Theater as Life

Five key plays by the master of post-Revolutionary Russian theater Nikolai Evreinov stands with Stanislavsky and Meyerhold in his importance to Russian theater. He founded theaters, directed plays and opera, was a theater historian, and wrote some thirty plays. as a playwright he explored the dichotomy of reality and illusion, employing the full range of theatrical resources including music, dance, color, plays-within-plays, disguises, complex plots, and surprise endings.

Long unavailable, this essential anthology contains translations of five plays; Evreinov's best known, The Main Thing, which in its time was produced by Pirandello's theater and then on Broadway starring Edward G. Robinson and Lee Strasberg, as well as A Merry Death, The Ship of the Righteous, The Theater of the Soul, and The Theater of the Eternal War. Rounding out the volume is an extensive introduction by Christopher Collins, written in consultation with Evreinov's widow, and many rare illustrations and photographs, including portraits of Evreinov, sketches of sets by the playwright, and photographs from productions in NYC, Paris, Milan, and Warsaw.