18th century theater
European theater of the 18th century. was first and foremost a theater of actors. He was at the mercy of individual performers. Many playwrights created their works for their specific talents. Often the actors themselves remade classics to suit their own tastes and express individual style execution. Shakespeare's plays were especially often changed, while trying to please not only the tastes of the actors, but also to correspond to the classical ideals of justice and goodness. Sometimes this led to funny things. "King Lear", "Romeo and Juliet", for example, were given happy endings. But the reaction against neoclassicism gradually increased, due in large part to the emergence of the middle class. Playwrights such as Lessing, Marivaux, Lillo wrote “average” dramas, i.e. depicted lower, middle class characters in more or less realistic and simplified situations in which perfection invariably triumphed. These plays were known as different names: internal drama, tearful comedy, sentimental drama. In writing and production, there was an increasing emphasis on realistic detail and historical accuracy, although these elements were not used with full consistency until late XIX century.
Romanticism.
At the end of the 18th century. some philosophical ideas that stood in obvious or hidden opposition to classicism began to actively develop and, ultimately, were expressed in the beginning XIX century, in a movement known as romanticism. In its purest form, Romanticism focused on the spiritual world of man. It was the expression of a certain desire to exceed limitations physical world and the body (finite), in search of the ideal truth (infinite). Perhaps one of best examples romantic drama - “Faust” by Goethe (1808-1832). Based on the classic legend of a man who sells his soul to the devil, this play of epic proportions depicts humanity's attempt to master all knowledge and power in a constant struggle with the universe. Romanticism, based and focused on emotion, as opposed to rationalism, did not describe objects of study of the real world, but rather an ideal and glorified the idea of the artist as a mad genius, unfettered by any rules. Romanticism thus gave rise to a vast variety of dramatic literature and productions in which the presentation of substantive ideas was replaced by emotional manipulation. Romantics tried to contrast the prosaic everyday life of bourgeois modernity with a world of adventure, bright and bizarre images.
The largest romantic playwrights in France were V. Hugo, Dumas the Father, and P. Merimee. They tried to create a new type of drama (see Hugo's preface to Cromwell) of an epic nature, but excessive passion for politics and a lack of stage presence did not allow this idea to come true. An important place in theoretical terms is occupied by the theory of the romantic grotesque, which was understood not as an exaggeration, but as a combination of opposite, sometimes mutually exclusive parties reality. For many romantics, Shakespeare was the example of such a connection. In addition, romantic drama is characterized by a complicated composition, fabulousness and symbolism of images, social types and naturalistic scenes.
One of the most striking phenomena in history European romanticism there was the work of German romantic playwrights: L. Tieck, G. Kleist, G. Buchner and K. Gutzkow. In their work they embodied the main tendency of romanticism - to move away from the vulgarity and prose of life into the world of fantasy and fabulousness. In the play "Puss in Boots" Tick used the technique of "theater within a theater", when the stage is both a "stage" and an "auditorium". On the “stage” there is an emphatically “theatrical” performance (the tale of Puss in Boots), and the “audience” (i.e. actors) are in the “ auditorium" constantly interferes with the course of the play. This technique (“theater within a theater”) will receive its maximum development in the twentieth century and will be called “metatheater.” Romanticism dominated the first quarter of the XIX in most theaters in Europe. Many of the ideas and methods of Romanticism manifested themselves in the German Sturm und Drang movement led by Goethean F. Schiller.
Melodrama.
The same forces that led to romanticism also led, in combination with various popular forms, to the development of melodrama, most widespread dramatic genre in the 19th century. Melodrama concentrated what literature rejected and what was despised by most critics. What kind of epithets did she deserve: “illegitimate daughter of Melpomene” (Geoffroy); “a parody form of classic tragedy” (Pavi), etc. Melodrama generally mocked or ignored this attitude towards her. Yet, melodrama is undoubtedly the most popular theatrical form that has ever existed. The term "melodrama" has two meanings: a mixture of tragedy and comedy (mixed drama), and drama accompanied by music. The music and characters in melodrama are identified with the audience's themes and emotions, and are driven by them through the music.
The leading playwright of this form was the German playwright Kotzebue, the most popular playwright in theater XIX centuries. Many of his more than 200 plays have been translated, in fact every Western country. Melodramas - usually consisted of three acts instead of the classic five; the intrigue was built around the conflict between a virtuous protagonist and an obvious villain; the hero overcame a number of apparently insurmountable difficulties before triumphing in victory; conspiracies are often invented and reduced to a series of climaxes; Main events often include exciting elements such as floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, battles, etc. In melodrama, the universal nature of the conflict, combined with bourgeois values, strives to evoke “social catharsis” in the viewer. The combination of simple intrigue, clearly defined characters, strong emotions, spectacle and morality makes melodrama extremely popular, having perhaps the largest audience in the history of the theater.
Bourgeois drama.
After the first quarter of the 19th century, melodrama and romantic drama tended to be somewhat exotic, focusing on historical or extraordinary events. They sought to simplify or idealize real life, which naturally was not an accurate reflection of it. In the 1830s. begins to show interest in the image modern life and serious thematic issues. The emphasis was moved from spectacle and sensation to the depiction of private, external and internal life details. This required new methods of organizing stage space, many of which formed the basis of modern stagecraft. The “box” set is firmly in fashion: a setup depicting three walls of a room with the implication that the audience is viewing through an imaginary fourth wall. Three-dimensional furniture replaced the painted backdrops used previously. Because this new scenography was no longer a mere background. In it, the performers acted as if they were in a real environment and were unaware of the audience's presence. The actors created realistic actions that suited the characters and the situation. The focus was on precision and consistency in costume and acting. All this naturally required the emergence of a new dramaturgy, in which playwrights would pay higher value more realistic details than before.
