Description
The book is about the Russian Theatre Archive and how it was created. It discusses the theatres in concentration camps and how they were used. It also discusses the importance of the theatre in the concentration camps and how it helped to keep prisoners entertained.
There were theatres in hundreds of Soviet concentration camps. What were they like? Can we regard them as an artistic phenomenon? Do they constitute a distinct unity? It has been difficult to answer these and many other questions concerning the absurd term "concentration camp theatre" mainly because the KGB archives are still largely inaccessible and few are still alive of those who worked in the theatres of the "world behind the barbed wire." The most important theatre of this kind, serving as a model for others, was in the Solovki camp for political prisoners. In this book, readers will not find any rhetoric on the incompatibility of art and concentration camp, but will be offered a well-documented account of a rich reality, with precise dates and names of the theatre managers, directors and actors. The book is illustrated with fascinating and at times poignant archival photographs.
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