NEWSNOTES is a publication of The Institute for Contemporary Eastern European Drama and Theatre. It is supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Graduate School of George Mason university.
NEWSNOTES is a publication of The Institute for Contemporary Eastern European Drama and Theatre. It is supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Graduate School of George Mason university.
NEWSNOTES is a publication of The Institute for Contemporary Eastern European Drama and Theatre. It is supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Graduate School of George Mason university.
Volume 1, Number 3 October, 1981 EDITOR'S NOTE: Permit me to express my gratitude for and gratification with the great number of persons and institutions, in the United States and Canada, who have expressed a strong interest in the NEWSNOTES. It has been my pleasure to add you to our mailing lists. I am also grateful for the letters of encouragement I have received from many of you. As previously announced, I shall be happy to receive short articles, reviews, announcements, bibliographical and pedagogical materials from you for publication in subsequent issues of NEWSNOTES. Please remember, however, that what you submit must be on the subject of Soviet and East European drama and theatre. I still have a number of copies of Volume 1, Number 2 on hand and will be happy to send them to you at your requent, until the stock is depleted. Leo Hecht NEWSNOTES is a publication of the Institute for Contemporary Eastern European Drama and Theatre under the auspices of the Center for Advanced Study in Theatre Arts with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Graduate School of George Mason University. The Institute office is Room 801, City University Graduate Center, 33 West 4Znd Street, New York, NY 10036. All subscription request (no charge) and submissions should be addressed to the Editor of NEWSNOTES: Leo Hecht, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia 22030. 1 ANNOUNCEMENTS On August 10, 1981, Andre Sedriks of Trinity University, William Kuhlke of the University of Kansas and Bela Kiralyfalvi of Wichita State University presented a panel on contemporary Eastern European Drama at the American Theatre Association national convention in Dallas, Texas. The panelists discussed and gave information about the activities of the Institute, about recent and upcoming publications, as well as several recent Polish and Soviet plays in English translations. The Wichita State University major theatre production series for 1981-82 will include a production of Never Part From Your Loved Ones by Aledsandr Volodin {translation by Alma H. Law). Bela Kiralyfalvi will direct the production to be performed on January 28-29-30, 1982. The film n Akropolis, n a recording of an actual performance by J erzy Grotowski's Polish Laboratory Theatre, may be purchased or rented from Arthur Cantor, Inc., 234 West 44th Street, New York, NY 10036. Also obtainable from the same source is n A Soldier's Tale, n adapted from Russian folklore, which combines mime, and ballet set to a musical score by Igor Stravinsky. The Center for Appeals for Freedom, Freedom House, 20 West 40th Street, New York, NY 10018, informs us that their Lecture Bureau can furnish speakers who are originally from the Soviet Union and whose area is the arts. Among them are Sergei Dovlatov; Vitaly Komar; Alexander Melamid; Sophia Lubensky; Vladimir Maximov; Vasily Aksyonov; Ernst Neizvestny; Mark Popovsky; Leonid Tarassu; Esward Topol; and Tomas Venclova. Those interested should contact the Bureau at the above address directly. During your editor's stay in Budapest last June, he did not become aware of a single performance of a Soviet play. The three new openings which were highly propagated throughout the city were a play by Chekhov; a play by Mrozek; and a new production of "Irma la Douce," which, I understand, is having phenominal box- office success. The Theatre de Rond Point in Paris was rehearsing a new dramatization of Tolstoy's superb short story, "The Death of Ivan llich" last July. Although we certainly wish them the best of luck, the new production seems to have some basic faults which may cause it to fail. It is much too morbid and heavy. Unfortunately it has chosen to eliminate most of Tolstoy's satirical and humorous moments and centers upon the physical deterioration of a human being. Oscar Swan, Department of Slavic Languages, Literature and Cultures, University of Pittsburgh, reports that the University of Pittsburgh's Ad Hoc Polish Drama Workshop presented Slawomir Mrozek's Na pelnym morzu (Out to Sea) on April 10, 1981. The workshop was formed in response to undergraduate student demand and was held under the supervision of Oscar Swan of the Slavic Department. Directing the play was Gene Pawlikowski, a student who has won a scholarship to study drama in Poland during 1981-82. To accommodate resources at hand, the role of the Small Castaway, eventually eaten by the Fat and Medium Castaways, was played by a woman, a change which the actors felt was an improvement over the original. The new casting of this role created manifold sexual overtones, fully exploited by the students and appreciated by the z audience. Since the performance was in Polish, longer