[This is the second part of my post on Soviet playwright Yevgenii Shvarts. If you haven’t read part one, covering Shvarts’s biography and a little literary criticism, I strongly recommend you go back and do so before reading these script reports. It will make more sense to you if you have the background provided in the earlier installment.
[These are the three script
evaluations I wrote for StageArts (which is now defunct) on Shvarts plays. I can’t remember for certain by whom I was
introduced to these plays; I think it must have been my production dramaturgy
professor at NYU, but I’m not sure. (If
so, she probably suggested I read The Shadow and when I found it so engaging, I
went on to read the other two.)
[I only noted the sources
of the texts of two of the plays—they were all in different anthologies, which
is why they each use a different spelling for the author’s name—but I’m sure
the books are all out of print now; they may already have been when I read
them. There’s a later edition of all
three of these plays in one volume which seems to be available in both used and
new copies and may still be in print: Yevgheny Shvarts, The Naked King, The Shadow
and The Dragon (London/New York: Boyars, Marion Publishers, 1976).
[I see that only one of the
reports is dated—but they were all written at pretty much the same time in
1984, which is when I started working at StageArts. (I hadn’t devised a reporting form yet, so
these were all written up ad hoc.) The
evaluations below are arranged in the order in which I read the plays. (I have done a little up-dating of some
historical details, but I haven’t changed my 1984 assessments.)]
THE SHADOW
Тень (Tyen’, 1940)
by Evgeny Lvovich Shvarts
Plot Synopsis: a young Scholar, studying in a country where
fairy tales come true, hears the story of a mysterious Princess who will return
to the throne and rule the country when she marries. As it turns out, the Princess is hiding out
in the apartment across the street, and the Scholar sees and falls in love with
her when she appears on her balcony. The
Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, not wanting to lose their positions
when a new king and queen mount the throne, intrigue to prevent the
marriage.
The
Scholar loses his shadow, which reappears as a rival for the Princess’s
hand. The Shadow conspires with the two
ministers, and, having befriended the Scholar, deceives both the young man and
the ministers, becomes engaged to the Princess, and assumes control of the
country. The Scholar, who is too
innocent and honest to understand the duplicity that has been used to trick
him, tries to discover why the Princess left him.
Annunziata,
the daughter of the Scholar’s landlord, has been his friend and has silently
loved him since the beginning. She tells
him that his rival is his former Shadow, and tries to convince him not to
pursue the Princess. He does anyway, and
the Shadow has him sentenced to death.
He is taken off and beheaded, and the Shadow’s head falls at the moment
the Scholar’s is lost off-stage.
With
the help of some magic water, the Scholar is restored to life, and the Shadow,
too, regains his head. The Scholar rejects
the Princess, accepts the love of Annunziata who saved his life, and leaves the
country. The Shadow disappears, and the
country is left much as it was before.
Theme: A study in duplicity and fickleness, The
Shadow is a satirical comedy on social manners. Except for the Scholar and Annunziata, all
the characters are either out for personal gain or inconstant in their
feelings. Insensitivity and deception
are common, and loyalty is nonexistent.
History: The Shadow was
written between 1937 and 1940 specifically for the Leningrad Comedy Theater on the suggestion of director-set
designer Nikolai Akimov, after The Naked
King was banned from being shown in the same theater.
The
première took place on 12 April 1940 and the first edition of the text was
released by the publishing house of the Comedy Theater. The book was illustrated with Akimov’s
renderings of costumes for the performance.
Subsequent
productions were mounted in 1960 at the Leningrad Comedy Theater, directed and
designed by Akimov; 1984 at the Leningrad Academic Theater of Comedy, directed
by Yuri Aksyonov and designed by Marina Azizyan; 2003 at the Saint Petersburg
Academic Comedy Theater, directed by Tatyana Kazakova and designed by Emil
Kapelyush.
