Jonathan Pitches, a professor of theater and performance at the University of Leeds, UK, has written an introduction to the book translated by Rezvaneh Emamipur.
“Meyerhold on Theatre” brings together in one volume Vsevolod Meyerhold’s most significant writings and utterances, and covers his entire career as a director from 1902 to 1939.
It contains a comprehensive selection from all published material, unabridged and translated from the original Russian, updated and supplemented with a critical commentary relating Meyerhold to his period and eyewitness accounts describing all his productions.
The book is illustrated with photographs of Meyerhold’s designs and productions.
Within this diverse collection of sometimes dense, sometimes lyrical, and always fascinating writings, Meyerhold emerges from this book as a forerunner of such directors as Brecht, Piscator, Planchon and Brook, a relentless enemy of naturalism and a supreme exponent of total theatre whose influence continues to be felt throughout the theater of today.
The introduction by Pitches helps to demystify some of the terminology used by Meyerhold and his associates, and indicates the fundamental connection between culture and politics present in his life and art.
Source:Tehran Times