of the house asked me to show her a puppet theater. By that time, “Sick Parsley” (which I invented for village children) had developed. I played it and two new fables. This is where my fantastic, arrogant thoughts about the Petrushka Theater began to be justified, because when I finished, Alexey Nikolaevich Tolstoy, who turned out to be among the audience, came up to me and asked: “Who wrote the text of Petrushka for you? You know that it is very, very well written”... He continued: “Stanislavsky has long dreamed of a puppet theater and ordered me a play. I know how difficult it is to write for Parsley, which is why I appreciated yours. You need to show your theater to Stanislavsky, I’ll arrange it”... And he arranged it. Two days later I played these plays to Stanislavsky at his home, and a few days later - at the Art Theater: for theater and studio artists." One of the first performances was a dramatization of A. Tolstoy’s fairy tale “Gelding”. Official support led to the fact that major masters of art began to work in the puppet theater; among them composer Yu. Shaporin, artists V. Favorsky and young Kukryniksy. At first, all these talented people relied on the experience of the old folk game. Petrushka, resurrected from oblivion as a hero of Soviet reality, did not at all seem like an anachronism or an insert number. The “Red Army Petrushka” doll, created by the Kukryniksys, created a sensation at the First All-European Exhibition of Theater Puppets in Brussels in 1930 and became the emblem of the All-Union Union of Puppeteers. On the days of celebrations (May 1, November 7), platforms appeared in the squares of large cities, from the barriers of which Petrushka, well known to the public, in a red shirt, sprinkled salty political lines, causing general delight among those gathered. Next to him were “class enemies”: a priest in a cassock, a thick-bellied fist, a spick-and-span NEP man. The Petrushka Theater becomes, first of all, a theater of revolutionary satire, a political theater. This is how “Cooperative Petrushka”, “Petrushka-rabfakovets”, “Red Army Petrushka” appear. Puppet shows were timed to coincide with each of the many new holidays of the “red calendar”: International Youth Day, Red Army Day, Day of Education, etc. Recent opponents were also brought onto the stage - Kolchak, Denikin, Wrangel, and the leaders of bourgeois Europe - Lloyd George , Poincare, Curzon. The task of promoting the introduction of the “Soviet way of life” becomes a priority for the Petrushka Theater. Now it is considered as a theater of a workers' club, responding to any significant events in the life of a factory or factory. He was supposed to make fun of truants, hooligans, and bureaucrats from the enterprise administration. Petrushka often began to be assigned the role of a reasoner, introducing the viewer to the essence of the matter at the beginning of the performance and summing up the conclusion at the end. The new theater also needed its own authors. The Petrushka Theater became a literary theater. “The writers placed Petrushka in modern Soviet life, where he acted as a dues ex machine, but also as an ordinary stage hero. And Petrushka not only did not look like an anachronism, did not destroy the integrity of the stage narrative, but also remained a kind of literary standard that determines the development of this art.” And here is an example of the title of one of the plays imitating folklore: “An amateur performance about the consumer business, about Nyurka, the merchant and clerk, the cheerful Parsley the storyteller,” author - M.D. Volpin, famous Soviet playwright, poet and screenwriter. Parsley begins to be perceived as one of the “world images” of classical culture. M. Gorky spoke about this in a speech at the First Congress of Soviet Writers in 1934. He built a unique series of these images: “Hercules, Prometheus, Mikula Selyaninovich, Svyatogor, - then - Doctor Faust, Vasilisa the Wise, the ironic successor Ivan the Fool and finally Petrushka, defeating the doctor, the priest, the policeman, the devil and even death.” Tolstoy’s new work “The Golden Key, or the Adventures of Buratino” brings to the stage a new, resilient puppet hero, Buratino, in whom the main features of Petrushka are so clearly manifested. The new image fit entirely into the context of the new time. In all its manifestations, it strikingly resembles the usual fairground Parsley. So, Petrushka merged with Pinocchio, and for a long time remained exclusively a character in the children's theater. This Petrushka transformed, stopped being aggressive, “cultivated himself” and became just a cheerful little man. Over time, parsley began to appear at children's parties and New Year trees. Petrushka found himself in business and was a true hero of the Soviet puppet theater, as long as traditional art remained the only one. But when a new theater was born, built on the principles of conventional psychologism, Petrushka became a complete absurdity, he could not withstand the psychological load, and any attempts to build his image with the help of a psychologically based characterization ended in failure.” Petrushka did not take root in S. Obraztsov’s theater. Since the late 40s, Parsley disappeared altogether and was not remembered for almost 50 years.
