A Life in Theatre. Towards the Simple and the Sacred : Stalin, Social Realism and the 'Engineers of the Soul' Blog 81

Morning!

Its 6am here, so 5 in London. I can hardly believe the wintery conditions that continue to insinuate themselves on us. Yesterday afternoon Maciej and I headed back from Krakow to Wroclaw in our rented car. All we could see for miles was snow and fog. Its about 250 km and plenty of time for more retrieving of theatre history from 1965-present day. We have made 4 video diaries now and quite a lot of audio recordings.

Me outside Maciej's Mother's flat

Much of our focus yesterday was on the nature of state controlled art during the soviet period and how this challenged non complying artists to create increasingly more abstract works that could defy the censors. According to Britannica the definition of social realism that emerged from Stalin's Russia is

'Officially sanctioned theory and method of artistic and literary composition in the Soviet Union from 1932 to the mid-1980s. Following the tradition of 19th-century Russian realism. Socialist Realism purported to serve as an objective mirror of life. Instead of critiquing society, however, it took as its primary theme the struggle to build socialism and a classless society and called for the didactic use of art to develop social consciousness. Artists were expected to take a positive view of socialist society and to keep in mind its historical relevance, requisites that seldom coincided with their real experiences and frequently undermined the artistic credibility of their works.'

Indeed Stalin held a hugely strong line on soviet cultural policy, appreciating the anarchic power of the arts and the challenges to control individual artists. He wanted to tether them to his political will and in the summer of 1934, at the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers, Socialist Realism was proclaimed the approved method for Soviet artists in all media. Andrey Zhdanov, who gave the keynote address at the Congress, was Stalin's mouthpiece on cultural policy until his death in 1948. In the words of his leader, the artist was to be 'an engineer of the human soul'. The aim of the new creative method was 'to depict reality in its revolutionary development'.

Talking to Maciej yesterday brought home to me again as it did in 1981 just what artists in those years faced in Poland too if they dared to speak out, or present a less than favourable image of the ruling regime. They often ended up in prison or 'disappeared'. Certainly their financial support was cut off. My guess is that whilst this may not happen so obviously in most parts of the world now there is still a cultural dichotomy. On the one hand corporations and governments espouse support and value for the arts, and at the same time they are often terrified of the mirror that artists might dare to hold up. I guess its the essential nature of control and power.

My
Trusty old Truth Stick

Early in my trip I had mentioned to Maciej that I needed to find a truth stick for my workshop at Teatru Arka on Monday. Anyone who has read previous blogs may remember my reference to using my trusty old stick in rehearsals. Well it was too big to fit in my case and I refused to part with any more money to the greedy boss of Ryan Air!

Maciej had suggested we drop by his friends, theatre designer Ewa Beata Wodeka and director and actor trainer Krszystof Kopka on our way back from Krakow. As well as wanting to introduce us they also live right next to a forest on the outskirts of Wroclaw and this might be a good place to find a stick!

Ewa's delicious leek and bacon pie

Krszystof and Ewa greeted us with a lovely lunch and then some time sharing stories about making theatre. Ewa is a trained architect turned theatre designer and was a co-founder of Theatre Witkacy in Zakopanem.

Krszystof and Ewa

She showed me her fabulous portfolio some of which I have uploaded at the bottom of this post and I shared some of our Youtube videos. She and Krszystof were very interested in our community play Muddy End by Clifford Oliver, which was a site specific piece we made with local community actors in Barking and Dagenham and performed on the ground floor at the Malthouse where we have our studios.

Maciej, who is a Cultural Strategist and I had already been talking about how we might link up through an international theatre exchange for 2016 when Wroclaw is the European City of Culture. We are meeting some of the organisers tomorrow. Krszystof and Ewa are interested in the idea of a transnational community performance with non-professional actors such as Muddy End perhaps, and so we hope to forge further links and develop our conversations over the coming months.

And I found a Polish truth stick in Ewa and Krszystof's wooded garden - so all set for Monday!

Last night a good meal in the Jewish Quarter at the Steinhausen restaurant, where we met the owner and his wife and plan to return today for the launch of their book about antiques!

So I'm looking forward to more adventures today!