Moscow Mayakovsky Theater

a theater created in 1943 as a result of the merging of the Theater of the Revolution (founded 1922) and the Moscow Theater of Drama. In 1954 it was named in honor of V. V. Mayakovsky, and in 1964 it became an academic theater. From 1943 to 1967, the theater was headed by N. P. Okhlopkov.

The theater’s productions of the 1940’s and 1950’s included Gusev’s Sons of Three Rivers (1944), Leonov’s An Ordinary Man (1945), The Young Guard (1947; based on the novel by A. A. Fadeev), Shtein’s The Law of Honor (1949), Buriakovskii’s Prague Remains Mine (1950), Aleshin’s Director (1950), Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1954) and Shtein’s Hotel Astoria (1956). The theater’s best works are noted for their publicistic qualities, civic themes, and high sense of drama.

During the 1960’s and the 1970’s, the theater staged Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children (1960), Shtein’s The Ocean (1961), Naidenov’s Vaniushin’s Children (1969), Fadeev’s The Nineteen (1970), Salynskii’s Maria (1970), Braginskii and Riazanov’s Colleagues (1971), Dostoevsky’s Uncle’s Dream (1971), and Wasserman and Darion’s Man of La Mancha (1972).

In 1974, the theater company included People’s Artists of the USSR M. I. Babanova and A. A. Khanov, People’s Artists of the RSFSR A. B. Dzhigarkhanian, T. V. Doronina, T. M. Karpova, G. P. Kirillov, E. N. Kozyreva, V. M. Orlova, V. Ia. Samoilov, and N. M. Ter-Osipian, People’s Artist of the Belorussian SSR E. A. Karnaukhov, and Honored Artists of the RSFSR V. V. Gerdrikh, A. S. Lazarev, E. N. Lazarev, B. L. Levinson, S. N. Mizeri, and S. V. Nemoliaeva. Since 1968, the theater’s chief stage director has been People’s Artist of the RSFSR A. A. Goncharov.