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Article: Petrushka
- Article from:
- Encyclopedia of Russian History
- Author:
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PETRUSHKA
Petrushka was a Russian puppet theater spectacle and also the name of its main character (cf. the English Punch).
The play
Petrushka
seems to derive from a native older Russian buffoon and minstrel tradition and the Western European puppet theater tradition with its roots in the Italian commedia dell'arte. Possible evidence of the Petrushka play in Russia is found as early as 1637 in an engraving and description by a Dutch traveler, Adam Olearius. From around the 1840s to the 1930s, the Petrushka show was one of the most popular kinds of improvisational theater in Russia, often performed at fairs and carnivals and on the streets on a temporary wooden stage (
balagan
). The show ...