A well-made piece (piece bien faite).
The French equivalent of bourgeois drama was the so-called "well-made play", a form invented and popularized by E. Scribe. It was continued by his follower V. Sardou. Like melodrama, a well-made play has a clear formula, or structure. Specific Features each play changed, but the structure or scheme of intrigue remained basically the same: virtuoso intrigue, perfect construction of action through a series of closed scenes, continuously developing towards climax. The basic principles of a “well-made play” include continuous and sequential development of action. This action must have a series of ups and downs. The technique of surprise, a chain of misunderstandings, unexpected endings, and moments of tense anticipation are also actively used. All these elements are necessary to keep the audience's attention at all times. The compositional structure in these plays is carried out according to strict rules (it is the strictness of the rules that ensures good “doneness”). Namely: in beginning the development of the action and its follow-up are planned denouement; in each act the action develops progressively; climax takes place in the central scene; here via reasoner The author expresses his opinion about what is happening. The main requirements are non-problematic and plausible. "A Well Made Play" can be considered the completion of the dramatic technique of classicism. In addition to Scribe, Sardou and Ibsen wrote in this genre.
Naturalism.
By the middle of the 19th century, interest in realistic detail, psychological manifestation of characters, total reproduction of reality, passion for showing social problems in society - led to naturalism in theater and drama. Playwrights and actors, according to naturalists, should, like scientists, objectively observe and depict real world. In accordance with the theories of Charles Darwin, many believed that heredity and environment- to be at the root of all human action and that drama should illustrate this. The romantic struggle for spiritual values was abandoned. The result was a drama that focused more on the underbelly of society than on the beautiful or ideal. Naturalism is an artistic method based on the philosophy and aesthetics of positivism. It claims to tell the truth about the “whole” person, so theatrical performance presented as reality itself, and not as an artistic reflection.
The theater at that time lagged behind literature, and although E. Zolyan wrote the article “Naturalism in the Theater” (1881), and T. Requin staged the first naturalistic play in 1873, the theater nevertheless did not turn to the Naturalistic movement until Antoine founded the Free Theater. New theater He demanded not only truthfulness and plausibility in the writing of the play, but also in the acting and scenography. The actors were required not to pay attention to the audience, to act and speak as if they were at home. The actors began to turn their backs to the audience and from this style of acting, the concept of the “fourth wall” appeared, separating the stage from the audience. Behind this wall, invisible to the audience but impenetrable to the actor, they played as authentically as possible. Antoine even hung animal carcasses across the stage in The Butcher. Although he committed himself to being consistently naturalistic, subsequently much of his ball repertoire was not naturalistic and from the descriptions of several Free Theater performances we see that he experimented with light, and the lighting effects created real conditions and the atmosphere of reality. This marks a movement from naturalism to realism.
Zola, the philosopher of this movement, deplored the fact that the Naturalist theater began by creating an external image of the world instead of concentrating on inner world character. Strindberg showed that a few carefully chosen props can reveal an entire room. With the ideas of Antoine and Strindberg came the time for slamming canvas doors and painted kitchen cabinets on the wall. The time had come for detailed and naturalistic action that took place on painted stages. The new theater model in France was imitated by the German and English theater of the same period.
Boulevard theaters.
Along with serious, literary drama, there were, of course, popular forms in the boulevard theaters of Paris. Their audience consisted mainly of the petty and middle bourgeoisie. The repertoire was colorful and varied. Most of the plays had the character of emphatic entertainment - a mixture of music, dance, and circus. The short ones dominated the stage comic plays, reviews, pantomimes, vaudeville, melodramas, extravaganzas, acrobatic performances. They also staged plays by Dumas, Ogier, and others.
Symbolist drama.
Symbolism developed from a general opposition to the philosophy inherent in naturalism. Symbolists sought intuitive and spiritual forms of knowledge, which were seen as superior to what science provides. If Naturalism preached the materialistic values of society from the standpoint of criticism and reform, then Symbolism rejected them together. In their manifesto of 1886, the Symbolists argued that subjectivity, spirituality and secret internal forces represent highest forms truth than an objective study of the external world. The Belgian Maurice Maeterlinck, the most famous playwright of Symbolism, said that, in his opinion, an old man sitting on a chair in silence is more dramatic and closer to life than a lover who strangles his beloved out of jealousy. The symbolists considered Wagner and late plays Ibsen. They were also influenced by the poets Mallarmée and Baudelaire. The latter’s poem “Correspondence,” which equally reflects sound, color, and music, was perceived as the first manifesto of the Symbolism movement. Gauguin's expressive creations also influenced this movement.
Play texts abounded symbolic images, not always easy to understand, and sometimes quite indecent. The general mood of the plays was mysterious and fabulous. The intention was to evoke an unconscious response rather than an intellectual response and to portray the non-rational aspects of human characters and life events. Maeterlinck's plays by Paul Claudel were extremely popular in the 1890s and early twentieth century.
The first theater of Symbolism was the Theater d'Art, founded by the French poet Paul Fort in 1890. He was considered a strong poet, but never wrote anything brilliant for the stage. In his play “The Girl with the Cut-off” Hands, staged by the Frenchman Pierre Quillard in 1891, the actors intoned their text behind a gauze curtain; they were dressed in gold clothes framed with red ribbons. In front of the curtain, a girl in a long blue tunic repeated the text of the actors and commented on their feelings. a production in which the performance of the actors was entirely dependent on the ideas of the director, and not on the traditions and text of the play. The image of a girl with severed hands was implied in the play visually, but was not present in the performance as such. This poetic vision was not considered in the play in a specific context.
