2022-23 | Out of the Archive onto the Stage: the Soviet Avant-Garde and its Reception in Britain

'Out of the Archive onto the Stage: the Soviet Avant-Garde and its Reception in Britain'

This collaboration between Rebecca Beasley (Faculty of English) and Menagerie Theatre Company engages with an archive of materials about early Soviet theatre to explore how innovative theatrical techniques can be communicated across time and space. The materials were gathered by Huntly Carter (c. 1870-1942), one of the earliest and most important writers about Soviet theatre in Britain, who brought the innovations of Soviet directors such as Meyerhold, Stanislavsky, and Tairov to British readers, Labour groups, and theatre practitioners during the 1920s. Carter's archives provide a virtually untapped record of early cultural engagement with the Soviet Union, and of one man's attempt to communicate its theatrical innovations through images, interviews, descriptions of performances, and articles about how Soviet theatrical techniques might be adapted by British workers' theatres.

Knowledge Exchange Fellow
Professor Rebecca Beasley  |   Faculty of English   |   University of Oxford

Partner Organisation
Menagerie Theatre Company   |   Patrick Morris