Nikolai Evreinov

Nikolai Nikolayevich Evreinov (Russian: Николай Николаевич Евреинов; February 13, 1879 - September 7, 1953) was a Russian director, dramatist and theatre practitioner associated with Russian Symbolism.

The son of a French woman and a Russian engineer, Evreinov developed a keen interest in theatre from an early age, penning his first play at the age of 7. Six years later, he performed in a wandering circus as a clown. He attended a gymnasium in Pskov, before moving to the School of Jurisprudence in Saint Petersburg. It was there that he staged his first full-fledged play, The Rehearsal, followed by an opéra bouffe, The Power of Charms (1899).

Having matriculated from the school in 1901, Evreinov turned his attention to music and studied with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov at the Moscow Conservatory for a couple of years. In 1907-08 and 1911-12 he was involved in reconstructing the world of medieval plays and those dating from the Spanish Golden Age at the Starinny Theatre ("Old-Fashioned Theatre") in Saint Petersburg.

The foremost Russian actress, Vera Komissarzhevskaya, asked him to cast her in the leading role for his version of Francesca da Rimini (1908). Later that year, Evreinov's production of Oscar Wilde's Salomé was suppressed on the orders of Nicholas II. Evreinov's association with the Komissarzhevsky family continued for several years. Together with Theodore Komisarjevsky, he staged a number of "harlequinades" and "monodramas" as part of his new project, "The Merry Theatre for Aged Children". His concept of monodrama was exemplified in The Theater of the Soul, a 1915 production set inside the human breast as the repository of the soul.

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