The dialectic of conflict in symbolist drama unfolded on stage and moved into the hall. However, if the production expected that the attacks on the viewer would be more severe than usual, then the distance between the stage and the audience was reduced. Gradually, attempts were made to combine stage and audience into a single, unified space, or to adapt existing space, in order to break the barrier imposed by the proscenium arch. Explicit symbolist elements can be found in Chekhov's plays, latest works Ibsen and Strindberg. Symbolist influence is also evident in the works of later playwrights such as Eugene O'Neill and Tennessee Williams, Harold Pinter and many others.
A huge influence on the development of aesthetic thought of their time was exerted by N. G. Chernyshevsky (1828-- 1889) and N. A. Dobrolyubov (1836-- 1861), who continued the traditions of Belinsky, establishing the “Gogolian direction” in Russian literature, which was called "critical".
Dobrolyubov considered Ostrovsky the only truly folk playwright who continued the critical direction of Russian literature, to whose work he dedicated two articles - “The Dark Kingdom” (1859) and “A Ray of Light in dark kingdom"(1860), where he analyzed Ostrovsky's dramaturgy from the point of view of its social content. The critic saw in her “a deep understanding of Russian life and a great ability to depict sharply and vividly its most significant aspects,” and considered Ostrovsky to be the direct heir and successor of Gogol.
The revolutionary democrat M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin (1826-1889), who acted as a prose writer, publicist, literary and theater critic and playwright, also had a serious influence on the theater of his time. In his articles and works of art, he defended social and educational role art, developing the principles of critical realism; connected the analysis of a work of art with socio-political problems of life.
The author of the satirical “Provincial Sketches,” “The History of a City,” “Pompadours and Pompadours,” and the novel “Gentlemen Golovlevs,” Saltykov-Shchedrin admitted: “I have never had any special affection or great confidence in the stage.” Nevertheless, he became the author of several dramatic works.
“The Death of Pazukhin” (1857) is the most significant of them. The author worked on it for a long time, changing the names. According to the censor, the play shows “the complete moral decay of society.” In its center are the merchants Ivan Pazukhin and his son Prokofy, their images reflect the process of transformation of the old Russian merchants into modern Europeanized ones business people. The characters inhabiting the play are a society of morally degraded people: retired general Lobastov, who seeks to marry his daughter to the younger Pnzukhin; state councilor Furnachev, whose career began with the fact that he robbed his own mother, stealing money from a chest after his father’s death, “so that his mother would have no inheritance after him”; retired lieutenant Zhivnovsky, living in Pazukhin’s house, expelled from the regiment for cheating, but never tired of talking about virtue. Women who are obsessed with one desire - to make money - are no better.
The play saw the light of the stage only thirty years after it was written. The same fate awaited another play by Saltykov-Shchedrin - “Shadows”, which was not published at all in the 19th century.
In “Shadows,” the playwright directed the edge of his satire at the bureaucratic world. The play shows officials of different ranks, from the executor Svistikov to the minister Prince Tarakanov, who himself does not appear on stage, but invisibly participates in all events. What these people have in common is that they are “not so much... scoundrels (God forbid)... but... prudent people!” Instead of Tarakanov, who has fallen into insanity, Klara is practically the mistress of the ministry, profitably trading in “lucrative places.” Taking advantage of the naive gullibility of the official Bobyrev, who suffered in the provinces for “dissenting opinions,” the director of the department, Klaverov, involves him in his machinations, but does it so sophisticatedly that Bobyrev does not immediately understand what he is participating in. And having understood, first, while drunk, he calls Klaverov a scoundrel, and when he sobers up, he writes a letter of repentance. Dirty deeds are covered up with the noble pathos of speeches. The only aspiration of everyone is to climb the career ladder, by any means.
Chernyshevsky highly valued the work of Saltykov-Shchedrin.
One of the major figures in dramaturgy of the second half of the 19th century is A. V. Sukhovo-Kobylin (1817-1903), author of three plays: “Krechinsky’s Wedding”, “The Affair” and “The Death of Tarelkin”. The original of the first edition contains the subtitle: “Wrote from life by Sukhovo-Kobylin.” However, any real fact, taken as the basis of the plot, was generalized by the playwright to the scale of a typical phenomenon, and the social acuity of the image increased from play to play.
Sukhovo-Kobylin began writing “Krechinsky’s Wedding” in his youth, but finished it only in 1854 in a Tula prison, where he ended up on suspicion of murdering his common-law wife Louise Simon-Dimanche. “Krechinsky’s Wedding” is the story of a gambler and adventurer who decided to improve his financial difficulties by marrying a rich bride, Lidochka Muromskaya. An educated, intelligent, certainly talented man, Krechinsky accurately and prudently builds a multi-step combination, as a result of which he will be the owner of a huge dowry. It costs Krechinsky nothing to seduce the provincial Lidochka and her narrow-minded aunt Atueva. He also overcomes old man Muromsky. The case, however, still breaks down because of a trifle at first glance, but, in essence, the whole life of the player is in this trifle. The structure built on deception collapsed. A strong rogue is defeated by an even stronger one. Not the naively honest and ordinary Nelkin, but the powerful moneylender Beck.
The clash of the Muromskys with the Krechinskys is a clash of the patriarchal nobility with the latest adventurism, a clash of pressure, energy, ingenuity with powerlessness and inability to defend themselves. In this fight, the talented and passionate Krechinsky evokes sympathy not only because he has intelligence and passion, but also because he values not the money itself, but only the opportunity to play a big game with it. This figure is typical and at the same time unique. The author created the image of a truly extraordinary person, whose abilities are put to pitiful use in this society. This is the drama of Krechinsky.
In the play there is an image of another player in whom there is neither Krechinsky’s talent, nor his scale, nor his courage - this is Rasplyuev. An insignificant and cowardly person, he is also a product of this society and its victim.
