Folklore theater is the traditional dramatic art of the people. The types of folk entertainment and play culture are diverse: rituals, round dances, dressing up, clowning, etc.

Folklore theater is the most capacious and precise concept that defines folk theatrical and dramatic art. It includes a set of theatrical phenomena in folklore - the performance of folklore dramas by folk performers, puppet and village performances, sentences of farce grandfathers. In the origin, functioning and distribution of all forms and types of folklore theater important role cities played. In cities, fairs were a favorite time and place for folk spectacular performances, which were attended by many people, including villagers. They not only traded, but also had fun.

The main genres of folklore theater include:

These are temporary structures for theatrical, variety or circus performances. In Russia they are known from mid-eighteenth in. Balagans were usually located in market squares, near places of city festivities. Magicians, strongmen, dancers, gymnasts, puppeteers, folk choirs; small plays were staged. A balcony (raus) was built in front of the booth, from which the artists (usually two) or the grandfather-raeshnik invited the audience to the performance. "Grandfather" decided the success of the carousel, he was very necessary for the "lure", so the carouselers always tried to acquire a "grandfather". But there were still few real masters of this business, which is why they used hastily found people who hastily memorized a few jokes. Hence - a stencil, undemanding jokes, passing from one to another and losing their salt.

Rayok is an obligatory part festivities and amusements in the cities of Russia of the last century. By the end of the century, along with a portable district, stationary installations of quite impressive size with several glasses appeared. At large fairs and festivities, several raeshniks performed at once. Belonging to the festivities, to festive square identified the main features of these representations. Firstly, the box was painted with rich colors, decorated with figurines, flags, a kind of weather vane with the inscription "World Cosmorama" (as the owner of the district called his theater theater). Secondly, the clothes of the Raeshnik, as a rule, were emphatically non-everyday, reminiscent of farce "grandfathers-barkers". Finally, the native skillfully flirted with the audience, inviting them to his panorama. The ribbon of the district consisted of a series of popular prints. Here you could see sinners tormented in hell, Bela's comet, railway, portraits of state and public figures(Russian tsars, Napoleon, Bismarck, Lomonosov, Turkish Sultan) and much more.

Puppet show.

The Russians knew three types of puppet theater: the puppet theater (in which the puppets were controlled with the help of threads), the Petrushka theater with glove puppets (the puppets were put on the puppeteer's fingers) and the nativity scene (in which the puppets were motionlessly fixed on the rods and moved along the slots in the boxes) . The Petrushka Theater was popular. The nativity scene was distributed mainly in Siberia and southern Russia.

The puppet - the basis of the performance - is perceived only when it "comes to life" in the hands of the actor. Folk puppeteers knew this well, which is why they did not give their heroes a moment's rest: the puppets gesticulated, bowed, moved along the screen, jumped out, hid, chased each other. With good parsleys, words and gestures were so coordinated that a complete illusion was created of the actual animation of the dolls. Real masters knew how to upholster even the fact that due to a barely noticeable tilt or turn of the head, the body, in which the shadow fell in a different way, the painted or glass buttons-eyes were illuminated, eyebrows and mouth appeared - it seemed that the doll was angry, laughing, perplexed, sad.

The Petrushka Theater is a Russian folk puppet comedy. His main character was Petrushka, after whom the theater is named. It consisted of a light folding screen, a box with several dolls (according to the number of characters - usually from 7 to 20), a hurdy-gurdy and small props (sticks or ratchet clubs, rolling pins, etc.). The theater of Petrushka did not know the scenery. The puppeteer, accompanied by a musician, usually an organ grinder, went from court to court and gave traditional performances about Petrushka. It could always be seen during festivities, at fairs.

Character traits appearance Parsley - a large hooked nose, a laughing mouth, a protruding chin, a hump or two humps (on the back and on the chest). The clothes consisted of a red shirt, a cap with a tassel, smart boots on his feet; or from a clownish two-tone clown outfit, collar and cap with bells. The puppeteer spoke for Petrushka with the help of a squeaker - a device due to which the voice became sharp, shrill, rattling. The presentation of the Petrushka Theater consisted of a set of sketches that had a satirical orientation. The image of Petrushka is the personification of festive freedom, emancipation, a joyful feeling of life.

A notable phenomenon in the folk culture of a number of places in Russia was crib performances, which had a religious purpose in their origin, but over time turned into a fair show. Having left the temple and found itself in the hands of ordinary folk comedians, the crib drama has undergone significant changes. The religious part was everywhere reduced at the expense of the second, secular. And those episodes that remained were rethought, filled with everyday content. It is no accident that so touchingly and naively played out in detail folk plays, published in this section, constituted in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries a living typical repertoire of the Russian folklore theater.

Nativity scene drama was played not only by puppets, but also by live amateurs - then it was called "living nativity scene". The nativity scene interacted with the folk theater of live actors. As a result of the "secularization" of the den, puppeteers borrowed characters, skits, and short plays from the theater of live actors. The theater of live actors, in turn, borrowed some plays from the nativity scene (for example,

Folk dramas

Folk drama in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries is a living typical repertoire of the Russian folklore theater. For a long time it was considered atypical for folklore, "descended" into the people's environment. But according to the stability of plots and poetic means, sphere and nature of existence, as well as methods of transmission, folk dramas are a traditional folklore phenomenon.

Indeed, folk drama is a relatively “young” and very peculiar folklore genre, and it is necessary to enter into its poetic world, to understand why it was dear to the people, what could be interesting for us.

In the structure of the drama, one could see a heap of inserted interludes, scenes and episodes, a combination of heterogeneous pieces. In other words, folk drama was not perceived as an integral aesthetic phenomenon of folk culture.

Gradually, under the influence of amateur, court and professional theatres, literature, popular prints, folk dramas were enriched with new themes, characters, and the characterization of images was improved in them.

In folk household satirical dramas its own system of images has developed, relatively stable texts and image techniques have been developed. Folk heroic-romantic dramas

Folk heroic-romantic dramas, unlike everyday satirical ones, arose and were formed not only on the basis of folklore. They actively used songs literary origin, as well as splint and folk book(popular novels and pictures about robbers, chivalric novels). Some heroic-romantic dramas are known in a single version (for example, the patriotic play about the war of 1812 "How a Frenchman Took Moscow"). The most popular were "Boat" and "Tsar Maximilian".

Social antagonism was also a hot topic in folk dramaturgy, which was developed both in a satirical (ridicule of an impoverished master) and in a romantic (ataman's unrequited love for a captive) aspect.

At the center of each plot of the drama is its main character, who usually determines the title of the work, all the events of the drama are associated with this character, his social affiliation, public or private, family life.

Along with the concept of "folklore theater" in literature, the term " folk theater". However, its use is less justified for various reasons.

Folk theater in the past and in our days is called not only a folklore theater that is specific in terms of the conditions of occurrence, existence and repertoire. It is known that in post-reform Russia, and especially in late XIX- the beginning of the 20th century, amateur theatrical troupes of workers, soldiers, and peasants arose everywhere. Competent representatives of the people joined the classical dramaturgy, staged Ostrovsky, Chekhov, Schiller. There were in those years amateur groups among the intelligentsia, and even professional groups of the same educational nature. Both of them were called "theaters for the people" or folk theaters.

In the history of folklore theater, it is customary to consider the pre-theatrical and theatrical stages of folk dramatic creativity.

To pre-theatrical forms (or folk origins) include theatrical elements in the calendar and family rituals. AT calendar rites- symbolic figures of Shrovetide, Mermaid, Kupala, Yarila, Kostroma, etc., playing scenes with them, dressing up. A prominent role was played by agricultural magic, magical actions and songs designed to promote the well-being of the family. For example, at winter Christmas time, a plow was pulled through the village, "sowed" in the hut with grain, etc. With the loss of magical significance, the rite turned into fun.

In addition to rituals, theatrical elements accompanied the performance of many folklore genres: fairy tales, round dance and comic songs, etc. An important role was played here by facial expressions, gesture, movement - close to theatrical gesture and movement. For example, the storyteller did not just tell a fairy tale, but to some extent acted it out: he changed his voice, gesticulated, changed his facial expression, showed how the hero of the fairy tale walked, carried a bucket or bag, etc. In fact, it was a game of one actor.

Thus, ritual and non-ritual dramatic games are the closest predecessors of folk theatrical performances.

Actually theatrical forms of folk dramatic creativity - stage by stage more late period, the beginning of which researchers attribute to the 17th century.