speeches were streamlined and the actors concentrated on developing an exaggerated Chaplinesque style, full of visual innuendo, to which the play in any case lends itself. After a semester's work, lines were delivered with near perfect precision, even if the verbal humor was not always adequately appreciated by the audience. The play was attended by around 60 people from the university and Pittsburgh community and generated considerable enthusiasm for undertaking something similar next year. Steve Grecco informs us that he is planning to make arrangements for a visit and lecture tour in this country by the outstanding Polish playwright, Tadeusz Rozewicz. This event is planned for the month of February, 198Z and will be arranged out of The Pennsylvania State University. This is an excellent opportunity for other institutions to make arrangements to have this important visitor come to your location or campus without a great deal of expense. Those interested in taking advantage of this opportunity please contact Dr. Stephen Grecco, Department of English, College of the Liberal Arts, The Pennsylvania State University, 117 Burrowes Building, University Park, PA 1680Z, or call him at (814) 865-6381. An international Symposium on the work of the Russian stage directory, Vsevolod Meyerhold, will be held at the Culture House of Stockholm from November 19-ZZ. The symposium is being organized by the Teater Schahrazad, which in 1980 organized an international pedagogic research project "The Actor in Group-Theatre." Information on the Symposium can be obtained by writing to: Teater Schahrazad, Box ZZ545, 5-103 ZZ Stockholm, Sweden. BOOKS We are pleased to announce that Soviet Plays in Translation: An Annotated Bibliography, is now available for sale. It was compiled and edited by Alma H. Law and C. Peter Goslett and contains the contributions of twenty-five educators in the field of Soviet theatre and drama. The book was prepared under the auspices of the Institute for Contemporary East European Drama and Theatre of the Center for Advanced Study in the Theatre Arts (CASTA) and was partially funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. This invaluable study contains a bibliography of Soviet plays with short plot outlines; an index of translators with their addresses; a bibliography of articles on Soviet theatre; and a bibliography of books on the Soviet theatre. This 100-page, large- format publication may be obtained by mail for $3.50 ($4.50 outside the U.S.) to cover printing, handling and mailing costs. Send a check or money order to "Annotated Bibliography," CASTA Institute, Room 801, Graduate Center, 33 W. 4Znd Street, New York, NY 10036. Russica Book and Art Shop, Inc. will gladly send catalogues of out-of-print and antiquarian books on performing arts in the USSR to interested persons. Please address requests to Valery Kuharets, Russica Book and Art Shop, Inc., 799 Broadway, New York, NY 10003. For those who can read German, the following item may be of interest: Fiebach, Joachim, ed. Sowjetische Regisseure ueber ihr Theater. Berlin: Henschelverlag Kunst und Gesellschaft, 1976. This highly interesting book (Soviet 3 Directors Discuss Tovstonogov, Ird, Maibaliev. Their Panso, Theatre), Mambetov, contains contributions Liubimov, Goncharov, by Okhlopkov, Aledsidze and Another interesting German book which discusses the major theatrical products of the Polish playwright is the following: Bondy, Francois and J elenski, Constantin. Witold Gombrowicz. Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 1978. Alma Law sent us a mini-review of the following recently published book: Through the Magic Curtain: Theatre for Children, Adolescents and Young Adults in the U.S.S. R. Miriam Morton, ed. and trans. New Orleans: Anchorage Press, 1979. The Soviet Union has a very well-developed professional theatre system for children and teenagers that draws some 30 million spectators annually. Many prominent playwrights and directors have gotten their start in these theatres whose repertories include not only the expected fairytales for small children but a rather sophisticated range of Russian and Western classiscs and contemporary plays as well. In this book, originally published in Russian in 197Z, twenty-six theatre professionals write on various apects of childrens theatre. The contributions range from historical accounts of the early years by Natalya Stas and Samuel Marshak to the experiences of such distinguished contemporary theatre practitioners as directors Anatoly Efros and Maria Knebel and playwright Victor Rozov. SPECIAL REPORT In May, 1981, the Theatre Arts Department, School of Creative Arts, San Francisco State University presented five performances of Stanislaw Witkiewicz's play "THEY." It was directed by Dr. Samuel Elkind. Sam has kindly agreed to send us some of his thoughts and experiences and to inform us how rewarding the opportunity was for him. In fact, he offered to direct the play on the East Coast if asked. Here, then, are Sam's comments: Without a doubt the play has an impact for a modern audience, particualrly if they are "engaged" in the theatre process. If the audience sits in a darkened house watching the dramatic action through the "fourth wall," some of the immediacy may be lost. You see, I am talking