Cynthia Marsh
Emeritus Professor of Russian and Slavonic Studies, Faculty of Arts
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Expertise Summary
Russian theatre is at the centre of my research in a number of ways: I am currently completing a book on Russian theatre in translation on the British Stage since the Second World War (2011/2012). As well as research in archives and published sources, this topic involves me in live theatre in a number of ways: as spectator; as critic; and as director or performer. I am also exploring theoretical issues which help to explain the processes as scripted theatre migrates from it source culture to other host cultures. I have given a number of papers on translated theatre in recent years, some of which have also been published. I am currently supervising a postgraduate student writing her PhD on Shakespeare in translation in Russia.
I have directed a number of Russian plays in English translation, but began by directing student plays in Russian near the beginning of my lecturing career in Russian and Slavonic Studies at Nottingham. I use the practical knowledge gained from directing in my research to understand the performance aspects of play texts. Equally, the performances are means for testing ideas that arise as part of my drama research. These two approaches create a powerful and, I think unusual, dynamic in my thinking about theatre.
Focussing on Chekhov and Gorky, I am also writing about Russian theatre in the original. I published a study of Gorky's plays in 2006: Maxim Gorky: Russian Dramatist (Peter Lang) and an earlier compilation on Gorky's work and its critical reception (Methuen Writer Files(1993)). I have given and published a number of papers on Chekhov's plays, their original staging at the Moscow Art Theatre, and on aspects of their form. Tolstoy, Turgenev and Dostoevsky have also been subjects of recent papers. I am currently co-supervising a postgraduate writing his PhD on 20th century drama, on the plays of the Thaw (1950s-60s), and particularly on the work of Vampilov. Former postgrads have written on Chekhov, Kharms, Petrushevskaia and Ionesco; on the Russian theatre director Efros; and on performance aspects of Rimsky-Korsakov's opera Sad'ko.
I began my research career examining the links between painting and poetry in the work of Max Voloshin. Visual art has been a continuing interest. I have been examining the parallels between critical analysis of painting as a visual form and analysis of drama also as a visual form. I am working on applying these ideas to an examination of Chekhov's form in his major plays, and have given recent conference papers on this topic. In 2008-09 I curated a highly successful exhibition of TASS posters made during the Second World War from the University of Nottingham's extensive special collection. The University also holds the Patrick Miles Chekhov Archive, and I am planning a further exhibition using materials from this collection to explore the visual marketing of Chekhov on the British stage, as a complement to the research I have been conducting on translated Russian theatre.
I regularly write programme articles on Russian plays and other texts (including opera) for professional productions and give talks to accompany these productions as well as to arts groups and others interested in theatre and drama.
For the period 2006-11, I am Nottingham PI for the Centre for Russian, Central and East European Studies (CRCEES). Funded by ESRC, AHRC, HEFCE and SHEFCE, CRCEES is spearheaded from Glasgow, and Nottingham is a major institutional member. I have recently been involved in a successful bid to AHRC, which has recently awarded CRCEES 30k funding to establish a network to examine how dialogue between the social sciences and humanities might be productively developed and sustained. Work begins in January 2011.
Since autumn 2009 I have given papers at conferences in Galway (Chekhov and Ibsen in Ireland); Munich (International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR) (Chekhov Working Group); Oxford (Neo-Formalists: Tolstoy); Columbus, Ohio (North American Chekhov Society). I have also directed a production of Chekhov's Three Sisters in English (Lace Market Theatre, Nottingham); given a public talk on Turgenev (Chichester Festival Theatre) and have been commissioned to write programme articles on Three Sisters and Uncle Vanya.