Contemporary Russian Drama - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0672535211 ISBN 13: 9780672535215

Publisher: Pegasus, 1968

Synopsis

"Contemporary Russian Drama" presents the full texts of five of the most successful plays written and staged in the Soviet Union in the last ten years. Romantic and humanistic, literate and sophisticated, they are eloquent proof of the new sense of style that has come into Russian life in the past decade. Celebrating the integrity of the individual and his ideals in opposition to the indifference of "the system," these plays offer a sharp contrast to the stilted socialist realism of the propaganda plays of the Stalinist period. They offer, too, a significant contrast to the major stylistic trends now dominating American and West European stages. In their firm, often humorous, always sympathetic humanism, in their recognition of the vitality, dignity and nobility in the average man's search for self, they bear little resemblance to the theater of the absurd, to the drama of empty, domestic bitterness brought into vogue by Albee and Pinter, or to the fierce, sardonic political and social satire of the new West German theater. Each of the plays in this collection is provocative and valuable reading because each is a spirited and truthful attempt to portray life as it is lived, because each demonstrates a strong craftsman-like concern for language, character development and construction, and because each reveals to us - with that special insight only drama can give - a new Russian spirit and style.

About this edition

• Publisher: Pegasus
• Publication date: 1968
• ISBN 10: 0672535211
• ISBN 13: 9780672535215
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 303