about the contemporary staging of "THEY," written in 19ZO, during which time Witkacy, troubled about future automation, "pure form" in the theatre, modem art and his own sexuality, attempts to put it all together in a play which starts out with a "Half-Act," followed by Act I and closing with Act n. In his Witkacian way he is parodying the form and shape of theatre by writing several plays at the same time. Thus, we start out with the action taking place in the hero's affluent "digs," which in this case includes his priceless art collection including a Picasso and a spacious ballroom. In his richly appointed surroundings he lives with his mistress Spika, who is followed by her husband, long lost, Tefuan, an avowed enemy of the arts, who is not only the writer of nonsense plays but the leader of a secret government determined to put an end to the hero, Callisto Balandash, and all that he stands for, including his love for avant-garde art, split personalities, and a hedonistic life. 4 In short order, THEY appear, a polyglot collection of types, best described as "looking even worse than the collection of blobs on the wall." THEY appear, supported by soldiers with guns, who, in short order, dismantle Balandash's superb art collection, after a rather complex twist of the plot in which Balandash confesses to the murder of his mistress who has been killed while acting in a comedia del arte play written by the mad Tefuan, who is her husband, Count Tremendosa. The play comes to a conclusion as the corpse is brought on stage and Witkacy provides several brilliant speeches dealing with Nihilism. In order to prepare college players it is best to delve deeply into the whole notion of the Polish avant-garde. To that end, students read background material including Witkacy's essay on "Pure Form," and the works of Gombrowicz and Rozewicz (for the purpose of comparison). Moreover we looked at the expressionist paintings of the twenties, we listened to Polish music starting with Chopin and gradually moving to Szymanowski, Ludoslawski and Penderecki. We looked at Witkacy's sketches. We read Dan Gerould's chapter on Witkacy which will appear in a new book this fall. We looked at pictures of contemporary productions of Polish stages and saw examples of Polish paintings and sculpture. Some time was devoted to the exercises suggested by Grotowski, mainly of the vocal variety. I conducted numerous exercises in improvisation, focusing on techniques known as "transformations. n We conducted long sessions in which actors were grilled and interviewed by the cast. We worked and re-worked inner scenes within scenes in which Witkacy slips in some highly compound and complex philosophies. For staging the production we converted the 100-seat studio theatre into an art gallery with statues throughout and numerous paintings according to Witkacy's specifications. The actors, having the whole house in which to "move" did, in fact, use the stairs leading down to the center stage, which had a floor painted to resemble marble. When the soldiers arrived, they came right through the "house," - soldiers, in this case, were women wearing black and khaki outfits. And when the art work is to be removed, they are aided by the "prop" crew, who, too, were dressed the same way. Thus, at the end of Act I, they are moving pieces of art right through the audience very effective, indeed. Since Witkacy called for a masquerade ball beginning with Act II, we created a fantasy ballet. The men and women (THEY) are dressed in black and white and poised to execute a waltz (La Valse by Ravel), which quickly segues into a track from Ludoslawski, in which the action of the second act is foreshadowed: the dancers become automatons and commit a ritualistic murder, killing Spika and carrying her off-stage as the servants rearrange the stage for the final action. In fact the play shifts once again- for having started the Half Act as a sort of Noel Coward comedy, moving to the somber tones of Pinter, it finally becomes Witkacy, for he makes the most theatrical moment of the play and the most realistic one, i.e., the staged entrance of Spika, dressed as a sylph, with grotesque make-up. The funeral procession, underscored by Ludoslawski's soulful cello, leads to the bizarre confession of both Ballandash and Tefuan for Spika's death. As Tefuan turns berserk, the general, played as a harmless, humorous old man, takes command and, having earlier slashed the one remaining Picasso, ends the play by commanding the servants to find the coats so the THEY might leave. 