WIP · World in Pocket

Kamerny Theatre

Москва, Italy

Kamerny Theatre

The Kamerny Theatre was a chamber theatre in Moscow, founded in 1914 by director Alexander Tairov (1885–1950). Over the next 35 years, this small, intimate theater became "recognized as a major force in Russian theater". Considered among the better presentations staged at the theater were: Princess

Brambilla (1920), Phèdre and Giroflé-Girofla (1922), Desire Under the Elms (1926), Day and Night (1926), The Negro (1929), The Beggars' Opera (1930) and Vishnevsky's An Optimistic Tragedy (1933). Tairov's primary collaborator in building the sets was Aleksandra Ekster, and these were based upon the period's constructivist style. The decor for the theatre was designed by Konstantin Medunetsky. For three decades the theater survived the effects of the Russian Revolution by remaining unpolitical, instead adopting a post-revolutionary romantic idealism and relying heavily on classical material from the east and west. However, in 1928, the Kamerny put on Crimson Island by Mikhail Bulgakov, which was a satire that openly mocked the government. As a result, Stalin labeled the Kamerny 'a real bourgeois theater'. Thereafter, the theater had need to reform their presentation. The Soviet authorities...

Listen to the audio guide for Kamerny Theatre Free on WIP — starts by itself when you arrive, even with the screen off

Nearby