Meyerhold on Radio: Little-known Pages of the Master's Creative Biography

The article is devoted to that part of the creative biography of Vsevolod Meyerhold, which was associated with the radio theatre. At the first glance, it may seem rather strange that GosTIM’s (State Meyerhold Theatre) per- formances did not go on air until the early 1930s, while almost all the members of Moscow theatre life by this time had already appeared on the radio. But the fact is that Meyerhold, who had already worked in cinema in the past, was aware of all the difficulties that could arise when mastering a new artistic language — the language of radio. Besides the imperfection of technology of the times greatly influenced on the creative process. A comparison of the key scenes of Meyerhold’s theatre performances with their radio versions, reconstructed from the written sources, allows to trace, to some extent, the director’s mastery of the specific language of radio theatre. Studying the materials of Meyerhold’s original radio productions shows the masterly development of the sound fabric of the performance, subtle work with the actors, and discoveries in the field of special sound “scenography” of the radio theatre. Despite the fact that the history of Meyerhold’s work on radio was a short one and the number of productions was relatively small, his contribution to the development of the Soviet radio theatre directing was fundamental. In particular, his influence on the founders of the radio the- atre directing — N. O. Volkonsky, E. P. Garin and O. N. Abdulov — seems very significant. The study of the available written sources available about Meyerhold’s radio productions and especially about his original radio plays allows to consider them as bright and convincing ar- tistic statements worthy of being named the pinnacles of the early Soviet radio theatre poetics.