The Reduce to Dostoevsky’s Artistic Mastery.The Brothers Karamazov and The Devils on the Stage of the Moscow Art Theater and in the Russian Press

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the history of the Moscow Art Theater productions in 1913–1914 based on F.M. Dostoevsky’s novels The Brothers Karamazov and The Devils, and to the fierce controversy that surrounded them. It analyzes the problem of finding an adequate stage form for the two novels, and the story of the birth of the so-called “Dostoevsky theater” and the Director’s theater, now dominating the stage. Despite Dostoevsky’s great interest in theater and his brother’s witness that the future novelist’s literary activity began with three (unfortunately lost) dramatic works, the writer himself was far from being confident that theatrical productions of his novels could be a success. The founders of the Moscow Art Theater challenged this opinion and proved that Dostoevsky’s novels could write a new page in the history of Russian theater. The article analyzes in detail newspaper and magazine reviews of the performances directed by Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko.

Keywords

• fyodor dostoevsky
• theater
• performance
• production
• moscow art theater
• konstantin stanislavsky
• vladimir nemirovich-danchenko
• maksim gorky
• maksimilian voloshin
• newspapers
• the brothers karamazov
• the devils
• stavrogin
• pavel orlenev