''Enough Stupidity in Every Wise Man'' (russian: На всякого мудреца довольно простоты;
translit. Na vsyakogo mudretsa dovolno prostoty) is a five-
act comedy
Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...
by
Aleksandr Ostrovsky
Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky (russian: Алекса́ндр Никола́евич Остро́вский; ) was a Russian playwright, generally considered the greatest representative of the Russian realistic period. The author of 47 origina ...
.
[Brockett and Hildy (2003, 370). The play's title has been rendered in English in many different ways in the critical literature, including: ''The Diary of a Scoundrel'', which Brockett and Hildy give as an alternative; or simply ''The Scoundrel'', in Gerould (1974, 73); ''Even Wise Men Err'' in Sealey Rahman (199, 174); ''Even a Wise Man Stumbles'', in Magarshack (1950, 309).] The play offers a
satirical
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...
treatment of
bigotry
Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of race, gender, age, relig ...
and charts the rise of a double-dealer who manipulates other people's
vanities
''Vanities'' is a comedy-drama stage production written by Jack Heifner. The story centers on the lives and friendship of three Texas cheerleaders starting from high school in 1963, continuing through college as sorority sisters in 1968, and end ...
. It is Ostrovsky's best-known comedy in the
West
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sunset, Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic languages, German ...
.
Production history
1868 –
Alexandrinsky Theatre
The Alexandrinsky Theatre (russian: Александринский театр) or National Drama Theatre of Russia is a theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
The Alexandrinsky Theatre was built for the Imperial troupe of Petersburg (Imperial trou ...
, Saint Petersburg.
1868 –
Maly Theatre The Maly Theatre, or Mali Theatre, may refer to one of several different theatres:
* The Maly Theatre (Moscow), also known as The State Academic Maly Theatre of Russia, in Moscow (founded in 1756 and given its own building in 1824)
* The Maly Thea ...
, Moscow.
1885 –
Korsh Theatre, Moscow.
The seminal Russian
theatre director
A theatre director or stage director is a professional in the theatre field who oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a theatre production such as a play, opera, dance, drama, musical theatre performance, etc. by unifying various endeavors a ...
Konstantin Stanislavsky
Konstantin Sergeyevich Stanislavski ( Alekseyev; russian: Константин Сергеевич Станиславский, p=kənstɐnʲˈtʲin sʲɪrˈgʲejɪvʲɪtɕ stənʲɪˈslafskʲɪj; 7 August 1938) was a seminal Russian Soviet Fe ...
directed the play with his
Moscow Art Theatre
The Moscow Art Theatre (or MAT; russian: Московский Художественный академический театр (МХАТ), ''Moskovskiy Hudojestvenny Akademicheskiy Teatr'' (МHАТ)) was a theatre company in Moscow. It was f ...
.
[Benedetti (1999, 212, 387).] The production opened on .
[ Stanislavski played General Krutitsky][ and ]Kachalov
Vasily Ivanovich Kachalov (russian: Василий Иванович Качалов; – 30 September 1948), was one of Russia's most renowned actors. He worked closely and often with Konstantin Stanislavski. He led the so-called Kachalov Group wit ...
played Glumov.
A production of the play was the most significant of the early theatre
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...
work of the Russian Soviet film director
A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...
Sergei Eisenstein
Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein (russian: Сергей Михайлович Эйзенштейн, p=sʲɪrˈɡʲej mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ ɪjzʲɪnˈʂtʲejn, 2=Sergey Mikhaylovich Eyzenshteyn; 11 February 1948) was a Soviet film director, screenw ...
.[Rudnitsky (1988, 96).] The playwright Sergei Tretyakov transformed Ostrovsky's text into a revue
A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance, and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own duri ...
(what Eisenstein called a "montage of attractions"), which was entitled ''Wiseman'' (''Mudrets''). Eisenstein and Tretyakov's approach was part of the Russian avant-garde
The Russian avant-garde was a large, influential wave of avant-garde modern art that flourished in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, approximately from 1890 to 1930—although some have placed its beginning as early as 1850 and its e ...
Futurist
Futurists (also known as futurologists, prospectivists, foresight practitioners and horizon scanners) are people whose specialty or interest is futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities abou ...
movement
Movement may refer to:
Common uses
* Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece
* Motion, commonly referred to as movement
Arts, entertainment, and media
Literature
* "Movement" (short story), a short story by Nancy Fu ...
known as " Eccentricism," which sought the "circus
A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclist ...
isation" of the theatre. In celebration of the centennial of Ostrovsky's birth, the production opened in April 1923. It was staged by the First Workers' Theatre of the Prolekult in its theatre in the Arseny Morozov House
The Arseny Morozov House is a historic building located at 16 Vozdvizhenka Street, Moscow. It was designed by Viktor Mazyrin for his friend Arseny Morozov. The pair had toured around Portugal and been impressed by the Pena Palace in Sintra. An ...
