Revolutionary Theatre

by Robert Leach

Revolutionary Theatre is the first full-length study of the dynamic theatre created in Russia in the aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution. Fired by social and political as well as artistic zeal, a group of directors, playwrights, actors and organisers collected around the charismatic Vsevolod Meyerhold. Their aim was to achieve in the theatre what Lenin and his comrades had achieved in the complete overthrow of the status quo and the installation of a radically new regime.
Until now the efforts and influence of this idealistic group of theatrical avant-gardists have been largely unacknowledged; the oppressive reign of Stalin condemned many of them to death and their work to oblivion. In this enlightening work Robert Leach uncovers in fascinating detail their roots, their achievements and their legacy.

252 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Dr. Robert Leach is a poet and a theatre practitioner. He has published six collections of poetry, as well as pamphlets and chapbooks. He has also published more than a dozen books of theatre history and theatre theory, including the two volume History of British Theatre and Performance, published by Routledge.

He is a former chair of Borders Writers Forum and currently chair of Melrose Literary Society.