The Moscow Yiddish Theatre

ISBN: 030011513X

Author: Harshav, Benjamin

Condition: New

A vivid portrait of the Moscow Yiddish Theater and its innovations and contributions to the art of the theater in the modern ageThe Moscow Yiddish Theater (later called GOSET) was born in 1919 and almost immediately became one of the most remarkable avant-garde theaters in Europe. It flourished in the 1920s but under Bolshevik pressure soon lost much of the originality that had distinguished it. In 1948 Stalins henchmen slaughtered GOSETs legendary actor and director Solomon Mikhoels, and the theater was liquidated. This book focuses not on how the theater was persecuted but on its ambitious beginnings as a revolutionary organization of passionate artistic exploration. The book brings to English readers for the first time selected writings that reflect the aesthetics and politics of the Yiddish revolutionary theater. The book also incorporates miraculously salvaged images of Marc Chagalls famous theater murals, as well as paintings of costumes and stage sets created by the best artists of the day. These illustrations, discovered only after the fall of the Soviet Union, have never been published before. With emphasis on the theaters early achievements and its centrality in Moscows burgeoning theater world, the book makes a major contribution to the understanding of modern Jewish culture and the art of theater.