However, long before that time in Russia there were comedians, musicians, singers, dancers, trainers. These are buffoons. They united in wandering groups and took part in folk rituals and holidays until the middle of the 17th century.

theater that exists among the masses: Balagan, Nativity scene, Petrushka, Buffoons, as well as non-professional amateur theater. Appeared in Russia in the middle of the XIX century. The same term is applied to the professional theatre, whose activities from the second half of XIX in. was addressed to a wide audience (the so-called theater for the people).

Great Definition

Incomplete definition ↓

PEOPLE'S THEATERS

People's" - a title, since 1959, assigned to amateur theatrical groups by state cultural bodies and trade union councils. In a special regulatory document - "Regulations on the folk amateur theater", developed by the USSR Ministry of Culture and the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, it was determined: "People's amateur theaters are the highest form amateur theatrical activities and are called upon to play an important role in the communist education of working people, children and youth. They are obliged to bring high culture to the masses, to enrich their spiritual world, to create original works art. In their activities, folk amateur theaters strive, just like professional theaters, to truly, deeply and comprehensively reflect in artistic images great process extensive construction of a communist society, the heroism of the creative labor of the people. Creation of the N.T. at the turn of the 1950s–60s. in the interests of public policy. They appeared in a number of other innovations (teams of communist labor, etc.) in response to the ideological order of the government that came to power. new grouping party nomenklatura headed by N.S. Khrushchev, who announced "a new historical stage in the life of the country", which was defined as "the transition to the construction of communism" and was to be accompanied by an "unprecedented flourishing" of culture, art and amateur creativity. In the Soviet propaganda of that time, the concept of "people's" has become one of the main ideologies. Let us name the main meanings, to one degree or another transferred to the title of N.T.: - folk - in the Soviet interpretation - characteristic of the working masses, workers and peasants ( folk art- folklore, folk holiday, folk - national - costume); - folk - amateur; classes in artistic creativity of the working (people's) masses and the labor (people's) intelligentsia in their free time from professional studies; - folk - expressing aspirations Soviet people- "new historical community»; - national - belonging to a socialist country, Soviet state, because only it expresses and represents the interests of the people ( National economy, people's deputies, people's court, people's theater); - folk - expressing the ideology of the Bolshevik, communist party (because "The CPSU is the vanguard of the Soviet people", "the people and the party are one"). N.T. marked the beginning of the coming (under communism) fusion of amateur and professional creativity through the ascent of artists "from the people" to the heights of artistic creativity and the achievement by the stage masters of a comprehensive "nationality". The definition of "people's" canceled the residual signs of class and other social differences in the names of theaters ("worker", "rural", "collective farm", "trade union", etc.). At the same time, N.T. arose under the influence of real processes in culture - as a result of the appearance on the border of amateur and professional theaters of a significant layer of groups of a transitional nature. They had several names in their active repertoire, they regularly performed before the public with performances that were not inferior in terms of artistic level to the productions of professional troupes. Among the first theaters that were awarded the title of "folk", there were groups that had been working for more than a decade: the theaters of the Palace of Culture of the Moscow Metrostroy (headed by L. Novsky), the House of Culture of the Gorky Automobile Plant (headed by N. Nikolsky), the Kinel-Cherkassky RDK of the Kuibyshev Region. (headed by K. Gumerov), House of Culture ZIL (headed by S. Stein), Leningrad Regional House of Culture of Educational Workers (headed by V. Remizov), Leningrad House of Culture named after Kirov (headed by O. Remez), House of Culture of the Vyborg Side, Leningrad (headed by T. Sukova, L. Menaker), Gorbunov Moscow Palace of Culture (headed by Yu. Polichinetsky) and others. countryside The teams from the villages of Buturlinovka and Nikolskoye (Voronezh region), Narimanovo (Tatar ASSR), Krasny Yar (Astrakhan region), Bessonovka (Penza region) were the first to receive the title. At the same time, the title of "folk" was also given to youth groups that arose on the wave of the "thaw" (Student Theater of Moscow State University, Ivanovo Youth Theater, Perm Youth Theater, etc.). Introducing a new link, the authorities sought to preserve the orderliness of a strictly ranked socialist culture. "People's" theaters were held in the category of amateur performances, according to the department of cultural and educational work of state and trade union bodies. At the same time, their status in comparison with the bulk of amateur associations increased. Functionally N.T. approaching the sphere professional art. staffing dramatic N.T., puppet theaters and a young spectator provided for a leader and artist - head. staged part. In musical groups, it was also allowed to have a conductor, choirmaster, accompanist, choreographer. Appropriations were allocated for staging costs. Official salaries of managers were established according to tariff rates professional theatres. Full-time was opened at the Moscow State Library Institute (now the Academy of Culture and Art), and at the Theater School. Schukin - correspondence department of directors N.T. In the All-Russian theater society(WTO) a cabinet of folk theaters was created. Creation of the N.T. ambiguously affected the development of amateur theatrical creativity subsequent decades. With the acquisition of the title, many groups received greater independence, relative independence from the mass events of basic clubs, houses and palaces of culture, the opportunity to focus on stage creativity, stability, although modest, financial situation. The system of permanent regional, zonal, central (in Moscow and Leningrad) laboratories and seminars for directors of N.T., deployed by the WTO, contributed to their professional growth , inclusion in the general theatrical process, rapprochement with the most active democratic (sixties) wing of the creative intelligentsia. At the same time, the unification of the staffing, financial, organizational framework prevented the search for non-standard forms of theater construction that had begun in the atmosphere of the “thaw”. Thus, by 1958, the Student Theater of Moscow State University under the direction of R. Bykov had an independent bank account and fifteen paid artistic and technical staff. Bykov planned the gradual transformation of the student theater into a professional one. Ivanovo Youth Theater by that time received the status of a city amateur theater, the ability to simultaneously rely on material support from the Komsomol, state and trade union organizations. With the advent of the Regulations on folk groups, such "deviations" began to be pursued. The leading authorities of culture tried to build the repertoire of N.T. according to ideological requirements. Productions of a revolutionary, heroic content were encouraged in every possible way. The best of them were shown on the stage of the Kremlin Theater, on Central Television: “Egor Bulychov and Others” by M. Gorky staged by the Theater of the House of Culture of the Vyborg Side, “Armored Train 14-69” Sun. Ivanov - a performance of the Kolomna Folk Theater of the Palace of Culture of Carriage Builders, "Pavlov's House" by P. Ulyev about the defenders of Stalingrad - a production of the People's Theater of the Palace of Culture named after. Gagarin from Volgograd and similar large-scale "canvases". "The actor of the folk theater is an ideological fighter, a citizen, an artist," editorials in special editions suggested. However, the real picture of N.T. significantly diverged from the provisions of program documents. Along with the theaters - consistent and sincere servants of the communist idea - there were traditional provincial amateur troupes oriented to the tastes of the "common" audience, playing mainly melodramas and simple comedies such as A. Larev's Appointment at the Bird Cherry, Ts. Solodar's In the Lilac Garden, "The Fate" by A. Sofronov. Youth N.T. They revived studio principles, formed their own repertoire, alternative to officialdom (Volodin, Vampilov, Voznesensky, Yevtushenko, Aitmatov, Rasputin, Vasiliev). By the end of the 1970s - the beginning of the 1980s. N.T. have lost their significance both for members of amateur groups and for party and state bodies. The swollen network (by this time only in Russia, according to statistics, there were about two thousand N. T.) consisted for the most part of quite ordinary, eking out a miserable existence of circles, to a large extent from " dead souls"- disintegrated, but featured in the reports of the teams. Appropriations were cut everywhere, the staff of leaders was reduced. Among the theatrical amateurs, the so-called. studio theatres. Nobody gave this “title”, young teams assigned it to themselves, put it in the first line, even if they were “folk”. It is noteworthy that in the late 1980s. the Cabinet of People's Theaters of the WTO (STD) was renamed the Department of Amateur Theaters and Studio Movement. (A. Sh.) Lit .: People's theaters. Issue. 1. M., 1962. Issue. 2. M., 1963; Today and tomorrow of the national theater. M., 1963; Director and team. Issue. 1. M., 1961. Issue. 2. M., 1962. Issue. 3. M., 1963; On weekdays and holidays. M., 1979; Sidorina I., Korbina M. Folk theaters of Russia. M., 1981; People's Theatres: A View from the Side. About themselves: Sat. M., 1981; Amateur artistic creativity in the USSR: Essays on history. Late 1950s - early 1990s. SPb., 1999.

FOLKLORE THEATER. FOLK DRAMA

Folklore theater is the traditional dramatic art of the people. The types of folk entertainment and play culture are diverse: rituals, round dances, dressing up, clowning, etc.

In the history of folklore theater, it is customary to consider the pre-theatrical and theatrical stages of folk dramatic creativity.

Pre-theatrical forms include theatrical elements in calendar and family rituals.

