Enough Stupidity in Every Wise Man | |
---|---|
Written by | Aleksandr Ostrovsky |
Date premiered | 13 November [ O.S. 1 November] 1868 |
Original language | Russian |
Genre | Comedy |
Enough Stupidity in Every Wise Man ( Russian: На всякого мудреца довольно простоты; translit. Na vsyakogo mudretsa dovolno prostoty) is a five- act comedy by Aleksandr Ostrovsky. [1] The play offers a satirical treatment of bigotry and charts the rise of a double-dealer who manipulates other people's vanities. [2] It is Ostrovsky's best-known comedy in the West. [3]
1868 – Alexandrinsky Theatre, Saint Petersburg.
1868 – Maly Theatre, Moscow.
1885 – Korsh Theatre, Moscow.
The seminal Russian theatre director Konstantin Stanislavsky directed the play with his Moscow Art Theatre. [4] The production opened on 23 March [ O.S. 11 March] 1910. [4] Stanislavski played General Krutitsky [4] and Kachalov played Glumov.
A production of the play was the most significant of the early theatre work of the Russian Soviet film director Sergei Eisenstein. [5] The playwright Sergei Tretyakov transformed Ostrovsky's text into a revue (what Eisenstein called a "montage of attractions"), which was entitled Wiseman (Mudrets). [6] Eisenstein and Tretyakov's approach was part of the Russian avant-garde Futurist movement known as " Eccentricism," which sought the " circusisation" of the theatre. [7] In celebration of the centennial of Ostrovsky's birth, the production opened in April 1923. [8] It was staged by the First Workers' Theatre of the Prolekult in its theatre in the Arseny Morozov House, an ornate mansion on Vozdvizhenka Street, with a cast that included Maxim Shtraukh, Ivan Pyryev, and Grigori Aleksandrov. [9] Eisenstein drew on popular theatre techniques such as farce and the commedia dell'arte in his staging, which sought to make every metaphor concrete and physical; he wrote: [10]
A gesture turns into gymnastics, rage is expressed through a somersault, exaltation through a salto-mortale, lyricism by a run along a tightrope. The grotesque of this style permitted leaps from one type of expression to another, as well as unexpected intertwinings of the two expressions. [11]
A screening of Eisenstein's first film, entitled Glumov's Diary, concluded the performance. [5] Writing in 1928, Eisenstein explained that he had aimed "to achieve a revolutionary modernization of Ostrovsky, i.e., a social re-evaluation of his characters, seeing them as they might appear today." [12]
Boris Nirenburg and A. Remizova directed an adaptation of the play for television in 1971. [13]
Enough Stupidity in Every Wise Man | |
---|---|
Written by | Aleksandr Ostrovsky |
Date premiered | 13 November [ O.S. 1 November] 1868 |
Original language | Russian |
Genre | Comedy |
Enough Stupidity in Every Wise Man ( Russian: На всякого мудреца довольно простоты; translit. Na vsyakogo mudretsa dovolno prostoty) is a five- act comedy by Aleksandr Ostrovsky. [1] The play offers a satirical treatment of bigotry and charts the rise of a double-dealer who manipulates other people's vanities. [2] It is Ostrovsky's best-known comedy in the West. [3]
1868 – Alexandrinsky Theatre, Saint Petersburg.
1868 – Maly Theatre, Moscow.
1885 – Korsh Theatre, Moscow.
The seminal Russian theatre director Konstantin Stanislavsky directed the play with his Moscow Art Theatre. [4] The production opened on 23 March [ O.S. 11 March] 1910. [4] Stanislavski played General Krutitsky [4] and Kachalov played Glumov.
A production of the play was the most significant of the early theatre work of the Russian Soviet film director Sergei Eisenstein. [5] The playwright Sergei Tretyakov transformed Ostrovsky's text into a revue (what Eisenstein called a "montage of attractions"), which was entitled Wiseman (Mudrets). [6] Eisenstein and Tretyakov's approach was part of the Russian avant-garde Futurist movement known as " Eccentricism," which sought the " circusisation" of the theatre. [7] In celebration of the centennial of Ostrovsky's birth, the production opened in April 1923. [8] It was staged by the First Workers' Theatre of the Prolekult in its theatre in the Arseny Morozov House, an ornate mansion on Vozdvizhenka Street, with a cast that included Maxim Shtraukh, Ivan Pyryev, and Grigori Aleksandrov. [9] Eisenstein drew on popular theatre techniques such as farce and the commedia dell'arte in his staging, which sought to make every metaphor concrete and physical; he wrote: [10]
A gesture turns into gymnastics, rage is expressed through a somersault, exaltation through a salto-mortale, lyricism by a run along a tightrope. The grotesque of this style permitted leaps from one type of expression to another, as well as unexpected intertwinings of the two expressions. [11]
A screening of Eisenstein's first film, entitled Glumov's Diary, concluded the performance. [5] Writing in 1928, Eisenstein explained that he had aimed "to achieve a revolutionary modernization of Ostrovsky, i.e., a social re-evaluation of his characters, seeing them as they might appear today." [12]
Boris Nirenburg and A. Remizova directed an adaptation of the play for television in 1971. [13]