But time does not stand still. As proof, in the 2000s, a play for children “Parsley at War” appeared in the genre of a farcical parsley show about how Pyotr Petrovich Uksusov became a Red Army soldier and defeated all fascist enemies. A performance in one act, based on Russian folklore, for children from 6 years old. The performance is based on mischievous folk humor and satire.
Unfortunately, the living tradition of folk puppet theater in our country has been lost. Currently, you can count on one hand those who are engaged in the reconstruction of the Petrushka Theater in the form in which it existed in the century before last. A huge amount of work in this direction is being carried out by A. Gref’s “Wandering Den” theater in Moscow, V. Mizenin’s “Papmashenniki” theater and the “Balagan” theater in St. Petersburg. The theater of Tatyana Chunakova, who continues the traditions of the theater of N. Simonovich-Efimova, is also well known. Puppeteers give their performances in the open air: in Moscow on Arbat and in St. Petersburg on Nevsky Prospekt, in clubs and orphanages and, if invited, in apartments, reviving the tradition of the St. Petersburg theater by N. Simonovich-Efimova. “The Wandering Den” becomes a theater accessible not only to children, but also to adult audiences. Every year the theater gains not only many fans, but also people seeking to locally revive this type of puppet show, creating their own Parsley Theater in schools, additional education institutions, and clubs.
Russian folklore
Parsley performances were especially popular at fairs and folk festivals and were a form of urban spectacular folklore.
Parsley is one of the characters in Russian folk puppet shows. Depicted in a red shirt, canvas pants and a pointed cap with a tassel; Traditionally, Parsley is a glove doll. PETRUSHKA, “the nickname of a farce doll, a Russian jester, a jokester, a wit in a red caftan and a red cap; the entire jester, puppet den is also called Petrushka” (V. Dahl).
The origin of this doll, which appeared in Russia in the second half of the 19th century, has not been reliably clarified. Although in Russia (Encyclopedia Around the World) Parsley has been known since the 17th century. Russian puppeteers used marionettes (string puppet theater) and parsleys (glove puppets). Until the 19th century, preference was given to Parsley, by the end of the century - to puppets, as parsley makers united with organ grinders. The parsley screen consisted of three frames, fastened with staples and covered with chintz. It was placed directly on the ground and hid the puppeteer. The barrel organ gathered spectators, and behind the screen the actor began to communicate with the audience through a peep (whistle). Later, with laughter and reprise, he ran out himself, in a red cap and with a long nose. The organ grinder sometimes became Petrushka's partner: because of the squeak, speech was not always intelligible, and he repeated Petrushka's phrases and conducted a dialogue. The comedy with Petrushka was played out at fairs and booths. From some memoirs and diaries of the 1840s it follows that Petrushka had a full name - he was called Pyotr Ivanovich Uksusov. The famous Russian puppeteer Sergei Obraztsov called Petrushka Pyotr Petrovich Uksusov (the story “The Four Brothers”) or Vanka Ratatouille. There were main plots: Parsley's treatment, soldier training, the scene with the bride, buying a horse and testing it. The stories were passed from actor to actor, by word of mouth. Not a single character in the Russian theater had the popularity equal to Petrushka.
The first puppet shows with the main character, Petrushka, appeared in the first half of the 19th century. On the pages of everyday life essays and popular print books, his name has been mentioned since the 1840s.