There are no winners in the struggle that is waged in the play. The exposed Krechinsky is erased from life, and Muromsky, saved from his adventure, begins a painful journey in search of justice, which forms the content of Sukhovo-Kobylin’s second play, “The Case” (1861), where the action is transferred to the environment of officials.
The basis of the actual content of the play was the “case” of the writer himself, on own experience who learned what a terrible mechanism for destroying a person and his dignity is the machine of Russian legal proceedings. The degree of generalization can be judged from the list characters, which are divided into five categories: “Superiors”, “Strengths”, “Subordination”, “Nobodies, or Private Individuals” and one character, the serf Tishka, is placed in a separate section called “Not a Person”. The ordeal of Muromsky, who belongs to the category of “nobodies,” constitutes the content of the play, the action of which takes place “in the halls and apartments of whatever department,” personifying the entire bureaucratic apparatus of Russia. Climbing the steps of the departmental ladder from the very bottom to the very top, moving from one official to another, Muromsky everywhere encounters indifference to human fate and arbitrariness.
“Krechinsky’s Wedding,” for all its accusatory power, belonged to the genre of everyday comedy; in “The Case,” the author already resorts to the techniques of satirical grotesque, especially in the characterization of Varravin, who either disappears under a pile of papers, then, talking about the truth, “turns around and looks for the truth.” " Aphoristic language, where literally every phrase has multiple meanings; images in which automatism prevails over natural human feelings; the opposition of two spheres of action - the Muromsky house and the department, not only in essence, but also in the nature of their depiction - all this makes the works of Sukhovo-Kobylin outstanding in the dramaturgy of their time.
The satirical style is even sharper in “The Death of the Plate on” (1869), where, based on the material of the same “case,” the author creates a picture of a police investigation, mockingly defining it as a “comedy-joke.”
Of the three plays, only “Krechinsky’s Wedding” saw the light of the stage immediately after writing - on November 26, 1855, it was shown at the Maly Theater and since then has firmly entered the repertoire of the Russian stage.
The difficult political situation in the country has aroused interest in the past in search of analogues to explain modern processes.
The most significant works in historical genre created by Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy (1817-1875), prose writer, poet, satirist, one of the authors who wrote under the pseudonym Kozma Prutkov. His trilogy—“The Death of Ivan the Terrible” (1864), “Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich” (1868) and “Tsar Boris” (1870)—is interesting because the author reinterprets historical figures, although he treats history quite freely, idealizing Russian antiquity, especially the boyars of the pre-Moscow period. This position in relation to history was fundamental for the author; he considered the poet’s main task to show “human truth,” and “ historical truth he is not connected." In Tolstoy's works you combine documentaryism with fiction, not only in figures born of fantasy, but also in those who really existed. For example, in the character of Fyodor Ioannovich, what was important to the playwright was not his historical inconsistency, but the tragedy of a personality endowed with high moral qualities, conscience, kindness, faced with a cruel and immoral world, where these qualities cannot be demonstrated. Treating the theme of man and power, the playwright pays main attention to psychology, internal processes, contradictions both in the person himself and between him and the circumstances, between his personal properties and the mission of the autocrat. Tolstoy interprets the images of the three monarchs as tragic images, emphasizing their historical doom.
With reservations, only “The Death of Ivan the Terrible” was allowed on stage. For thirty years, his “Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich” did not see the light of the stage, since, according to the censorship committee, “the spectacle of the feeblemindedness and helpless weakness of the crown bearer can produce a stunning and unfavorable impression.”
The most important event in the dramatic art of the end of the century was the arrival of Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy (1828-1910) at the theater.
The great writer’s relationship with the theater was complicated. At the beginning of its creative activity He showed great interest in the performing arts, he himself participated in amateur productions and even conceived several plays that remained in sketches. In the late 1850s, Tolstoy was fascinated by the work of Ostrovsky, whom he called “a gensad dramatic writer.” Two of his completed works for the stage date back to the 1860s: “The Infected Family” and “The Nihilist.” Both plays did not make it to the professional stage.
Then Tolstoy made a twenty-year pause in his dramatic activity, during which, more than once, both in artistic and journalistic works, he turned to the theater, which outraged him with its “unnaturalness.” Modern scene he considered it “empty fun for idle people,” although he respected the creativity of individual actors and actively helped create folk theater.
In the mid-1880s, Tolstoy again turned to drama and wrote two plays at once. It was a period of heightened moral quest a writer who broke with his class and took the position of the patriarchal peasantry. He chose the most objective literary genre, to “say something important for people, about man’s relationship to God, to the world, to everything eternal, infinite.”
Having become acquainted with farcical performances during a folk festival, Tolstoy told V.S. Serova: “You know, I felt ashamed and hurt, looking at all this disgrace. Immediately I promised myself to process some little thing for a stage folk performance.” And indeed, in 1886, the writer remade the story “How the Little Devil Redeemed a Crumb” into the comedy “The First Distiller, or How the Little Devil Earned a Crumb,” strengthening the critical motives, introducing new characters and expanding some phrases into entire scenes. The play was performed by the farce theater of a porcelain factory located near St. Petersburg, but soon after the first performance it was banned by censorship.
The Power of Darkness (1886) was also initially intended for the folk theater. The play was written based on a true incident, the material of which was introduced to Tolstoy by the prosecutor of the Tula District Court N.V. Davydov back in 1880. Tolstoy began direct work on the play only six years later, and he wrote it very quickly, although he later reworked it many times, creating seven editions and changing the original title “The claw is stuck - the whole bird is lost.”