There
have been many additional productions of The
Shadow, including the most recent: in 2018 at the Winter Theater of
Orekhovo-Zuevo (near Moscow), directed by Alexander N. Kalinin. Film versions were produced in 1971 (as The Shadow) by Nadezhda Kosheverova and
1991 (as Shadow, or Maybe It’ll Work Out,
a musical film) by Mikhail Kozakov.
Evaluation: No retelling of the story, however detailed
(and mine above is very
simplified), could faithfully capture the flavor and style of the script. Shvarts called the play “A Fairy tale in
Three Acts,” and, indeed, it is based on a Hans Christian Andersen tale of a
man who lost his shadow. The Shadow
may be his most vivid, most flamboyant, most imaginative, and most profoundly
shocking work.
The
fairy-tale trappings and stylized treatment do not mask but point up Shvarts’s
condemnation of the petty bureaucratic, self-serving behavior that is common no
less today than it was in 1940, and in the U.S. no less than in the USSR. The charm and off-center treatment in the play
make this an irresistible adventure, and an unavoidable statement that is never
the wrong time to make. It is also great
fun, and will appeal to adults and, perhaps with a few small edits, children on
different levels.
The
acting style of the play is far from realistic, and care would have to be taken
not to overstep the bounds of the script’s innate character. Too much buffoonery will destroy the play as
fast as too much solemnity. The play has
its own charm, and does not need to be pushed.
Other Considerations: The large cast requirement (3 Acts; 5 women,
14 men, extras) may present a problem, however, I believe there are extras that
can be cut, and some possible doubling and combining of characters. This may require some scriptual adjustments, but
the effort may well prove worth it.
The
play describes a number of locations around the city, but since the style is
non-realistic, these need only be suggested symbolically. Imagination is far more necessary than
accuracy, and several locations can easily be suggested by the same set.
The
most difficult problem in the production would be the magic. The Scholar actually loses his shadow, a fact
which is pointed out in the dialogue.
The Shadow is described as losing his head, quite literally, and regaining
it just as miraculously in full view of the audience. In the end of the play, the Shadow disappears
as guards grab for him, leaving only his cape behind. At this point, I have no idea how these
tricks could be accomplished, but I am sure they can be managed with
imagination, and some technical assistance from a special-effects technician.
Notes: The style and genre of this play is different
from the usual material considered by StageArts. I provide this evaluation on the behest of Nell
Robinson [one of StageArts artistic directors], who took an interest in the
play when I described it to her orally.
It may, in fact, be too cumbersome to produce on a limited time and
financial basis. It is, however, an
unusual play, and will not have been produced recently in New York, or the U.S.
in general. A good production of such a
play might, indeed, garner some critical attention.
Source: Franklin D. Reeve, ed., An Anthology of Russian Plays: 1890-1960, Volume 2, An Anthology of
Russian Plays (New York: Vintage Books, 1963).
* *
* *
THE NAKED KING
Голый король (Golyi
korol’, 1934)
by Evgeny Shvarts
2 July 1984
Plot Synopsis: Basically this is the story of “The Princess
and the Pea” combined with “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” Heinrich, a young swineherd, falls in love
with the Princess who returns his feelings.
The King Her Father sends her off to marry the neighboring King, a
pompous fool. Henry and his friend
Christian follow to save her from this fate.
Along the way, the ministers of the King she is to marry endeavor to
prove her royal lineage and purity (the “Princess/Pea” plot).
When
the King falls in love with her on sight, Henry and Christian pretend to be weavers
with a magic cloth to show him to be a fool before the Princess’s father (the
“Emperor’s Clothes” plot). Of course,
the King goes to his wedding stark naked and the people realize that all their
leaders are fools and liars and revolt.
The Princess’s father flees in fear, and Heinrich turns the revolt into
a salute to “love, friendship, laughter, and joy!”
Theme: As with Shvarts’s other adult fairy tales, he
presents his two main themes: the power of love and the unmasking of fools and
tyrants in leadership.