In Russia of the last century, the comedy about Petrushka had no equal among other types of puppet theater in terms of its popularity among the common population, its breadth of distribution (from St. Petersburg to Sakhalin and from Arkhangelsk to the North Caucasus), its topicality, sharpness and deadly power of laughter. Petrushka was considered the main and perhaps the only hero of the Russian puppet theater.
Petrushka's comedy was constantly in the process of development, replenished with new characters, and became more and more relevant and socially rich.
The Petrushki Theater was created not only under the influence of Russian, Slavic, and Western European puppet traditions. It was a type of folk theater culture, part of the extremely developed entertainment folklore in Russia. Therefore, it has a lot in common with folk drama, with the performances of farce barkers, with the verdicts of the groomsmen at the wedding, with amusing popular prints, with the jokes of the raeshniks, etc.
The special atmosphere of the city's festive square explains, for example, Petrushka's familiarity, his unbridled gaiety and indiscriminateness in the object of ridicule and shame. After all, Petrushka beats not only class enemies, but everyone in a row - from his own fiancée to the policeman, often beats him for nothing (a blackamoor, an old beggar woman, a German clown, etc.), and in the end he gets hit too: the dog mercilessly tugs at his nose. The puppeteer, like other participants in the fair, square fun, is attracted by the very opportunity to ridicule, parody, beat, and the more, louder, more unexpected, sharper, the better. Elements of social protest and satire were very successfully and naturally superimposed on this ancient basis of laughter.
Like all folklore entertainments, “Petrushka” is filled with obscenities and curses. The original meaning of these elements has been studied quite fully, and how deeply they penetrated into the folk culture of laughter and what place swearing, verbal obscenity and demeaning, cynical gestures occupied in it, is fully shown by M.M. Bakhtin.
Performances were shown several times a day in different conditions (at fairs, in front of booths, on city streets, in the suburbs). "Walking" Parsley was the most common use of the doll.
For the mobile folk theater, a light screen, dolls, miniature backstage and a curtain were specially made. Petrushka ran around the stage, his gestures and movements creating the appearance of a living person.
The comic effect of the episodes was achieved using techniques characteristic of the folk culture of laughter: fights, beatings, obscenities, the imaginary deafness of a partner, funny movements and gestures, mimicking, funny funerals, etc.
There are conflicting opinions about the reasons for the extraordinary popularity of the theater: topicality, satirical and social orientation, comic character, simple play that is understandable to all segments of the population, the charm of the main character, acting improvisation, freedom of choice of material, the sharp tongue of the puppet.
The Petrushki Theater is a type of folk theater that was not only watched, but also listened to, so most scenes included both movement and conversation in varying proportions. In the episodes of bargaining (the scene of buying a horse), treatment, ridicule of soldier drill, word and gesture are, as a rule, equivalent; they complement each other, combining visual and auditory perception.
Songs and dances were an integral part of most of the performances of the Petrushki Theater. The heroes of the comedy performed lyrical songs, dance songs, ditty couplets, cruel romances, and songs of literary origin. They danced Russian, Komarinskaya, trepaka, “lady”, polka, waltz, etc. Musical exhibitions played a large role in comedy. Dances and songs, hurdy-gurdy melodies were not just the musical setting of the performance, they were designed to set the audience in a cheerful, festive mood, create an additional comic effect through the contrasting relationship between melody and action, serve as a characteristic of the characters, diversify those, in other words, together with other poetic and stage techniques to make the performance a lively and vibrant spectacle.
The structure of a theatrical performance is also determined by the relationship between spectators and actors. Orientation towards the public has existed and exists in all types of theatrical art, to varying degrees, of course, and in different quality.
For the Russian “Petrushka”, as well as for the folk theater in general, communication with the audience was an indispensable condition and an extremely important moment of the performance.
Parsley is a folk holiday joy.
Parsley is a manifestation of popular optimism, a mockery of the poor against the powerful and rich.
