The Culture of Experiment in Russian Theatrical Modernism: The OBERIU Theatre and the Biomechanics of Vsevolod Mejercholʼd

It can be argued that the OBERIU Theatre, whose agenda was proclaimed in 1929, sought to challenge the dominance of Meyerhold on the Russian experimental theatrical scene of the day, much as Meyerhold in his early days departed from seeking more radical alternatives to the Stanislavsky system. However, whereas his “biomechanics” proceeded from the ambition to free theatre from its dependence on literature, his actors were not relieved of verbal speech, although particular intensity was imparted to their body language. In essence, Meyerholdʼs theatre still followed the rules of the imagined world of literature, even if those were interpreted afresh by the means of a new language of representation. OBERIU devotees of “real (concrete) art”, on the contrary, strove to present, rather than represent, as their Manifesto states, “the world of concrete objects onstage in their interaction and collision”. They asserted that the laws of “reality” are inapplicable in the “alternative” reality of theatre, which therefore should follow only its own rules, regardless of conventions imposed by literature and everyday life. This paper aims to explore the relationship between the two mindsets, with an emphasis on the novelty of OBERIU ideas, which at the time went almost completely unnoticed.