Moscow

Moscow Satire Theatre

1924-1984

The history of the Satire Theatre began in 1923, when a group of satirists from the "Perets'" and "Krokodil" magazines, along with directors and actors from the La Chauve-Souris cabaret theatre and theThe Crooked Jimmy Theatre chamber miniature theatre, came up with the idea of organizing a satirical theatre. The organizing council included playwright Viktor Tipot, director David Gutman, and director Georgy Kholmsky, who later became the director of the Satire Theatre. The Satire Theatre opened on October 1, 1924, in the basement premises of a building on Bolshoy Gnezdnikovsky Lane. Its first performance was "Moscow from a Certain Point of View" by Viktor Tipot and Nikolai Erdman. In its early years, the repertoire consisted primarily of political, domestic, and parodic revues. In 1930, the theatre moved to Staraya Triumfalnaya Square, where its repertoire expanded to include domestic comedies, vaudevilles, and classical drama. In 1951, the theatre relocated to a building on Malaya Bronnaya Street. In the early 1950s, productions of Vladimir Mayakovsky's plays "The Bathhouse", "The Bedbug", and "Mystery-Bouffe" were staged there. Significant milestones of this period also included the plays "Was There an Ivan Ivanovich?" by Nazim Hikmet and "Tyorkin in the Other World" based on the poem by Alexander Tvardovsky. In 1964, the theatre settled in a new building on Triumfalnaya Square, where philosophical tragic satire became established in its repertoire: "The Mad Day, or The Marriage of Figaro" by Pierre Beaumarchais, "The Government Inspector" by Nikolai Gogol, and "Woe from Wit" by Alexander Griboyedov. The online collection of the Bakhrushin Theatre Museum features costume and set design sketches for performances, photographs, archival documents, and other materials related to the history of the Moscow Satire Theatre.