Subject
Re: Lolita, the play (fwd)
From
Date
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From: "Peter A. Kartsev" <petr@glas.apc.org>
The Russian newspaper item below automatically refers to the play
as "Nabokov's Lolita". Actually it is in all probability Albee's Lolita.
It is unfortunate that VN's name inevitably gets attached to other
people's interpretations of VN. I remember when the play was staged in
Moscow a few
years ago by a locally fashionable poshlust-peddler Roman Viktyuk, there
were also posters with Nabokov's name writ large on them. That version
was
almost certainly actionable and in another country the producer would
probably have been sued by the estate for misrepresentation. This is
especially disturbing because Russian public en masse is more credulous
and
gullible than average. I have recently been talking to an acquaintance
who
always seemed an intelligent and perceptive man and professed great
admiration for Nabokov. In the course of the conversation I found out
that he
took it for granted Nabokov had been a certified paedophile. This and
other
similar misconceptions are quite common among the Russian reading (and
viewing)
public and stem partly from the things that are arbitrarily attributed
to
Nabokov by his various interpreters. Only recently some local TV channel
aired a program on Nabokov hosted by Yevgeny Yevtushenko, a well-known
poet,
who in the worst zadushevnaya (heart-to-heart) manner of our
"educational"
programs imparted unbelievable inventions: inter alia, that VN admitted
he
wrote Lolita by calculated design to produce a bestseller and make
everybody
read his earlier works.
I would like to believe that the Volgograd "Lolita" is a different
case, but on all previous evidence this seems unlikely. Maybe the ban
would
have made somebody go and read the real Nabokov for a change.
--
Peter A. Kartsev
Moscow, Russia
Phone: (095) 471-5457
E-mail: petr@glas.apc.org
En cada instante puede revelarte su amor Helena de Troya. -- JLB
>
> >From S. Il'in:
>
> [How they tried to ban Lolita, the play, in Volgograd's Theater for Young
> Spectators. When the ban did not succeed, several groups organized
> demonstrations in front of the theater telling people Lolita should be
> banned. Militia had to get involved. It all backfired: all performances
> have been sold out.]
>
> *I may sound "square" -- and maybe it's the mother in me talking -- but
> may be, just may be, The Theater for Young Spectators is really not the
> best venue for LOLITA? I am not at all sure I would have taken my 8 and
> 12-year olds to the play if such was available at the Seattle
> Children's Theater, for example...GD*
>
> Gazeta ~Moskovskij Komsomoletz~, 4.04.97
>
> ~LOLITU~ PYTALIS' ZAPRETIT',
> no ne smogli. Odin iz volgogradskikh vecherov vmesto tikhogo i
> kul'turnogo stal gromkim, skandal'nym, s privlecheniem sil militzii.
>
> ~Dopolnitel'nye sily MVD byli lisheny zakonnogo vechernego otdykha i
> otpravleny k
> mestnomu Teatru junogo zritelja. O tom, kak vedut sebja sovremennye
> detishki v teatrakh, mozhno pesni slagat'. No na aetot raz prichinoj
> otzeplenija posluzhili ne junosheskie zabavy, a vzrosloe bujstvo. Za
> chas do prem'ery nabokovskoj ~Lolity~ u teatral'nogo pod`ezda
> pojavilas' kucha narodu s plakatami i megafonami. Kucha okazalas'
> ves'ma organizovannoj. Vse uchastniki aktzii - chleny organizatzii
> ~Russkaja obshchina~, kotorye vmeste s deputatami-kommunistami vsju
> nedelju do prem'ery pytalis' dobit'sja zapreta na spektakl'. Po ikh
> mneniju, stzenicheskoe obrashchenie k ~Lolite~, ravno kak i samo
> proizvedenie, amoral'no, neprilichno i rastlevaet molodezh'. Tem ne
> menee, spektakl' ne zapretili, prem'eru blagodarja doblestnoj
> volgogradskoj militzii sorvat' ne udalos', a zriteli vopreki vsemu
> prishli v krajnij vostorg.
> Aktzija moralistov privela k prjamo protivopolozhnomu rezul'tatu:
> bilety
> na vse blizhajshie spektakli raskupleny na kornju.~
otzeplenija posluzhili ne junosheskie zabavy, a vzrosloe bujstvo. Za
chas do prem'ery nabokovskoj ~Lolity~ u teatral'nogo pod`ezda
pojavilas' kucha narodu s plakatami i megafonami. Kucha okazalas'
ves'ma organizovannoj. Vse uchastniki aktzii - chleny organizatzii
~Russkaja obshchina~, kotorye vmeste s deputatami-kommunistami vsju
nedelju do prem'ery pytalis' dobit'sja zapreta na spektakl'. Po ikh
mneniju, stzenicheskoe obrashchenie k ~Lolite~, ravno kak i samo
proizvedenie, amoral'no, neprilichno i rastlevaet molodezh'. Tem ne
menee, spektakl' ne zapretili, prem'eru blagodarja doblestnoj
volgogradskoj militzii sorvat' ne udalos', a zriteli vopreki vsemu
prishli v krajnij vostorg.
