The Joy of Rehearsal

«Russian theatre in the twentieth century was progressive and innovatory. We know a good deal about Stanislavsky and his contemporaries, but not much about their heirs. At last we are able to meet a Russian colossus of the second half of the century, Anatoly Efros, whose work and ideas challenge, infuriate, and excite in about equal measure. Efros’s ‘The Joy of Rehearsal’ is a work of outstanding significance. It is quirky and personal, and also profound, and its influence will undoubtedly reverberate for a long time to come. We owe a considerable debt of gratitude to James Thomas for making this work accessible in the west.» (Robert Leach, Theatre Director and Professor of Drama, University of Edinburgh; Author of ‘Revolutionary Theatre, A History of Russian Theatre’, and ‘Makers of Modern Theatre’)
«Theatre director Anatoly Efros spoke to a generation of Soviet Russians who remembered Stalin’s oppressive regime, enjoyed the relative artistic freedom of the Thaw, and then suffered the artistic stagnation caused by the hardening of political control in the 1970s. Efros expressed the complex reactions of his era in kinetic, starkly modernist productions of classics. His art challenged complacent and conventional readings of the familiar dramas of Shakespeare, Chekhov, and others. In ‘The Joy of Rehearsal’, Efros sets forth his radical readings and discusses the practice of directing. Additionally, he reshapes the autobiographical form as radically as he reshaped the classics he staged, turning the chronological memoir into a verbal collage of musings.
James Thomas introduces Efros to the English speaking world for the first time. Thomas’s smooth translation allows the reader to see into the mind of Efros and to draw theatrical insight from his innovative thinking. The invaluable introduction and historical notes help the reader enter into Efros’s political and artistic world. Thomas is guided in his work by admiration for this remarkable theatre artist and experience as a scholar. Given Efros’s bold creativity and importance to the development of theatrical art, everyone interested in Russian theatre after Stanislavsky should read Thomas’s translation of ‘The Joy of Rehearsal’.» (Sharon Carnicke, Theatre Director, Professor, and Associate Dean at the University of Southern California; Author of ‘Stanislavsky in Focus’ and ‘The Theatrical Instinct: Nikolai Evreinov and the Russian Theatre of the Early Twentieth Century’)