Enough Stupidity in Every Wise Man (Russian: На всякого мудреца довольно простоты; translit. Na vsyakogo mudretsa dovolno prostoty) is a five-actcomedy by Aleksandr Ostrovsky.[1] The play offers a satirical treatment of bigotry and charts the rise of a double-dealer who manipulates other people's vanities.[2] It is Ostrovsky's best-known comedy in the West.[3]
A gesture turns into gymnastics, rage is expressed through a somersault, exaltation through a salto-mortale, lyricism by a run along a tightrope. The grotesque of this style permitted leaps from one type of expression to another, as well as unexpected intertwinings of the two expressions.[11]
A screening of Eisenstein's first film, entitled Glumov's Diary, concluded the performance.[5] Writing in 1928, Eisenstein explained that he had aimed "to achieve a revolutionary modernization of Ostrovsky, i.e., a social re-evaluation of his characters, seeing them as they might appear today."[12]
^Brockett and Hildy (2003, 370). The play's title has been rendered in English in many different ways in the critical literature, including: The Diary of a Scoundrel, which Brockett and Hildy give as an alternative; or simply The Scoundrel, in Gerould (1974, 73); Even Wise Men Err in Sealey Rahman (199, 174); Even a Wise Man Stumbles, in Magarshack (1950, 309).
^Banham (1998, 829), Brockett and Hildy (2003, 370), and Gerould (1974, 73).
^Banham (1998, 829) and Brockett and Hildy (2003, 370).
^Gerould (1974, 73–74), Kleberg (1980, 81), and Rudnitsky (1988, 96).
^Kleberg (1980, 78–82), Kolocotroni, Goldman, and Taxidou (1998, 295–297), and Rudnitsky (1988, 94–96).
^The sources offer different dates for the opening: Gerould gives 16 April while Kleberg gives 26 April; see Gerould (1974, 73) and Kleberg (1980, 80–81).
^Gerould (1974, 74), Kleberg (1980, 80–81), and Rudnitsky (1988, 96).
Banham, Martin, ed. 1998. The Cambridge Guide to Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. ISBN0-521-43437-8.
Benedetti, Jean. 1999. Stanislavski: His Life and Art. Revised edition. Original edition published in 1988. London: Methuen. ISBN0-413-52520-1.
Brockett, Oscar G. and Franklin J. Hildy. 2003. History of the Theatre. Ninth edition, International edition. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. ISBN0-205-41050-2.
Gerould, Daniel. 1974. "Eisenstein's Wiseman." The Drama Review 18.1 (March): 71–85.
Kleberg, Lars. 1980. Theatre as Action: Soviet Russian Avant-Garde Aesthetics. Trans. Charles Rougle. New Directions in Theatre. London: Macmillan, 1993. ISBN0-333-56817-6.
Kolocotroni, Vassiliki, Jane Goldman, and Olga Taxidou, eds. 1998. Modernism: An Anthology of Sources and Documents. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN0-7486-0973-3.
Leach, Robert, and Victor Borovsky, eds. 1999. A History of Russian Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. ISBN0-521-43220-0.
Magarshack, David. 1950. Stanislavsky: A Life. London and Boston: Faber, 1986. ISBN0-571-13791-1.
Rudnitsky, Konstantin. 1988. Russian and Soviet Theatre: Tradition and the Avant-Garde. Trans. Roxane Permar. Ed. Lesley Milne. London: Thames and Hudson. Rpt. as Russian and Soviet Theater, 1905–1932. New York: Abrams. ISBN0-500-28195-5.
Sealey Rahman, Kate. 1999. "Aleksandr Ostrovsky – Dramatist and Director." In Leach and Borovsky (1999, 166–181).