“The Power of Darkness” is a folk drama about a remote village, which is being invaded by new bourgeois relations; money is destroying the old patriarchal way of life, the old patriarchal morality. New social relations give birth to a new morality. Multiplied by peasant darkness, it leads to terrible results: to a whole series of crimes - murder, theft, cruelty, meanness, debauchery. Crimes are becoming commonplace. Matryona, inviting Anisya to poison her sick husband, wishes the young woman and her son well - the death of Peter will free Anisya, make her rich and give her the opportunity to marry Nikita. Nikita, having married Anisya for the sake of money, goes on a rampage, carousing with his mistress in front of his wife. Having adopted a child with Akulina, he kills him. In Nikita’s soul there is a terrible struggle between the morality originally nurtured in him and the corrupting, evil power of money. He commits each new crime under the pressure of circumstances forcing him to pay dearly for his sins. In the end, he cannot stand it and first wants to hang himself, and then publicly repents of his atrocities, thereby purifying his soul.
The images of Akim and Mitrich are of fundamental importance in the play. Nikita's father Akim is an exponent of the author's position, the worldview of the patriarchal peasantry with its conscientiousness and high morality. Mitrich, an experienced soldier, shocked by the cruelty of what was happening, personifies peasant morality, which is basically morally healthy.
Published in 1886 in “Works of Gr. L.N. Tolstoy,” the play was enthusiastically received by his contemporaries. I. E. Repin wrote to Tolstoy: “Yesterday I read your new drama with V. G. Chertkov. This is such an amazing truth, such a merciless power of life reproduction.” “I haven’t read anything like this for many, many years,” V.V. Stasov wrote to the author. M. G. Savina took the play for a benefit performance and they have already begun rehearsing it at the Alexandrinsky Theater. However, at the request of the Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod, K. Pobedonostsev, “The Power of Darkness” was banned, and the Tsar ordered the Minister of Internal Affairs to “put an end to this disgrace” of Tolstoy, in his words, “a nihilist and an atheist.”
In 1890, the play was performed by amateurs in the Priselkovs' house in Tsarskoe Selo. The play was staged by an actor Alexandria Theater V. N. Davydov. “The power of darkness* spread widely throughout Europe, and in 1895, when the censorship ban was asleep, it appeared in the imperial theaters, then in the provinces.
In 1886, Tolstoy began work on “The Fruits of Enlightenment,” but, busy with “The Power of Darkness,” he put the comedy aside and returned to it three years later, when a play was needed for a home performance in Yasnaya Polyana. Work to improve the play continued after the performance was performed. Tolstoy made eight editions, changed the title several times - “Spirits”, “Cunned”, “Cunned, or the Fruits of Enlightenment”, finally, simply “Fruits of Enlightenment. The final edition was ready in 1890.
The impetus for writing the play was given to Tolstoy by a spiritualistic seance in one house, but from a private case the writer created an incriminating picture of the morals of noble society, depicting an empty, meaningless life filled with spiritualistic seances, mediums, charades, worries about “gustops dogs”, from which one can really “ go crazy." Tolstoy paints this life evilly, sharply, ridiculing empty gravitas and self-confidence. It’s as if he sees life through the eyes of three men who came to buy land from Zvezdintsev in installments, because their own land is “small, not like cattle, let’s say, there’s nowhere to let it go,” as one of the men says. All three look at the life of the masters with amazement, and only the quick-witted maid Tanya turns the stupidity of the owners in favor of her fellow countrymen, suggesting the necessary solution during a spiritualistic session.
The two groups of characters also conflict stylistically in the play: sharply satirical portraits of nobles and pseudo-scientists are contrasted with authentically and sympathetically written images of men and servants.
In 1891, “The Fruits of Enlightenment” was allowed to be staged on the imperial stage and staged at the Alexandrinsky Theater, where V. N. Davydov superbly played the third man.
But shortly before this, the play was staged by the Society of Arts and Letters. The premiere took place in February 1891 and was significant for what it became. the first directorial work of K. S. Stanislavsky!
Tolstoy's next play, The Living Corpse, appeared only ten years after The Fruits of Enlightenment - in 1900.
The plan for the play, entitled “Corpse,” was written in a diary back in 1897, but the immediate impetus for the implementation of this plan was Chekhov’s play “Uncle Vanya,” which Tolstoy, after watching on stage, actively did not accept (“he was indignant,” but his own admission).
The writer again based the plot on a real case - the court case of the Gimer spouses, which was told about by the same Davydov. And as in the first two cases, a private “affair” developed under the pen of a great writer into a wonderful work of art, which reveals the complex process of Fedya Protasov’s break with his family, with his environment in the desire for freedom from the falseness of family relationships. It is this feeling of falsehood that is the gap between Fedya and other representatives of his society - Liza, Karenin. This contradiction of natural human feelings, spiritual and emotional emancipation, on the one hand, and artificial convention, form that has become content, on the other, determines the movement of the play. Moreover, Tolstoy in no way compromises either Lisa, Victor, or their entourage. On the contrary, he completely removes the motive of guilt from Lisa: if Gimer staged suicide at the request of his wife and carried out her plan, then both Lisa and Karenin are shown as impeccably decent, pure and noble people. But this only aggravates Fedya’s conflict with society and makes him feel acutely guilty towards Lisa. This conflict, Tolstoy emphasizes, is not with individuals, but with the laws of society, which is based on false morality, protects the form, ignoring the essence, protects lies and “dirtyness.” Fedya Protasov, even degraded, “dead,” evokes the writer’s sympathy with his conscientiousness and high morality, which precisely consists in living “according to conscience” and not according to form. And if Fedya first applies this formula primarily to himself, then the further the action develops, the wider it spreads to the whole society. Protasov’s monologue with the investigator brings the psychological drama into open journalism, the author speaks in Fedya’s voice, denouncing, branding the world with which his hero tried in vain to get along. It is impossible to come to an agreement with this world, it is difficult to deceive it, you can only leave it in death.
