Nikolai Evreinov was one of the pioneer, who led the Russian theater in early 20th century. But because of historical and social situation as revolution, exile and cold war, he was not known and evaluated properly. The Purpose of this dissertation is to research his theatrical achievement and to find the connection point between his theory and contemporary theater.
Evreinov worked actively as a playwright, director and theorist in the age of Russian revolution. He played a leading role in establishing various modern theater theory such as the play instinct of human beings, healing function of the play, the interaction of the stage and audience, performance in daily life and so on. As well as he showed the potential to expand Theater''s range into other study such as aesthetics, sociology, anthropology, psychology.
To sum up Evreinov''s view of theater with a word, it can be called ‘Theatricality’. He used this word in two aspects. The first is stressing the stagedness at play, it was a reaction against the ‘realism’ theater which was represented by Moscow Art Theatre at that age. And it was in the same lines with Russian avant-garde theater movement.
Secondly, Evreinov uses this term as ‘theatricality in daily life’ and ‘theatricality as a human instinct’. The instinct of theatricality which he claimed may be described as the desire to be ‘different’, to do something that is ‘different’, to imagine oneself in surrounding that are ‘different’ from the commonplace surrounding of our everyday life. Evreivov''s this view expanded theater''s category from the stage to the reality and daily life and thus, it could meet the modern ‘Post drama theater’ and ‘Performance Study’ with the distinct connection.
I would like to introduce these theories of Evreinov which recently were newly recognized the value as a pioneer in the various concepts of contemporary play. There are two layer believed to be meaningful in this study, one is related to the early 20th century Russia''s arts. Discovering another forgotten gifted artist who led the golden age of Russian theater, it can enrich the map of Russian avant-garde theater, which influenced in modern theater art deeply. And another point of view, this study could revalidate Evreinov''s theatrical meaning and position his historical area.
Based on preceding studies made so far, this study will search Evreinov''s theater theory, focusing on his ‘theatricality’. Particularly the research will be carrying out through his later and most famous play <The Main Thing>. This play is not only his masterpiece, but also is the most important key to understand his view of theater because it dramatizes his various theory of theater in a comprehensive form. So many scholars evaluated <The Main Thing> as a ‘play version of the theory summary’.
Indeed, in this play Evreinov''s various ideas of theater were disclosed including the reason play is need to, theater on stage vs. theater in life, performance in daily life, and the healing power of theater. Moreover, these ideas have dramatized in the play through the specific figures and affair, so we can estimate his ideas in the stage and real life as well as in the level of theory.
In this context is this paper would search for Evereinov''s theatrical ideas focusing on <The Main Thing>. First of all, in chapter II I will introduce his career as director and writer and theorist briefly, and in chapter III, study his theories in earnest. In this chapter I shed light on his theories into three parts.
First, I analysed some scenes in <The Main Thing> and introduced the concepts of ‘theatrical instinct’ and ‘theater of life’, which are regarded as the cores of his theories.
Secondly, I studied the Commedia dell''arte and Carnival as the specific practice system of theatricality. The former has a meaning as a stylized theatricality and the latter as a maximized theatricality. In particular, searching for the meaning of Commedia dell''arte, I explore the character of Harlequin in the same time. Evreinov was fascinated by Harlequin all his life, and it became his personal Persona in most of his works.
The next, I studied how his theatricality could be extended to the social level. In this part I dealt with the healing power of theater and with the concept of ‘God of Theater’ as the type of salvation.
Finally In chapter IV, I searched the association between his ideas and the contemporary theater theories in various aspects. First I look back his theater achievements as a descendant of the Historical Avan-garde Theater Movements. And then searched the relationship between his concept of ‘theatricality’ and the term ‘theatricality’ in the context of post-dramatic theater. Also I introduced his pioneering concept of ‘the theater therapy’ with the significant achievement expanding the concept of theater to the broader category such as anthropology, psychology, sociology.