Pantomimes in the repertoire of the Crooked Mirror Miniature Theater: From theory to practice

Natela I. Enukidze

Abstract


Pantomime can rightfully be considered one of the most innovative and sought-after theatrical genres of the Silver Age. Iconic productions of the 1910s, such as Vsevolod Meyerhold’s Columbine’s Scarf (1910, House of Interludes) and Alexander Tairov’s The Veil of Pierrette (first staged in 1913 at the Moscow Free Theater)—both based on Arthur Schnitzler’s play with music by Ernst von Dohnányi—resonated deeply within Russia’s artistic and theatrical circles. Theater scholar Vadim Shcherbakov links the premiere of Columbine’s Scarf to the appearance of Nikolai Evreinov’s pantomime Fiametta’s Four Dead Men (1911) in the repertoire of the Crooked Mirror theater. However, an analysis of the theater’s repertoire and of programmatic articles by its artistic director, Alexander Kugel, from the late 1900s and early 1910s, suggests that the theater approached the genre of pantomime gradually, systematically accumulating both theoretical and practical experience. Actual pantomime in the Crooked Mirror repertoire was preceded by performances utilizing silhouette techniques (Polka in the Style of Béranger, Near the Ballet in the Old Days), the mimodrama Pierrot in Love, and the staging of the Arabian fairy tale On the Six Beauties Who Were Not Like One Another. This article aims to provide a brief characterization of the Crooked Mirror’s “pre-pantomime experiments” leading up to 1911.

Keywords: Alexander R. Kugel, Nikolai N. Evreinov, Vsevolod E. Meyerhold, the Theater of miniatures Crooked Mirror, Fiametta’s Four Dead Men, Columbine’s Scarf, pantomime

For citation: Enukidze, N. I. (2026). Pantomimes in the repertoire of the Crooked Mirror Miniature Theater: From theory to practice. Contemporary Musicology, 10(1), 54–74. https://doi.org/10.56620/2587-9731-2026-1-054-074

References


Slutskaya, E. A. (2021). Theatre-cabarets. From Europe to Russia. Archivarius, 7(3), 19–26. (In Russ.).

Arkhangelskaya, R. I. (2025). Director N.I. Evreinov’s Buffoonery The Government Inspector at the Cabaret Crooked Mirror as an early experiment in directorial interpretation of the classics. Universum: Philology and Art History, (1), 19–22. (In Russ.). https://doi.org/ 10.32743/UniPhil.2025.127.1.19022

Slutskaya, E. A., Pochuyko, O. V., & Khvedchenya, A. A. (2020). Cabaret theater in pre-revolutionary Russia and its genre originality. Society. Environment. Development, (1), 47–55. (In Russ.).

Shekalov, V. A. (2019). The prima ballerina descends into the basement: Tamara Karsavina’s “Evening of 18th-century Dances” at the “Stray Dog”. Bulletin of the Vaganova Ballet Academy, (1), 79–110. (In Russ.).

Kuznetsova, O. A. (2020). “Childhood years” of the “Chauve-Souris” (The Bat). In O. A. Kuznetsova, E. A. Sarieva, & E. V. Savitskaya (Eds.), Estrada segodnya i vchera. Vyp. 3: O nekotorykh estradnykh zhanrakh XX–XXI vekov [Variety Stage Today and Yesterday. Vol. 3: On some variety genres of the 20th–21st centuries] (pp. 232–252). State Institute for Art Studies. (In Russ.).

Kourganov, E. Ya., Buks, N. Ya., & Penskaya, E. N. (Eds.). (2018). Russian entertainment culture in the Silver Age (1908–1918) (2nd ed.) National Research University Higher School of Economics Publishing House. (In Russ.). https://doi.org/10.17323/978-5-7598-1749-9

Buks, N. (Ed.). (2018). Kabaretnye pesy Serebryanogo veka [Cabaret plays of the Silver Age] (With the participation of I. Loshchilov). OGI Publ. (Ob’’edinennoe gumanitarnoe izdatel’stvo). (In Russ.).