“The Living Corpse” violates the traditional composition - its action flows continuously, flowing from episode to episode (there were supposed to be fifteen of them, but twelve were written, the play remained unfinished).
Russian drama has gone through a difficult and long haul development. The first plays appear at the end of the 17th - beginning of the 18th centuries; they are based on ancient rituals and games, oral folk drama. To the most famous and popular works folk drama include “Tsar Maximilian”, “Boat”, which reflected the campaigns of Stepan Razin and Ermak; folk drama-farce “About the governor-boyar”; puppet comedy about Petrushka. At this time, the so-called school drama arises in Ukraine and Belarus. Borrowing themes from church rituals, she affirmed the ideas of a centralized monarchy that were progressive at that time.
Scene from the play “Wolves and Sheep” by A. N. Ostrovsky in Moscow drama theater named after K. S. Stanislavsky.
A scene from the play “The Inspector General” by N.V. Gogol at the Moscow Satire Theater. 1985
A new stage in the development of Russian drama occurred in the 30-40s. XVIII century, the era of the dominance of classicism. The largest representatives of this trend were A.P. Sumarokov (1717-1777) and M.V. Lomonosov (1711-1765). The dramaturgy of classicism preached high civic ideals. The heroes of the classicist tragedy placed love for the Motherland and service to duty above all else. In Sumarokov’s tragedies “Khorev”, “Sinav and Truvor” and others, the theme of denunciation of tyranny and despotism was heard. Russian classicist dramaturgy is largely based, both in theory and in practice, on the experience of Western European culture. It is no coincidence that Sumarokov, whose plays became the basis of the repertoire of Russian theater in the mid-18th century, was called “the northern Racine.” In addition, by exposing the vices of the “lower classes,” bribe-taking officials, and noble landowners who violated their civic duty, Sumarokov took the first steps toward creating a satirical comedy.
The most significant phenomenon in dramaturgy of the second half of the XVIII V. became the comedies of D. I. Fonvizin (1745-1792) “The Brigadier” and “The Minor”. Enlightenment realism is the basis artistic method Fonvizina. In his works, he denounces not individual vices of society, but the entire political system based on serfdom. The arbitrariness of autocratic power gave rise to lawlessness, greed and corruption of the bureaucracy, despotism, ignorance of the nobility, and the misfortunes of the people, who were suppressed by the “burden of cruel slavery.” Fonvizin's satire was evil and merciless. M. Gorky noted his enormous importance as the founder of the “accusatory realistic line” of Russian literature. In terms of the strength of satirical indignation, next to Fonvizin’s comedies one can place “The Yabed” (1798) by V. V. Kapnist, exposing bureaucratic arbitrariness and corruption of officials, and I. A. Krylov’s joke-tragedy “Podschipa” (“Trumph”, 1800), ridiculing courtyard of Paul I. The traditions of Fonvizin and Kapnist found their way further development in the dramaturgy of A. S. Griboedov, N. V. Gogol, A. V. Sukhovo-Kobylin, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, A. N. Ostrovsky.
First quarter of the 19th century - complex and rich in the struggle of various artistic movements period in the history of Russian theater. This is the time of overcoming the canons of classicism, the emergence of new directions - sentimentalism, pre-romanticism and realism. The process of democratization of the entire Russian theater begins. During Napoleonic wars and the birth of Decembrism special meaning acquires a heroic-patriotic theme. Love for the Fatherland, the struggle for independence are the leading themes of the dramatic works of V. A. Ozerov (1769-1816).
For the first time decades XIX V. The genre of vaudeville, a small secular comedy, is gaining great popularity. Its founders were A. A. Shakhovskoy, N. I. Khmelnitsky, M. N. Zagoskin, A. I. Pisarev, A. S. Griboyedov. In their plays, written lightly, lively literary language, with witty couplets, there were vividly noticed features of modern morals and characters. These features, which to a certain extent bring vaudeville closer to everyday comedy, will become defining in the work of such vaudeville playwrights as D. T. Lensky, P. A. Karatygin, F. A. Koni and others.
The leading role in the history of Russian drama belongs to A. S. Pushkin and A. S. Griboyedov. They created the first realistic dramas. Pushkin's dramaturgy and his theoretical statements substantiate the principles of nationality and realism in Russian drama. In the comedy “Woe from Wit” by A. S. Griboyedov, its close connection with the liberation movement in Russia can be traced. It realistically depicts the struggle between two eras - the “present century” and the “past century.”
By the 30s. refers to the appearance of early plays by M. Yu. Lermontov - “The Spaniards”, “People and Passions”, “ Strange man" Lermontov is the most major representative revolutionary romantic drama in Russian literature. His “Masquerade” is the pinnacle of romantic tragedy of the first half of the 19th century. The theme of the fate of a high, proud mind, not reconciled with hypocrisy and hypocrisy, begun by Griboedov, finds a tragic conclusion in Lermontov’s drama. The plays of Pushkin and Lermontov were banned from production by the tsarist censorship. On the Russian stage of the 30-40s. There were dramas by N.V. Kukolnik and N.A. Polevoy, glorifying the wisdom and greatness of monarchical power. Saturated with false pathos and melodramatic effects, they did not remain in the theater repertoire for long.
The path of L.N. Andreev (1871-1919) was complex and contradictory. In his plays “To the Stars” (1906), “Sava” (1906), “Tsar Famine” (1908), the theme of rejection of the world of capital is heard, but at the same time the playwright does not believe in the creative power of the rebellious people, his rebellion is anarchic. The theme of man's powerlessness and doom is heard in the drama “A Man's Life” (1907). It is imbued with godless motives and protest against an unjust and cruel world. philosophical drama"Anatema" (1909).
