Description: "The era known as the Thaw (1953-64) was a crucial period in the history of the Soviet Union. It was a time when the legacy of Stalin unravelled, when brief moments of liberalisation saw dramatic changes to society, and when narratives of the Soviet Union's recent past were revised and rewritten. By exploring theatre productions, play texts and cultural debates during this period, this book sheds light on to a society in flux, one in which the cultural norms, subjects and hierarchies of the previous era were being rethought. It reveals how the practice and theories of key practitioners - including Konstantin Stanislavsky and Vsevolod Meyerhold - developed in Russia and how their legacies were perceived"--
Brief description: Jesse Gardiner is Lecturer in Russian at the University of St Andrews, UK.
Review Quotes:
"This is a well-considered, reader-friendly work." --Choice
"From the Introduction, which works both as a who's who of early twentieth-century Russian theatre and as a crash course in Soviet politics from the revolution through the Thaw, to the Epilogue detailing the Thaw's legacy of nuanced, mixed-genre drama, Gardiner's book provides authoritative detail on the direct relationship between theatre and politics and how this affected Soviet culture." --Modern Language Review