Buks, N. (Ed.). (2020). Teatralnye miniatyury Serebryanogo veka [Theater miniatures of the Silver Age]. OGI Publ. (Ob’’edinennoe gumanitarnoe izdatel’stvo). (In Russ.).

Buks, N. (Ed.). (2021). Istoriya kabare Serebryanogo veka [History of the Silver Age Cabaret]: Coll. of scientific articles and publications.

OGI Publ. (Ob’’edinennoe gumanitarnoe izdatel’stvo). (In Russ.).

Shcherbakov, V. A. (2014). Malenkiy bolshoy ginyol [Small Grand Guignol]. In V. A. Shcherbakov, Pantomimy Serebryanogo veka [Pantomimes of the Silver Age] (pp. 77–96). Saint Petersburg Theater Journal. (In Russ.).

Kirillova, N. B. (2020). The role of the mask in the art culture of the Russia Silver Age. Culture and Art, (5), 77–93. (In Russ.). https://doi.org/10.7256/2454-0625.2020.5.32950

Shcherbakov, V. A. (2014). Poiski yazyka teatra [Search for the language of theater]. In V. A. Shcherbakov, Pantomimy Serebryanogo veka [Pantomimes of the Silver Age] (pp. 33–76). Saint Petersburg Theater Journal. (In Russ.).

Shcherbakov, V. A. (2019). Russian myth about Commedia dell’Arte. Prologue. Problems of the Theatre. Proscaenium, (3–4), 252–273. (In Russ.).

Galanina, Yu., & Feldman, O. (2019). Meyerhold in work on the pantomime The Lovers. Problems of the Theatre. Proscaenium, (1–2), 364–383. (In Russ.).

Moody, C. (1978). Vsevolod Meyerhold and the “Commedia dell’arte”. The Modern Language Review, 73(4), 859–869. https://doi.org/10.2307/3727599

Kirillova, A. S. (2023). The concept of “drama of mood” in domestic criticism of the late 19th — early 20th centuries on the example of A. Schnitzler’s dramaturgy. Russian Philology and National Culture, 2(7), 1–13. (In Russ.).

Shabshaevich, E. M. (2025). Two Frauen mit dem Dolche: Operas by Mikhail Ostroglazov and Vladimir Rebikov based on the play by Arthur Schnitzler. Contemporary Musicology, 9(3), 115–133. https://doi.org/10.56620/2587-9731-2025-3-115-133

Shabshaevich, E. M. (2024). From the history of the publication of the opera The Woman with the Dagger: Vladimir Rebikov — Boris Jurgenson — Arthur Schnitzler. Contemporary Musicology, 8(2), 50–67.

https://doi.org/10.56620/2587-9731-2024-3-050-067

Tikhvinskaya, L. I. (2005). Povsednevnaya zhizn teatralnoy bogemy serebryanogo veka: Kabare i teatry miniatyur v Rossii: 1908–1917 [Everyday life of the theatrical bohemia of the Silver Age: Cabarets and miniature theaters in Russia: 1908–1917]. Molodaya gvardiya Publ. (In Russ.).

Kholmskaya, Z. V. (2021). “Krivoye zerkalo” [Crooked Mirror]. In N. Buks (Comp.), Istoriya kabare Serebryanogo veka [History of the Silver Age cabaret]: Coll. of scientific articles and publications (pp. 74–207). OGI. (Ob’’edinennoe gumanitarnoe izdatel’stvo). (In Russ.).

Evreinov, N. N. (1998). V shkole ostroumiya: Vospominaniya o teatre “Krivoye zerkalo” [In the school of wit: Memories of the Crooked Mirror Theater]. Iskusstvo Publ. (In Russ.).

Sviridovskaya, N. D. (2021). N. Evreinov and operetta: The point of intersection. Musicology, (3), 38–49. (In Russ.). https://doi.org/10.25791/musicology.3.2021.1183

Sviridovskaya, N. D. (2020). Nikolay Evreinov and the opera house: touches on the creative biography. Musical Academy, (1), 122–139. (In Russ.). https://doi.org/10.34690/40




DOI: https://doi.org/10.56620/2587-9731-2026-1-054-074

Copyright (c) 2026 Natela I. Enukidze

License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/