Into this difficult time In the crisis of consciousness of a certain part of the Russian intelligentsia, Gorky’s plays “The Last” (1908) and “Vassa Zheleznova” (first version, 1910) appeared. They oppose pessimistic, decadent sentiments and speak of the doom and degeneration of the bourgeoisie.
Throughout its entire development, Russian drama has been an expression of the growth of self-awareness and spiritual power of the people. It has become a significant phenomenon in world theatrical culture and rightfully took an honorable place in the world theater.
The origin of Russian drama can be attributed not so much to the productions of the court theater under Alexei Mikhailovich (1672-1676), because they were essentially dramatizations of Scripture as much as school drama. Its founder is considered to be the scholar-monk Simeon of Polotsk, who wrote plays based on Biblical stories.
Russian drama began to actively develop in XVIII century and largely followed European drama. The first representative of Russian classicism was A.P. Sumarokov, who played a major role in the formation and development of the Russian theater. Sumarokov's tragedies were written mainly in historical topics. In them, the main characters were more likely carriers of certain ideas than specific historical characters. Contrary to classicism, instead of telling stories about the events happening behind the scenes, he introduces them directly. It also introduces interact curtains and sound effects. Speech tends to be closer to conversational. However, his orientation towards the laws of classicism and, in particular, towards the work of Moliere, is quite noticeable. The pinnacle of the development of classicist drama was the work of D.I. Fonvizina. On the other hand, he can be considered the founder of a new direction in Russian theater - critical realism. He did not contribute anything significant to the technology of drama, but for the first time he showed a reliable picture of Russian life, and it is on this that, in the future, the national artistic method will be based.
In the second half of the 18th century. The comedy genre is widely developed. Playwrights Ya.B. Knyazhnin, V.V. Kapnist, I.A. Krylov are developing a new direction - a satirical comedy in which they criticize noble society and its vices. N.N. Nikolev and Ya.B. The princesses create a “political tragedy.” At the same time, “tearful comedy” and “philistine drama” appeared, representing a new direction on the Russian stage - sentimentalism. Prominent representatives of this trend were V.I. Lukin and M.M. Kheraskov. Significant place in the repertoire of the Russian theater in the early 70s. XVIII ranks comic opera. It is not like opera performances; in essence, it was a drama, including various vocal numbers, solo, choral and dance scenes. The heroes were peasants and commoners.
At the beginning of the 19th century. The dramaturgy of Russian theater is diverse and colorful. The heroic-patriotic theme prevailed during the Napoleonic wars, and at the same time a new theatrical genre was created, called “folk-patriotic divertissement.” The socio-political problems that worried advanced noble circles were reflected in the tragedies of V.A. Ozerova. The basis of their success was political relevance. Comedy genre in the first quarter of the 19th century. represented by satirical comedy (I.A. Krylov, A.A. Shakhovsky, M.N. Zagoskin) and “noble” or “secular” comedy (N.I. Khmelnitsky). In the 19th century In dramaturgy, the traditions of educational drama and the rules of classicism are still observed, but at the same time sentimental motives begin to penetrate into it. In the first quarter, on the eve of the Decembrist uprising, a new dramaturgy of a progressive direction emerges. The most prominent representatives of this trend are A.S. Griboyedov. A special page in the history of Russian drama is occupied by the work of A.S. Pushkin, who had a decisive influence on the entire subsequent history of the theater.
By the middle of the 19th century. Romanticism in Russian drama was represented by the work of M.Yu. Lermontov, but at the same time melodrama and vaudeville (D.T. Lensky, P.A. Karatygin, F.A. Koni) became especially popular. Vaudevilles “with dressing up” became the most popular - these were mainly French vaudevilles remade in the Russian way. On the Alexandria stage in the 40s. up to 100 vaudeville shows were staged per season. Sentimentalism and romanticism were too short periods in the history of Russian drama. From classicism she immediately stepped into realism. The representative of a new direction - critical realism - in drama and theater was N.V. Gogol. He also entered the history of theater as a theorist who insisted on realistic aesthetics and the moral and educational role of theater and the social nature of the conflict in the play.
Gradually, realism became the dominant style in the theater of the second half of the 19th century. A prominent representative of this trend is A.N. Ostrovsky. His plays became the basis of the repertoire of the Russian theater both in his time and in subsequent times. Ostrovsky wrote 47 plays, these are historical plays, satirical comedies, dramas, “scenes from life”, fairy tale. He introduces new characters into the drama - a merchant-entrepreneur; a dexterous, energetic adventurer who knows how to make money; provincial actor, etc. At the end of his life, being one of the directors of the Imperial Theaters, responsible for the repertoire, he made many useful changes in the development of Russian theater. At the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. The theater is at the same time strongly influenced by revolutionary and populist ideas, as well as bourgeois tastes. At this time, the French comedies of Labiche and Sardou became widespread. The most repertoire of domestic playwrights are V. Krylov, I. Shpazhinsky, P. Nevezhin, N. Solovyov, who wrote on fashionable topics: love affairs between representatives of different classes. L.N. Tolstoy opens new page in Russian drama. His difficult, personal attempt to search for truth, ways of goodness and general justice, which naturally ended in anathema, was reflected in a number of plays. In them, he builds a conflict on the collision of human truth and “official” truth.
In the twentieth century, Russia began to set the tone not only in drama, but also in the theater. This is primarily due to the work of the Moscow Art Theater and the circle of playwrights with whom it was associated. The Russian theater has given the world a whole galaxy of wonderful playwrights. Among them, the first place undoubtedly belongs to A.P. Chekhov. His work marks the beginning of a qualitative new stage in the history of not only Russian but also European theater. A.P. Chekhov, although considered more of a symbolist, nevertheless has some naturalistic characteristics in his plays and was often, in his time, interpreted as a naturalist. He brought a new type of conflict to dramaturgy, a new type of construction and development of action, created a background, zones of silence, subtext and many other dramatic techniques. His influence on the dramaturgy of the twentieth century. (especially Russian) quite significantly.