Aktzija moralistov privela k prjamo protivopolozhnomu rezul'tatu:
bilety na vse blizhajshie spektakli raskupleny na kornju.~
The Russian newspaper item below automatically refers to the play
as "Nabokov's Lolita". Actually it is in all probability Albee's Lolita.
It is unfortunate that VN's name inevitably gets attached to other
people's interpretations of VN. I remember when the play was staged in
Moscow a few
years ago by a locally fashionable poshlust-peddler Roman Viktyuk, there
were also posters with Nabokov's name writ large on them. That version
was
almost certainly actionable and in another country the producer would
probably have been sued by the estate for misrepresentation. This is
especially disturbing because Russian public en masse is more credulous
and
gullible than average. I have recently been talking to an acquaintance
who
always seemed an intelligent and perceptive man and professed great
admiration for Nabokov. In the course of the conversation I found out
that he
took it for granted Nabokov had been a certified paedophile. This and
other
similar misconceptions are quite common among the Russian reading (and
viewing)
public and stem partly from the things that are arbitrarily attributed
to
Nabokov by his various interpreters. Only recently some local TV channel
aired a program on Nabokov hosted by Yevgeny Yevtushenko, a well-known
poet,
who in the worst zadushevnaya (heart-to-heart) manner of our
"educational"
programs imparted unbelievable inventions: inter alia, that VN admitted
he
wrote Lolita by calculated design to produce a bestseller and make
everybody
read his earlier works.
I would like to believe that the Volgograd "Lolita" is a different
case, but on all previous evidence this seems unlikely. Maybe the ban
would
have made somebody go and read the real Nabokov for a change.
--
Peter A. Kartsev
Moscow, Russia
Phone: (095) 471-5457
E-mail: petr@glas.apc.org
En cada instante puede revelarte su amor Helena de Troya. -- JLB
>
> >From S. Il'in:
>
> [How they tried to ban Lolita, the play, in Volgograd's Theater for Young
> Spectators. When the ban did not succeed, several groups organized
> demonstrations in front of the theater telling people Lolita should be
> banned. Militia had to get involved. It all backfired: all performances
> have been sold out.]
>
> *I may sound "square" -- and maybe it's the mother in me talking -- but
> may be, just may be, The Theater for Young Spectators is really not the
> best venue for LOLITA? I am not at all sure I would have taken my 8 and
> 12-year olds to the play if such was available at the Seattle
> Children's Theater, for example...GD*
>
> Gazeta ~Moskovskij Komsomoletz~, 4.04.97
>
> ~LOLITU~ PYTALIS' ZAPRETIT',
> no ne smogli. Odin iz volgogradskikh vecherov vmesto tikhogo i
> kul'turnogo stal gromkim, skandal'nym, s privlecheniem sil militzii.
>
> ~Dopolnitel'nye sily MVD byli lisheny zakonnogo vechernego otdykha i
> otpravleny k
> mestnomu Teatru junogo zritelja. O tom, kak vedut sebja sovremennye
> detishki v teatrakh, mozhno pesni slagat'. No na aetot raz prichinoj
> otzeplenija posluzhili ne junosheskie zabavy, a vzrosloe bujstvo. Za
> chas do prem'ery nabokovskoj ~Lolity~ u teatral'nogo pod`ezda
> pojavilas' kucha narodu s plakatami i megafonami. Kucha okazalas'
> ves'ma organizovannoj. Vse uchastniki aktzii - chleny organizatzii
> ~Russkaja obshchina~, kotorye vmeste s deputatami-kommunistami vsju
> nedelju do prem'ery pytalis' dobit'sja zapreta na spektakl'. Po ikh
> mneniju, stzenicheskoe obrashchenie k ~Lolite~, ravno kak i samo
> proizvedenie, amoral'no, neprilichno i rastlevaet molodezh'. Tem ne
> menee, spektakl' ne zapretili, prem'eru blagodarja doblestnoj
> volgogradskoj militzii sorvat' ne udalos', a zriteli vopreki vsemu
> prishli v krajnij vostorg.
> Aktzija moralistov privela k prjamo protivopolozhnomu rezul'tatu:
> bilety
> na vse blizhajshie spektakli raskupleny na kornju.~
otzeplenija posluzhili ne junosheskie zabavy, a vzrosloe bujstvo. Za
chas do prem'ery nabokovskoj ~Lolity~ u teatral'nogo pod`ezda
pojavilas' kucha narodu s plakatami i megafonami. Kucha okazalas'
ves'ma organizovannoj. Vse uchastniki aktzii - chleny organizatzii
~Russkaja obshchina~, kotorye vmeste s deputatami-kommunistami vsju
nedelju do prem'ery pytalis' dobit'sja zapreta na spektakl'. Po ikh
mneniju, stzenicheskoe obrashchenie k ~Lolite~, ravno kak i samo
proizvedenie, amoral'no, neprilichno i rastlevaet molodezh'. Tem ne
menee, spektakl' ne zapretili, prem'eru blagodarja doblestnoj
volgogradskoj militzii sorvat' ne udalos', a zriteli vopreki vsemu
prishli v krajnij vostorg.
Aktzija moralistov privela k prjamo protivopolozhnomu rezul'tatu:
bilety na vse blizhajshie spektakli raskupleny na kornju.~