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Mstislav Dobuzhinsky and His Cabaret Companions: 1926 Parisian Season of the “La Chauve Souris”

The essay is dedicated to collaboration of Mstislav Valerianovich Dobuzhinsky (1875‒1957) with the Parisian theater “Chauve-Souris,” or “The Bat,” under the direction of the actor, entertainer, stage director and inspirer of the Russian cabaret Nikita Balieff (real name: Mkrtich Balyan, in Armenian: Նիկիտա Բալիեւ; 1877 (?) ‒ 1936). He invited Dobuzhinsky, who was in Berlin at the time, to become the Artistic Director and the lead designer for a new show of his theatre in the season of 1926. Balieff had already established himself as a successful European entrepreneur, and his cabaret theater had three successful tours on Broadway over six years. Dobuzhinsky accepted his invitation, hoping to improve his financial situation, as after more than a year spent in Europe he could not achieve that stability either in Riga, Kaunas, or Berlin. At the end of May, he began preparing the program for the new Paris season in alliance with choreographer Boris Romanov and playwright Piotr Potemkin. Also Dobuzhinsky invited collaboration of his son Rostislav and his wife Lidia Kopnyaeva in designing the sets for Balieff’s interludes. The premiere of the new program took place on October 1, and it gained success and accolades in Paris and later in Berlin. The season of 1926 was perhaps the most significant in the history of “The Bat,” but at the same time decisive for Baliev, since it marked the exhaustion of the very idea of Russian cabaret theater abroad. Despite the fact that the American tour was then canceled, “The Bat” still ended up on Broadway in late autumn of 1927. This program was the last for Balieff’s theater, as to how it was greeted and loved in America. It was already a completely different “Chauve-Souris,” the “Continental”, as American critics called it, of little interest to both Parisian and Broadway audiences.