Yury Lyubimov at the Taganka Theatre, 1964-1994

Canadian Slavonic Papers, Mar 2001 by Elena Siemens

Birgit Beumers. Yury Lyubimov at the Taganka Theatre, 1964-1994. Contemporary Theatre Studies, vol. 21. Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1997. xviii, 361 pp. Illustrations. Notes. Appendices. Select Bibliography. Index. $126.00, cloth. $42.00, paper.

Birgit Beumers argues that Yury Lyubimov's productions at the Taganka Theatre "are tied not to the system under which they were created, but to the society he lived in and to the audience he played for." This is why her monograph aims to characterize Lyubimov "through his artistic work" rather than dwelling on his disagreements with the Soviet authorities that reached their apogee in 1984, at which time he was dismissed from his post at the Taganka, expelled from the Party and stripped of his Soviet citizenship.

Beumers divides Lyubimov's work at the Taganka Theatre into three thematic phases. Part I of her book deals with the "socio-political agitation of the 1960s" and describes the development of Lyubimov's "poetic theatre," which began with the production of Brecht's The Good Person of Szechwan, Lyubimov's first show at the Taganka theatre, and was further refined in his adaptations of, among others, Lermontov, Mayakovsky and Voznesensky. This part also includes a discussion of the post-thaw period of the late 1960s, when the officials banned the Taganka theatre from touring the country, as well as prohibiting it from performing Boris Mozhaev's The Tough: From the Life of Fedor Kuzkin.

Part II, "The Tragic Dimensions of the 1970s," addresses Lyubimov's changing attitude to the role of the individual, whom he no longer sees as a member of a group, but rather as a lonely tragic figure confronting a hostile environment. Beumers points out that in this period Lyubimov "had developed a series of devices which essentially served one sole purpose: to strengthen the sincerity of the individual in society as much as that of the actor." Like the previous part, this portion of her book gives a thorough summary of each individual production, starting with But the Dawns here are so Calm, a popular World War II show, and ending with Three Sisters that was performed in the new building constructed next door to the old Taganka theatre in 1981. One of the most interesting features of the new building was that the back wall of the stage had three rows of windows and doors that opened directly into the street. As Beumers reports, in the first and last scenes of Three Sisters, the "mirror panels at the side of the stage were lowered to open the view into the streets of the contemporary dull or bright, sunny or snowy streets of Moscow," and this reminded the audience that what "the Moscow the sisters are longing for is there outside, before the audience's eyes."

The last two parts of the monograph deal respectively with Lyubimov's work in the West in the 1980s and his "musical visions" after his return to Russia in the early 1990s. Beumers argues that the last phase of Lyubimov's work "had been prepared by his work in the opera, where there are, analogous to the development in the theatre, three stages: formal innovation, the theme of tragic human existence, and religion." Having described Lyubimov's opera productions in Russia and abroad, Beumers moves, in the last part, to Lyubimov's 1990s shows, including his adaptations of Pushkin's Boris Godunov and Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago, that highlight the role of music in theatre and feature many choir performances. Beumers explains that the reason for which Lyubimov began to privilege the musical component in his more recent productions created in the post-Soviet era was that "the emphasis on the visual proved too intellectual an approach to generate a spiritual rebirth."

Lyubimov's attempt, after his return to Russia, "to restore the Taganka to its function as a place where people could find moral and spiritual support" did not produce the outcome he had hoped for. In concluding her monograph, Beumers states that "it seems that all the audience ever wanted to hear from the Taganka stage was criticism of politics." It is true that in the new Russia, theatre no longer plays the same elevated role it once did and that it now has to share the limelight with the Church and the political arena. However, the reason for the diminishing popularity of the Taganka may lay not only in the changing function of theatre. Lyubimov's vision of how Russia should achieve its spiritual rebirth is now only one of many competing visions proposed by other rebellious directors, some of whom appear to strike a more resonant cord with the public.

Lyubimov was a rebel at a time when being a rebel was not in fashion and when propagating free thought led to serious problems with the authorities. He also dared to pursue models other than those proposed by Stanislavsky, who was then seen as the final authority on theatre. Lyubimov therefore well deserves the kind of homage that Beumers pays him in her exceptionally thorough monograph. In addition to the illuminating discussion of Lyubimov's productions staged prior to 1994, Beumers' monograph contains several helpful appendices that detail the chronology of his career and provide important statistical data. One possible drawback of the book is that its reader may obtain the impression that Lyubimov alone is responsible for the creation of the Taganka theatre. For more information on other important figures associated with the Taganka, readers might wish to consult Alexander Gershkovich's Teatr na Taganke that includes, among other things, a chapter on Vladimir Vysotsky, one of the Taganka's brightest stars, as well as a tought-provoking discussion of director Anatoly Efros, who replaced Lyubimov during his exile in the West. Overall, Beumers' work is an excellent addition to the study of the Taganka Theatre and of contemporary Russian theatre in general.