Meyerhold Theater, Moscow (1920–1938)

Designer unknown
Book: Teatr imeni Vs. Meyerholda, 1920–1925. 25 aprelia 1926 goda. Moskva
(Vs. Meyerhold Theater, 1920–1925. April 25, 1926) Moscow, 1926
Lithograph, 10 1/2 x 6 7/8” (26.5 x 17.5 cm)

Vsevolod Meyerhold (Russian, 1874–1940) launched his theater career in 1897 at the Moscow Art Theater. He broke early with the prevailing psychological realism that itself expressed a revolt against previous academic stage conventions. In 1920, in the wake of the Russian Revolution, Meyerhold founded the experimental theater company with which he would work for the next eighteen years. His provocative experiments in nonrealistic theater made him one of the seminal forces in avant-garde theater. His theory of biomechanical acting, for example, featured gesture and movement over psychological interpretation.  

Excerpted from our recently published book, Alla Rosenfeld, Russian and Soviet Theater, Opera, Variety Show, and Dance: Works in the Merrill C. Berman Collection.

Liubov Popova
Weekly program (cover and spreads): Ahtpakt, no. 3 (of 7 published)
Moscow: Vsevolod Meyerhold, 1923
Letterpress 23 x 11” (17 x 13 cm), closed

Seven posters, likely by Ilya Shlepianov, announcing performances of the following plays at the Meyerhold Theater, 1924–1925
Each: Lithograph, 27 x 42” (68.5 x 106.5), approx.

The D.E. Trust: play in three parts and seventeen episodes adapted by Mikhail Podgaetsky from stories by Ilya Ehrenburg and Bernard Kellermann. Produced by Meyerhold for the Meyerhold Theater in the Greater Hall of the Leningrad Conservatoire on 15 July 1924, with choreography by Kasian Goleizovsky, jazz music by Valentin Parnakh, and design by Ilya Shlepianov.

The Forest: comedy by Aleksandr Ostrovsky. Produced by Meyerhold for the Meyerhold Theater, Moscow, January 19, 1924.

The Mandate: comedy in three acts by Nikolai Erdman. Produced by Vsevolod Meyerhold at the Meyerhold Theater, Moscow, on April 20, 1925, with designs by Ilya Shlepianov.

Bubus the Teacher: musical comedy in three acts by Aleksei Faiko. Produced by Vsevolod Meyerhold at the Meyerhold Theater, Moscow, 29 January, 1925, with music by Frederic Chopin and Franz Liszt, and designs by Ilya Shlepianov

Designer unknown
Poster announcing performances of The Inspector General, The Forest,
A List of Assets, The Magnanimous Cuckhold), and The Last and Decisive One (May 25–June 20, 1932), 1932
Lithograph, 22 3/8 x 28 1/2” (57 x 72.5 cm)

Designer unknown
Poster announcing tour of the Meyerhold Theater at the Theater of the Revolution in Odessa (June 15–30, 1935), 1935
Lithograph, 26 1/2 x 38 3/4” (67 x 98.5 cm)

N. Leistikov
Book cover: A. Fevral’skii, Desiat’ let teatra Meyerhol’da
(Ten Years of the Meyerhold Theater)
Moscow: Federatsiia, 1931
Lithograph, 7 x 5” (18 x 12.5 cm)

September 24, 2024