Gorky A.M. did not limit himself only to the formulation of social problems. He laid the foundations for a new artistic method in art - socialist realism. He presented his revolutionary ideas with romantic pathos, glorifying the spontaneous, essentially atheistic, rebellion of a lone rebel. While clearly calling for a revolution, he nevertheless did not accept it. Here we can see how artistic and real reality was not adequately understood by him. The second period of his work, after returning from emigration, represents a short but full of tragedy page of his life.
L. Andreev's plays gravitated towards symbolism, but symbolist in pure form were not. They expressed all the complexity and ambiguity of Andreev’s work. For some time he was in the grip of revolutionary ideas, but later changed his views. The generality of the characters, the schematic nature of the main conflict, the fantastic nature of the setting and images, some elation and pathos of the existence of the heroes, all this brings his dramas closer to the theater of expressionism. Andreev himself called his direction in the theater panpsychism. In the play “Human Life” he removes stage directions, which from the point of view of drama technology is in itself revolutionary; introduces the narrator - Someone in gray, fantastic images of old women, etc. But his work did not have a noticeable influence on drama; he was rather an exception to the general realistic rules of that time.
Russian drama after 1917, under the influence of the existing system in Russia, developed mainly in line with the so-called socialist realism (the brainchild of Gorky) and in general is not of particular interest. It is worth highlighting only M. Bulgakov, N. Erdman and E. Schwartz as the only, perhaps, continuers of the traditions of Russian drama. All of them were under strong censorship, their creative and personal lives were very dramatic.
Minor
Analysis of the work
The play was conceived by D.I. Fonvizin as a comedy on one of the main themes of the era of enlightenment - as a comedy about education. But later the writer’s plan changed. The comedy “Nedorosl” is the first Russian socio-political comedy, and the theme of education is connected in it with the most important problems of the 18th century.
Main topics;
1. theme of serfdom;
2. condemnation of autocratic power, the despotic regime of the era of Catherine II;
3. the topic of education.
Originality artistic conflict The play is that the love affair associated with the image of Sophia turns out to be subordinate to the socio-political conflict.
The main conflict of the comedy is the struggle between the enlightened nobles (Pravdin, Starodum) and the serf owners (landowners Prostakovs, Skotinin).
“Nedorosl” is a bright, historically accurate picture of Russian life in the 18th century. This comedy can be considered one of the first pictures of social types in Russian literature. At the center of the story is the nobility in close connection with the serf class and the supreme power. But what is happening in the Prostakovs’ house is an illustration of more serious social conflicts. The author draws a parallel between the landowner Prostakova and high-ranking nobles (they, like Prostakova, are devoid of ideas about duty and honor, crave wealth, subservience to the nobles and push around the weak).
Fonvizin's satire is directed against the specific policies of Catherine II. He acts as the direct predecessor of Radishchev's republican ideas.
The genre of “Minor” is a comedy (the play contains many comic and farcical scenes). But the author’s laughter is perceived as irony directed against the current order in society and in the state.
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Let us transport ourselves mentally to Imperial Petersburg of the 30s of the nineteenth century, ceremonial, arrogant, in the stone of its palaces, in the cast-iron lace of fences.
The aspiring writer published romantic poem in the German spirit, he cruelly failed with it and burned the manuscript in despair. Where did the thoughts of the shipwrecked young man go, who came from distant, provincial Nezhin, dreamed of success and glory in cold and unapproachable St. Petersburg? To the theater. He turned to the theater for consolation and support. In the days of greatest disappointment, an old dream emerged from the depths of memory - to become an actor. Our provincial father played on the amateur stage. The hero himself performed successfully in amateur performances.
V. G. Perov. “Portrait of A. N. Ostrovsky”,
1871, Tretyakov Gallery.
Illustration by I. S. Glazunov for
Ostrovsky's drama "The Thunderstorm".
We read the memoirs of the secretary under the director of the imperial theaters, Prince Gagarin: “Having ordered the attendant on duty to ask for the person who had come, I saw young man, very unattractive in appearance, with his cheek tied up with a black scarf. - You seem to have a toothache? – I asked. “Would you like some cologne?” “Thank you, it will pass just like that!”
The young provincial from Nezhin, to whom Prince Gagarin said: “I think that a comedy would be more decent for you,” is Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. The failed poem is Gogol's first-born "Hanz Küchelgarten". And Prince Gagarin, who advised the ugly debutant to change heroic genre to comedy, and he himself did not know that he was talking to the future genius of comedy.
The great Russian playwright Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky was literally dragged under the arches of the Imperial Maly Theater in defiance of the high authorities by the friends of the aspiring author, wonderful Russian actors - the great and powerful Prov Sadovsky, Lyubov Pavlovna Nikulina-Kositskaya, an outstanding Russian folk actress, the one who served as the prototype and first performer of Katerina in "The Thunderstorm".
Young Alexander Ostrovsky, a twenty-four-year-old, unknown commercial court official, had an “extraordinary start.” About his first-born - the comedy “The Insolvent Debtor” (later known as “Bankrupt, or Our People - Let’s Count”) Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol himself said: “God grant him success in all future works... The most important thing is that there is talent, and you can hear it everywhere.”
The feeling of the enormity and originality of the new literary talent was sudden and general. “I think there are three tragedies in Rus': “The Minor”, “Woe from Wit”, “The Inspector General”, on “Bankrupt” I put number four,” wrote famous poet Vladimir Odoevsky.