Research project for 20th century theatre

2. Symbolism
In 20thCentury Arts

3. Outline
1. What is Symbolism?
2. Symbolism‟s Impact on the Arts
3. Rise of Russian Symbolism
4. Russian Impact on Theatre
5. Notable Symbolists and their contributions

4. François Sarcey:
"When I understand a few
phrases here and there, I tell
myself: this is a Decadent poet.
When I understand practically
nothing, I say to myself: this
must be a symbolist"

5. What is Symbolism?
 Began in late 19th Century Europe and flourished in
Russia
 A complex, imaginative and colorful movement
 A philosophy that reflect purity of vision > observation,
abstraction> ordinary
 Explores images, metaphors and inner realities of human
experiences that cannot be directly perceived
 Basis for artistic and intellectual movements such as
Expressionism and Surrealism

6. Impact on the Arts
 Symbolist wish to create a certain state of the soul
 Works tend to revolve around dreamscape
 Fairy tales (love/death) > social issues
 In Visual Arts:
- Color (blue/green), Flowers (lily/rose) and animals
(swan/peacock) became important inspirations
 In Literature: symbolists write in a poetic language
- verses are musical
- words that suggest > state
- poets write with free verse, away from constraints of
structures
E.g. The Intruder: "the rose-leaves are
falling”

7. Guess!

8. Impact on Theatre
 Director is an important member in theatrical production
 Infuses all the other arts into Symbolic Theatre
 2D type of scenery to 3D scenery
 Focuses on the human consciousness and emphasize on
moral problems
- psychological> external actions
- Loseshuman characterization, dramatic action and realistic
stage-settings for theatre effects of mystery and mysticism
 Aims for a stage with qualities of rhythm, tone and harmony in
the unfolding movement of its actors and accented by the play
of varied lighting

10. Rise of Russian Symbolism
An intellectual and artistic movement
 Russian Symbolist movement affected all the art media
 1st generation - 1890-1900 “Silver age”
 2nd generation – 1900-1910 “Blue rose movement”
 Focuses on intrinsic experience of art making
 Evolution of modern Russian painting
 See painting not only as an exercise on color and
life, but also as a philosophic force

11. Mikhail Vrubel‟s Morning

12. Russian Impact on
Theatre
 20th Century Moscow art theatre – only carrier of the great
European theatrical culture during that time!
 Russian Theatre > the other European Theatre
- greater, deeper, fuller and mightier
 The essence of Russian theatre is not an ensemble but an
unity
- Elements in theatre are closely connected to each other, inter-
dependant on one another
- The elements of Russian theatre cannot be altered;
it is only possible to alter the placing of the emphasis

13. Important Russian Symbolists
Alexander Symbolist poet, music composer, pianist
Scriabin
(1871-1915)
Andrey Bely Symbolist poet, prose writer and dramatist
(1880-1934)
VyacheslavIvanov •Symbolist poet and classicist
(1866-1949) • Revive the Dionysian origins of the theatre to Symbolist
theatre
• Attempts to write Russian symbolist drama and stage it
appropriately were not very successful
Opposed by Andrew Bely in 1907
• mocked the Dionysian approach
• pointed out the impossibility of symbolism in the theater -
would destroy the barrier between viewer/actor
Valery Symbolist poet.
YakovlevichBryuso - insisted that the theatre be stripped of extraneous
v (1873-1924) production values and handed back to the actors

14. Andrey Bely
 Bely believe that drama is the highest poetic art
 Bely‟s attribute to drama - atmospheric and musical.
 „Man must live by his creative imagination and re-fashion
reality according to his inner vision‟
 Bely conceives, the stage is the incarnation of the dream, and
the fictive world of the drama infects people as with a
fever, through the creation of a life that is lofty and meaningful.
 He creates a new stage space that opens out onto infinity.
 His plays abounds in strange optical effects:
- pulsating intensities of light and the refraction of radiance
become the dramatic action, replacing psychology and plot.

15. Alexander Scriabin
Scriabin had always wanted to express
himself in word and gesture of sensory
images
He sees colors for keys and musical notes
Scriabin hear colors. Color is a means for
conveying Scriabin‟s sensation or ideas.
He is also interested in dance as a symbolic gesture
Experimented with dance forms that might interpret the
mood of the piece
- realize that music reveals its own shape and how it may
be expressed in motion.

16. Scriabin‟s Prometheus
 Prometheus was a combination of symbols of
dance, visual, music and colors (light machine)
 Scored for orchestra due to the
various tone colors
 In Prometheus, fire is light, life, struggle...
 Usually got to do with mystical views.. second line of
Prometheus for a light machine to produce a color for the
rood of the harmony indicated above
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3B7uQ5K0IU

17. Petrushka
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbWDG3LU4bc

18. References:
 Bowlt, J. E. 1973. Russian Symbolism and the „Blue Rose‟ Movement.
The Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 51, pp. 161-181.
 Efros, A. and Gordon, H. 1929. The Russian Theatre and its Artists
since the Revolution. College Art Association, Vol. 1, pp. 6-9.
 Gerould, D. C. 1978. Andrei Bely: Russian Symbolist. Performing Arts
Journal, Vol. 3, pp. 25-29.
 Matlaw, R. E. 1979. Scriabin and Russian Symbolism. Duke University
Press, Vol. 31, pp.1-23.
 Schumacher, C. 1996. Naturalism and Symbolism in European Theatre
1850-1918. USA: University of Cambridge, pp. 208-120, 227.
 Tisdel, F. M. 1920. Symbolism in Theatre. The Sewanee Review, Vol.
28, pp. 228-240.