In the calendar rituals - the symbolic figures of Maslenitsa, Mermaid, Kupala, Yarila, Kostroma, etc., playing scenes with them, dressing up. A prominent role was played by agricultural magic, magical actions and songs designed to promote the well-being of the family. For example, at winter Christmas time, a plow was pulled through the village, "sowed" in the hut with grain, etc. With the loss of magical significance, the rite turned into fun.

The wedding ceremony was also a theatrical game: the distribution of "roles", the sequence of "scenes", the reincarnation of the performers of songs and lamentations in actor ceremony (bride, her mother). The difficult psychological game was to change internal state the bride, who in the house of her parents had to cry and lament, and in the house of her husband to portray happiness and contentment. However, the wedding ceremony was not perceived by the people as a theatrical performance.

In calendar and family rituals, mummers were the participants in many scenes. They dressed up as an old man, an old woman, a man dressed in women's clothes, and a woman in men's clothes, dressed up in animals, especially often in a bear and a goat. The costume of the mummers, their masks, make-up, as well as the scenes they played were passed down from generation to generation. At Christmas time, Shrovetide, Easter, mummers performed humorous and satirical skits. Some of them later merged into folk dramas.

In addition to rituals, theatrical elements accompanied the performance of many folklore genres: fairy tales, round dance and comic songs, etc. An important role was played here by facial expressions, gesture, movement - close to theatrical gesture and movement. For example, the storyteller did not just tell a fairy tale, but to some extent acted it out: he changed his voice, gesticulated, changed his facial expression, showed how the hero of the fairy tale walked, carried a bucket or bag, etc. In fact, it was a game of one actor.

Actually, theatrical forms of folk dramatic creativity are a stage-by-stage later period, the beginning of which researchers attribute to the 17th century.

However, long before that time in Russia there were comedians, musicians, singers, dancers, trainers. These are buffoons. They united in wandering groups and until the middle of the 17th century. took part in folk ceremonies and festivals. Proverbs are composed about the art of buffoons (Everyone will dance, but not like a buffoon), songs and epics ("Vavilo and buffoons", "Guest Terentyshe"). Their work was reflected in fairy tales, epics, in different forms folk theatre. In the 17th century buffoonery was prohibited by special decrees. For some time, buffoons hid on the outskirts of Russia.

The specific features of the folklore theater are the absence of a stage, the separation of performers and the audience, the action as a form of reflection of reality, the transformation of the performer into a different objectified image, the aesthetic orientation of the performance. Plays were often distributed in written form, pre-rehearsed, which did not exclude improvisation.

Cities played an important role in the origin, functioning and spread of all forms and types of folklore theater. In cities, fairs were a favorite time and place for folk spectacular performances, which were attended by many people, including villagers. They not only traded, but also had fun.

BALAGAN

Booths were built during fairs. Booths are temporary structures for theatrical, variety or circus performances. In Russia, they have been known since the middle of the 18th century. Balagans were usually located in market squares, near places of city festivities. Magicians, strongmen, dancers, gymnasts, puppeteers, folk choirs performed in them; small plays were staged. A balcony (raus) was built in front of the booth, from which the artists (usually two) or the grandfather-raeshnik invited the audience to the performance. Grandfathers barkers developed their own way of dressing and addressing the audience.

Performances in 1881 by one of the talented fairground actors of the Volga region, the owner of a booth called "The Theater of Spiritualism and Magic", Ya-I. Mamonov (1851-1907), were described by F. I. Chaliapin.

“I got my first theatrical burns in severe Christmas frosts, when I was eight years old. In the Christmas booth, for the first time, I saw the then fair actor Yakov Ivanovich Mamonov - known at that time on the Volga under the name Yashki as a fair coupletist and clown.

Yashka had a wonderful appearance, perfectly in harmony with his role. Although he was not old, he was baggy and fat in an old man's way. it was this that made him imposing. A thick black mustache as hard as steel and ridiculously angry eyes completed the image, created in order to instill superstitious horror in the little ones. But the fear of Yashka was special - sweet. Yashka frightened, but also attracted irresistibly. Everything about him was wonderful: his thunderous, rough, hoarse voice, his dashing gesture, and the cheerful swagger of his mockery and mockery of the gaping public.

Hey you, sisters, collect rags, and you, empty heads, come here! - he shouted to the crowd from the wooden balcony of his own wooden and canvas-covered booth.

The audience really liked these clowning, tomfoolery and heavy jokes. Each lunge of Yashka caused a loud, rolling laughter. Yashkin's impromptu and bold seemed.

Pushing forward towards the audience, for show, his actors - his wife, son and comrades, Yashka raised a funny scarecrow into the air and yelled: - Hey, stay away, on the ground - We are taking the Governor ...

For hours on end, tirelessly in the cold, Yashka made the undemanding crowd laugh and enlivened the square with bursts of laughter. As if spellbound, I followed Yashkin's acting. I stood idle for hours in front of the booth, shivering to the bone from the cold, but I could not tear myself away from the intoxicating spectacle. In the cold, steam sometimes poured from Yashka, and then he seemed to me a completely miraculous creature, a magician and a sorcerer.

With what impatience and thirst I waited every morning for the opening of the booth! With what adoration I looked at my idol. But how surprised I was when, after all his intricate tricks, I saw him in the Palermo tavern serious, very serious and even sad over a couple of beers and salted black bread rusks. It was strange to see this inexhaustible merry fellow and joker sad. I didn’t know even then what sometimes hides behind stage fun ...

Yashka was the first in my life to strike me with his amazing presence of mind. He did not hesitate to make faces in front of the crowd, to break the fool, dressing up in a cap. I thought: "How is it possible, without any difficulty, without stammering, to speak so smoothly, as if in verse?" I was also sure that everyone was very afraid of Yashka - even the police! After all, the governor himself is pulling through.

And I was freezing with him in the square, and I felt sad when the day was drawing to a close and the performance was over.

2. THEATER OF MOVING PICTURES (RAYOK)

Rayok is a type of performance at fairs, distributed mainly in Russia in the 18th-19th centuries. It got its name from the content of pictures on biblical and gospel themes (Adam and Eve in Paradise, etc.).

D. A. Rovinsky, a famous collector and researcher of Russian folk pictures(lubok), the raek described as follows: "A raek is a small, arshin in all directions, a box with two magnifying glasses in front. Inside it, a long strip with home-grown images of different cities, great people and events is rewound from one rink to another. Spectators," a penny from the snout," they look into the glasses, - the raeshnik moves the pictures and tells the sayings for each new number, often very intricate.<...>At the end, there are shows and an ultra-modest kind<...>which are no longer suitable for printing.

During festivities, the raeshnik with its box was usually located on the square next to booths and carousels. The “grandfather-raeshnik” himself is “a retired soldier in terms of tricks, experienced, dexterous and quick-witted. He wears a gray caftan trimmed with red or yellow braid with bunches of colored rags on his shoulders, a hat-kolomenka, also decorated with bright rags. He has bast shoes on his feet , a flaxen beard is tied to the chin.

The explanations and jokes of the natives were divided into lines, with a rhyme (usually a pair) at the end of the lines. There was no regularity in the number and arrangement of syllables. For example: "But the undermanir pieces is a different view, the city of Palerma is standing, the lord's family walks through the streets and endows the poor Talyan with money. But, if you please, the undermanir pieces is a different look. The Assumption Cathedral in Moscow stands, they beat their beggars in the neck, nothing give"(see in the Reader). This folk verse was called "paradise". It was also used in jokes of farce grandfathers, in folk dramas, and so on.

FEDERAL STATE EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION

HIGHER PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION

"MOSCOW STATE UNIVERSITY OF CULTURE AND ARTS"

folklore theater

Course work

Completed:

correspondence student

Groups 11105

Zakharova I.V.

Teacher:

Blinova G.P.

Moscow city

Introduction

Chapter I. Folk theater

1.1. Origins and development of folklore theater

1.2. Types of folklore theater

Chapter II. The development of folklore theater in the XX-XXI centuries.

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

This work is devoted to the study of folklore theater, its role in folk art culture, consideration of its types and key features.

Relevance the topic of studying folklore theater is due to the acuteness of the problem of preserving culture and its values. Not only social changes in Russia in the 20th century led to the destruction of the foundations of traditional culture, but also today's pace of life, which entails a rapid change in priorities, which does not allow looking back, learning the history of the culture of one's people. The consequence of this was the realization of the seemingly inevitable loss of folk culture. But the country's interest in its history, art, folklore, the desire to preserve and defend cultural identity have not faded away.

Target The work consists in considering the cultural potential of the folklore theater and revealing its importance at the present stage of the development of society.

