Dramatization of the novel Doctor Zhivago: Vladimir Gurkin's reading experience

Statement of the problem. Pasternak’s novel Doctor Zhivago, which combines epic and lyrical features, realistic and modernist techniques, is not an easy material to translate into the language of dramas. At the same time, these features of the work give an opportunity for creative discovery. Theater directors have repeatedly turned to this literary material (for instance, E. Yelanskaya, V. Zarzhetsky, L. Alimov, etc.). The object of research in this paper becomes the creative heritage of the playwright, actor, director Vladimir Gurkin - as a dramatist. The play Doctor Zhivago (2000) is considered in the paper. The typescript of the play is kept in the archive of the Cheremkhovsky Drama Theater and has not been published anywhere until now. The purpose of the article is to analyze the principles of active reading of prose by a dramatist. Methods. Comparative, textological methods and intermedial approach are used in the paper. Research results. According to the basic theoretical provisions on dramatization and staging (N. Skorokhod), we distinguish between the events depicted and the events of the image. The principles of compaction of the dramaturgical plot, the technique of combining two layers of the characters’ existence within one scene, the techniques of connecting the inner and outer space are described. Gurkin refuses to introduce a lyrical beginning into the play, and also identifies two oppositional images that are important from a meaningful and scenographic point of view - the image of rats and the image of snow. Conclusion. The techniques of translating a prose text into that of drama correspond to the main task of the dramatist - to convey the idea of intertwining destinies, intersections of time, life and death, reflected in the novel by Boris Pasternak.