MEYERHOLD, Vsevolod

The more innovative of the two great early Soviet directors (the other being Constantin Stanislavsky [1863–1938]), Meyerhold was a sophisticated eclectic who drew upon sources both traditional and alternative. (In this balance, he resembled his contemporary Max Reinhardt, who worked out of pre-Hitler Germany.) Learning from the circus and other forms of vaudeville, Meyerhold came to see mime as superior to speech, and he tried alternative seating arrangements. In The House of Interludes, a theater...