The Merry Wives of Moscow: Komisarjevsky, Shakespeare, and Russophobia in the British Theatre

Abstract

Theodore Komisarjevsky was a prominent figure in the inter-war British theatre until his migration to North America in 1936. While recent studies have foregrounded the various artistic factors that influenced his work and his eventual departure, little attention has been placed on the sociopolitical issues. Most notably, there has been no serious consideration of the impact that his nationality had on the opportunities that were available to him. This article examines Komisarjevsky's work in relation to the growing nationalistic and Russophobic attitudes in Britain during the 1920s and 1930s. It focuses particularly on his series of productions at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, and shows the subsequent critical outrage to be rooted in a desire to protect Shakespeare and, by extension, Britain as a whole from the 'interference' of a Russian director. Dr Philippa Burt is a lecturer in the Department of Theatre and Performance at Goldsmiths, University of London. She has previously published articles on Harley Granville Barker and Joan Littlewood, and is the recent recipient of a Harry Ransom Research Fellowship in the Humanities at the University of Texas at Austin.Keywords: inter-war theatre, anti-alienism, xenophobia, Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Antony and Cleopatra, cultural ownership, émigrés of the Old Vic, Komisarjevsky found that the production, and the season as a whole, lacked substance and was an example of 'obvious "loan-propaganda"'. 2 Most damaging to his ego was the noticeable absence of the ideas and approaches he had