The Parsley Theater remained a part of holiday entertainment for a long time. As a mass phenomenon of folk fair culture, it ceased to exist at the beginning of the 20th century.
It is believed that the birthplace of modern puppet theater is India and Ancient China. Later, this type of democratic art was brought by traveling artists, possibly gypsies, to Ancient Greece, and from there it spread throughout Europe. It is not known for certain when puppeteers appeared in our country, but the Russian folk theater of Petrushka enjoyed enormous popularity among people of all ages and classes for about three centuries.
Background
Researchers believe that there were 3 species in Russia:
- puppetry, in which the dolls were controlled using strings;
- the Petrushka Theater - with figurines of characters placed on the fingers of the puppeteer;
- nativity scene - a theater in which dolls were fixed motionless on rods and moved along slots made in a special box.
The latter option was popular only in the southern regions of the country and in Siberia, and until the end of the 19th century, puppets, due to the complexity of making the figures, were used quite rarely. Thus, when talking about Russian pre-revolutionary puppet shows, they most often refer to Petrushki. It got its name from the name of the main character of funny performances performed right on the street.
Who is Parsley
This nickname was given to the glove puppet, which was usually dressed in a red shirt, canvas pants and a pointed cap with a tassel. It is still not entirely clear why her physiognomy was traditionally given “non-Russian” features. In particular, he has an overly large head and hands, a dark face, huge almond-shaped eyes and Most likely, Petrushka’s appearance is due to the fact that he was created in the image and likeness of the Italian Pulcinella.
As for the character’s character, he is also a fraudster for whom no laws are written.
The appearance of Parsley
In Russia, a glove puppet with strange facial features and the name Ivan Ratyutyu appeared in the 17th century. However, it received its greatest distribution and its final name only 200 years later. By the way, Petrushka himself introduced himself as Pyotr Ivanovich (sometimes Petrovich) Uksusov.
Description of the theater at an early stage
In the 17th century, performances were performed without a screen. More precisely, the traditional Petrushka theater involved the participation of only one actor, who tied a skirt to his belt. A hoop was sewn to its hem, and when lifted, the puppeteer found himself hidden from prying eyes. He could freely move his arms and imagine scenes involving two characters. At the same time, the comedian almost always worked in tandem with the bear leader and also performed the functions of a clown.
Description of the theater after the mid-19th century
From the 1840s, the screen began to be used. It consisted of three frames, which were fastened with staples and covered with chintz. It was placed directly on the ground, and it hid the puppeteer. A mandatory attribute, without which it was impossible to imagine the Parsley Theater, was a barrel organ. Its sounds invited the audience, and behind the screen the comedian communicated with the audience through a special whistle. During the performance, he could run out to the audience with a long nose and a red cap. At the same time, the organ grinder became his partner, and together they acted out comic scenes.
Puppeteers
The Petrushka Theater, the history of which has not been fully studied, was considered purely masculine. To make the puppeteer's voice more squeaky and loud, a special squeaker whistle was used, which was inserted into the larynx. In addition, the puppeteer tried to speak very quickly and laugh disgustingly at every joke he made.
Subjects
The theater plays (Petrushka was their main, but not the only hero) were rather monotonous. Main plots: treatment and training for soldier service, a date with the bride, buying and testing a horse. The scenes followed one after another in a certain order. At the same time, the duration of the performance depended on how long the audience deigned to pay attention to this street performance.
The action took place in the following sequence:
- Petrushka decides to buy a horse from a gypsy horse dealer. He haggles with the seller for a long time. Then he gets tired of this activity, and he hits the gypsy, who runs away.
- Petrushka tries to climb onto the horse, but it throws him off and goes after the dealer, leaving the cunning one lying motionless.
- The doctor arrives. He asks Petrushka about his illness. It turns out that he has a thousand diseases. The doctor and Petrushka fight because the patient calls the doctor ignorant. The bully hits the medic hard on the head with his baton.