Achieving this goal is associated with the solution of the following tasks:

Describe the history of the emergence and development of folk theater;

Consider the main characteristics and types of folk theater;

To analyze its functions in the development and preservation of the traditions of folk culture on the example of the folklore theater "Blossom, our land!";

To identify the prospects for development in modern society.

Object of research: cultural heritage, Russian folklore.

Subject of study: the activities of the folklore theater.

Chapter I. Folk Theatre.

1.1. Origins and development.

Russian folklore theater originated in the deepest antiquity. The basis for its appearance was the production activity of our distant ancestors of the Slavs. A large role in the development of the theater was played by numerous rituals, ritual actions and folk holidays.

The main way for the formation of the folklore theater in Russia is the gradual withering away of the ancient pagan ideas of man about the world and the exchange of cultural values ​​between the village and the city, between the Russian people and foreigners.

In Russia, the theater as a form of art appeared only in the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich "The Quietest", and the words "theater", "drama", which are Greek in origin, as the theater critic V.N. Vsevolodsky-Gerngross, entered the Russian language only in the 18th century. Among the people, "theatre" was preceded by "disgrace", and "drama" - a game. Throughout the 17th century there was a term "fun", which was later replaced by "comedy".

The grandiose reforms of Peter the Great changed not only the way of life, but also the traditional culture of Russia. “Planting the theater along the line of alignment with Europe, Peter forced him to play the directly political role of an agitator, panegyrist of his reforms. The theater that Peter started was supposed to be a public spectacle, i.e. essentially a completely new idea for Russia.

Folklore in its ritual and ritual forms was supplanted and remained the lot of the common people, far from new theatrical amusements. Ceremonies and spectacles gradually lost the ritual functions of the magical connection of man with the natural world and their own, as B.N. Putilov wrote, "directly ritualized forms."

With the loss of the ritual function, the ancient action was preserved in folk life in the form of a game, performing no longer ritual, but aesthetic and etiquette functions.

At the stage of such changes, a folk (folklore) theater is born. The conditional language of performances did not require a special place - freely located spectators, of necessity, became participants in the fun. As pointed out by D.M. Balashov, "folklore theater - later

phenomenon of traditional culture<...>it arose as a result of those cardinal changes that Russia experienced, starting from the time of Peter the Great, and which gave rise to professional theater and dramaturgy ”(cited in ).

The year of the creation of the first folk (folklore) theater in Russia is considered

1765, when "on the Brumberg square near the Moika<...>nameless Russian comedians under a clear sky every day<...>presented their comedies.

Such a theater - disguise, farces, dramatic skits, puppet shows performed by non-professional actors - existed throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. Also, from the end of the 17th century, secular popular prints became popular, among which a significant proportion were Western European “amusing” sheets, Russian popular prints depicting jesters, buffoons, folk holidays and festivities, and fairy-tale heroes. In the 19th century, they were replaced by lubok books with texts of stories, fairy tales, satires, which are in high demand among the reading democratic public. The emerging urban folklore absorbed traditional folk spectacles: the performance of puppeteers, bear leaders, musicians and jokers. New genres of folklore theater are emerging. An indispensable part of the festive entertainment with early XIX century becomes a paradise. Since the middle of the 18th century, the booth has become the soul of all city festivities.

Gradually, various restrictions were imposed on the genres of fair art, they were subjected to strict censorship, fairs and places of entertainment were taken out of the city. Displaced from long-established places, subjected to censorship control, the festivities subside, and at the beginning of the 20th century, in essence, cease to exist.

It is customary to refer to the folklore theater the dramatic performances that "separated from the theater of the mummers", having a greater "connection with the literary drama" than the latter.

Fun strange and funny

folklore theater

(Fragment from the book "Fun, terrible and funny")

...There, behind the quiet river

There is a high mountain

There is a deep hole in it:

In that hole, in the sad darkness,

The coffin is rocking crystal

On chains between poles.

Can't see any trace

Around that empty place;

In that coffin is your bride.

A.S. Pushkin

It is customary to refer to the folklore theater the dramatic performances that "separated from the theater of the mummers", having a greater "connection with the literary drama" than the latter. However, it seems that if the volume of the performance is large enough, and the plot is somehow comprehended by a modern researcher, then this is called "folk theater". If the researcher cannot catch where the plot is, where the denouement is, then these are "sketches of mummers." Folklore theater includes games: "Barin", "Pakhomushka", "Mavrukh", "Boat", "Tsar Maximilian", etc. "King Herod", meanwhile, although played by live actors, is classified as a crib performance (with which we disagree). Accepted framework for the existence of folklore theater: XVII century. - early 20th century - in our opinion, they are not correct in principle - too heterogeneous texts are united under this term. From mummers, which, as is known, already existed in the Paleolithic, to amateur vaudeville performances, which could not have appeared before the 19th century, or raik, then invented. It remains unclear why, for example, rausny grandfathers are a folklore theater, but the reprises of clowns of that time are not. In a word, more questions have been raised than allowed.

To the history of study. Descriptions of folklore performances have been known since the 19th century: A. S. Griboedov, S. V. Maksimov, F. O. Nefedov, V. A. Gilyarovskiy and others. Ostrovsky includes the “Boat” processed by him in the play “Voevoda”. The most interesting, in our opinion, is the description by F. M. Dostoevsky in "Notes from the Dead House" (ch. "Performance"), which describes a performance staged not without the participation of Fyodor Mikhailovich himself, in the Omsk jail, where the writer was in 1850 -54 years

However, the first publications of texts appear only in 1890: "Tsar Maximilian" and "The Boat" in the journal "Ethnographic Review". Comments: Kollash V. V. and Gruzinsky A. E.

Then: Vinogradov N. N. Tsar Maximilian // Proceedings of the ORIAS, St. Petersburg, 1905, T X, book. 2. - S. 301-338.

Sipovsky V.V. publishes "The Boat" in the "Historical Reader on Russian Literature", St. Petersburg, 1911, vol. 1, issue 1 - pp. 239-242.

The first collector of folk dramas was N. E. Onchukov: Folk drama in the North // Izvestia ORIAS, vol. XIV, book. 4, St. Petersburg, 1909 and a separate edition - Northern folk dramas. SPb., 1911. Finally, N. N. Vinogradov publishes a collection that includes four versions of Maximilian (Folk drama Tsar Maximilian // Sat. ORyaS, St. Petersburg, 1914).

Over the subsequent time, three anthologies of folk drama were published: Berkov N. N. Russian folk drama of the 17th-20th centuries. M., 1953; Nekrylova A.F. and Savushkina N.I. Folk theater. M., 1988 and the same authors - People's Theater. M., 1991. Note that all three editions, referring to the same range of materials, have different names.

Among the works on folklore theater, we note the following:

Vsevolodsky-Gengross VN The history of the Russian theater. M.-L., 1929.

Bogatyrev P. G. Folk theater of Czechs and Slovaks // Collection of books. Theory questions folk art. M.-L., 1971.

Krupnyanskaya V. Yu. Folk drama "Boat" // Slavic folklore. M., 1972.

Savushkina N. I. Russian folk theater. M., 1976.

Gusev V.E. Russian folklore theater of the 17th-early 20th century. L., 1980, etc.

End of XX century. The folklore theater, together with the environment that fed it, is a thing of the past. The work of collecting texts is almost completed. The comprehension of the genre is just beginning... So, where are the genre boundaries and temporal boundaries? Where, for example, does the game of "umruna" end and the play "The Boat" begin? Where is the line between amateur performances and folk theater? The genre has yet to be defined. Everyone understands it in their own way, and classifies it in their own way ...

This is how the researcher singles out the folklore theater from the game: "Pre-theatrical, playful types of folklore (mummers, ritual performances, folk-holiday games, folk games) and actually dramatic performances based on a folklore or folklore dramaturgical text..." Foggy. It follows from this that "The Boat" is not a ritual action, but "Umrun" does not have a dramatic text. Both of these are incorrect.

1) On the plot of the song "Down the mother along the Volga".

2) A detailed plot of a robber's life.

3) Option with a love collision.

And according to V. E. Gusev there are: 1) a heroic version (in a short and expanded edition) and

2) melodramatic.

The systematization is based on the "character of the central conflict", etc.

Let us immediately note that neither the concept of "heroic" (as applied to "The Boat"), nor the concept of "satirical" (as applied to "Barin"), nor "central conflict" are applicable to folklore theater if this theater is folklore.