5 The play ends as the two servants deliver some of the key speeches of the play, underscored by the surrealistic sounds of Penderecki: Marianna: Our poor mistress. Where is her soul if there is no other world? She doesn't exist, she doesn' t exist at all. They have taken the other world away from us and they haven't put a new one in its place. Fitty: There is no other world. I don't believe in anything myself. And yet, it is hard to live, so terribly hard. Fondoloff (the general, Michael! Joseph! Get our fur coats you devils! An eerie, descending screech, suspended slowly, with flutes and clarinets, is overpowered by basses with abrupt, harsh bowing The lights fade. POUSH FILMS IN AMERICAN DISTRIBUTION The following listing of feature films (and some shorts) is intended as a service to organizations wishing to show Polish films in the United States. All films are available on a rental basis. Listings are arranged by distributor, with English title, Polish title, director and year or production. Prospective exhibitors are cautioned to confirm availability of films with the distributors, as well as to check on other necessary information. The films listed are mostly in Polish with English subtitles, but some have no subtitles and a few are in English or in English-dubbed versions. Prints may be available in 16mm, 35mm, one or the other only, or both. It is also advised to inquire of distributors what other Polish films they may have; new films come into distribution periodically, and some distributors do not maintain catalogs. For these reasons, and others, this listing cannot be complete. Prepared by Stephanie Doba, Director of Special Arts Projects, The Kosciuszko Foundation, 15 East 65th Street, New York, NY 1002.1. JANUS FILMS, 745 Fifth Ave., New York, N.Y. 1002.2. (212.-753-7100)* Ashes and Diamonds Kana! A Generation Barrier Knife in the Water Innocent Sorcerers Popiq1 i diament Kan<Jl Pokol enie Bariera Noz w wodzie Niewinni czarodziege Andrzej Wajda Andrzej Wajda Andrzej Wajda J erzy Skolimowski Roman Polanski Andrzej Wajda NEW YORKER FILMS, 16 West 61st St. , New York, N. Y. 10023 (2.12-2.47-6110) Identificatin Marks: None Walkover Rysopis Walkower J erzy Skolimowski Jerzy Skolimowski 1958 1957 1954 1960 1961 1960 1964 1965 * Some of t he Janus collection is now being distributed by Films, Incorporated. Call 212-889-7910. 6 Everything for Sale Landscape After Battle W szystko na sprzedaz Krajobraz po bitwie Andrzej Wajda Andrzej Wajda 1968 1970 AUDIO-BRANDON Fll..MS, 34 MacQuesten Pkwy. South, Mt. Vernon, N.Y. (914-664-5051)** Birchwood Samson Hunting Flies Siberian Lady Macbeth Family Life Pearl in the Crown Mother Joan of the Angels The Third Part of the Night The Passenger Border Street Eve Wants to Sleep Sal to Jovita Cul-de-Sac Short cartoons by various directors Brzezina Samson Polowanie na muchy Siberska Ledi Magbet Zycie rodzinne PelT'la w koronie Matka Joanna od aniq1ow Trzecia czesc nocy Pasazerka Ulica graniczna Ewa chce spac Sal to Jowita (in English) Andrzej Wajda Andrzej Wajda Andrzej Wajda Andrzej Wajda Krzysztof Zanussi Kazimierz Kutz Jerzy Kawalerowicz Andrzej Zulawski Andrzej Munk Aleksander Ford Tadeusz Chmielewski Tadeusz Konwicki Janusz Morgenstern Roman Polanski 1970 1961 1969 196Z 1971 1971 1961 1973 1963 1948 1958 1966 1967 1966 AMERPOL ENTERPRISE Fll..MS, 11601 Jos. Campau, Detroit, MI 4821Z (313-365-6780) The Wedding Eroica How To Be Loved Countess Cosel The Peasants All Friends Here Hell and Heaven Descent to Hell Alone in the City Let's Love Sirens Marriage of Convenience The Wall of Witches The Shot The Twilight of Sorcerers Others Wesele Eroica J ak bye kochana Hrabina Cosel C}J1opi Sami swoi Piel91o i niebo Zejscie do pie1<1b Sam posrod miasta Kochajmy syrenki Menstwo z rozsadku Sciana C zarownic Wystrz<Ji Zmierzch czarownikow Andrzej Wajda Andrzej Munk Wojciech Has J erzy Antczak Jan R ybkowski Syl wester Checinski t a n i ~ w Rozewicz Zbigniew Kuzminski Hanna Bielinska Jan Rutkiewicz t a n i ~ w Bareja ? Jerzy Antczak ? HENRY MICHALSKI, Z45 Lyncrest Rd., Englewood Cliffs, N.J. 0763Z (201-871-4514) Colonel Wolodyjowski The Ring of Duchess Ann Pan W q1odyjowski Pierscien Ksieznej Anna J erzy Hoffman Maria Kaniewska 197Z 1957 196Z 1968 1973 1967 1966 1966 1965 1967 1967 ? 1965 ? 1968 1971 ** For theatrical showings of most of these films, the distributor is: International Film Exchange, 159 West 53rd Street., New York, N.Y. 10019 (Z1Z-58Z-4318). 7 The Adventure with a Song The Case of Pilot Maresz I Don't Like Mondays King Boleslaw the Bold Man-Woman Wanted A Stake Greater Than Life Woodpecker Others Przygoda z piosenka Sprawa pilota Maresza Nie Lubie Smi$y Poszukiwany-Poszukiwana Stawka wieksza niz zycie Dzieciq1 Bareja Leonard Buczkowski Tadeusz Chmielewski Witold Lesiewicz Bareja Janusz Morgenstern/ Andrzej Konic ? LISZKA ATTRACTIONS, 11 Carter Oak Ave. , Hartford, CT 06106 (203-2.49-62.55) Bad Luck Lokis The Doll The Structure of Crystals Others Zezowate szczescie Lokis Lalka Struktura Krysztcyb And.rzej M unk Janusz Majewski Wojciech Has Krzysztof Zanussi 1969 1956 1971 1972 1973 1969 ? 1960 1970 1968 1969 SAN FRANCISCO RESEARCH GROUP, P.O. Box 15007, San Francisco, CA 94115 (415-346-9216) Taste of the Black Earth Top Dog The Sandglass Sol ziemi czarnej Wodzirej Sanatorium pod klepsydra Kazimierz Kutz Feliks Falk Wojciech Has WALTER E. WAISMANN, 2925 W. Bryn Mawr Ave., Chicago, IL 60659 (312-878-3139) The Leper Big Deal (Love it or Leave it) Hubal Others Tredowata Kochaj albo rzuc Hubal ? ? Bohdan Poreba BAUER INTERNATIONAL, 695 West 7th St., Plainfield, NJ 07060 (201-757-6099) illumination lluminacja Krzysztof Zanussi JOSEPH GREEN, 200 West 58th St., New York, N.Y. 10019 (ZlZ-246-9343) 1970 1977 1972 ? ? 