Don Quixote and Anthroposophy: How the Actor Mikhail Czekhov Wanted to Play the Knight of the Sad Countenance and Why He Did Not
Katarzyna Osińska
Institute of Slavic Studies Polish Academy of Sciences (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4142-040X
Abstract
Mikhail Chekhov left several documents of his work on the role of Don Quixote, the best-known being the Meditation on Don Quixote (1926) and The Quixote Journal (1928). The planned premiere at the Moscow Art Theatre II never took place, and Chekhov did not play this part either in Russia or in exile. This article interprets the actor’s remarks about the knight in the context of anthroposophy, which at that time inspired both Chekhov’s work on the role and his spiritual development. Consulting archival material, including the transcripts of discussions about the planned staging and the actor’s correspondence with one of the authors of the first adaptation of the novel, Nadezhda Pavlovich, provides insight into Chekhov’s seemingly paradoxical perception of the figure of Don Quixote. The actor saw him as a “Luciferian” character and was critical of his idealism. The juxtaposition of Chekhov’s views with those of Bolshevik activists explains why he was ready to endorse the censorship-imposed interpretation of Cervantes’s novel, and at the same time reveals the actual motivations of his own reading. The reason for the actor’s failure in struggling with the role of Quixote was the incompatibility between his vision and Cervantes’s text, which made it impossible to create a satisfactory adaptation. His work on the role of Quixote can be treated as a stage in Chekhov’s development at a time when he was inspired by the teachings of Rudolf Steiner.
Keywords:
Michael Chekhov, Don Quixote, antroposophy, Rudolf Steiner, Nadezdha PavlovichReferences
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Authors
Katarzyna OsińskaInstitute of Slavic Studies Polish Academy of Sciences Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4142-040X
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