We will not deny the usefulness of typological analysis. But this is the approach of a materialist - a horizontal cut (a necessary but not sufficient condition for knowledge). And there is also a vertical ... What is analyzed by the researcher - texts, actions - that is, that formal reality, which for traditional consciousness is an adjective, and a noun, the content of the rite - a mystical reality, not always realized, but always felt when " the cold horror of inspiration lifts the hair on the forehead. Follow this mystical reality(and it is a fact of popular belief) is difficult, but it is possible to trace the myth that appears through the canvas of the plot.

So, let's agree: a folklore theater should have: 1) a folklore text - that is, a folklore (pre-written) way of creating, reproducing and transmitting a text; 2) this text should be dramatic (since the theater is the same). But the presence of a dramatic text is not yet a theater - there must be a third condition: a special system: an actor - a spectator. (There are along with fun, in folk tradition, and the concept of nursery rhyme. There is both a viewer and an actor (mother, nanny and child), and the text is quite dramatic ... And yet - amusement, not fun. For the theater, there is not enough distance, detachment (working on the image) between the actor and the audience).

What is a folklore text? This is well studied in epic studies. Even Hilferding (1871) noted that the narrator does not know the exact text of antiquity - it is recreated in the process of singing. The works are built from verbal formulas - clichés and themes (according to the definition of epic scholars. The terminology betrays their musicological education, but we are talking about poetry) - we will call them in the old Greek manner "episodes", and, finally, from the plot. There is also a melody - it organizes the verbal text in the process of its creation. How text is created only the speaker himself can make it clear:

“I sing, but it’s as if something’s wrong in my gut when I’m silent or sitting. It rises in me like some kind of spirit and walks through my gut. I sing some words, but before my spirit new ones stand up and somehow pull and so it trembles in me in everything. I sing fiercely, then I am fierce, I will sing and live differently, and I don’t smell anything else. And you thank God that he has not forgotten about you, has not left you, but gave you such a free spirit, and a memory.

Now about the transmission: As we noted, the listening must be adequate, otherwise you can simply die of boredom during the many hours of performance of the ancients. Reading a text in a book, without having the experience of switching our consciousness to the regime of traditional culture, we can only appreciate the "literary shadow" of the text. Meanwhile, "transmission" is a joint process (joint meditation, if you will) of the narrator and listeners, communication on a subconscious level.

Finally, about conservation. The folklore text is not stored at all. Remember, please, all those verses that you handed over by heart at school? Does not work. And the storyteller needs to remember not ten lines, but tens of thousands and carry them through the centuries. The "memory capacity" itself indicates that the texts are not memorized, but each time they are recreated from the subconscious "data bank".

It should be noted that each episode opens with a specific formula, has a key formula and, through certain formulas, joins with continuation episodes, forming a flexible, but inseparable thread of the plot. This way of transmitting information is not at all characteristic of the epic alone, but of the folklore text in general (that is, of pre-literate culture). So, the transmission and storage of a folklore text are specific, and the method of creation is preserved in traditional culture and for its written phase: chroniclers wrote their chronicles immediately - without drafts, and iconographers created frescoes without sketches - all this requires an appropriate form of consciousness, a system of "formulas", "episodes", his "melody".

If we consider any folk holiday as a text, then it consists of episodes that are based on the formulas of ritual songs or rituals. In turn, the holiday itself is a formula for an episode of the calendar cycle that forms the "text" of the year. The text can also be a hut, consisting of episodes of rooms built from formulas (technological methods of felling). The hut is transformed from century to century, its formulas (“to the oblo”, “to the dir”, “to the paw”) have been unchanged since creation (that is, 6-10 thousand years, as far as it can be traced archaeologically). The same, one must think, happens with verbal formulas. Sometimes they are quite large: ritual incantations, incantations, but at least at least two words: " good fellow", "beautiful girl", "sadness-longing". In the folklore theater they grow to the size of weekend monologues (i.e., they have the function of a kind of conspiracy, where word order is significant). In general, in the folklore theater the concentration of formulas is the highest (according to our calculations : up to 50% versus 5% in epics), which indicates a greater ritual significance of the genre, its closeness to the "original myth", or rather, to a certain "mythological state".

That is why a literate peasant who had the lists of "Boats" and "Maximilian", as the researchers noted, never looked into them. For here the whole point is not in the text, but in the way of playing, in the state, in the sacrament. Now about the time frame of the genre. Why did folklore theater begin in the 17th century? There are no texts or references. However, there are no references before the 19th century, neither about epics, nor about spiritual poems (not counting the historical songs about Skopin, recorded for R. James in 1619-20). And yet, our epic scholars do not doubt the existence of epics already in the pre-Mongolian era. It would not be worth relying on the information contained in the epics themselves. Epic Kyiv exists in a different space than historical Kyiv. Which one came first? Unknown. It would not be worth following Academician Rybakov to look for historical prototypes of Alesh and Dobryn. This is no more reliable than looking for the prototype of the Serpent Gorynych. (The historical song is another matter. Here Rybakov is right, but ... the epic and the song are different genres and more on that later). Mapping methods are more reliable, but even they stop us on the threshold of the period of development of the Russian North by the Novgorodians, that is, in the 15th, at least in the 14th century.

Nevertheless, the conclusions of epic scholars should be trusted - the mythological layer of our epics and fairy tales is too deep. After all, there is not a single mention of capital Vladimir or Moscow, everything is Kyiv, Kyiv. So, by the 12th century, the genre had finally taken shape.

As for "Maximilian", "Herod", "Solomon", etc., these games - let's call them parable dramas - have little in common with "The Boat". They are based on author's works that arose under the influence of apocrypha and acquired a folklore form of existence. Their history begins in the era of professional poets and musicians - buffoons and kaliks (which will be discussed in the next chapter) - the heyday of their activities in the 15th-16th centuries. Of course, the texts recorded by Onchukov and Vinogradov belong to the peasant North of the 19th century and are not identical to the alleged buffoons, but the plots, episodes and formulas - we think - are preserved.

Actually, in the 15th century, as is known, the heyday of Russian icon painting, architecture, etc. takes place. Why do we attribute the heyday of Russian drama and poetry to other eras? Gregory (XVII century) or Volkov (XVIII century) - is this a Russian theater? Seriously speaking, we have not yet had a Russian theater on the professional stage. This is how Pushkin reasoned about this: “Why don’t we have a folk tragedy? It would not be bad to decide whether it can exist. We saw that a folk tragedy was born on the square, formed and then was already called into an aristocratic society. With us it would have been the opposite, we would have wanted to bring the tragedy of the court, Sumarokov's tragedy to the square - but what obstacles!

Can our tragedy, formed according to the example of Rasinova's tragedy, wean itself from its aristocratic habits? How can she move from her conversation, measured, important and decent, to the rude frankness of popular passions, to the freedom of judgment of the square? How can she suddenly get behind subservience, how can she do without the rules to which she is accustomed, without forcibly adapting everything Russian to everything European, where, from whom to learn the dialect, understandable people? What are the essence of the passions of this people, what are the strings of their hearts, where will they find harmony with themselves - in a word, where are the spectators, where is the public? .. "

Our theater descended from aristocratic heights, tasted both rudeness and vulgarity, but not Russianness. Woz and now there. But this is between the lines. The question is different: is the European form generally compatible with the Russian spectacular tradition?

About the fact that there is a dramatic text.

Now that we've given some definitions and jumped to conclusions, we need to check whether we're wrong or... not wrong.

What kind of analysis are texts in folklore? Usually typological. This is the trend of the collector, how true it is for understanding, we could already judge. So, epics, spiritual poems, ballads, historical songs, parables - everything is enrolled in the epic. On what basis? - common form. But no matter how close, say, epics and spiritual verses are in syllable, melody, time of use (so close that it is sometimes difficult to draw a line), nevertheless these are different genres. Bylina really is an epic - a monologue narrative, setting out super-events, that is, a poetic form of myth. Spiritual verse is a dramatic work - that is, a dialogue. The plot of the epic has no essential meaning (because nothing develops in the monologue) and therefore it is conservative. The plot of the verse is valuable in itself (its dialogic nature is the essence of the drama), and therefore it is transformed into subsequent genres. Try to imagine the plot of the epic in a romance! And the plots of spiritual verses - please. They are transformed further - into a thieves' song, into modern dramaturgy and author's literature in general.

Dialogue in a drama is not just an exchange of information - it is an event-driven dialogue: a person is like this, and God is like that, a person is like that, and God is like that! For religious consciousness, any event in the plot is not accidental, but providential. The plot - fate - the judgment of God.

Drama-parables and drama-rituals ("The Boat") have a dramatic text in full measure. This makes them related to verse and rituals (including textually).

In fact, in not a single epic that has the same episodes as poems, dramas and rituals (for example, a mummered hero comes to a wedding), we will not find a single general formula(and the formula is the most "eternal" element of the text).