1973 1973 The Pharoah Faraon Jerzy Kawalerowicz 1965 LIGHTHOUSE FILMS, 162 Galley Ave., Toronto, Ont. M6R Z.L2, Canada (416-532-532.6) The Deluge Po top Jerzy Hoffman 1974 8 NORMAN CALDWELL, 31d/2Minor Ave. North, Seattle, WA 98019 (206-682-4318) The Saragossa Manuscript Rekopis znalexiony w Saragossie W oj ciech Has VIEWFINDERS, INC., P.O. Box 1665, Evanston, II.. 60204 (312-869-0600) Shorts: Two Men and a Wardrobe Mammals The Fat and the Lean Labyrinth (animation Dwaj ludzie z szafa Ssaki Roman Polanski Roman Polanski Roman Polanski Jan Lenica PHOENIX FILMS, 470 Park Avenue South, New York, N.Y. 10016 (212-684-5910) Adam II (animation) Moving Pictures, the Art of Jan Lenica Other short animated cartoons: Landscape The Rose The Changeling The Incident Jan Lenica Richard P. Rogers Lenica Piotr Szpakowicz Bronislaw Zeman Franciszek Pyter 1964 1958 1963 1976 1975 1975 1979 1975 1975 McGRAW-HILL FILMS, 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, N.Y. 10020 (212-997-6168) Yellow Slippers (animation) Rhinoceros (short, animation ? Jan Lenica ? ? TINC PRODUCTIONS, INC., 415 East 52nd St., New York, N.Y. 10022 (212-832-8749) Land of Promise A Woman's Decision Camouflage Story of Sin Ziemia obiecana Bilans kwartalny Barwy ochronne D ziege grzechu POLISH FILMS WITHOUT AMERICAN DISTRIBUTION Andrzej Wajda Krzysztof Zanussi Krzysztof Zanussi W alerian Borowczyk 1975 1975 1977 1975 Prints of some new and classic films with no American distributors are kept in care of the Polish Embassy and Consulates, and showings may be arranged on a loan basis. Polish Consulate 23 3 Madison Ave New York, NY 10016 (212-889-8360) Polish Consulate 1530 N. Lakeshore Dr. Chicago, IL 60610 (312-337-8166) 9 Polish Embassy; Cultural Affairs 2640 16th St., NW Washington, DC 20009 (202-234-3800) REVIEW Earlier this year, the Soviet film "Moscow Doesn't Believe in Tears" won the academy award for best foreign film of the year. It is now being shown in theaters all over the United States. Prof. Alan Kreizenbeck of St. Mary's College of Maryland was kind enough to write the following review of the film for NEWSNOTES: "Moscow Doesn't Believe in Tears" It is tempting to accuse Valentin Chionykh, scriptwriter for "Moscow Doesn't Believe in Tears," of mawkishness. The opening shots of fog shrouded Moscow, accompanied by romantic sounding guitar and vocals, establishes a sentiment that the film's narrative develops, expands, and finally, milks. It is also tempting to dismiss the work of director Vladimir Menshov-particularly his camera work, particularly the zoom lens shots-as trite and irritating. But this film was not created for an American audience, an audience raised on film and television, one that through osmosis knows good film making from bad. While most Americans don't know Eisenstein from Liechtenstein 9 enough acetate has passed in front of their eyes to create fairly sophisticated-if not always well verbalized-attitudes toward film. To an American film-goer, "Moscow Doesn't Believe in Tears" seems like a 1930's script (minus the humor) shot by a beginning film student. But the movie is intended for such an audience. It was produced for a Russian one, very similar in class, educational background, and outlook to the young heriones of its story-namely lower, rudimentary and naive. And like the heroines, with little knowledge of cinematic art. This is not to say the film is not interesting or valuable for American viewers. As a reflection or representation of Soviet life, it has merit. The episodes presented often offer fascinating glimpses of a culture and a way of ordering the world that many Americans know very little about. Scenes are presented, for example, in which the successful head (a woman) of a large manufacturing concern (3,000 employees) sleeps on a sofa bed in the living room; a sensitive Soviet man is depicted as one who will cook, but not do the dishes; and a young couple is admonished by their peers for snuggling in public. Often, the settings are more interesting-from a sociological point of view-than the scenes which take place in them. Contrasting a favored professional person's apartment to a dormitory for young working women, for example, bespeaks much about the continuance of egalitarianism in Soviet society. Scenes inside factories, bakeries, and dry cleaners tell more about a nation rushing full bore (and somewhat clumsily) into industrialization than any number of graphs, reports, or five-year plans. The parts, in short, are much more interesting than the whole. The movie tells the story of three women and how their lives change over a twenty year period. In 1958 the three-Katerina, Tonya, and Ludimilla-alllive in a working women's residence hall in Moscow. Each has come to the "big city" to escape the provincial life of the village. Katerina has come to study, Tonya to work, and Ludimilla, well, her most characterizing line is "Moscow's a lottery. You can win the grand prize." 10 Although the movie follows the lives of the three characters, it centers on Katerina. She is seduced by a television cameraman, has his child out of wedlock, manages (by 1980) to raise the baby to teenagedom and herself to a position of power in the manufacturing world. At age forty, she meets Mister Right, a man who does what he likes (another interesting social comment), and after some tribulation, the audience is left with the assumption that they will live happily ever after. Somewhat reminiscent of "An Unmarried Woman," it differs in the important respect that the Jill Clayburgh charcter chooses to reject her lover and have a go of it on her own, while Katerina becomes hysterically unfunctional when her errant lover momentarily disappears and must rely on her friends to bring him back to "his senses" and to her. "Moscow Doesn't Believe in Tears" seems to say that a modern Soviet woman (talented, decisive, strong) is still a woman (dependent on a man's love for happiness). There is much more to say about the social nuances in the film, particularly about those related to the classes in the classless Soviet society; perhaps the best advice I can offer is to see the movie for its detail-ignore the forest, look at the trees. SPECIAL REPORT The following U!