Study for stage set for the play “Earth in Turmoil” (1923) by Liubov PopovaMOMus - Museum of Modern Art - Costakis Collection
Following their collaboration
on the festival “The Struggle and Victory of the Soviets” in 1921, Liubov Popova and Vsevolod Meyerkhold presented the theatrical plays “The Magnanimous Cuckold” by F. Crommelink (1922), and “Earth in Turmoil” by S. Tretiakov, based on a play by M. Martinet (1923).
Aiming at the formation of the model for agitation theatre
In accordance with the ideological orientation of Constructivism, while working on the stage sets Popova posited as her primary goal to abolish the decorative character and aesthetic role of the scenery in support of the plot
She replaced them with a stage resembling technicaltechnical equipment, which would not only serve but would contribute to the action in a creative way.
Meyerkhold’s “biomechanics” method,
by which the actors would be disengaged from the inward, private emotional process of developing a role and were requested to use their body as a machine conducting standard, precisely coordinated motions, interacted harmoniously with Popova’s stage sets
Τhe formulation of the “left theatre” was based on
its interrelation with the new everyday life in the 1920s; Popova employed everyday objects for the material realisation of the plays and followed the same principle in order to design the costumes, resulting in creating workers' uniforms to be used equally on and off stage.
Τhe proletarian origin of Popova and Meyerkhold’s proposition ultimately aimed at the gradual evolution of theatre “from a spectacle by specialists into spontaneous playing by the workers”.
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