The article invites its readers to travel back in time to open a
century-old page in the world’s cultural history showing one of the first
tries by Sergei Eisenstein as a theatre designer. Although Bernard Shaw’s play “Heartbreak House. A Fantasia in the Russian Manner on English Themes” was never staged at “The Actor’s Theatre”, the surviving sketches and notes do call our attention. A microanalysis of these sources demonstrates that the ideas put forward by Sergei Eisenstein are still used by Russian designers and directors.
Keywords
Bernard Shaw; Sergei Eisenstein; “Heartbreak House”; circus in theatre; stage sets; stage movement; Russian directors.