Irkutsk Theater

(full name, N. P. Okhlopkov Irkutsk Dramatic Theater), a Soviet Russian theater. It opened as the first professional theater in Irkutsk on Oct. 22 (Nov. 3), 1851, when a production of Polevoi’s A Russian Remembers Kindness was staged in a building specially constructed for the theater. In 1897 a new theater building was constructed (architect, V. A. Shreter) in which the Irkutsk Theater is now located.

Over the years the following have performed on tour in Irkutsk: E. N. Goreva, K. A. Varlamov, V. F. Komissarzhev-skaia, V. N. Davydov, P. N. Orlenev, P. P. Gaideburov’s traveling theater, and a group of the Malyi Theater led by A. A. Iablochkina. A number of M. Gorky’s plays were staged by K. A. Mardzhanishvili. After the establishment of power, several theatrical fetes highlighting revolutionary themes were held in Irkutsk. In 1922, N. P. Okhlopkov staged Mayakovsky’s Mystery Bouffe. The Irkutsk Theater was organized in Irkutsk in 1931 based on the Siberian Experimental Theater, which had become a resident theater. (In 1967 it was named after N. P. Okhlopkov.) Prior to 1938 the theater’s director was N. N. Butorin; later directors included N. A. Medvedev, V. Ia. Golov-chiner, and M. A. Kulikovskii. The following well-known actors worked here: A. N. Arkad’ev, N. N. Bodrov, P. S. Davydov, G. N. Zagurskaia, E. E. Baranova, B. A. Sitko, and A. A. Pavlov.

The theater’s productions have included Korneichuk’s Platon Krechet (1935), A. N. Tolstoy’s Peter I (1939), Kapler and Zlatogorova’s Lenin in 1918 (1939), Lermontov’s Masquerade (1940), L. N. Tolstoy’s The Living Corpse (1940), A. N. Ostrovskii’s The Last Victim (1941), Gorky’s The Barbarians (1951), Maliarevskii’s On the Eve of the Thunderstorm (1952), Gusev’s Ivan Rybakov (1954), Stepanov and Popov’s Port Arthur (1955), Levantovskaia’s With a Generous Heart (1961), Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1962), De Filippo’s Saturday, Sunday, Monday (1962), and A Common Story, based on Goncharov’s novel (1967). The theater’s company includes (1972) People’s Artists of the RSFSR G. A. Kramova and A. P. Tishin, Honored Artists of the RSFSR V. K. Venger and A. N. Terent’ev, and Honored Cultural Worker of the RSFSR A. I. Rukker.