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Soviet Union [USSR] Theater
Soviet citizens have a rich cultural heritage in theater. Two
of the most internationally famous theaters, Moscow's Bolshoi
Theater and Leningrad's Kirov Theater, attracted both domestic and
foreign audiences with striking performances in huge, ornate, and
festive halls. The performers who played to sold-out performances
in these theaters and who adhered to the regime's acting and
directing guidelines received special benefits such as worldwide
travel, luxurious apartments, and the highest state honors for
their artistic contributions. Those artists, however, who chose to
portray views opposed to the regime's artistic standards
experienced shame and denunciation, even though audiences often
admired them.
Such an artist was Vladimir Vysotskii. In his short lifetime,
Vysotskii attracted widespread popularity but railed against a
system he opposed. Although he died in 1980 of a heart attack,
apparently the result of alcoholism, Vysotskii's mass appeal became
in many ways more pervasive after his death. His memory evolved
into a veritable cult, with thousands of people mourning the
anniversaries of his death by filing past his burial place. This
balladeer and actor, who for years played such famous roles as
Hamlet under the tutelage of Taganka Theater director Iurii
Liubimov, raised the avant-garde theater to a cultural pinnacle in
Moscow by attracting thousands of followers, even for unannounced
or unpublicized programs that featured his protests, often against
the leadership's failings. His poetry and music, once banned in the
Soviet Union, have been disseminated throughout the country and
depict bureaucratic corruption, elitism, poverty, war, and prison
camp horror. In the late 1980s, Vysotskii's mentor, Liubimov,
continued to leave an indelible mark on the theater, even after his
forced exile by the authorities and the bans on his productions. He
lived abroad and continued to produce masterpieces adapted from
Gor'kiy's novel Mother, Bertold Brecht's play The Good
Woman of Szechuan, Mikhail Bulgakov's novel The Master and
Margarita, and Fedor Dostoevskii's novel Crime and
Punishment, making him the greatest Soviet theatrical director.
The Taganka Theater performed without him, but the stage did not
retain the same popularity. Under Gorbachev, Liubimov was allowed
back to his homeland to direct his version of the opera Boris
Godunov, banned in 1983 when he was forced to leave the Soviet
Union. However, Liubimov remained only long enough to oversee the
project's completion and left of his own accord, preferring to live
abroad.
After 1985 a degree of liberalization similar to that permitted
for literature and cinema prevailed for the stage. In 1985 and
1986, approximately 10 percent of the directors were replaced in
favor of younger and more innovative directors, who, in turn,
opened the door to more creative playwrights. In addition, theater
groups (collectives) gained "full independence in the selection of
plays," releasing them in some measure from the onus of the
regime's authoritarian and arbitrary decisions. As a result of
these changes, playwrights such as Mikhail Shatrov blossomed within
the freer theater environment. In 1986 his "neo-Leninist" work
Dictatorship of Conscience, which portrayed Stalin and
Brezhnev as shady and sometimes unfaithful communists, played to
receptive audiences. Shatrov's other prominent play from the
1987-88 period, . . . Further . . . Further, and Further!,
offered a scathing indictment of the Stalin period, this time
concentrating on Lenin's legacy and the way Stalin manipulated the
other Bolshevik leaders during the 1920s in his successful effort
to defeat them. Shatrov captured the characters of many early
revolutionary leaders, using strong dialogue to depict vivid
conflicts.
Data as of May 1989
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