>"'date on the activities of Jerzy Grotowski was submitted by Dr. Robert Findlay, University Teatre, University of Kansas: "Grotowski in 1981" Polish director Jerzy Grotowski was in New York on 20 May to appear at a benefit for Jacek one of his company members who has been undergoing treatment during the past year a Sloan-Kettering Hospital. The benefit occurred at Hunter College and opened with a film of Vigil, a paratheatrical event conducted by After the film, Grotowski's remarks in French were translated into English by American director Andre Gregory. Grotowski discussed the structure of Vigil, a work that makes no distinctions between performers and spectators. Now that Grotowski has himself moved on from paratheatrical work into what now must be considered theatre anthropology, he was capable of being almost clinical in discussing Vigil. He spoke of specific strategies used by the "leaders" of the event in inducing the participation of those who came from the outside. Interestingly enough, it is really the outsider whom Grotowski perceived as dictating the specifics of the event while the leaders provided the general form. If the outsiders are static, the leaders will "stimulate the space," said Grotowski, but in no way would the l eaders force the outsiders to do anything. Gradually the outsiders, presumable feeling free to do what they will, reach a level of creative inspiration that they would not if guided too strongly by the leaders. Later in a question-and-answer period, Grotowski spoke also of his most recent project, Theatre of Sources, which involves a great number of cross- cultural interactions in various parts of the world. Since 1977, Grotowski has been 11 working with a group of thirty-six people from such cultures as Africa, India, Mexico, Europe, and North America. Typically Grotowski was mystifying in speaking of what he calls the 11 absurd objective 11 of this work, that being the discovery of what he calls 11 the pure man. 11 Presumably this "pure man 11 is one who, stripped of the programming of his or her own culture, is capable of perceiving the world purely, more directly, more immediately. To be sure, Grotowski may seem a great distance from the kind of work he was doing in the period of the 1960s with such performances as Akropolis, The Constant Prince, and Apocalypsis cum figuris. Still, there are strangely parallel connections between his earlier struggle for what he called 11 the holy actor 11 and what he now refers to as 11 the pure man. 11 Both are ideal abstractions, absurdities, to use Grotowski's own designation-but nonetheless practical ends toward which to work. SPECIAL REPORT The Moscow Theatre of Satire The Theatre of Satire was formed in 1924, during the NEP period, and became quite a favorite of the Moscow theatre-going public due to its performances of rather incisive comedies of writers like Erdman, who later disappeared from the scene during Stalin. In the 1930's and 40's the theater turned to 11 safer" performances of folk- dramas of limited artistic quality. After the death of Stalin it did a complete about-face with the appointment of Valentin N. Pluchek as the director-producer of the theater. Pluchek was born in 1909 and had a successful career as an actor before he turned to directing. He was one of the last pupils of Meierhold in the latter's experimental studio in the late 1920's. In 1939 he formed an experimental stage together with the playwright Arbuzov, based on his experience with Meierhold. He produced a play which was a combination of improvizations and was entitled 11 A City at Dawn. 11 In 1941 Pluchek was assigned as the director of the theatre of the fleet. After the war he worked as a free-lance director for various stages until he became the director of the Theatre of Satire, a position which he holds to this day. Imagine my suprise when I arrived in Hamburg, Germany on June ZZ, 1981, and saw a large poster in front of the Deutsches Schauspielhaus, one of the major German stages, announcing the one-time guest appearance that same evening of the Moscow Theatre of Satire. They were to perform Bertolt Brecht's "Three- Penny Opera. 