Kirillova A. S.

Staging Ivan Turgenev’s Prose:  Experience of the First Stage Production of the Novel Smoke P. 118-129.

UDC 792.03:821.161.1-31.09«18»

DOI: 10.37724/RSU.2023.78.1.011

Abstract. The prose of I. Turgenev has remained relevant and artistically attractive for theaters for over 150 years. The reason for this is the very theatrical nature of the novelist’s works, and modern researchers often choose theatricality as the subject of their study. The purpose of this article is to discuss certain aspects of the first stage production of Turgenev’s novel Smoke, and to analyze the results of this theatrical experiment. The author show that some critics, directors, and playwrights sought to demonstrate the great theatrical potential of Turgenev’s prose already at the turn of the 20th century. However, due to various circumstances, ranging from the censorship committee to imperfection of the technical and technological side of the production process, bringing the novel to the stage turned out to be very difficult and, unfortunately, did not meet all the expectations. Thus, the subject of the present research was not only the staginess of Turgenev’s fifth novel, but also the tradition of staging prose fiction that developed in that time, as a rule, not fully meeting the requirements of the theater at the turn of the century. The author also finds that the experience of the first production of the novel Smoke was another step towards the method of unified and adequate adaptation of prose fiction for the stage. A. Kugel and B. Bentovin wrote the play Smoke and were very respectful towards the source text, and they managed to condense the novel into the dramatic framework without major omissions from the plot. However, they still sacrificed a significant aspect of the novel, its social and political target. This is rather frequent: the love story of Irina Ratmirova and Grigory Litvinovin modern theater completely obscures the social essence of Smoke, and only a few remarks on public topics are preserved in the political dialogues. The author of the article comes to the conclusion that the potential of Turgenev’s fifth novel for theaters are much is much higher and still awaits adequate productions.

 

Keywords: A. R. Kugel, B. I. Bentovin, drama, interpretation, theatrical censorship, theater of the late 19th — early 20th centuries.

 

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