Five Evenings

By Aleksandr Volodin

Book Overview

Five Evenings was published in the Minnesota Drama Editions series by the University of Minnesota Press in 1966.The Russian playwright Aleksandr Volodin represents a "new wave" of Soviet dramatists, who appear to be primarily interested in personal relationships and values within a framework that is social rather than specifically socialist or communist. This play, Five Evenings, was first published in the Soviet monthly theater journal Teatr in 1958 and was produced at the Boloshoi Theatre of Drama in 1959. An earlier play by Volodin, The Factory Kid, was the subject of violent controversy, on political grounds, in the Soviet press. But while the controversy raged, the play was being enthusiastically received by large audiences. A later play, Going Out and Staying In, was produced in Moscow at the Ermolova Theatre in 1960. Recently Volodin has been working in films.Five Evenings has its setting in present-day Leningrad. As Harold Clurman points out in his introduction, it "is a simple play, so simple in fact that audiences in our great metropolitan centers might call it 'corny.' In doing this they would betray their own provinciality." Mr. Clurman believes that an American production of the play would help us appreciate the spirit of Soviet dramaturgy, and better still, understand the Soviet people. "Beyond that," he writes, "it might provide us with an affectionate and touching evening in the theatre - a good time."

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0816604029
• ISBN13: 9780816604029
• Release Date: October 1966
• Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
• Length: 112 Pages