-Vsevolod Meyerhold

The Early Years

V. E. Meyerhold, considered one of the 20th century's greatest theatrical innovators, was born on February 10, 1874 in the Russian town of Penza.  His parents were Prussian citizens, and his father operated a successful liquor business. His childhood home has been preserved as the Penza Theatre Museum.

Meyerhold studied Law at Moscow University for two terms. During this period, he relinquished his German Protestant upbringing and joined the Russian Orthodox Church.  He also married his first wife, Olga Munt, with whom he had three daughters. (NB. Meyerhold's grandaughter, Maria Valentei, is the founder and curator of the Meyerhold Memorial Apartment and appears on this site narrating the Full Videotour and the Audiotour.) 

At this time, Meyerhold became increasingly fascinated with the art of theatre. He had first participated in theatrical performances during high school, but, as the century closed, his interest became serious. He registered for an acting class at the Moscow Art Theatre School, supervised by the co-founder of the theatre, Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko.  Between 1898 and 1902, he worked at the Moscow Art Theatre where he was an actor in a wide range of productions, including The Seagull  (see 3D model of the set of Act I) and The Death of Ivan the Terrible.

The Fertile Years

1902-1907

Meyerhold's career as a stage director began in 1902 and lasted for 37 years. He directed more than 290 productions. His earliest work was characterized by an interest in realism, similar to that of Stanislavsky at the Moscow Art Theatre. From 1902 to 1906, he ran The New Drama Touring Company, where he also acted on occasion (e.g. in Acrobats).

In a series of productions at the Studio of the Moscow Art Theatre in 1905, Meyerhold broke away from realism and demonstrated his uniquely creative approach to directing for the first time.  Some of these explorations, such as The Death of Tintagiles by Maeterlynck and  Schluck and Jau by Hauptmann took place in a laboratory environment  and were not open to the public.

Meyerhold was the first Russian director to develop a symbolist style of theatrical representation. This was while working at Vera Komissarzhevskaya's Theatre in St. Petersburg in 1906 - 07. His productions of Maeterlynck's Sister Beatrice, Blok's The Fair Ground Booth, Andreyev's Life of a Man, and other plays marked his departure from the realistic theatrical tradition. This period of Meyerhold's work was analyzed in his first book of performance theory, Theatre: History and Techniques (1907).

1908-1918

The next important phase of Meyerhold's creative activity, from 1908 to 1918, was devoted to instituting reforms at the great Imperial theatres in St. Petersburg, i.e., the Alexandrinsky Theatre (see 3D model of its interior), and the Mariinsky Opera. There the director worked at synthesizing classical performance traditions with modern interpretations. For example, Moliere's theatrical techniques were integrated into his own production of Don Juan, and elements of Russian romanticism from the early 19th century were blended into The Storm by Ostrovsky and Masquerade by Lermontov.

Concurrently, Meyerhold was operating theatre studios, intending to improve the training of actors to prepare them to participate in these productions.  The focus was on developing the skills of traditional, non-realistic theater styles. For example, techniques of the commedia dell'arte were practiced in their original form and then applied to post-symbolist works such as A. Blok's poetic dramas The Fair Ground Booth and The Beautiful Lady. In addition, using the pseudonym Dr. Dapertutto, Meyerhold created dramatic performances and pantomimes at small artistic cabarets like the House of Interludes.  

This was also a time of extraordinary collaborations. Meyerhold combined his talents with those of outstanding painters of The World of Art group. Among those who created striking designs for his productions were Alexander Golovin, Leon Bakst, Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, Nikolai Sapunov, and Sergei Sudeikin.

Meyerhold's contribution to the directing of opera was also notable.  He developed new and distinctive productions of masterpieces by Gluck, Wagner, Mussorgsky, Stravinsky, and other composers while working with the best performers including the world-famous bass Fyodor Shalyapin. 

The accomplishments of this amazing man did not stop there. In 1912, Meyerhold reached outside the boundaries of Russia to produce La Pisanella by D'Annunzio at the Châtelet Théâtre in Paris. The same year, he wrote his theoretical tract The Show Booth. In the late teens, he experimented with cinema, directing The Portrait of Dorian Gray, based on Wilde's novel, and A Strong Man by Przybyszewski. 

The intelligentsia of Russian society responded enthusiastically to Meyerhold's great theatrical innovations. However, Imperial officials were not so pleased. They exerted heavy pressure to reform, demanding that Meyerhold revert to a conventional, realistic style for the Emperor's theatres.

As a result, the October revolution of 1917 was especially significant to.  Meyerhold and other avant-garde artists. They were pleased by the collapse of the conventional bourgeois arts establishment. They looked forward to having the freedom to engage in bold and modern cultural experiments under the revolutionary Bolsheviks.