11 Of course, I immediately purchased tickets. The Soviet cast of 35 was headed by the top performers of the theatre, including A. A. Mironov (Macheath); S. W. Mishulin (Jonathan Peachum); Z. N. Zelinskaia (Celia Peachum); and M. M. Derzhavin (Chief of Police). In addition Hamburg was host to an entire production crew of approximately twenty Soviets, including the musical director, lighting and prop technicians, choreographers and costumers. The entire group was headed by Pluchek himself who was on stage after the performance and literally basked in the thunderous applause the SRO house showered upon him. Until Stalin's death, the Soviets had an ambivalent attitude towards Brecht. Of course, his politics had a number of positive points, but his dramatic theory was definitely not what the Russians were used to, and his occasionally lZ iconoclastic nature made him dangerous. Most of these objections were removed when Brecht was presented the Stalin Prize (it was not re-named until the following year) in 1954, with a presentation speech by Boris Pasternak who despised Brecht but was forced to cooperate. After this event Brecht became "performable." Liubimov presented "The Good People of Sezuan" in Moscow in the Meierhold tradition; Sturua in Tbilisi directed the "Caucasian Chalk Circle" in the tradition of the folk theatre. The German audience was extremely impressed with Pluchek's version of an all-familiar Brecht musical-drama which they had seen all too often and of which they had gotten somewhat tired. Most of them had forgotten how marvellously theatrical the play is, and had gone to see it purely for the amusing "songs" of Kurt Weill. The staging by the Soviets was quite unexpectedly different. It premiered in Moscow in January, 1981 and was transported to Hamburg in exactly the same version. Primary emphasis was equally placed on the entertainment of the play and also on its socio-political message. A great deal of attention was paid to details which brought out the frictions between the characters, satirical elements, corruption, thirst for power and the downtrodden masses who must lower themselves to behave anti-socially. Nevertheless the play was extremely enjoyable and very well performed. Of course, only a handful of persons in the large audience understood Russian. In fact, many thought that it would be performed in German and were quite taken aback when they heard the first strains of Meki nozh. Nevertheless they all knew the German text so well that the foreign language was not a deterrent to their enjoyment. L. Hecht SPECIAL REPORT The following article was written for us by Alan Smith on the plane from New York to the USSR where he will be spending the entire year. We are grateful to him: The "Little Theatre" An interesting recent development in Soviet drama has been the emergence of "little theatre." The staging of small scale, experimental intimate plays on the so-called "little stage" has become a means of inexpensively trying out new material and broadening the repertoire of some of Moscow's leading theatres. Efros's theatre on Malaya Bronnaya has recently staged a production of Shelagh Delaney's Taste of Honey. The Mossovet Theatre has both a "theatre in the foyer" where it has presented a play on the life of Edith Pia (though not the production recently seen in London and New York) and also a separate little theatre whose repertoire at present consists of three plays: a comedy by Saltykov-Shchedrin The Death of Pazukhin; Radzinski's Does Love Exist? The Firemen Ask- the love story of a cynical young man and a quirky girl, reminiscent of his 104 Pages About Love; and If I Will Be Living, a dramatization of the relationship between Leo Tolstoy and his wife. 13 Based on Tolstoy's fiction, diaries and correspondence the play outlines the conflict between Tolstoy's desire to free himself of the spiritual burden and embarrassment of his wealth and position and Sophia Andreevna's fears for the security of her family. Two established actors of the Mossovet company play the leads: S. Kokovkin both wrote the play and stars as Tolstoy while N. Tenyakova plays Sophia. The evening really belongs to her. Her performance is so strong and affecting that she wins the audience's sympathy; Tolstoy emerges as unreasonable and querrulous. The play is directed by A. Kazantsev, a young playwright now making his mark with two promising plays on the breakdown of family relationships. The Mayakovsky Theatre opened its season on the little stage with a production of Coburn's The Gin Game, featuring two of its veteran players Samoilov and Karpova as Weber and Fonsia. Samoilov's performance was adequate, though it lacked the bravura and idiosyncracy of the creator of the role Hume Cronyn. Karpova, on the other hand, was woefully miscast and misdirected, playing Fonsia as crude, loud-mouthed and uncouth, so that the climactic moment of her fury at Weber reducing her to swearing, totally loses its significance. A final incongruity was the "staging" - essentially a black-walled acting area, indescript furniture and a floor strewn with capitalist garbage expressly solicited from the American Embassy. The Moscow Art Theatre was thankful that it had a production on its little stage in time to replace its intended gift to the XXVIth Party Congress. Shatrov's I Bequeath To You, the playwright's speculation on what occured on a day Lenin spent along in the Kremlin shortly before his death, was deemed politically flawed and attention now turned to an unusual play by a prolific young playwright Alexander Remez. Rather than featuring Lenin, however, the playwright details the progress of his brother Alexander Ulyanov from conscience-stricken liberal to political terrorist and would-be assassin. Lenin appears only as his hot-blooded and impatient