87total visits.
http://doi.org/10.33234/SSR.21.6
Published 19/3/25
Elena A. Semenova
PhD (of the Pedagogical Science),
Non-profit partnership “Theatre-EX”, Moscow, Russia.
semenova05@list.ru
Abstract
The article is devoted to the phenomenon of Russian cabaret, which developed rapidly from 1908 to 1917. A hypothesis is put forward, according to which not all cabarets can be attributed to cabaret theatres. Unlike cabarets, cabaret theatres emerged not in the conditions of art crisis, but at the peak of theatre art development, as a professional actor subculture, which the author proposes to call actor’s laughter communities. For the first time, the famous Russian cabaret theatre ‘The Bat’ is considered as a carnival recreation that laid the foundations of the modern informal carnival tradition in Russian theatre art, which combined dramatic art with the art of clowning and street theatre. The revival of cabaret theatre traditions is examined on the example of Vyacheslav Polunin’s pedagogical work with students on the practical study of clowning and street theatre within the framework of the project ‘Fools on the Volga’ in 2003.
Keywords: cabaret, Russian cabaret theatre, carnival recreation, Vyacheslav Polunin, clowning.