, an ornate mansion on Vozdvizhenka Street
Vozdvizhenka Street, (russian: Воздвиженка), is a radial street connecting Manege Square and Arbat Square in central Arbat District of Moscow, Russia. The street's name refers to a monastery that existed here since 1450 and perished i ...
, with a cast that included Maxim Shtraukh
Maxim or Maksim may refer to:
Entertainment
*Maxim (magazine), ''Maxim'' (magazine), an international men's magazine
** Maxim (Australia), ''Maxim'' (Australia), the Australian edition
** Maxim (India), ''Maxim'' (India), the Indian edition
*Maxim ...
, Ivan Pyryev
Ivan Aleksandrovich Pyryev (russian: Ива́н Алекса́ндрович Пы́рьев; – 7 February 1968) was a Soviet-Russian film director and screenwriter remembered as the high priest of Stalinist cinema. He was awarded six Stali ...
, and Grigori Aleksandrov
Grigori Vasilyevich Aleksandrov or Alexandrov (russian: Григо́рий Васи́льевич Алекса́ндров; original family name was Мормоненко or Mormonenko; 23 January 1903 – 16 December 1983) was a prominent Soviet ...
. Eisenstein drew on popular theatre techniques such as farce
Farce is a comedy that seeks to entertain an audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, ridiculous, absurd, and improbable. Farce is also characterized by heavy use of physical humor; the use of deliberate absurdity o ...
and the ''commedia dell'arte
(; ; ) was an early form of professional theatre, originating from Italian theatre, that was popular throughout Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries. It was formerly called Italian comedy in English and is also known as , , and . Charact ...
'' in his staging, which sought to make every metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wit ...
concrete and physical
Physical may refer to:
*Physical examination
In a physical examination, medical examination, or clinical examination, a medical practitioner examines a patient for any possible medical signs or symptoms of a medical condition. It generally co ...
; he wrote:
A screening of Eisenstein's first film, entitled '' Glumov's Diary'', concluded the performance.[ Writing in 1928, Eisenstein explained that he had aimed "to achieve a revolutionary modernization of Ostrovsky, i.e., a social re-evaluation of his characters, seeing them as they might appear today."
]Boris Nirenburg
Boris may refer to:
People
* Boris (given name), a male given name
*:''See'': List of people with given name Boris
* Boris (surname)
* Boris I of Bulgaria (died 907), the first Christian ruler of the First Bulgarian Empire, canonized after his d ...
and A. Remizova
A is the first letter of the Latin and English alphabet.
A may also refer to:
Science and technology Quantities and units
* ''a'', a measure for the attraction between particles in the Van der Waals equation
* A value, ''A'' value, a mea ...
directed an adaptation of the play for television in 1971.[.]
References
Sources
* Banham, Martin, ed. 1998. ''The Cambridge Guide to Theatre.'' Cambridge: Cambridge UP. .
* Benedetti, Jean. 1999. ''Stanislavski: His Life and Art''. Revised edition. Original edition published in 1988. London: Methuen. .
* Brockett, Oscar G. and Franklin J. Hildy. 2003. ''History of the Theatre''. Ninth edition, International edition. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. .
* Gerould, Daniel. 1974. "Eisenstein's ''Wiseman''." ''The Drama Review'' 18.1 (March): 71–85.
*Kleberg, Lars. 1980. ''Theatre as Action: Soviet Russian Avant-Garde Aesthetics''. Trans. Charles Rougle. New Directions in Theatre. London: Macmillan, 1993. .
* Kolocotroni, Vassiliki, Jane Goldman, and Olga Taxidou, eds. 1998. ''Modernism: An Anthology of Sources and Documents''. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. .
* Leach, Robert, and Victor Borovsky, eds. 1999. ''A History of Russian Theatre.'' Cambridge: Cambridge UP. .
* Magarshack, David. 1950. ''Stanislavsky: A Life.'' London and Boston: Faber, 1986. .
* Rudnitsky, Konstantin. 1988. ''Russian and Soviet Theatre: Tradition and the Avant-Garde''. Trans. Roxane Permar. Ed. Lesley Milne. London: Thames and Hudson. Rpt. as ''Russian and Soviet Theater, 1905–1932''. New York: Abrams. .
* Sealey Rahman, Kate. 1999. "Aleksandr Ostrovsky – Dramatist and Director." In Leach and Borovsky (1999, 166–181).
External links
*
*
{{Authority control
1868 plays
Plays by Alexander Ostrovsky