Searching for new forms of collectivity: Ensembles and recitation choirs in Russian avant-garde theatre

Abstract

The paper focuses on ensembles and collective choirs, two remarkable phenomena in Russian theatre during the frst quarter of the 20th century. Both challenged the concepts of “drama” and “the dramatic” based on mimesis and led the way not only to new verbal techniques, but also to the creation of new relationships between actors and spectators. Prior to the Revolution, Russian theatre had become a laboratory for developing collective choirs and many other collective performative forms. The Revolution, which brought about a call for new artistic forms to express the idea of “collectivity”, had a catalytic effect on the spread of recitation choirs which fourished after 1917. While the concept of the choir, rooted in the idea of equality and coordination, ftted rather well with the concept of the social revolution and its artistic principles, other collective artistic forms, such as the ensemble, found it challenging to adjust to the egalitarian nature of post-revolutionary art. Where the pre-revolutionary ensemble and the choir opposed each other in their core principles, after 1917 there were attempts to synthesize them into new genres, such as the staging of poem. An example of this was The Insurrection by Emile Verhaeren (1918; dir. V. Smyshliaev), which is discussed in the paper.