Convention as Innovation: Asian Staging Inspiring Eastern and Western European Socialist Theatre

This article explores, from a historical and comparative perspective, how Chinese and Japanese theatre inspired the revolutionary theatre movement in 1920s and 1930s Moscow, which in turn influenced German theatre. One notable example of this intercultural transmission of aesthetics can be seen in the play I Want a Child! by Sergei Tretiakov. It showcases the impact of Asian traditions, embodying theatre as a Eurasian phenomenon—a style of staging recognised by Brecht and Meyerhold as a means of actively educating the audience. Inspired by the power of this medium in China, Tretiakov who was a friend of Brecht, attempted to develop a theatrical language that would have the strongest impact on the masses with socialist values. The selected play exemplifies art as a communicative transfer zone where Asian, Soviet, and Western theatre traditions converge. Brecht later adopted these aesthetics in relation to gender roles and conventional (“epic”) theatre techniques, with the aim of politicising the audience. The article considers these dimensions, after delving into the context of I Want a Child! and revising Tretiakov’s activities related to his work in China. Finally, it situates the Brechtian alienation effect in the intercultural, Euro-Asian dimension of instructive modernist theatre.