younger brother. The play is directed by A. Vasiliev, the latest sensation in the directorial ranks, who was briefly connected with the Stanislawski Theatre and whose productions of Gorky's Vassa Zheleznova and Slavkin's Grown-up Daughter of a Young Man have occasioned much excitement. The director creates the bright and airy spaciousness of a well-to-do Russian home in the provinces at the end of the century, with a minimal setting: a meticulously set dinner table and buffet around which a good deal of the action takes place, and a long polished wooden balustrade on the other side of the stage. He elicits performances of great naturalness from his cast, particularly from Yu. Bogatyrev as the father and I. Akulova as the mother, while D. Brusnikin still only a third year student at the MXAT school, is most impressive as the young Alexander. Mark Rogovsky's production of Kafka-Father and Son was originally coupled with Capek's Mother, but the latter play was subsequently dropped. Set in a very elaborately recreated period living room with striking lighting effects, the play depicts the battle between a domineering father and a weak-willed son both of whom prove in need of love yet are incapable of displaying affection for one another. Despite the advance publicity and great curiosity among the Moscow intelligentsia about the first production of Kafka, the play turned out to be rather predictable despite fine performances by Zhelobov as the son and A. Popov as the father. 14 Further small stage productions include a possible presentation of Equus. On the main stage the Moscow Art Theatre's repertoire, while still paying tribute to its mainstays Chekhov and Gorky, has also ventured into modern drama. Amongst the current productions are Roshchin's Old New Year and three plays (and possibly a fourth) by Alexander Gelman. Gelman has revitalized the rather overworked genre of the production play which previously varied the changes on the themes of the communist ideal, the motivation of reluctant personnel, and the triumph over backslackers, spies or saboteurs. Gelman, however, poses new relevant moral problems and pursues them to an extent previously unthinkable or permissible. Usually, his heroes stand up against some widely accepted situation or injustice and oppose it, shattering complacency and challenging the status quo. Even when the injustice is seemingly redressed, one is made to feel that the situation will soon return to its previous state. Those in power with vested interests often prove too strong for the reformers. Thus in A Part Meeting an emergency session is called to discuss a brigade's refusal of a bonus when it discovers that the production plan has been falsified by the management. The Party secretary and finally the director of the building trust decide to redress the wrong and accede to the workers' demands for an investigation, even if it means their own removal for mismanagement. In We, the Undersigned, however, the ending is not so sanguine. The play is set entirely on a train (a breathtakingly real set by Leventhal) and recounts the efforts of an apparently shady character, Lenya, to persuade a commission to change its mind over the rejection of an inferior building project. It transpires, however, that he is attempting to save the career of his boss, a truly honest man, who is being victimized by a corrupt higher official. Justice does not triumph here, alas. Though the honest commission-head vows not to let the matter rest - knowing as he does he was selected for the commission because the powers above knew how he would respond - both he and Lenya - brillantly played by the fine actor Kalyagin - seem powerless before the wiles of those in power. The play closes with a powerful image of the train bearing down, headlight glaring like a juggernaut on the hapless figures of Lenya and his wife blindly stumbling over the tracks. In the third play, Feedback, the bureaucracy struggles to prevent the surfacing of its errors and the apportionment of the blame for the premature commissioning of a production line whose safety regulations prevent the further expansion and completion of the plant. Each group denies its responsibility and blames its rival. Eventually when the Party secretary discovers the truth, it is too late to avert enormous financial losses; the guilty party hints that he will not be out of favor long and that perhaps the Party secretary's days are numbered. Far from rosy optimism, Gelman's work - a fusion of drama and publicistics, takes a hard look at certain aspects of industrial life and cries out for change. The laborynth-like nature of the power struggle is strikingly realized in a magnificent set by the Czech designer Josef Svoboda: a soaring pyramid of desks and passageways disappearing at its apex into the depths of the stage and disturbingly interlocked with the incessant jingle of telephones. In his late work Gelman appears to be moving towards more intimate personal concerns such as the relationships between man and wife. The social theme is still present, but in the background as a determining factor upon human conduct. 15 / Dept. of Foreign Langs & Lits George Mason University Fairfax, Virginia 22030 Non-Profit Organization US Postage Paid Fairfax, Vi r ginia Permit No. 1532