Best of
Drama

1913

Overtones


Alice Gerstenberg - 1913
    Harriet and Margaret are two refined ladies, but Hettie and Maggie are their thoughts and emotions come to life. As cool and serene as Harriet and Margaret may appear, Hettie and Maggie are just as volatile, troubled and passionate. A play where human nature as it appears to the world and as it is becomes dramatized psychology.

Victory Over The Sun


Aleksei Kruchenykh - 1913
    The atonal music composed by Mikhail Matiushin accompanied the alogical libretto by Aleksei Kruchenykh, the action taking place in the 10th Land where "the windows of houses all face inside" and "all the paths go up to the earth," while the hands of a clock "both go backwards immediately before dinner." The cardboard costumes by Kazimir Malevich were surfaces lit by his roving colored spotlights, the characters bigger than life.This first English translation by Dr. Evgeny Steiner is accompanied by the Russian facsimile, followed by what is known of the musical score by Mikhail Matiushin, and a selection of Malevich's Cubist costume designs. Contemporary documents, from statements by the artists and photographs, to press reviews complete the contents of Vol. 1.Vol. 2 is a collection of scholarly essays on the Russian Futurist arts of language, music and performance, with Kruchenykh's own contribution to the "New Ways of the Word" first published in 1913.Together, this two volume collection of Victory Over the Sun presents Russian Futurism in all its guises. It is a tool for study, while it invites recreations of it today by theatre groups and those interested in the arts of language.