Playing resistance and directing conformation (1957-1989)

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Sovietmetis; Politika; Teatras; Režisieriai; Režisūra; Dramaturgija; Spektakliai; Menininkai; Ideologija; Cenzūra; Metaforos; Atgimimas; Kultūra; Lithuania; Soviet era; Politics; Theater; Directors; Directing; Dramaturgy; Performances; Artists; Ideology; Censorship; Metaphors; Revival; Culture.

ENThe years 1957-1970 in culture and the arts remarkably differed from the postwar decade. Politically, certain changes took place in the USSR - the Stalin cult was denounced; the iron curtain separating the Eastern world from the West partly rose, leading to a greater flow of cultural-artistic information (translations of foreign books, art exhibitions, and tours of foreign theater troupes) from Western Europe to the USSR. Some began to call this period a thaw, but actually during the Khrushchev and later the Brezhnev era, the political standpoint regarding culture and art did not substantially change. The strict government enforced ideological censorship was still intact, art exhibitions were being shut down, highly artistic and deeply problematic theatrical plays were forbidden, movie theaters were closed, artists (writers, dramaturgists, theater and cinema directors, sculptors and designers) were being persecuted. Although in the years 1957-70 invasions of the Soviet army took place in Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland, and uprisings occurred in Russia itself, they did not alter or improve the situation of Soviet art. [Extract, p. 111]