SERGEI EISENSTEIN

Russian Futurist theatre reached one of its climaxes in the work of Sergei Eisenstein and Sergei Tretyakov at the First Workers Theatre of the Proletkult, which was established in early 1923 and housed in the former mansion of Savva Morozov in Moscow.

Eisenstein was born in Riga in Latvia in 1898. His father was a civil engineer and architect, something of a ‘tyrant’ at home, and the family being well off, Eisenstein's was a privileged if somewhat isolated childhood. In 1909 his mother left the home, and Eisenstein lived with his father. It was while visiting his mother, however, that he first went to the circus, a form with which he immediately fell in love, especially adoring the clowns. In 1915 he enrolled as a student at the Institute for Civil Engineering in Petrograd, where he lived with his mother. In 1917 he joined in revolutionary demonstrations, including in the Bolshevik demonstrations in the ‘July Days’, but he also began designing stage sets and costumes. Immediately after the Bolshevik seizure of power, he volunteered for the Red Army. While still a soldier here, he became involved practically in drama with amateur groups, as well as decorating agit-trains, and in September 1920 he entered the General Staff Academy to study Japanese. This, like his earlier studies, was interrupted, however, when he joined the Proletkult as chief stage designer, and it was in this capacity that he first came to general attention with the production on 10 March 1921 of The Mexican.

THE MEXICAN

This show, to be directed by Valentin Smyshlayev with designs by Leonid Nikitin and Eisenstein, was based on a story by Jack London with a scenario by Boris Arvatov. Set in the Mexican Revolution, which was sparked when the eighty-year-old dictator, Porfiro Diaz, ‘won’ the 1910 election by fraud, the plot, as told by Eisenstein, concerned ‘a Mexican revolutionary group [which] needs money for its activities. A boy, a Mexican, offers to find the money. He trains for boxing, and contracts to let the champion beat him for a fraction of the prize. Instead he beats up the champion, winning the entire prize.’ The scenario was read at the first rehearsal and the show was created through improvisation and discussion. This resulted in a degree of chaos, but it in no way dampened the young company's enthusiasm.