“Petrushka” by P.Potemkin and scenography by M.Dobuzhinsky in the context of the Silver Age philosophy of puppetry

The theatrical parody of the Russian Early Modernism (Silver Age) was to redefine the productive boundary between the new literature and the new theater. In his stage designs Mstislav Dobuzhinsky used to create a particularly disturbing atmosphere in which the new theater became in some ways grotesque, but professional. The old stage roles were replaced by representations of the professional employment of all the inhabitants of the big city, correlating with the symbolist life-building and parodying them at the same time. The collaboration between the humorist Peter Potemkin and Dobuzhinsky allowed a new understanding of the puppet body as necessary for a critical comprehension of the present-day city, anticipating many of the problems of contemporary urbanism.