From Library Journal
For this anthology, Langen (doctorate in Slavic languages from Northwestern Univ.) and Weir (visiting professor of Russian, Reed Coll.) translated eight Russian plays published between 1901 and 1953. The works comprise three prerevolutionary plays: Zinaida Gippius's symbolic play, Sacred Blood; Alexander Blok's mystical The Unknown Woman; and Vladimir Mayakovsky's cubofuturistic tragedy titled Vladimir Mayakovsky. The book also contains three postrevolutionary plays of the 1920s: Victor Ardov's satire The Case of the Entry Room; Valentin Kataev's comedy Squaring the Circle; and Daniil Kharms's experimental absurdist play Elizabeth Bam. Vladimir Kirshon's 1930 Socialist realist play Grain and Leonid Zorin's 1953 glasnostic play The Guest complete this anthology. Langen and Weir's translations, four of which are firsts, are eloquent and poetic, with enriched Russian nationalistic flavor. The introduction, "Revolutions in Drama," provides analysis of each play within its literary, political, and social context. These plays illustrate the Russians' soul-searching for morality and skepticism about the meaning of the revolution. Recommended for all academic and large public libraries.
-Ming-ming Shen Kuo, Ball State Univ. Lib., Muncie, IN Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Despite sometimes severe censorship and the ever-present threat of government interference, the twentieth century was a rich time for Russian drama. Many of the most potent theatrical ideas that swept through Europe and America--Chekovian drama, Stanislavskyan realism, expressionism, agitprop--have Russian and Soviet roots. This compact volume captures the sweep of Russia's contribution to world theater, from Zinaida Gippius' sweet symbolist drama
Sacred Blood (1901) to Mayakovsky's relentlessly avant garde
Vladimir Mayakovsky (1913) to Leonid Zorin's fearlessly realistic critique of Soviet life
The Guests (1953). Not all eight plays are equally fascinating; Mayakovsky's is especially rough going, though blessedly short. Some of the comedies' humor doesn't translate clearly; Valentin Kataev's
Squaring the Circle (1928), a mild satire of the recently installed Soviet system, must have seemed funnier then. Nevertheless, the anthology, especially by giving some hard-to-find plays new currency, constitutes an eye-opening introduction to the fertility of the Russian dramatic mind.
Jack Helbig
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
