THE TWO-FACED WORLD OF THEATRE: THEATRICAL BACKSTAGE IN A.N. OSTROVSKY’S PLAYS AND IN “THE MEMORIESˮ OF A.Y. PANAEVA

Abstract

The article deals with the selected plays of A.N. Ostrovsky which are about the life of actors (“The Forestˮ, 1872; “The talents and fansˮ, 1882) and “The Memoriesˮ of A.Y. Panaeva. The author of the article reveals the reasons why writers turned to the topic of the theater, the specifics of the image of the actor’s personality and his life, focusing on the ambivalence of the actor’s image in the public mind, as well as on the ethical components of the personality actor’s, described by Ostrovsky and Panaeva. Further, the author of the article compares the fictional images of the actors in Ostrovsky’s plays with real personalities, whose life and creative path was described in Panaeva’s “Memoirsˮ, revealing similarities. The article tells us about the reasons for the actors’ poor conditions, their dependence on theatrical officials, on the tastes of an indiscriminate public, that is accustomed to the translated repertoire and wants to see only entertainment in the theater, but not a way to enrich themselves spiritually. A.N. Ostrovsky, author of the fiction, and A.Y. Panaeva, the author of the documentary prose, form images of actors with similar character traits (nobility, faith in their work, respect for their own craft, tragic perception of reality) and falling into the same life circumstances, which indicates Ostrovsky’s desire to get away from the conventions and theatrical traditions that had existed before and create a new realistic theater.