And the hero will not ask:

For whom do you know me

Who do you take...

And Prince Vladimir will not answer:

For the Prince of Germany...

Why? - The epic is monologue. In the bylina, even the dialogue is conveyed by monologues. Yes, the epic was also performed by several people (artel performance). But still, the singers picked up the text based on the breath and vocal tradition, ignoring the dialogue in the text. The verse is dialogical, so much so that, on the contrary, it does not require any intonational emphasis on replicas. The debate between the Belly (Aniki, Maximilian...) and Death coincide word for word in the spiritual verse and in the corresponding folk drama. There is no borrowing of formulas here. The point is apparently that verse and drama separated from the common mytho-epic trunk in about the same era - in the era when the language was taking shape and Russian literature was being formed. Specific genres and texts, of course, are much younger.

And so, we swept aside the division of drama into satirical drama (there is no satire on social inequality there!); household (and what is non-household?); heroic (he is not a hero, the Black Raven, and even Adolf is not a hero. There are no heroes at all in the drama. There is a hero in the epic. In the drama - an event.), etc.

There are ritual performances ("Boat", "Pakhomushka", "Umrun", etc.) of which only "The Boat" and dramas - parables, which have a common origin with spiritual verse, correspond to the signs of folklore theater. All this in the records of the 19th century is abundantly stuffed with minced meat.

Finally, there is a folk theater (which does not have a folklore text): "How a Frenchman Took Moscow", "Kedril the Glutton", most of the variants of the farcical adaptation of "Boat", etc. All this, as a product of urban culture (fair, seminar, soldier, etc.), appears in the XVIII-XIX centuries. under the influence of "lubok literature", which at one time was influenced by the folklore "Boats". In the folk theater, the main thing is minced meat: an abundance of scenery, tricks, tricks - all that, replaces the mythological overtones, creates a new life significance - the significance of the spectacle, instead of the rite. The goal of the folk theater, the spectacle, is to influence the wallets of the audience, and not the surrounding being. This theater was partially returned to the village and folklorized. In this work, we will not consider the folk theater as non-folklore.

Let's start, in order of seniority, with "The Boat" - at the heart of the action is the myth of a journey to the next world. Oddly enough, it is he who is stated in the Gospel. First Christ asks: "Who do you take me for?" Some disciples answered: "For John the Baptist", others: "For Elijah..." And he answered that he was not Elijah or John, but the Son of God. What happens next, no matter how strange it may seem, is reminiscent of "The Boat". The myth of the "journey" is visible even in the children's game "dead man". ":

dead man died

On Wednesday, on Tuesday:

They came to hew boards,

And he jumped out to dance.

The researchers were surprised: why in areas where the folklore theater is generally unknown, there are whole pieces from "The Boat" and "Maximilian" (N. P. Kolpakova, manuscript, about the monologue "Hello, gentlemen"). And they exist in ... wedding ceremonies. The fact is that these formulas and episodes (like folklore archetypes) are much older than the described genres. When a mummer comes to a wedding with a monologue:

Hello gentlemen...

So I arrived here.

For whom do you know me

Who do you take?

And then this monologue is repeated in "The Boat" and "Maximilian" (of course, we believe that it is not Ataman who pronounces Maximilian's exit monologue, as researchers of the folklore theater notice, but vice versa). Where is he from? - from the rite - the rite is primary.

Focusing on verbal formulas, let's try to clear the "Boat" of minced meat - or rather, expose its mythological overtones.

P.S. Proof of the primacy of the "Boat", in relation to the drama-parables, is the fact (repeatedly noted, but not understood) that in the villages the team of players was called the "gang", and the director - "Ataman", although in most cases they played not "Gang of Robbers", but "Maximilian" or even "Barin".

"The island is Crete in the midst of a wine-colored sea, beautiful "

1. The exit of the ataman. Even before the exit, a gang of robbers appears - mummers, that is, (see Ch. 3) - people from the next world. First song out:

You let- let the owner

Climb into a new hill

Climb into a new hill

Speak the word...

There is a caroling song. They came for sacrifice (drink and snack). They, like the carolers (“Give us a pie, otherwise we’ll bring the bull by the horns!”), Threaten the owner with destruction and robbery: “If you have wine, let’s drink all of it ...”. At the same time, this corresponds to the arrival for the bride in the wedding ceremony (see appendices). The first phrase of the chieftain: "Who am I?" - there is a business card of the mortgaged dead man. And then this monologue is repeated in "The Boat" and "Maximilian" (NB: the word "mummers" itself is a pseudonym - an "adjective" that has become a noun: mummers who ... the name is omitted).

The most powerful act of disguise (see below) is not the inside out of clothing, not a mask, etc., but the rejection of the name ( big sin according to the Christian idea), because the name has the greatest protective power. The Ataman, like the mummer at the wedding, has no name. The name determines the ordinal place in the universe. Apparently, this is why children who die unbaptized pass into the category of unclean (embarrassed). Their death is not violent (as with all other mortgages) and the only sin is the lack of a name-amulet. When they die, they turn into mermaids and kikimores and groan underground, and in order to calm them down (otherwise, don’t expect good), to say over the grave:

"Be Ivan (Marya...)".

The ataman (as well as the wedding "reader of decrees", the mechonosha of carolers, etc.) urgently demands a name (which, by the way, is unknown to anyone) and, having announced it, asks for vodka and snacks. The later version seems to us to be the case when Ataman asks Yesaul for vodka - he must ask the owner, as in a wedding ceremony. There is such an appeal in later records to the owners, but from the beginning, which got to the end, as payment request:

Dear audience, the curtain is closing,

And we rely on vodka with you ... -

The actor says, addressing the owner of the hut, in the complete absence of curtains, obviously borrowing the first phrase from the booth he saw in the city.

From Ataman's exit monologue, we learn that he lives "on the seas", from his look "the waters are boiling, the stones are shaking." His main occupation is the destruction of ships. In general, before us is not Ataman, but a typical sea king.

2. Having received the required (sacrifice), the Ataman builds a magical ship and sets off for the girl across a certain river. This is what Jason does, this is what Theseus and Sadko do...

Arriving from the other world across the river of death to this one, Ataman captures the girl (note that neither Esaul nor anyone else succeeds), but instead of marriage, a funeral occurs - the girl dies. It must be so, for her fiancé is from there. He will enter into a relationship with her in the next world: she did not die - she was taken away. (Which is also typical for the mourning of the bride in the wedding ceremony: in the parables, the groom, as a rule, lives somewhere across the river, where everyone is not like us. It is called, by the way, in contrast to the rite of divination (where he is ") and from matchmaking (where he is "prince", etc.) - "stranger-foreigner").

Let us recall Hades and Persephone, Minos and Ariadne, the Sea King and Chernava. Ataman must enter into a relationship with the owner's daughter. (NB: as it turns out in an even deeper mythological layer: this is his sister). If this is so, then erotic Christmas games, straw and log phalluses, etc., are understandable (see appendices). Is the symbolism of the act original or does it arise under the pressure of Christian morality? Apparently, it is, because here the act is a variant of the behavioral mask of a mummer.

Let us further take as a scheme the myth of Theseus and Ariadne (literal translation: "faithful in marriage") (remembering that this Minoan myth - the heyday of the ethnic group in the 15th century BC - is known to us from Greek retellings of the 5th century BC . X.). We will compare our conclusions, looking back at funeral and wedding rites, at carolers and mummers. Our "Boat" will be contemporary to the ship of Theseus or Isis. And why, in fact, not, if such complex elements as the arrangement of musical instruments wander through the continents and millennia. And the myth...

Androgey, the son of Minos (Minos the son of the sun god - Helios) - the king of Crete (and at the same time the king of the dead (!)) defeated everyone at the Panathenaic Games in Athens. Offended, the king of Athens, Aegeus (Aegean Sea), sends Androgei to hunt for the marathon bull. Androgey dies. The bull is overcome by Theseus, the son of Aegeus, but in reality the son of Poseidon, the same afterlife judge, according to one version of the myth - the brother of Minos. Minos demands an expiatory sacrifice for his son (14 girls and boys) every year. When he sails for the third time, Theseus decides to go to Minos under the guise of one of the doomed.

3. Minos (according to our scheme - Ataman) takes the victims to his Labyrinth (we'll see what it is) to be eaten by the bull-man Minotaur. The whole situation is mirrored. Theseus kills the mummer (in all the images the bull mask is obvious) of the Minotaur, the stepson of Minos and his own paternal brother Poseidon, and leads the boys and girls out of the Labyrinth with the help of a thread donated by Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, who fell in love with him. Ariadne flees from Minos with Theseus, but Dionysus takes possession of her instead. A storm (i.e. Poseidon) does not allow Ariadne Theseus to be taken away. Here, apparently Greek myth superimposed on the Minoan.

