The Formation of the Visual Theatre Aesthetics: Theater Practice and Experiments of the Russian Avant-garde in the 1900–1930s

Abstract

The visual theater is now rapidly developing on the Russian stage. In such performances the director, like an artist creates visibly embodied poetic images in the theater space and uses an actor as an element of the stage composition. The works of “visualists” — R. Wilson, R. Castellucci, J. Nadj, D. Krymov, “Engineering Theater AKHE”, etc. — clearly demonstrate one of the defining trends of contemporary theatre: the transfer of effective activity from the verbal component to the visual elements. However, despite the seeming novelty of techniques, the ideas developed by modern directors in the visual theatre often turn out to be high-tech, but quite logical continuation of theatre and artistic avant-garde experiments of the 1900–1930s. That was the time when artists and directors began to explore intensively each other’s possibilities and started to move towards each other. In the article the development of approaches to work with visual imagery as a sense-making element of the performance is explored on the example of performances staged by V. Meyerhold, A. Tairov, E. G. Craig (“Hamlet” in the Moscow Art Theatre, 1909–1911) etc. On the example of theoretical works and scenic experiments of V. Kandinsky, K. Malevich, V. Tatlin etc., it is studied how the Russian avant-garde started to bring under theatrical techniques. The author analyzes the process of mutual influence between the theater and fine arts at the beginning of the 20th century and establishes parallels between experiments of the 1900–1930s and the main aesthetic conventions of modern visual theater.