History: Written in 1934, The
Naked King was not published in the Soviet Union until 1960 (during the
Khrushchev That following the death of Joseph Stalin) because of it “dangerous
allusions.” The play’s première
production in the Soviet Union was also in 1960, at Moscow’s Contemporary
(Современник - Sovremennik) Theater.
Even then, it was considered an act of political tightrope-walking, but
the play was popular and remained the troupe’s repertoire for decades.
In
1991, The Naked King was staged at
The Russian State Theater ‘Satyricon” in Moscow.
Genre/Style: Adult fairy tale; allegory
Structure: 2 acts, many scenes; panoramic
Setting: Various locations in 2 fairy-tale
kingdoms. Realism will not work or be
suitable; suggested and fanciful settings, easily shifted, would be necessary
to accomplish the fast-paced scene changes.
Language: Fanciful, stylized dialogue; much poetry and
singing; non-realistic.
Characters: Large cast with much doubling/tripling
necessary. Name characters are 1 woman
(Princess), late teens-early 20’s; 6 men: 2 40-50, 2 30-40, 2 20’s. Extras: Court ladies, Gendarmes, Soldiers,
Courtiers, Ministers, Populace, etc.
(4-5 each men and women should be sufficient.)
Evaluation: I don’t like this play as well as The
Shadow, but it is amusing and pleasant.
Its large cast has many quirky characters (e.g.: the General, Officer
& Sergeant who only talk in military commands) which should be fun to
act. The story is so well-known,
however, that the larger issues Shvarts is raising may be lost.
The
two fairy tales Shvarts amalgamated into The Naked King do not really
blend seamlessly. In fact, until the
heroes establish themselves as weavers, the early part of the play seems like
prologue. It may play better than it
reads, however.
Recommendation: Second reading
Source: Franklin D. Reeve, ed., Contemporary Russian Drama (New York: Pegasus, 1968)
* *
* *
THE DRAGON
Дракон (Drakon, 1944)
by Yevgenii Shvarts
Plot Synopsis: This fairy tale for adults is too complex to
relate in simple form. It is the story
of Lancelot, who comes to a town ruled by a Dragon who exacts tribute in the
form of a young girl every year. The
townspeople have been caring for and supporting the Dragon for 400 years, not
wanting to take the action necessary to free themselves.
The only supporters the
knight finds are Charlemagne, the Keeper of Public Records, whose daughter is
the next sacrifice, and his Cat.
Everyone else is afraid to meddle with the status quo. Finally, just before the battle, Lancelot is
given some magical gifts by some last-minute supporters: a flying carpet, an
invisibility hat, a sword and lance, and a self-playing musical instrument. In a fierce battle above the town square,
Lancelot defeats the Dragon, chopping off his three heads one by one. Mortally wounded, he disappears, leaving the
town in the hands of the Mayor and his son, Henry.
The Mayor, declaring
himself the true Killer of the Dragon, makes himself President, and Henry
becomes the Mayor. The President is
forcing Elsa, Charlemagne’s daughter, to marry him. Just as the wedding ceremony is taking place,
Lancelot returns, frees the town once again, and sends the Mayor and Henry off
to prison.
cast: 3 acts; 6 women, 18 men; much doubling
Theme: Shvarts has two common themes in these adult
fairy tales (The Shadow and The Naked King are of this genre):
love conquers all, and good triumphs over evil.
He was a staunch anti-Fascist, and he showed tyrants to be cowards and
weaklings in his works. In The Dragon,
he showed that the people prefer the “protection” of a tyrant over governing
themselves. In the end, Lancelot says
that it isn’t enough to kill the Dragon, but that all the little dragons inside
man also have to be killed before the town is safe from tyranny.
History: The Dragon was
written in between 1942 and 1944 while Shvarts was an evacuee from besieged
Leningrad in Stalinabad (formerly and currently Dushanbe), Tajikistan. Attempts to stage the play at the Leningrad
Comedy Theater, directed and designed by Nikolai Akimov, during the rules of
Joseph Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev ended with a ban; the first public
performance took place in August 1944 in Moscow, but it was canceled after a
few performances.
