Maria (play)

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The play Maria, a portrait of the sordid underbelly of Soviet society during the Russian Civil War, was written by Isaac Babel during the mid-1930s.

Plot

Maria is set in

political officer
assigned to the Soviet Army. During the entire play, she is away on the front and is quoted, but never seen.

Ultimately, Dimshits makes sexual advances to Ludmila, who repels them by claiming to have toothache, to his great discontent and humiliation. Ludmila's intentions are to achieve Dimshits' respect and finally marry him. Dimshits, however, is already married, and only wants Ludmila as a mistress. According to Dimshits, "People like her are unworthy of even tying my wife's shoelaces!"

At the time of their next rendezvous, the embittered Dimshits does not show up. In the adjacent apartment, Captain Viskovsky, a

prostitute
who smuggles thread for Dimshits' gang. While she protests her innocence and begs for a doctor, the interrogator demands to know how many times she has been arrested, and then shouts in anger that he has not slept in five days.

A crippled

CHEKA
, first intends to demand her release, then realizes that that is impossible and instead wants to take advice with Maria. Therefore, he checks to make sure that his other daughter, Maria, has received his earlier telegram, in which he urged her to return from the front to visit him. He learns that the telegram has been delivered and convinces himself that Maria will be coming very soon. He even declares that he is not worried about Ludmila and that this will be a valuable lesson for her, but then has a massive heart attack seconds later. His condition is critical, but it proves impossible to fetch a doctor at night to help him.

Soon afterwards, a soldier from Maria's division arrives. He announces that Maria has been unable to come because of the continuing military operations. The General enters the room, expecting to see Maria, but is shocked to see only a soldier he does not know and possibly assumes that Maria has been killed. He instantly dies of a massive stroke.

Later, two workers prepare the Mukovnins' former apartment for its new tenants. They are "bossed around" by their forewoman, the local street-sweeper, who is in charge of apartments. Katya arrives with Sushkin, a person who describes himself as a "lover of antiquities". She announces that she is selling the Mukovnins' antique furniture on Maria's orders. The forewoman of the workers refuses to allow this, saying that the new tenants were promised a fully furnished apartment. An enraged Sushkin threatens her, hinting that he can bring "people" (presumably militsiya men or CHEKA agents) to arrest her. However, she refuses to yield unless he can show her a warrant. After Sushkin leaves in a huff, the two workers comment on the forewoman's conduct and observe that she wasn't so daring during the old general's time. Yet, they recall the general as a nice person, loved by the common people. Meanwhile, the new tenants, a worker and his pregnant wife, settle into their new home.

Reception

Maria is rooted in Babel's work as an investigative reporter for

CPSU
.

Babel later recalled, however,

"My journalistic work gave me a lot, especially in the sense of material. I managed to amass an incredible number of facts, which proved to be an invaluable creative tool. I struck up friendships with morgue attendants, criminal investigators, and government clerks. Later, when I began writing fiction, I found myself always returning to these 'subjects', which were so close to me, in order to put character types, situations, and everyday life into perspective. Journalistic work is full of adventure."[1]

After the completion of Maria in the mid-1930s, Babel allowed the unpublished manuscript to be examined by Gorky, who remained his friend and

mentor. Noting the play's implicit rejection of socialist realism, Gorky accused Babel of having a "Baudelairian predilection for rotting meat." Gorky further warned his friend that "political inferences" would be made "that will be personally harmful to you."[2]

According to Babel's

Moscow Art Theater when his play Mariya was being given its first reading, and when he returned home he told me that all the actresses had been impatient to find out what the leading female role was like and who would be cast in it. It turned out that there was no leading female character present on the stage in this play. Babel thought that the play had not come off well, but he was always critical of his own work."[3]

Although intended to be performed by

Vakhtangov Theatre in 1935, the premiere of Maria was cancelled by the NKVD during rehearsals. Four years later, Isaac Babel was arrested, tortured, and shot as part of Joseph Stalin's Great Purge. His surviving manuscripts were confiscated by the NKVD and destroyed. As a result, Maria was never performed in Russia until after the dissolution of the Soviet Union
.

Structure

The storyline of Maria is structured in an unconventional,

nonlinear fashion. According to a cast member from the American premiere,

"The play runs like a film — there are so many different locations and characters that you have to be very attentive. They even had to build a revolving stage in order to accommodate all of the changing locations in the story.... The play flows in a very subtle manner."[4]

Legacy

Although it was very popular at Western European colleges during the 1960s, it was not performed in Babel's homeland until 1994. An English translation by Harold Shukman and Michael Glenny was published by Penguin in 1966; a further translation by Peter Constantine appeared in 2002 and was edited by Nathalie Babel Brown. Maria's American premiere, directed by Carl Weber, took place at Stanford University two years later.

According to Weber,

"The play is very controversial. [It] shows the stories of both sides clashing with each other during the

Bolshevik Revolution may not have been the best thing for Russia."[5]

References

  1. ^ The Complete Works of Isaac Babel, page 486.
  2. ^ The Complete Works of Isaac Babel, page 754.
  3. ^ Antonina Pirozhkova, At His Side; The Last Years of Isaac Babel, Steerforth Press, 1996. Page 47.
  4. '^ Marias American Debut Archived 2006-09-15 at the Wayback Machine
  5. '^ Marias American Debut Archived 2006-09-15 at the Wayback Machine

External links

Resources

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