- The policeman appears and asks Petrushka why he killed the doctor. The rogue replies that he “doesn’t know his science well.” Then Petrushka hits the policeman with a baton and kills him. The dog comes running. Parsley turns to the public and asks for their help. Then he tries to appease the dog and promises to feed her cat meat. The dog grabs Petrusha by the nose and drags him away. At this point the performance ended and the audience dispersed.
"Petrushka's wedding"
Sometimes, usually during Maslenitsa and other folk festivals, the performance, at the request of the public, could last even longer. Then they acted out the scene “Petrushka’s Wedding”. Her plot was crude and frivolous. A bride was brought to Parsley, whom he examined as if she were a horse. After he agreed to marry, long persuasions began for the bride to “sacrifice herself” before the wedding. From this point on the performance, the spectators left, taking the children away. The remaining men listened with delight to Parsley's greasy jokes.
There was also a scene with a priest or clerk. However, due to censorship reasons, it was not included in any of the collections where the texts of the performances with Petrushka were recorded.
"Death"
Among the characters in the Parsley Theater there was one most sinister one, who defeated the main character. It was Death, who, after a verbal spat, took Petrushka with him. However, the hero was soon resurrected in another place. This circumstance became the reason that some researchers began to find a connection between Parsley and pagan deities, who endlessly died and were reborn here and there.
Puppet theaters in Moscow
Before the October Revolution, such permanent cultural institutions did not exist, and performances were staged by single artists on the streets or in booths, or they were invited to private homes to entertain guests. The first real puppet theaters in Moscow appeared in the early 1930s. The most famous of them eventually became the largest in the world. This is the theater. S. Obraztsova. It is located at: st. Sadovaya-Samotechnaya, 3. In addition, around the same time, the Moscow Puppet Theater appeared in the capital, originally created to popularize children's literature. He toured the country and introduced viewers to new works by Soviet authors, written specifically for the younger generation.
Later, other puppet theaters in Moscow appeared: “Albatross”, “Firebird”, “Fairytale”, “Chamber” and others. Here you can watch not only children's performances, but also productions specially created for adults.
To preserve the traditions of Russian street performances for children and adults, Andrei Shavel and artist Valentina Smirnova organized a new creative team. It was called the Russian folk theater "Petrushka" and debuted in 1989 in the city of Fresino.
The theater puts on 30-minute performances right on the street and tries not to deviate from the traditional scenarios of farcical performances.
The emergence of the Petrushka Theater is connected with the desire of its creators to preserve the best that was in the street mass art of past centuries.
Performances are also performed indoors. In such cases, the audience is also introduced to the history of Petrushka and the Russian farce theater. In their work, the actors use props that are exact copies of the screens and puppets that their predecessors had, who entertained the public on the streets of Russian cities 150-200 years ago.
Now you know how the Russian folk puppet theater arose. Parsley still arouses interest among children today, so be sure to take them to some show in a farce style.
In folk art he was also known puppet theater: marionette theater(in it the dolls were controlled using threads), Petrushka Theater with glove puppets (the puppets were put on the puppeteer’s fingers) and nativity scene(in it, the dolls were fixedly fixed on rods and moved along slots in the boxes).
The Parsley Theater was especially beloved by the people. In the 19th century, the Petrushka Theater was the most popular and widespread type of puppet theater in Russia. It consisted of a light folding screen, a box with several dolls (the number of characters usually ranges from 7 to 20), a barrel organ and small props (sticks or batons, rattles, rolling pins, etc.). The Parsley Theater did not know the scenery. The puppeteer, accompanied by a musician, usually an organ grinder, walked from courtyard to courtyard and gave traditional performances of Petrushka. He could always be seen during folk festivals and fairs. The main character was Petrushka, after whom the theater was named. This hero was also called Pyotr Ivanovich Uksusov, Pyotr Petrovich Samovarov, etc. It arose under the influence of the Italian puppet theater Pulcinello, with which Italians often performed in St. Petersburg and other cities.