The Greeks attributed many feats to Theseus, including the abduction of Persiphone from Hades.

4. The salvation of the Athenian youth causes rejoicing. There is a myth about dying and resurrecting nature. The rescue of the kidnapped girl leads to the revival of the entire annual cycle. (Our "Boat", we note, is played at Christmas time (solstice)), and the "boat" epic ends at Epiphany, when the "Jordan" is arranged - the players climb into a real hole). It is no coincidence that Dionysus is the founder Greek theater, and it is no coincidence that during the great Dionysius (the main annual holiday of the Greeks, corresponding to our Maslenitsa, was celebrated on the spring equinox), Dionysus was taken in a boat, accompanied by Bacchantes.

A little explanation: Dionysius, to whom we owe the creation of the European theater, were celebrated four times a year, dividing it into equal parts (which corresponds to the winter and summer solstices and solstices, two Christmases and two Annunciations: Christ and the Forerunner). The ethnographic background of the case (which theater historians usually do not remember) is as follows: what for a Slav was associated with a zhit, for a Greek with a vine. Autumn Dionysia - the day of filling barrels with wine (clay barrels were smeared with clay). Spring (Great) Dionysius - uncorking barrels and sampling wine. Day of competition of choirs and poets (authors of performances).

Dionysus is the son of Demeter (the goddess of fertility), according to another version, the son of Persiphone, abducted by Hades, that is, Dionysus is functionally the same Theseus. The image of the Greek Dionysus is paralleled by the more ancient Minoan Daedalus.

In general, it is rather difficult to speak unambiguously about who is who, because the myth is "mirror-like": a girl "lives" in the next world for six months, and in this one for six months. Who is stealing her from whom? And yet: who performs the functions of Dionysus (or Daedalus) in our "Boat"? - Grandfather. He, like Dionysus, owns cattle. When they call him, he sits in the "shed". Minos also sits in the "shed" built by Daedalus (and his wife, "turning around" as a cow, connects with the bull-Poseidon and gives birth to minotaurs) - but - in the otherworldly barn, and the cattle there are mummers. And our Grandfather has the opposite: "I milk chickens, I put calves on eggs."

Ataman (Minos) without Grandfather (Dionysus) is very bad: having killed a girl, he immediately calls his grandfather:

Gotta pick up two bodies

What would not smolder on top of the earth,

No matter what the worms sharpen,

And the devils did not drag my soul ...

And so on. Talk about mortgages. Grandfather is bargaining - he is deaf, does not understand, etc. - a typical wedding mockery. So do they bury a girl or marry her off? - Both. The burial scene is perhaps the most important (we will return to it in connection with Osiris). Without a grandfather (Dionysus) it is impossible to make a burial. Man, like grain, must be buried and then rise again (cf. gospel parable about grain). (That's why mortgages are terrible because they fall out of the cycle of rebirth!) Hence, in our opinion, the connection with the plow and harrow at Christmas time and Shrovetide: at Christmas time, those dressed as a plow symbolically plow the snow (and sow snow, sometimes real grain in the hut) , and on Maslenitsa, Maslenitsa itself is carried on a harrow, completing the rite of burial of bread.

The grandfather acts here as an ancestor, the guardian of the family, when with his help the girl is resurrected, and the “killed” girl in the “Boat” always jumps up after the funeral, universal rejoicing sets in: the burial turns into a wedding.

In the later "Boats" the image of Grandfather is split into Grandfather himself and into the "priest", who, obviously, came from parody services. school theater(XVII - XVIII centuries). NB: texts of "prayers "go round with the great Dionysius:

And a goat with goats walked towards,

Oh, with goats...

Later, another double of the grandfather appears: the doctor. His methods of treatment are very archaic: it is a wedding glamour. In scenes of mummers, the healer (as we think) often replaces the grandfather: he "heals bulls", "horses", etc. minotaurs. In general, "the doctor from under the stone bridge is a pharmacist", this is the allegorical name of the robber. Rogues are essentially both sides fighting for the girl. Recall: Theseus and the Minotaur are brothers. Another shadow of the grandfather is the guide of the bear. But in all its original glory, grandfather, of course, appears in carols:

...Like our grandfather

Three loaves of bread

Three loaves of bread

H... knee-deep.

Typical Dionysus. Was it not him who was taken to our Shrove Tuesday, put in a boat in what his mother gave birth. Grandfather gave gifts to the audience, mocked the girls, treated everyone to beer, swore hard and was called Shrovetide. Sometimes he acted in the form of a sheaf, sometimes - a straw phallus. In the end, he was burned. And Ariadne? - she returned when the fields began to ear. Characteristic of the Russian Shrovetide and ritual sledding, which to this day in the outback are called "boats". Such a dugout "boat" looks like a trough, and even like a funeral coffin-deck. In such "boats" a ritual "burial" of Kupala and Kostroma is arranged. Apparently, skiing from the mountains symbolizes a journey to the next world. Such "burials" (old people were rolled into a ravine) were noted up to the 20th century. Sometimes they say that they ride on Maslenitsa, "so that the flax is long." Ritual burial should obviously provide this as well.

We are very sorry for the romantic version of Theseus' love for Ariadne (especially as Tsvetaeva's presentation), but in the Minoan myth it was different: Theseus (Dionysus) on the day of the winter solstice penetrates the labyrinth (to the next world) and returns Ariadne to life with the help of a symbolic burial-copulation . He swims back and forth in a boat, and Minos (Ataman), who kidnapped the girl, sends a disguised Minotaur against Theseus - his own brother, a bull-like "second self". And so from year to year. The cult of tauromachy (bull games) among the Minoans is unusually high - their sarcophagi are decorated with bloody scenes of bull slaughter, an echo of which is modern bullfighting.

The theme of resurgent nature and travel to another world could be viewed on different myths, involving "Odyssey" or "Argonautica" for this, but its own topic is closer ... We will recall the story of "Sadko" - this is also "Boat".

How Sadko began to play in the gooselets

As the king of the sea began to dance in the blue sea...

In the blue sea, the water stirred,

With yellow sand, the water was confused.

It began to break many ships in the blue sea,

A lot of Imenevtsy began to die,

Many righteous people began to drown...

Sadko (Grandfather), like Dionysus, of course, is the main musician. On a tablet (there is such a form of burial) he goes to the sea king (Minos), because a sacrifice is needed to appease the elements (this is how the entropic principle of the universe is expressed). First, he takes up the harp, which, as you know, lure mermaids and is held in high esteem by the merman, then he breaks the harp: you need to choose a wife among the daughters (captives? mermaids?). Sadko chooses Chernava (black, the devil is a symbol of a mummer) and, having fallen asleep on her bed, wakes up in this world in the Chernava River (near Novgorod). Meanwhile, the very name "Sadko" - from "a cage" (from the verb - "to plant") - a device for fishing: Sadko in Chernava, that is, a cage in the river - for the fisherman is the same as grain in the ground for the farmer. (There is "Zadok" in the holy calendar. We read there: Sadok is a royal friend (Persian)). Sadko has a lot in common with Vainemäinen. This is also a sorcerer, a singer, dressed up, swimming for the bride in the "foggy Pohjela".

The game of the harp corresponds to caroling, and the perishing ships correspond to the ritual revelry of the robbers in the "Boat ":

I live on the seas

I break ships, barges ...

And how exclusively in Homeric style they steal a girl in our epic "Soloman and Vasily Okulovich"!

Further analysis of the "mythological relatives of" Boats "shows that it was not the origin of the genre that took place in the 18th century, but a complete decline.

"Developed folk dramas arose already under the influence of the late 17th century Russian professional theater". We think that neither the "theatrical mansion" of Alexei Mikhailovich (1673-75) nor the subsequent "agit-theatre" of Peter Alekseevich could have any influence on the folk theater. Even if we imagine that some walkers from the people were allowed to "Artoxerxes action" then, obviously, they would not understand anything there. theater XIX century. The farce "Boats" really "developed" under the influence of urban culture - they were filled with minced romances and vaudevilles. But this happened only after the mythological subtext lost its vital significance and the “Boat” turned from a rite into a game. Perhaps it will be objected to us that the folklore "Boat" is secondary in relation to the farce, and the mythological relationship with ancient Egypt and Greece is an accident. Then it should be recognized that the mummer at the wedding (with his monologue) and the "reader of wedding decrees", and the "died" and mummers "animals", etc. - all this is secondary and appeared in the 19th century. - Does not look like it. Even in the "Boat", which was heavily influenced by popular print (author's, we note) literature, there is a ritual plot. There is Ataman, Grandfather, burial.