Meyerhold even joined the Social Democratic (later Communist) Party in 1918.  This was a risky decision, since as that time it was impossible to anticipate the direction the rapidly changing political tides in Russia were going to flow.  Still, Meyerhold was the auteur of the Revolution's first professional theatre production, Mystery-Bouffe, based on Mayakovsky's play (1918). Shortly afterwards, the anti-Bolshevik White Army arrested and imprisoned him. While incarcerated, he was treated for tuberculosis.  

1919-1930

Upon his release by the Red Army, Meyerhold moved to Moscow and was appointed Head of the Theatre Department of Narkompros, a kind of Bolshevik Culture Ministry. He held this position during 1920 and 1921. There, Meyerhold originated a program of new Russian theatre, based on ideas of democratic theatricality similar to Renaissance aesthetics. In this format, combined with some avant-garde features, Meyerhold created productions for his new company, called RSFSR First Theatre.  They included The Dawn (1920) and Mystery-Bouffe (second version, 1921). These works were not supported by Bolshevik leaders, and were sharply criticized by Lenin's wife N. Krupskaya in the leading party newspaper, Pravda.  As a consequence, the theatre was closed, and Meyerhold was fired from his position.

In 1922, Meyerhold founded his experimental company (named the Vsevolod Meyerhold Theatre a year later). He worked with this organization for 16 years. Most of the actors were trained by Meyerhold himself and his closest collaborators. The training technique was Biomechanics which Meyerhold developed. (see Video and Panoramics archives, and Research archive on this topic), 

In productions of the early twenties, Meyerhold presented his approach to Constructivism, or Theatre Productivism, featuring abstract, intensely dynamic, anti-realistic and non-representational action, aimed at creating an "independent reality" on stage.  Productions included The Magnanimous Cuckold by Crommelynck (1922) and The Death of Tarelkin by Sukhovo-Kobylin (1923).  He also produced highly theatrical Renaissance-inspired events using some elements of political cabaret, including The Forest by Ostrovsky (1924, see 3D model of the set design) and D.E. based on contemporary novels  (1924). At the same time, Meyerhold created several performances for wider audiences at the Revolution Theatre, such as A Lucrative Post by Ostrovsky and Lake Lyul  by Faiko. Bolshevik reaction to these works was profoundly negative; the attack was directed toward their lack of realistic clarity and political relevance.

Beginning in the mid-twenties, productions by Meyerhold were based on the aesthetics of the tragic grotesque. Some of them were seen outside Russia on tours to Germany and France through 1930. They included Bubus the Teacher by Faiko (1925), The Mandate by Erdman (1925), and Woe to Wit by Griboedov (1928). Perhaps the best known of  this series is The Government Inspector by Gogol (1926).  The latter production was one of the most complicated philosophic and apocalyptic phantasmagorias in the European arts of the 20th century, similar to the painting of Picasso or Dali, the music of Shostakovich or Britten, or the novels of Mann or Kafka. (See Video and Photo archive.)

Meyerhold's work continued. Though the avant-garde production of Tretyakov's play I Want a Child was banned, in the late 1920s Meyerhold succeeded in producing two incisive political satires by Mayakovsky, The Bedbug (1929) and The Bathhouse (1930).  He also participated as an actor in The White Eagle, a grotesque-style film directed by Yakov Protazanov (1928).

In 1929, Meyerhold moved, with his family, to his last home in Moscow.  The site is now Meyerhold's Memorial Apartment. (See Video Tour and 3D Panorama)

The Final Years

Under strict censorship throughout the 1930s, Meyerhold attempted to convey the tragic spirit of his productions indirectly and covertly, through subtext and atmospheric innuendo. This was characteristic of A List of Assets by Olesha, Prelude by Germann, Krechinsky's Wedding by Sukhovo-Kobylin, and Lady of the Camellias by Dumas (fils), as well as the opera Queen of Spades by Tchaikovsky which was produced at the Maly Opera Theatre in St. Petersburg.

Despite this depressing time, Meyerhold developed an exceedingly ambitious project -- the design for a new building for his theatre.  He wanted to realize his ideal of generating highly technical, multistage theatre action in a three-dimensional space, with the vigor and energy  of a market place. Construction began, but the building was never completed.

Meyerhold's standing with Stalin's regime was increasingly precarious.  His last new production which the censorship officials allowed to run was  33 Fainting Fits  by Chekhov (1935). The visionary director was accused of being an anti-Soviet formalist and of being unable to create politically accurate performances for the Soviet proletariat.

In 1939, Meyerhold was arrested and accused of anti-government political activities. He was executed in Moscow on February 2, 1940.