The first full début of
The Dragon in the Soviet Union was
not until 1962, mounted by Akimov at the Leningrad Comedy Theater; the
production was banned after a month. In
Moscow, the play was also staged in 1962—at the Moscow State University Student
Theater, directed by Mark Zakharov; this production was banned after 17
performances.
In the early 1960s, the
first foreign productions of The Dragon
were mounted in Poland and the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany). Subsequently, productions were staged in
France, in Saint-Étienne, Grenoble, and Bourges.
The Deutsches Theater
in East Berlin, the capital of the German Democratic Republic (GDR, known
colloquially as East Germany) holds a special place among foreign productions
of The Dragon. Directed by Benno Besson, designed by Horst
Sagert, with music composed by Rainer Bredemeier, The Dragon played for the first time there in March 1965 and
remained in the repertoire until the end of the 1981 season, accumulating 580
performances. The performance was
successfully presented in many countries of Eastern and Western Europe, was
unanimously praised by viewers and critics, and became an event not only in
German, but in world theater.
At the Pinocchio Theater
in Magnitogorsk, Victor Shraiman staged the play in 1979 using dolls and masks
to depict some incarnations of the Dragon, the cat Masha, and the townspeople
(putting mannequins among the audience) while the main roles were played by
actors. In 1980, puppeteer Sergei
Obraztsov presented a full puppet version of The Dragon in Obraztsov Puppet Theatre.
In 1969, the (East)
Berlin State Opera (the state opera of the GDR) premiered the opera Lancelot, composed by Paul Dessau for a
libretto (based on The Dragon) by
East German playwright Heiner Müller.
In 1988, director Mark
Zakharov made the film To Kill the Dragon
based on the play. The St. Petersburg
Studio of Radio of Russia broadcast a radio play version of The Dragon In 1994.
Since the turn of the
21st century, there have been no less than six production of the Shvarts’s
play, the most recent being a 2017 staging at the Moscow Art Theater Chekhov
(formed in 1987 after the division of the famous MAT into two companies).
Evaluation: Like The Shadow, this play requires a
considerable amount of magic in the staging.
It has fantastic characters (talking cats, donkeys and dragons) and good
deal of other special effects. The style
of Shvarts’s plays is far from realistic, and a flair for the broad humor and
fantasy of children’s theater is necessary.
(This is not to say that the play is a children’s play; it is decidedly
a serious piece for adults.) Color and
spectacle are certainly important aspects of the production of The Dragon,
and a careful balancing of the message with the fairy-tale elements will not be
easy.
The
characters are all creatively imaginative, though the best lines belong to the
villains of the piece. With the right
kind of actors, these would be wonderful and challenging roles for
performing. The language, because of the
fairy-tale aspect and the translation, can be slightly stilted, but this can be
overcome with a combination of style work in rehearsal, and some retranslation.
Shvarts’s works are not
often produced in this country, and are not well known. I believe that a good production of one of
his plays will be a significant theatrical event in New York. I recommend serious consideration of this
play, and Shvarts’s other works, even though they may not be easy to
produce. The large cast requirement can
be dealt with by doubling many of the characters, and the magic and fantasy can
be accomplished with good, creative staging.
The innate charm and uniqueness of Shvarts’s plays will certainly
attract critical attention and audience appreciation.
[A quick word about the titles of these plays: because
the Russian language lacks articles (a, an,
the)
the titles of The Shadow and The
Dragon are sometimes rendered in English
as simply Dragon and Shadow.
(I’ve never seen The Naked King
written without the ‘the,’ but I suppose it could be. Theoretically, The Shadow and The Dragon could also be translated as A Shadow and A Dragon—just as Anton
Chekhov’s The Seagull is sometimes
published as A Seagull—but I’ve never
seen that, either.)
[The 1988 movie adaptation of The Dragon is
listed with three English variations of the title that I’ve encountered: Kill
the Dragon, To Kill the Dragon, and To Kill a Dragon.]
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