Separate satirical scenes were presented at the Petrushka Theater. A.M. Gorky noted that “the invincible puppet hero defeated everyone and everything: priests, police, the devil and death. He himself remained immortal.” 1
This is how D.A. described it. Rovinsky's performance at the Petrushka Theater, which he witnessed:
“This comedy is played in Moscow, near Novinsky. [...] Its content is very simple: first Petrushka appears, lies all sorts of nonsense in verses, burring and nasal in his nose - the conversation is conducted through a typewriter placed to the roof of his mouth, above the tongue, just like that the same way as the French and Italians do. The Gypsy appears, offers Petrushka a horse, and Petrushka examines it, and receives kicks from the horse, first in the nose, then in the belly; the whole comedy is filled with kicks, they constitute the most significant and most ridiculous part for him. spectators. There is a bargain, - the Gypsy speaks without a typewriter, in a bass voice. After a long haggling, Petrushka buys a horse; the Gypsy sits down on his purchase; he throws off Petrushka and runs away, leaving him dead on the stage. Parsley and lamentations for the untimely death of a good fellow The Doctor comes:
Where does it hurt?
Right here!
And here?
It turns out that everything in Parsley hurts. But when the Doctor reaches a tender spot, Petrushka jumps up and hits him on the ear; The Doctor fights back, a fight begins, a stick appears from somewhere, with which Parsley finally calms the Doctor.
What kind of Doctor are you,” Parsley shouts to him, “if you ask where it hurts?” What did you study for? You should know where it hurts!
A few more minutes - Kvartalny, or, in puppet terms, “fatal officer” appears. Since there is a dead body on the stage, Petrushka is subjected to a strict interrogation (in treble):
Why did you kill the Doctor?
Answer (in the nose):
Because he doesn’t know his science well - he looks at what he’s wearing, doesn’t see it, and even asks him.
Word for word, it’s clear that Petrushka doesn’t like Fatalny’s interrogation. He seizes the old stick, and a fight ensues, which ends in the destruction and expulsion of Fatal, to the general delight of the spectators; This puppet protest against the police usually creates a real sensation among the public.
The play, it would seem, is over; but what to do with Parsley? And then a wooden poodle dog runs onto the stage, pasted over its tail and legs with scraps of whipped cotton wool, and begins to bark with all its might (the barking is made from husky at the bottom).
Little darling,” Petrushka caresses her, “let’s come live with me, I’ll feed you cat meat.”
But Shavochka, for no apparent reason, grabs Petrushka by the nose; Parsley to the side, she takes his hand, he takes it to the other, she grabs his nose again; Finally, Petrushka takes to a shameful flight. That's where the comedy ends. If there are a lot of spectators and Petrushkin’s matchmaker, i.e. the main comedian is given vodka, then after that a special interlude called Parsley's wedding. There is no plot in it, but there is a lot of action. Petrushka is brought his bride Varyusha; he examines her like a horse. Petrushka liked Varyushka very much, and he cannot bear to wait for the wedding, which is why he begins to beg her: “Sacrifice yourself, Varyushka!” Then the final scene occurs, in which the fair sex cannot be present. This is already the real and “very last end” of the performance; then Petrushka goes to the outside stage of the booth to lie all sorts of nonsense and invite the audience to a new performance.
In the intervals between the actions of the play, dances of two Arapok are usually presented, sometimes a whole interlude about a Lady who was bitten by a snake (Eve?); here, finally, two Pagliacci are shown playing with balls and a stick. The latter comes out extremely cleverly and funny by experienced puppeteers: the doll has no body, but only a fake simple skirt, to which an empty cardboard head is sewn on top, and arms, also empty, on the sides. The puppeteer sticks the index finger into the doll's head, and the first and third fingers into the hands; He usually puts a doll on each hand and thus acts with two dolls at once. During puppet comedy there is always a barrel organ, replacing the old classic bagpipes, harp and whistle; At the same time, the organ grinder serves as a “prompter,” i.e. enters into conversations with Petrushka, asks him questions and urges him to continue his lies without stopping." 2
Kuznetsova Oksana
This year I was interested in the topic of history of the origin of the Petrushka Theater. The Petrushka Theater is a folk puppet theater, but until the end of the 19th century the Petrushka Theater was not a theater specifically for children. About history of the Petrushka Theater You can learn a lot from literature and the Internet. Some information about this presented in the presentation of my publication. I was interested in the question about musical accompaniment of a puppet show, a little research work began (a trip to the regional library, a children's library, browsing Internet articles, studying literature on local history). This is exactly what my publication is about.