It can be assumed, as, for example, N. M. Zorkaya, that the plot of "The Boat" penetrated folklore from popular literature, but it is impossible to believe that popular literature shaped the wedding ceremony. A lubok novel, like a booth, is anti-folklore, it is blind, it does not see the myth and thus destroys it completely, replacing it with minced meat mass culture. An anti-folklore text can be quite folk, and vulgarity coexist with poetry - there is nothing surprising in this. Unfortunately, Zorkaya confuses these concepts. For her, the series "Santa Barbara" is folklore. No. Mass culture is exactly what folklore destroys, it is the result of its complete secularization.

So, the "Boat" is a ritual action, in the subtext of which lies the myth of the resurgent nature. Its performance is associated with Christmas. She cannot be played at Easter (as Maximilian was played), she cannot migrate to the genre puppet den(like Herod). The mentioned myth is reflected in numerous erotic games, both for adults (“Die”, etc.), and for children (“foot-and-mouth disease”, etc.), and also in bylichki about the dead, in the stories of “died” - see . Appendix.

Let's go back to classification. Recall our conditions of folklore theater:

1) Folklore text;

2) He is a dramatic text;

3) The actor-spectator system.

So:

1. Games of mummers should be attributed to mummers - a special form of folk culture. And although there is a dialogue in them, they are monologues. And even if the game has a plot, this is not a theater, because the game does not imply a viewer. It does not have its own dialogue, which makes the text dramatic. Iry mummers is a ritual game. In some form, they already existed in the Paleolithic (see below).

2. When a dialogue occurs in the game of mummers (the actor, as a result, is separated from the viewer - because the dialogue implies perception from the outside, which is not in the game, and there are both real spectators and afterlife), then we have a ritual dramatic action, this is a folklore theater. In the full sense, only "The Boat" can be recognized as a ritual drama. Such erotic games as "Pakhomushka" or "Barin", having a connection with wedding ceremony, perhaps there are fragments of a "boat shipwreck", or maybe the beginnings of a myth that has not yet formed. After all, just as the Dutch oven and the stove-heater coexist until now, so the Paleolithic forms can coexist in folklore with later phenomena. And perhaps, if the folklore tradition had not been interrupted by the onset of written civilization, “Pakhomushka” or “Mavrukh” would have turned into “Boat” or something else ... All this should be attributed to disguise (NB: many variants of “Umrun”, not included in any collection of folklore theatre, is much closer to the theater than "Mavrukh", which is included in it). Other games (such as "Imaginary master") - there are parable dramas. "Imaginary master" - a buffoon, close to a fairy tale, with "Barin" she has only a name in common.

Ritual dramas were formed during the tribal system, during the period of division of myth into epic and drama. "Boat" is younger than the game "Umruna", but a little older than the epic and spiritual verse. (Of course, any seniority in folklore is conditional).

3. Drama-parables. "King Maximilian", "Herod". In addition, Rovinsky cites the following parables: "About the prodigal son", "Solomon and the Marshalka", "The Dutch doctor and the good pharmacist", "Eryomushka and the grandmother", "Anika the warrior and Death" (see in the book "Terrible fun and funny"). By way of existence folklore works, but not ritual, reproducing the myth not directly, but through the Greek apocrypha or domestic buffoon. Therefore, not the mythological subtext, which is also there, but the plot of the drama-parable, is the content of these actions. This should also include "Barin" with its many thousands of years old (beginning with Menander and Plautus) theme of a clever servant. Naturally, "Barin" is not an apocryphal, but still - a parable, it cannot be attributed to "boat" rites. He, like "Maxemilian", does not have a primary ritual significance and is not rigidly tied to the calendar.

We can assume that any of the spiritual parables known to us (for example, about Lazarus) could have had a dramatic form. It is possible that the texts of the luboks that have come down to us also reflect the dramatic scenes that took place.

The development of drama parables, as we assume (see below about buffoons), took place in the 15th - 17th centuries. In the 17th and 18th centuries they have undergone a noticeable influence of school and near-church theatre. Some works passed into the genre of the nativity scene and the Petrushka theater, some settled in the popular print, others went into the booth, into the rayek, into the raus, returned to the village in the form of the village "Maximilians". All this happened in connection with the departure of the corporation of buffoons from the historical arena, with the death of their comic, satirical function. Another direction of the Russian drama-parable - religious (tragic), which became the property of passers-by, did not dissolve in the game culture, but developed in the genre of spiritual verse.

4. Petrushka Theatre, Nativity Scene, Bear Fun, etc. - folklore theater in the full sense of the word, having a dramatic text and not only the "actor-spectator" system, but also a clearly distinguished director (puppeteer, bear ...). In addition to the district (XIX century) and the nativity scene (end of the XVII century), it already existed in the Middle Ages. The first image of a bear is from the 7th century.

5. People's theater - folk amateur performances. "How the Frenchman took Moscow", "Kedril the glutton", etc. According to the mode of existence - folklore, but according to the content - a popular novel, vaudeville or "The Boat", which has lost its ritual content, "The Boat", as just a game. It takes place already in the second half of the 18th century. Source of amateur performances: ritual drama, farce theater, popular print novel, author's (including serf) theater. Most of the parables, in the form in which they have come down to us, could also be attributed to the folk theater, but the special origin of the text distinguishes them from folk amateur performances.

6. Balaganny theater - the so-called theater for the people. He was played in "booths" - temporary structures at festive and fairgrounds by professional actors for money. It has the same texts and the same origin as the folk theater, but unlike it, it does not have a folklore form of text existence. Instead of mythological significance, its content becomes entertainment. With a few exceptions - the phenomena of mass culture (entertainment - a commodity). All the texts of the booth, to one degree or another, are the author's, without fail passed censorship. Partly penetrating back into the village, into the barracks and on the ships, sometimes they acquired a second folklore life (the very notebooks of folk performers that they did not use).

The booth theater appears during the period of Peter's reforms. Used as a conductor state ideology. Liquidated in 1918 along with popular literature and fisticuffs.

In the post-revolutionary years, there was an attempt to monopolize the spectacle and create a "red booth", from these attempts there were "propaganda teams" and modern parades and show. Cinema, and later television, became another face of the many-sided booth. Many elements of the farce "gone" to the stage and to the circus, to the theater. So, for example, the cinema of the beginning of the century could not accept the ritual "Boat" and numerous film versions of the farce Boat were created. For this reason (non-correspondence of the form to the content), authentic folklore still cannot take root on the stage, on cinema and television screens. In connection with what has been said, one may get the impression that Balagan is something necessarily base. Not at all. If the literary basis of Balagan is high, then Balagan is also high. So, the theaters of Moliere and Shakespeare were booths. The Shakespearean tradition, as you know, perished: in the 16th-17th centuries, booths were banned everywhere in Europe. A century later, on other roots, the modern European theater grew up. So little to have high literature, we also need appropriate productions: it is difficult to stage Shakespeare by the same means as Chekhov ... Appearing in the Petrine era, the farce, one must think, played a fatal role in the "sinking" of ritual boats.

7. Jokes of farce grandfathers, rauses (and then we should also include clowning and entertaining, etc.), as well as trade cries, we would not attribute to folk theater. If this is a folklore theater, then it is completely special - we have before us a product of a fair, urban culture. Although there is a developed system of the actor's work with the audience, and sometimes there is also a dramatic text (but not from the dealers), there is still no folklore form of its existence. Verbal formulas from exploitation outside the traditional context turn into cliches, improvisations are invented in advance, and are not the result of a certain state. It's more of a folklore thing. The same raus texts given out at a wedding are a completely different phenomenon and there, in their context, they are folklore texts. But this is already a rip-off. There is a certain theatrical buffoon function in the specific culture of the fair, but we will leave it outside the scope of our work (see A.F. Nekrylova, N.I. Savushkina. Folklore theater).

Results. Based on the accepted definitions, we divided the texts referred to in folklore as "folk theater" into 7 points. All this folk texts, but some of them are not theater (that is, a dramatic text), others are not folklore.

The first point - dressing up - is a special article, more on that below. Folklore theater includes paragraphs. 2, 3, 4, partly 5 and 7. Only paragraphs. 1 and 2 are rites and are associated with the calendar. Such a well-known genre as a fairy tale also fits our definition of theater. There is no error here. A fairy tale is a folklore, dramatic work (many spiritual poems and legends, antiquities and bylichki should also be included here), implying communication between the actor and the audience. The very concept of "narrator" comes from "tell", "show", "show" - that is, represent. It is not worth, of course, to print fairy tales in the collections "folklore theater" in the future. Each genre has its own tradition of publication and study. However, contemporary performers fairy tales should remember what they are dealing with.