W. Shakespeare’s Plays in Soviet Theater and Cinematography (Adapted from the Proceedings of the "Shakespeare Readings"). Part I. The Concept of "Renaissance" Shakespeare
The series of articles analyzes the Soviet style of presentation of Shakespeare’s plays on stage and screen (productions at the Maly Theater and the Moscow Art Theatre, Grigori M. Kozintsev’s films, etc.) and its differences from the reconstruction of stagings of Shakespeare’s lifetime, posthumous English adaptations and the Russian pre-revolutionary style. The author shows that the roots of the Soviet Shakespearean aesthetics lay in the pan-European tradition of the late Romanticism and Realism and traces the stages of its development. The first part examines the development of the concept of “Renaissance” Shakespeare on Russian stage in the pre-revolutionary years and its influence on the first Soviet Shakespearean theater productions.