I was lucky to have three toys Parsley(Soviet edition, two toys shown in the photo, and I haven’t had time to fix the third one yet (many colleagues know from previous publications that I collect such dolls and restoring clothes).
Musical accompaniment of the Petrushka Theater.
Part of the majority theater performances« Parsley» there were songs and dances. The heroes of the comedy performed lyrical songs, dance songs, ditty couplets, cruel romances, and songs of literary origin. They danced Kamarinskaya, trepaka, "lady", polka, waltz, etc. For example, under "Kamarinskaya" Parsley dances with the bride, to the sounds of a waltz, a German appears. Played a big role in the comedy musical inserts. Dances and songs, hurdy-gurdy melodies were not just musical design of the performance, they were designed to set the audience in a cheerful, festive mood, create an additional comic effect through the contrasting relationship between melody and action, and serve as a characteristic of the characters.
Puppeteer was free to choose his repertoire, distribution it between the characters, in the intensity of the performance musical inserts. First of all, it depended on talent parsley, taste, ability to sing and knowledge of songs and dances, from his ability "feel" the public. However, there were still some limitations and patterns. Firstly, songs and melodies that were popular in the given environment were selected. This was done not only because the performances were designed for the widest, grassroots circle of spectators, but something else is no less important. Due to their specificity, folk puppet shows cannot go on for long and require frequent changes of episodes and rapid action. Therefore, the heroes of such a performance, as a rule, do not sing entire songs and do not dance for a long time, otherwise this will disrupt the tempo and will certainly affect the quality submissions. The verse and the initial lines of the song are sung, the first bars of the melody are played, sung or whistled, and, since well-known works are used, the audience themselves instantly restores the whole and tunes into the mood needed at the moment. In addition, often song- musical the insertion creates a comic effect by parodying some work, and the degree of comedy largely depends on the popularity of the thing being parodied. Often the audience laughs accompanies the song is performed because its content is sharply opposed to the actions of the heroes. Parsley climbs onto the horse with difficulty, sits backwards, comically grabs the tail or mane so as not to fall, and begins to sing a dashing coachman’s song, “I will harness three dark brown greyhounds”. The lines of the romance sound no less contrasting and funny “Don’t leave, my darling, don’t leave your dear fields.”, performed Parsley immediately after how he uses a stick to beat and drive away a blackamoor.
To work with children in kindergarten, I selected Russian folk tunes, dance songs, nursery rhymes and songs. In modern conditions Parsley acts not as a rude person and a deceiver, but as someone who needs to be taught good manners and correct behavior.
Publications on the topic:
Fairy tales: “Zayushkina’s hut”, “Rukavichka” and a New Year’s tale about carols. The puppet theater is very popular with children, and always when it is announced.
Theater is a magical world. He gives lessons in beauty, morality and ethics. And the richer they are, the more successful is the development of the spiritual world of children...”
Methodological development of the puppet show “The Tale of Gray Baikal” fairy tale of Gray Baikal. Based on the Buryat folk tale "The Magic Chest" PREFACE: Based on a theatrical puppet show.
Scenario for a puppet theater based on the fairy tale by K. I. Chukovsky “Fedorino Grief” Scenario for a puppet theater based on the fairy tale by K.I. Chukovsky “Fedorino’s grief” (Fedora can barely walk) I would wash the dishes, But I can’t lift my hands.