Evgeny Shvarts
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Evgeny L'vovich Shvarts (Russian: Евгений Львович Шварц) (October 21, 1896, Kazan – January 15, 1958, Leningrad;) was a Soviet writer and playwright whose works include twenty five plays and scenarios for three films (in collaboration with Nikolai Erdman).
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[edit] Life
Shvarts was born in 1896 in Kazan into a family of a physician. In the end of 1910s he studied in the Department of Law of MSU, but then decided to devote his life to dramatic art and literature. Since 1924 he lived in Leningrad, worked in Gosizdat under the guidance of Samuil Ya. Marshak; in that time he also became close with members of literature union OBERIU.
In 1929 Shvarts began writing plays; the best known of them are the modern retellings of fairy tales: «Golyi korol» (Emperor's New Clothes) (1934), «Krasnaya Shapochka» (Little Red Riding Hood) (1936), «Zolushka» (Cinderella) (1938), «Snezhnaya Koroleva» (Snow Queen, after Hans Christian Andersen) (1938), «Tyen'» (The Shadow, based on Chamisso's Peter Schlemihl) (1940), «Drakon» (The Dragon, an original) (1944) and «Obyknovennoye Chudo» (The Ordinary Miracle) (1956). Most of these plays were subsequently filmed, sometimes more than once.
[edit] Plays
[edit] The Dragon
This play, the most "adult" of Shvarts' plays, is a political satire aimed at totalitarianism in all forms. The plot is based on the attempt of the hero — Lancelot — to liberate people in a land suffering under Dragon's brutal rule. But his efforts meet with resistance, since most of the people have gotten used to the Dragon and considered his methods, though harsh, the only possible way; their souls become, in a way, crippled with this inability and unwilingness to resist. Says the Dragon in the play: You see, the human soul is very resilient. Cut the body in half — and the man croaks. But tear the soul apart — and it only becomes more pliable, that's all. No, really, you couldn't pick a finer assortment of souls anywhere. Only in my town. Souls with no hands. Souls with no legs. Mute souls, deaf souls, chained souls, snitch souls, damned souls.
Lancelot killing the Dragon in a fight did not free the people; all that has changed was the Burgomaster acceding to the position formerly occupied by the Dragon, and even demanding that Elsa, the same girl who was destined to be sacrificed to the Dragon, become his wife. When Lancelot returns to the town a year later, he realizes that his task is much more complex: This is going to be a very meticulous job... We have to kill the dragon in each one of them.
[edit] Famous Quotations
From The Play "The Dragon":
- Heinrich: "It's not my fault, I was taught that way."
- Lancelot: "Everyone was, but why did you have to be first in class?"
From The Play "Cinderella":
- Cinderella: "It's bad for your health not to go to the ball when you deserve it."
- Lady of the Court: "Yesterday I was so anxious that my husband fainted."
- Young Page: "I'm not a wizard yet, I'm still in training."
From The Play "Snow Queen"
- Female Ataman of gang of robbers: "Children should be spoiled, only then they grow into true robbers."
[edit] External links
- Read The Dragon. Also note that a filmed version of this play was produced in 1988; the title of the movie is "To Kill a Dragon".
- (Russian) Biography
